The Steam Deck has now been sold out for a few months, and it's not clear if or when Valve is going to get more stock in. While it's possible that at least some of the 'game console' shipments the company has been getting in could be handhelds, it's possible that Valve just waits until its eventual Steam Deck 2 to ship more handhelds, especially with the Steam Machine seemingly around the corner.

That doesn't change the fact that the Steam Deck, even four years after launch, is still one of the best handheld gaming PCs on the market. It's understanable if folks want to pick it up, especially because for a lot of people, 'Steam Deck' is synonymous with 'handheld PC'.

As the Steam Deck has been out of stock, however, the prices have only gone up. Right now, picking up a new Steam Deck on Amazon is going to set you back around $1,110 for the 512GB OLED model, which is exactly double that handheld's list price. You shouldn't pay that much for a Steam Deck, and even if you were willing to spend that much on a handheld, something like the Lenovo Legion Go S or the Xbox Ally X will cost about the same, but with a higher resolution display, better performance, and double the storage.

Even if you're just trying to find something resembling a Steam Deck for around the same price, the Xbox Ally will have about the same level of performance, but with a more comfortable grip. Although, you will have to use Windows 11, but it's at least better now with the Xbox Full Screen Experience. What's wild, is that when it came out, the Xbox Ally was compared unfavorably with the Steam Deck, because at the time, Valve's handheld just delivered a better value. That just goes to show you how much a product shortage can turn the tables.

Alienware has always been known for its over-the-top and expensive gaming PCs, but it just announced the Alienware 15, its first true budget gaming laptop.

The Alienware 15 will come with either an AMD Ryzen or Intel Core chip, along with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU to start, with options to spec it up to an RTX 5060. It's available today, starting at $1,299 for the base AMD Ryzen-equipped version and $1,349 for an Intel model.

The Alienware 15 debuts at a lower price than the $1,690 Alienware 16 Aurora Gaming Laptop, which the company released last year. The smaller model gets new AMD chip options – a Ryzen 7 260 or Ryzen 5 220 – ships with either a 512GB or 1TB NVMe SSD, and features a 300-nit, 165Hz refresh rate, 16:10 WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display.

By contrast, the base-model 16-inch ships with an 8GB RTX 5050 grapics card and 16GB of DDR5 RAM, but only with an Intel CPU and a 120Hz display. The Alienware 15 will be configurable with 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of RAM, and a 54Wh or 70Wh battery – both specs with starting points that feel like sign-of-the-times trade-offs to hit the lower price point that stand in stark contrast to what's offered on some of our favorite gaming laptops.

"We made deliberate choices about where to invest and where to pull back," Alienware writes in a press release the company shared with IGN. It's a not-so-subtle nod to the ongoing, AI-addled RAM crisis that's engulfed the tech industry at large.

While the $1,299 seems like a high price for a budget laptop, it's important to keep in mind that Dell, and by extension Alienware, often puts its laptops on sale. So if you want to grab this laptop, it might be best to wait a couple months to see if the price drops below a thousand bucks. But, with the way PC gaming has been trending so far this year, that's not exactly guaranteed.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.

Ever since they started coming out on PC, the Forza Horizon games have been some of the best PC ports around, which is a huge reason why I use them whenever I test any kind of hardware. Despite the excellent visuals that this series has given us time and time again, the games scale exceptionally well across all kinds of hardware.

Forza Horizon 6 continues this tradition. This is a game that looks incredibly good on high-end hardware, while still running quite well on low-end GPUs and handhelds. And even though most people should have no problem running this game on their PCs, I really wanted to take the chance to tweak with the settings to maximise performance while still making the game look as good as possible.

To do this, I ran the game on an RTX 5070 – a mid-range GPU – with the goal of running at 4K without ever really dropping below 60 fps. And, while the 5070 has trouble absolutely maxing out this game at a high resolution, it has plenty of room to stretch its legs, as long as you’re mindful of your VRAM budget. Because unlike a lot of games, Forza Horizon 6 will straight up turn off settings like DLSS if you run out of VRAM.

Another Great PC Game

Forza Horizon 6 appears to be running on an upgraded version of the same ForzaTech engine as pretty much every Forza game for the last decade. And, in a lot of ways, the game looks very similar to Forza Horizon 5, just with more robust ray tracing and upscaling options.

And, sure, that’s a bit disappointing if anyone was wishing for some true next-gen racing here, but what it means is that Playground Games had a much easier time optimizing it for lower-end hardware. So while, yeah, there are some details in the environment that don’t look great, like aliasing in power wires or the PS3-esque character models, that’s worth the trade off for awesome performance, especially in a game all about going fast.

However, there are some pitfalls that Forza runs into that are a little too familiar to other games this year. For instance, some of the ray traced reflections are a bit noisy, particularly on any car that’s painted white, or another light color. I’ve also noticed some upscaling artifacts around some elements of my car, though the extremity of this varies from vehicle to vehicle.

But what really matters for Forza’s Horizon 6’s visuals is how good the cars look. And, well, just like with Forza Motorsport 3 and Horizon 5, the cars look amazing. Everything else is kind of secondary anyways. Most of the time, you’re going to be blazing through environments at a hundred miles an hour, so if there are some blemishes, you’re not going to notice them anyways. That’s kind of the magic of racing games in the first place, and why this kind of game is typically much more photorealistic than any genre where going fast isn’t the whole point.

Maybe they should make a photo-real Sonic game. Just saying.

Best Settings For Forza Horizon 6

When I was sitting down to find the right settings for Forza Horizon 6, I had one clear goal: my car needs to look as good as possible. Luckily, there are plenty of graphics settings in the game that separate car detail from the rest of the game. This is especially helpful on a handheld like the Xbox Ally X, because with the lack of strong performance, being able to target the horsepower really helps squeeze out a few extra frames.

On PC, I tuned Forza Horizon 5 to run as well as possible on the RTX 5070 at 4K. My goal there was to get good enough performance so that it always runs at 60 fps. I also wanted to make sure there is enough buffer so that when you go through an unexpected puddle, you don’t dip below that 60 fps threshold.

For most people, if you just want a good ‘set it and forget it’ preset, the High + RT preset will get you a solid 60-70 fps at 4K without DLSS. However, the game looks a bit more flat than it should, particularly when it comes to reflections and detail on the cars themselves. However, the next preset up, Ultra + RT, will drop the RTX 5070 to about 43 fps. That’s not great, but it’s a good starting point.

In the video menu, I won’t be changing much. Resolution is set to 3840 x 2160, and while I prefer an unlocked frame rate, you can set the limit however you want here. Just make sure to set Vertical Synchronization to ‘Off’ if you want to unlock your frame rate.

The most important thing to change in this menu is the upscaling. If you’re on an AMD GPU, you can enable FSR 3.1.5, while Intel GPU users can enable XeSS. For Nvidia users, the game also supports pretty much every DLSS feature under the sun. As a general rule of thumb, I recommend upscaling at the ‘Quality’ preset for 1080p, ‘Balanced’ for 1440p, and ‘Performance’ for 4K. However, because Forza Horizon 5 runs as good as it does, I set DLSS to ‘Balanced’ for the RTX 5070.

You can also change your FoV for all your different camera views here, but that doesn’t really affect performance. So, feel free to set that as wide or as narrow as your little heart desires.

All of the more nitty-gritty graphics settings are in the ‘Graphics & Performance’ tab, and I’ll break down roughly what each one does, as well as what I’d recommend for both a mid-range GPU like the RTX 5070 and for a handheld like the Xbox Ally X or the Steam Deck.

Car Level of Detail This changes the model detail and mesh quality for all the cars in the game. This can affect your VRAM usage, so I’d lower it if you’re starting to stutter. But, this is Forza and the cars are super important, so I’d turn down the other level of detail options before I touch this one. Mid-Range PC: Ultra Handheld: High

Environment Texture Quality This one is pretty straightforward, and just changes the resolution of environmental textures. Because the RTX 5070 only has 12GB of RAM, and we want to enable DLSS to boost our frame rate, I’d lower this down to High. It doesn’t make that much of a difference, and it’ll give the upscaling algorithm some memory to work with.

Mid-Range PC: High

Handheld: High

Environment Geometry Quality

This simply changes the mesh quality for all the objects in the environment. I’d leave this higher, especially because you’re going to be spending a significant amount of time chasing down mascots to smash with your car, but this is unfortunately tied to texture quality.

Mid-range PC: High

Handheld: High

Car Reflection Quality

Another straightforward one! This just changes the quality of reflections on the interior and exterior of your car. These are the most noticeable reflections in the game, and this setting does a lot to boost the game’s presentation. However, it is very heavy on your GPU, so cut this if you’re struggling to get good performance.

Mid-range PC: High

Handheld: High

Screen Space Reflections Quality

This changes the quality of non-ray traced reflections. This basically reuses data from the currently rendered frame to roughly calculate what each reflection should look like. This is another very heavy setting, but it is automatically disabled if you enable ray traced reflections.

Mid-range PC: Off

Handheld: Medium or Off

Ray traced Reflections Quality

This changes the quality of ray traced reflections throughout the entire game. If you don’t have an RT-capable card, I wouldn’t even try turning this on. However, it is actually not that heavy on the RTX 5070, especially if you’re not trying to max it out. There are a lot of reflective surfaces in this game too, so it really does do a lot to make the game look better.

Mid-range PC: Medium

Handheld: Off

Shadow Quality

This changes both the resolution of shadows, and how often they update. Because everything in this game moves so fast, there is a lot of potential for shadows to rapidly change as your point of view changes. It’s still not worth the performance cost to maximise this, though, so I’d keep it at high.

Mid-range PC: High

Handheld: Low

Night Shadows

This adds shadows to certain light sources at night, mostly just your headlights and street lights. The setting does add moonlight shadows at its highest setting, but that’s something you should only really enable if you have a high-end GPU, or if you’re moving down to 1440p.

Mid-Range PC: Ultra

Handheld: Off

Screen Space Global Illumination Quality This improves ambient lighting, which does a lot for making the game more atmospheric. It’s a nice touch, but global illumination always comes with a heavy performance cost, so it’s one of the first things I’d cut if you’re running into performance problems. Plus, if you turn on ray traced global illumination, SSGI gets disabled automatically.

Mid-range PC: Off

Handheld: Medium

Ray Traced Global Illumination Quality

This does the same thing as Screen Space Global Illumination, but more accurately, and with a bigger performance cost. Even at low, RTGI looks better than SSGI, so I’d just set it to low if you have an RT-capable GPU, and then if you have the horsepower for it, you can turn it up for even better lighting.

Mid-range PC: Low

Handheld: Off

Shader Quality The game claims that this changes the “visual fidelity of the materials and lighting”, however, no matter how much I mess with this setting, I don’t really notice a difference. However, I didn’t do much pixel peeping this time around. Luckily, it doesn’t really affect performance that much, so I just leave it at ultra.

Mid-range PC: Ultra

Handheld: High

Deformable Terrain Quality This changes the quality of dirt, mud, or any other kind of terrain that’s gonna get torn up by your tires. Surprisingly, it doesn’t affect performance too much on a desktop, but it will start to hamper performance on a handheld.

Mid-Range PC: Extreme

Handheld: Medium

Particle Effects This just changes the quality and quantity of particles that are flung up when you’re driving around Japan. This can hurt performance a bit when you’re driving through puddles or mud, and you’re flinging debris everywhere. I’d leave it at high.

Mid-range PC: High

Handheld: Medium

Volumetric Fog Quality There is a ton of fog in Forza Horizon 5, particularly when it’s raining. This was one of the first things I tried to turn down to save performance, especially because the built-in benchmark is, well, quite foggy. To my surprise, though, this didn’t really change performance at all. And, because it looks great, turn it up a bit!

Mid-range PC: Ultra

Handheld: Medium

Both Lens Effects and Motion Blur Quality are entirely aesthetic choices. Neither one is going to affect performance that much, so turn them up or down depending on your preference.

With all of the recommended settings, I was able to get my framerate up to 70 fps in the built-in benchmark, which is right where I wanted it. I did want to test it in the actual game, too, though, so I set a frame counter and just played the game normally for an hour.

And, let me tell you, Forza Horizon 6 runs like an absolute dream now. In the open world with these settings, the RTX 5070 sits around 90 fps most of the time, and only really dips to 70 fps in races with a lot of reflective puddles and particle effects. No matter what I tried, I could not get this mid-range GPU to drop below 60 fps, and that’s without any frame generation.

The RTX 5070 isn’t even marketed as a 4K graphics card, but at least in Forza Horizon 6, it doesn’t seem like the bar to get good performance at that resolution is very high.

Even on a handheld, Forza Horizon 6 runs pretty well. Really, my recommended settings are a mix of the medium and high presets, and when the Xbox Ally X is plugged in, I can get between 50-60 fps, sometimes even stretching up to 70. Then, when I unplug it and run the handheld on its lowest power settings, I’m still able to get around 30 fps, which is perfectly fine if you’re just trying to stretch some battery life out of the thing.

I went into Forza Horizon 6 expecting good performance out of it – after all, the system requirements are pretty modest. But I’m still surprised at just how well this game runs, even on low-end hardware. For how dire the PC hardware world is right now, at least there are some games that’ll run well on pretty much anything. That’s my silver lining right now.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

SteelSeries' honeycombed Aerox 3 was one of the best gaming mice of 2022 – so I was hoping for fireworks when I began testing the new $110 "Gen 2" refresh, which keeps the same design but with a better sensor, higher polling rate and longer battery life.

Those improvements add up to a solid mouse that's better than the original in every way. And yet I'm really struggling to get excited about it.

Let me explain why.

Distinctive Honeycomb Design Fails to Cut Any Weight

SteelSeries has made its honeycomb Aerox design even more see-through by replacing the top and side panels with semi-transparent plastic. The exposed innards have a toy-like charm and I'm glad Steelseries has leaned into the aesthetic rather than playing it safe. Better to be distinctive than dull: pairing the shell with a fully customizable three-zone RGB certainly makes the Aerox 3 Gen 2 stand out.

Its medium size will fit most hands and the pronounced curves towards its wide base create natural platforms for my thumb and pinky finger. All of the three most common mouse grips – fingertip, a full palm grip and a claw – felt comfortable to hold for hours at a time and the mouse coating was grippy without feeling sticky.

The left and right buttons are on the stiffer side but always registered my clicks – their high-pitched 'ping' sounds clean, and I could spam them rapidly when I needed to.

The shell occasionally creaks against the base of the mouse when I squeeze it really hard, but this was never never a problem during general use, and it feels solid and sturdy in the hand. I dropped it and knocked it around a bit with no ill effects, and its internals are protected by an IP54-rated coating that should keep it running after liquid spills.

But I have two main complaints.

The first, more minor, is not about the mouse itself but the 2.4Ghz wireless dongle that connects the Aerox 3 Gen 2 to your PC (you can also use it with Bluetooth). It wobbles in my USB-C port with the slightest nudge and sticks out further than most dongles, which are either smaller or sit flatter against your PC. It's a dangerous combo and means I'm always worrying about knocking it.

The second, potentially more major, is the weight. In 2022 the 68g Aerox 3 felt light – four years later the weight hasn't changed but all the competition has got slimmer. Nearly all new premium mice are below 60g and when I first started testing the Gen 2 version it felt heavy on my pad.

The sensor placement below the mid-line of the mouse doesn't help. The lower a sensor, the less it moves when you make small adjustments with your fingerprints at the top of the mouse. It made the Aerox 3 Gen 2 feel even more sluggish.

Lighter doesn't mean better, of course. Some people prefer a slightly heavier feel in the hand, and to be fair it only took me half an hour to stop noticing it. When that happened, it felt like it took zero effort to sweep it across my mouse pad on its slick PTFE feet, or to make small, quick adjustments.

But it's a long way from the "ultra-lightweight" feel that SteelSeries promises, and it's also at odds with its weight-cutting honeycomb design. I remain part of the masses who find 50-60g to be a sweet spot for comfort, speed, precision and control.

Sensor Improvements Boost Its Gaming Chops

The upgrades to the Aerox 3 Gen 2's specs bring its performance in line with modern mid-to-high-range gaming mice.

I mainly used it in the first person shooter Marathon and the citybuilder Whiskerwood, a duo that combines quick movements with more relaxed clicking and dragging, but I also tested it in Fortnite, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Slay the Spire 2. It felt accurate, reliable, consistent, and it captured my movements without stutters or errors. None of the upgraded sensor, the click switches, or the wireless connection limited how I played.

Perhaps the biggest change from the original Aerox 3 is in its maximum polling rate – the times per second the mouse reports its position to your PC. That jumps from 1,000Hz to 4,000Hz, with a 2,000Hz option in the middle. Theoretically higher polling rates should make your mouse feel smoother and snappier, especially when you're moving it rapidly, and to me, the difference above 1000Hz is slight but real. This is a genuine upgrade for anyone looking to squeeze every drop of juice out of their mouse. It's lower than the 8K gold-standard, but that's absolutely fine with me: 8K is overkill and never worth the extra battery drain.

Keep in mind you'll also need a high-end system to take advantage, including a beefy CPU-GPU combo and a high refresh rate monitor. Otherwise your machine, not your mouse, becomes the limiting factor. Also remember that higher polling significantly cuts battery life. At 1,000Hz without RGB lighting, SteelSeries reckons you can reach 120 hours, better than the original and roughly in line with the drain when I tested it. But at 4K polling that drops to around 35 hours. For that reason, I usually play at 1K for casual games or 2K in online multiplayer.

The sensor has been improved, but only incrementally. The maximum inches per second (IPS) of tracking and the max acceleration remain the same, at 400 IPS and 40 G, but the maximum dots per inches (DPI), a measure of sensitivity, jumps from 18,000 to 26,000.

Those numbers are mostly meaningless, however, because you won't be moving the mouse that quickly, nor should anyone use a DPI that high (even pro players stick below 1,600). The key thing is that it feels responsive and reliable, and is more than good enough for anyone short of a pro FPS player

I say mostly meaningless, because if you care about having the highest possible ceiling on your mouse then you will find better sensors in the same price range. To take two examples I reviewed recently: the Rawm Leviathan v4 and the Keychron M3 Mini both have sensors with better on-paper specs, and are both cheaper than the Aerox 3 Gen 2.

Useful Extra Settings Squeezed Into Bloated Software

The updated Aerox 3 adds plenty of new genuinely useful settings through the Steelseries GG software.

You can now, for example, change the distance that the sensor will stop tracking your mouse movements when you lift it off the pad, called lift-off distance (LOD). You can tweak the angle of the sensor to account for any natural tilts in your grip (although there's no built-in tool to test whether you hold your mouse straight). A low power mode reduces battery drain as you approach empty, a sensitivity matcher imports your settings from other SteelSeries mice, and you can adjust the X and Y axis DPI independently, if that's your thing.

These are all good options. But they're all housed in a bad system.

I find SteelSeries GG to be one of the more unpleasant mouse softwares to use, bloated with unnecessary tabs and confusing headings. Next to your "Gear" tab is one for audio customization (even if you don't have a headset), a "moments" tab to record gameplay, an aim trainer, one for "giveaways", and a "news" tab for SteelSeries announcements. A wannabe everything app.

I also find the layout of the mouse settings confusing and badly presented, with everything housed in boxes of different shapes and styles.

The RGB options are in-depth and easy to use, at least – but don't try searching for them in the "illumination" tab. Instead you have to click on "Prism", which launches an entirely new window on your computer. What a mess.

Are the EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus the best sub-$100 earbuds around?

These new buds, an upgrade to the Pro 4s from 2024, have got rave reviews and they're certainly bursting with more Bluetooth tech than any other $100/£90 earbuds I've tested, including a dedicated gaming mode, dual device connection, LE audio, Auracast and LDAC codec support. They're also regularly on sale: as I write this they're a bargain at $76/£63.

As you'd expect at that price they're not without drawbacks – so is the compromise worth it? And how are they for gaming?

EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus: Vibrant Audio for Gaming or Music

The EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus buds aren't specifically designed for gaming. Dedicated gaming earbuds use a low-latency wireless dongle rather than laggy Bluetooth – that's absent here but they do have an impressive "game mode" that aims to reduce latency when you're playing on PC or Bluetooth-ready console. I've tried similar modes on other buds and it's never made a massive difference, but here it does.

Without game mode I could feel the long delay between inputs and audio. With it, that delay virtually disappeared and I couldn't notice it unless I really paid attention. Gunshots in Marathon felt like they boomed as soon as I clicked my mouse, for example.

I wouldn't recommend them as your go-to audio for competitive gaming, partly because of the inherent latency of Bluetooth, partly because of their mediocre mic, and partly because their directionality is relatively imprecise. In Marathon I could tell the rough direction of shots and footsteps but I couldn't pinpoint their exact location or distance the way I could with a regular headset.

Still, they'll work for multiplayer in a pinch – I used them a lot in Fortnite, for example, and they worked well – and for more casual singleplayer gaming on a Steam Deck or Switch they're perfect. I loved cruising around GTA 5, listening to the radio stations and bathing in the world's buzz.

It helps that they sound vibrant and detailed. In GTA 5 and 4 (I've been on a Rockstar kick recently) I could pick out the individual city sounds: the thrum of my car engine, the horns of traffic, conversational chatter on the streets, and the boom of hip-hop on the radio. It felt atmospheric.

Music sounds rich and bright outside of games too. Bass, mids and treble are balanced and I could distinguish individual instruments from one another, such as the three guitars in Oasis' Some Might Say. I enjoy the default bass setting, too. It punched in Dave's 100M's and Busta Rhymes' Break Ya Neck without feeling artificial or overpowering.

They're not audiophile grade, of course – you can't expect that at this price. Vocals are occasionally drowned out in complex, layered songs such as 12:51 by The Strokes, and in some tracks, sibilant sounds – that is, hissing consonants and cymbals – sound particularly harsh. N.E.R.D.'s Lapdance felt far too busy, for example.

But I feel like I'm nitpicking there, and in every case I could find a preset EQ that corrected it instantly, such as a treble reducer or vocal enhancer. For 95% of songs, the default EQ is warm and vibrant.

You also get far more features than I'd expect at this price, delivered through a pretty intuitive app.

Most notably they support high-quality Bluetooth codecs, including aptX adaptive, aptX Lossless and LDAC. With the right hardware (iOS doesn't support LDAC), and the right streaming platform (Spotify launched lossless audio last year), you should theoretically get the best available sound. Keep in mind you can't really get truly lossless audio over a Bluetooth connection – you'll need a wire – but you do at least get the tech here to get the highest-possible streaming quality, and that's a boon for budget earbuds.

You also get power-efficient LE audio, or Bluetooth low energy. This also enables Auracast, an emerging technology that lets multiple devices connect to the same source: imagine a phone broadcasting to multiple sets of earbuds. Both LE Audio and Auracast are far from ubiquitous – you'll need an Android phone for LE, to start with – but it's good to know these buds can support them in future.

EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus: Stripped-back Design and Solid Battery Life

The EarFun Air Pro 4’s impressive sound and feature list is matched by their comfort.

The buds weigh just over 5g each. You'll find lighter earbuds – the 4.2g HyperX Cloud Mix Buds 2 remain my go-to recommendation for ultra-portable gaming earbuds – but these are light enough to make me forget I'm wearing them. Their simple shape and rubber tips made them comfortable for long gaming sessions, trips on the train, or for sweaty workouts (they're IP55-rated, so a bit of moisture is fine).

They're not ugly but I don't like their two-tone look – all black except for the outside of the stem, which is a greyish-purple. I also wish the touch control portion was bigger than the small circle at the top of the stem. It made adjusting the volume or pausing music feel fiddly.

They are at least solid and sturdy. The curved case feels compact, holds the buds tight, and snaps securely.

EarFun says they'll last 12 hours with active noise cancelling (ANC) turned off, and that the case gives you an extra 42 hours before it needs plugging in. Those are marathon numbers that eclipse most earbuds – but in practice, you probably won't reach those heights. Between game mode, ANC, dual connection and a few other settings toggling on and off, I got between six and eight hours on a single charge. Strong but not spectacular.

EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus: Mediocre Noise Cancelling

Active Noise Cancelling is about what you'd expect at this price: it will dampen incoming noise but it won't blank out loud sounds. I could sit in a cafe and work without a nearby conversation disturbing me but at the gym I could still hear the occasional clink of weights in the background. On the London Underground, the screech of the Victoria Line made it difficult to hear what I was listening to.

As well as being mediocre, the ANC is overcomplicated. There are four different noise cancelling modes: AI Ear Adaptive ANC, AI Environment Adaptive ANC, a Manual mode with a slider, and Wind Noise Cancelling. After reading the descriptions I can't really tell you the difference between the first two, and I didn't really feel any meaningful auto-adjustments from them.

Ambient sound amplifies noise around you and is equally fine. It has two settings, one more hissy than the other. Both allowed me to hear traffic noise when I was walking but neither were powerful enough to clearly hear somebody talking across the room while I was listening to the buds.

Whether these middling features are a dealbreaker depends on how you'll use them. If you work out in a busy gym or travel on a busy commute and need top-tier noise cancelling, you might want to look elsewhere.

The Nothing Phone 4a Pro is a proper midranger, coming in with a starting price of $499. It doesn’t boast a flagship chip or exotic materials, but it doesn’t shy away from premium elements either. What it may lack in some departments, it may more than make up for with its cameras. So if you’re looking to get a great value smartphone with an emphasis and photographic capabilities, this is one to look at.

Nothing Phone 4a Pro – Design and Features

The Phone 4a Pro is perhaps Nothing’s most tastefully done design yet. Its metal frame wraps all around the edges and swoops around to cover most of the back surface as well. It’s somewhat iPhone-esque in this approach, but it doesn’t leave the carveout for wireless charging that Apple did.

The camera housing is a large plastic mound that also has a vibe crossed between the latest iPhones and yet is distinctly Nothing with its multi-tone color scheme, visible screws, and a roughly one-inch circle filled with a dot matrix display. The cameras also get a funky layout with two in a shared pill-shaped cover and one standing apart in its own cover.

It’s a great look, and will perhaps be less contentious than some of Nothing’s other hardware. The feel in the hand is solid with so much metal to contact. It’s a large phone at a hair over three inches wide and 6.44 inches tall, though, and will be unwieldy for smaller hands, but no more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The dot “Glyph Matrix” display is not terribly compelling here. It can still display a few fun little things, like a spin the bottle game, timer, and battery charging level. With just 137 dots, it’s not very crisp, though. The selfie mirror that was somewhat useful on the Nothing Phone 3 is rather hard to use here as it’s simply too difficult to distinguish what’s on the display for framing. At least this time the selfie mirror automatically activates when the camera is running, rather than using a separate, slow, and confusing pipeline as on the Nothing Phone 3.

The screen on the Nothing Phone 3a Pro is great. At 1280x2800, it’s wonderfully sharp for a 6.83-inch panel. It offers the gorgeous color and contrast of AMOLED with very respectable brightness levels for use in any environment, though glare still hurts. And its 144Hz refresh rate ensures it’s plenty smooth in regular use – just don’t count on that refresh rate for serious gaming. A fingerprint scanner is embedded under the display and works quickly, though is positioned a bit too low for comfortable reach while one-handing the device. Nothing applies a screen protector at the factory, so the display is protected from the jump, though it has a knack for showing finger oils.

The phone is otherwise protected with IP65 dust and water resistance, which is enough to keep dust and such out entirely but isn’t meant to stand up to more than low-pressure water. So, no dunks in the pool or pond. Nothing says the phone is “Tested for water immersion up to 25 cm for up to 20 minutes,” but I wouldn’t recommend counting on that as an assurance since even fully IP68 certified phones don’t get warranted against water damage by manufacturers.

The phone’s speakers aren’t quite as impressive as the display. They put out decent volume, but when they’re cranked, the meager bass levels sink and lead to a grating tone. It works for podcasts or audiobooks well enough, but you’ll want to stick to lower listening levels to get OK sound quality.

The Nothing Phone 4a Pro offers support for multiple SIM cards as well as eSIM, giving it an edge over Pixels and iPhones, which are toward eSIM only. The phone is lagging a bit behind on its connectivity offerings though, only providing Bluetooth 5.4 and dual-band Wi-Fi 6. 5G networking has worked without a hitch on T-Mobile in Chicago during my testing at least.

The USB-C port on the bottom of the phone isn’t so great. It tops out at USB 2.0 speeds and doesn’t provide display output capabilities. It does support 50W fast charging, which is a solid level. Of course, with the aluminum rear panel, there’s no wireless charging available.

While the 4a Pro has the typical power and volume buttons along its right edge, it also has a special AI button on the left edge. This integrates into Nothing’s “Essential Space.” Tapping the button grabs a screenshot and lets you add a note, while holding the button records a voice memo.

Nothing Phone 4a Pro – Software

The Nothing Phone 4a Pro comes running Android 16 and is promised three major OS upgrades and four years of security patches, which is on the short side next to Google, Samsung, and Apple, but not altogether bad for a mid-range device. At four years, I’d expect the performance of this phone to start readying many folks for a leap to a new generation of hardware, especially with evolving on-device AI processing being pushed so hard (to say nothing of Nothing’s own AI ambitions).

I won’t dive into the Nothing’s AI-powered Essential Space deeply, as that would be a full review in itself. It’s worth noting, however, that use of the app requires giving it full access to your photo and video and library on the phone. It even recognizes when it has been given limited access and will not operate. If you’re not a fan of letting AI-anything have that kind of access, be prepared to get no use out of the app and have a button on the phone that ultimately does nothing for you.

As for Nothing’s take on Android, it immediately presents users with its stylish, black-and-white, minimalist skin or the option to go for a basic, colorful option. The latter may be good for legibility, as the former looks slick, but makes even familiar apps hard to recognize by their icons on the home screen. Beyond this, there’s nothing notable about the customization of Android, with it feeling much like a Pixel phone to use.

Nothing Phone 4a Pro – Gaming and Performance

Nothing has always focused on value more than performance, and the Nothing Phone 4a Pro is no exception. It runs on a modest Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip with either 8 or 12GB of memory (my test unit came with 12GB). This doesn’t make it exceptional for gamers, though it still handles itself decently. The phone could run Where Winds Meet with its Ultra graphics setting at 30fps stably for a half hour without getting exceedingly hot, but it wouldn’t go beyond that. Lighter games should be no problem. It doesn’t perform much better than its competition. Even the Pixel 10a beat it across the board in Geekbench 6 and 3DMark CPU and GPU test benchmarks.

It’s not just a matter of special settings either. The phone has a Game Mode with a further Performance Mode setting, but that appears to have little impact on actual performance. Both Geekbench 6 and 3DMark scores were hardly affected by this setting being enabled and weren’t even consistently improved. At least the phone avoids building up too much heat, running with 99.4% consistency during a 20-run stress test with 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Light benchmark.

All told, the phone still offers smooth operation in everyday use. I never noticed stutters or slowdowns. It’s just not doing much in the way of extreme performance. Efficiency may be more its focus. The phone happily plugs along through the whole day and then some. Over the course of testing, I went a few days without using the phone and was surprised to see some extreme standby efficiency, with the phone still up and running with charge to spare even though Airplane mode had not been turned on.

Nothing Phone 4a Pro – Cameras

The cameras on the Nothing Phone 4a Pro are its chance to shine. Despite being a mid-ranger, it attempts to offer an array of sensors that’s more often limited to high-end models. Even Apple doesn’t give its base iPhones triple-sensor setups. Here’s a rundown of the cameras included on the Nothing Phone 4a Pro:

• 50MP Wide, f/1.88, 1/1.56”, OIS, EIS, PDAF
• 8MP Ultrawide, f/2.2, 1/4”, 120-degree FOV
• 50MP Telephoto, f/2.88, 1/2.75”, 3.5x optical, OIS, EIS
• 32MP Selfie, f/2.2, 1/3.42, 89-degree FOV

Nothing shows its chops well with this setup. The main sensor does a great job gathering light and crisp details. It shoots wonderful portraits and has a wide enough field of view to grab decent scenery shots without needing to step over to the ultra-wide sensor. Using the Glyph Matrix on the back, it can also work for even higher-quality selfies than the already solid selfie camera manages.

The zoom lens is one of this phone’s super powers. It’s not crazy, but with 3.5x optical zoom on a high-res sensor, it can look pretty darn good even when bumping up to 7x. Even though the Pixel 10 has a 5x optical zoom, its lower resolution actually sees the Nothing Phone 4a Pro come ahead slightly in some elements, especially when pushing into digital zoom. It just tails the Pixel 9 Pro tele sensor. The camera does a great job locking onto a subject and stabilizing, too, which helps immensely when trying to frame a far-off subject. With all the detail it provides on more distant subjects, it’s really a rocking addition to the phone.

The ultra-wide is a little soft and really calls for bright light. But in sunny, outdoor shooting, it proves a useful complement to the rest of the lineup.

All in all, the camera setup and its performance is quite impressive for a phone of this price. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see it on a much more expensive device. For photography-minded users, this certainly makes up for any deficits in the performance department.

Things have sure been heating up for the Steam Machine over the last couple weeks. On top of shipment data suggesting Valve's mini gaming PC is coming soon, code found in the latest Steam update hints at the different versions of the console that'll be available.

Spotted by Wccftech, it seems like there will be four different versions of the Steam Machine, along with two versions of the Steam Frame, available at launch. However, while this does suggest there will be plenty of choices for the upcoming hardware, nothing yet indicates just how much the Steam Machine will cost.

Luckily, even though we still don't know how much the Steam Machine will cost, it does seem like Valve will be employing the same reservation queue that it just implemented for the Steam Controller, after it sold out almost immediately. Hopefully that means we won't have to pay inflated scalpers' prices on top of what's almost certainly going to be a high price for the Steam Machine itself.

As for which versions of the Steam Machine will be available, Valve told me all the way back in November that there will be a 512GB entry-level model, alongside a 2TB version. Nobody except Valve knows what the other two options will be – or if those options even exist – but it's highly likely that at least one of them is going to be a bundle with the Steam Frame and Controller.

With the high price of SSDs right now, it would also probably be a good thing if Valve included a 1TB option, as well, because 2TB SSDs are quite expensive these days. Still, at least it seems like it's pretty easy to crack the Steam Machine open and just install your own SSD, which means the smart buy might just be to get the 512GB version when it launches and upgrade with more storage when prices stabilize a bit more (if they ever stabilize).

Either way, at the rate these Steam Machine leaks and rumors are coming right now, it does seem like the launch is coming soon. The big question that is still in limbo is the price, but I imagine we'll know more about that once Valve is actually ready to make an announcement.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Go big or go home. That feels like the entire mantra of the HP Omen Max 45L’s design. It has an enormous RTX 5090 that’s somehow even larger in this configuration with its anti-sag bracket. It has boat loads of memory, plenty of storage, and a huge case that completely silos off the CPU cooling in a fashion reminiscent of those old Vapochill phase change units.

All of that comes at an enormous cost, though. This configuration is north of $6,000, and bizarrely it’s with a 12-core 9900X3D CPU, rather than the flagship 9950X3D or more-typical gaming kingpin, the 9800X3D.

Still, it looks good, plays good, and gives you plenty of scope for expansion. If you want a PC that can play anything and do it relatively cool and quietly, this may not be a bad buy in 2026 where just about anything is going to cost you a lot.

Design and Features

The HP Omen Max 45L is well named. This system is big and bold, with a domineering presence on or under your desk. Despite the LED lighting and glasswork being tastefully handled in the default configuration – HP reliably told us unicorn vomit was on hand if you want it – this system makes a statement. Its segregated cooling unit on the top looks different and it certainly stands apart from more traditional case styles, and increasingly common wraparound glass panelling of more showy designs.

However, this is no mere statement piece. HP has thought about the practicalities of such a system, and though it looks the part, it’s also versatile and relatively easy to get to grips with. The toolless side panels are a lovely touch, making them super easy to remove without needing to hunt for a screwdriver. Or at least, they should be. I found one of the toolless mechanisms stuck on my first attempt to open the side and several more after that. It eventually loosened up and we were all good, but I wonder if a knock in transit made it less compliant than it should be.

The motherboard is a bespoke HP 8E55 model with an AMD x870 chipset and a well rounded selection of USB inputs, SATA ports, and fan headers for if you want to expand the already impressive stock cooling configuration. There’s just a single PCIe x16 port and one PCIe x4 slot, which is likely plenty for most gamers. However, if you do want to add something to that x4 slot you may want to consider a riser cable or a smaller graphics card. With the oversized RTX 5090 in place that port is all but covered and there’s no chance of getting anything plugged in.

Similarly, the secondary M.2 SSD is located directly under the graphics card, making maintenance on that drive impossible without removing the GPU entirely. It’s not an enormous gripe, but if you’re going to have a bespoke motherboard, more accessible storage would be nice.

Rear I/O connectors offer a reasonable selection of USB-A, USB-C, and audio connectors, with a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, too. I’ve had plenty of other boards with more expansive USB port offerings, though. I can imagine a scenario where I saturate the USB ports on this board and need to shuffle peripherals around. Would a few more USB 2.0 at least have been too much to ask? The backplate has enough negative space that there’s room for more.

Cable management is reasonably well handled, but not necessarily to the same standard as you might expect from such an expensive system. Although the majority of them are corralled behind the motherboard tray, there’s still a sizable spaghetti mess in front of it. None of them are labelled, and some are not even tightly pinned to cable tidies on the front. There’s a lot of single-use cable ties employed to tie them down too, meaning if you want to really reroute anything, you’re going to have to break out the scissors.

Like the motherboard, the PSU is bespoke too, some HP-branded 1,200W Gold efficiency ATX 3.1 unit. Both are made to standard ATX formats, though, so you can swap them out for another branded alternative in the future if you wish.

I like the cooling configuration with this system. Isolating the CPU radiator in the roof with its own intake and exhaust gives the system a unique look and ensures the CPU’s cooling is completely distinct from everything else in your system. It could achieve the same effect by just front-mounting the radiator, but then that warmer air would impact the temperatures of the GPU a little. This all equates to only a few extra frames per second and slightly quieter fans, but for a system of this size and price, I’ll take innovation on cooling for general quality of life in day to day use.

Software

This system doesn’t come with too much bloatware, although there is the expected collection of pre-installed apps and HP tools that you almost certainly won’t use. HP Smart printing services, HP diagnostics, and HP Support Assistant are all there, though the one pre-installed HP app you might actually use is the Omen Gaming Hub. This lets you monitor performance and temperatures, and gives you full customization over the AIO CPU cooler’s LCD panel, and RGB lighting on each of the system’s fans.

There’s also the Omen AI helper which can optimize component and in-game settings for maximum performance. Realistically, though, if you’re buying this configuration there shouldn’t be a game you can’t play at absolutely maxed out settings. Don’t sniff at DLSS and Frame Generation, though, as outside of ultra-competitive esports games those can really help your frame rate smooth out in even demanding, ray-traced games.

Performance

Unsurprisingly for such a powerful system, the HP Omen Max 45L had no trouble with any of the games and benchmarks I threw at it. Its 3DMark scores make just about every gaming desktop we’ve reviewed in recent months spit out their digital coffee - ray tracing, 4K resolution, none of it is trouble for the ultra-powerful combination of an RTX 5090 and Ryzen 9900X3D.

Cyberpunk 2077 still proves a challenge once you engage RT Overdrive mode, but with DLSS and frame generation enabled I almost reached 120 fps which feels ultra smooth and about as realistic-looking as you can get, even over five years on from the original game’s release. Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition, still a challenge all these years later but an easy 100+ fps for a system like this.

Forza Horizon 5 looks buttery smooth with over 200 FPS even without frame generation, and with it I almost broke 300. You’d need a seriously fast gaming monitor to really take advantage of that, but if you have it, this PC will deliver it.

Total War: Warhammer III was similarly easy for this system, with a rock-solid 150+ fps average. Even Black Myth Wukong, a notoriously demanding game, was simple to break 100 fps. With frame generation enabled, too, we were able to take it over 160 fps - great for those with faster monitors who can really make the most of those higher frame rates.

Call of Duty 7 isn’t the best looking gaming in the world, but it’s demanding enough. Of course this system breezed through it, even at 4K with over 100 fps and close to 150 fps with frame gen enabled (though for a competitive game you’d likely leave that off to reduce input lag.)

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows proved the most demanding of the games tested, but even then I managed over 80 FPS with this system at 4K with everything maxed out. Frame generation nudged that into the 140s, making for a gorgeously smooth murdering experience.

Outside of gaming, the HP Omen Max 45L showed its productivity potential with a strong showing in Procyon’s Office benchmark, managing a score of 8,415. It’s not going to compete with the 16+ core productivity chips from AMD or Intel, but if you want to stream while you game, or edit videos when you aren’t playing, this PC is more than up to the task.

The HP Omen Max 45L is an impressively quiet system. The combination of strong system cooling and the cryo-chamber for the CPU radiator meant that even in some demanding games like Cyberpunk noise levels stayed very reasonable. In Assassin’s Creed: Shadows however, I did find myself reaching for the headphones, so this isn’t some silent gaming PC. Just one that’s quieter than most at this kind of size and level of hardware.

With product branding that's perhaps a bit too contrived for its own good, the G'AIM'E Time Crisis Light Gun from Tassei Denki nevertheless convinced nearly 6,000 worldwide Kickstarter backers it was a project worth supporting. On offer was a plug-and-play light gun console with up to four Bandai Namco arcade games pre-installed, including the titular Time Crisis. While there are several solutions for making light gun gaming work on modern displays, the in-gun G'AIM'E tracking technology uses a high-resolution camera and AI. While this approach may not be the best technical solution for every scenario, it makes a compelling case in terms of ease of use. Just make sure you're not only a fan of Time Crisis, but are also willing to invest in the more expensive bundles that come with three additional games, because that's all you'll ever have access to.

G’AIM’E Time Crisis Light Gun – Light Gun History and Technology

Light guns have been a staple in arcades since 1936 with the introduction of Seeburg's Ray-O-Lite, and would finally come to the home in 1970 with Nintendo's Beam Gun toy. Magnavox would license the rights from Nintendo for use with the first home video game console in 1972, Odyssey. After that, light guns were either included with, or regular options for, many consoles and home computers.

Most home light guns were designed to work with the technology of CRT displays, which drew images by firing an electron beam across the screen, from top to bottom, and left to right, briefly illuminating glowing phosphors. The whole screen would quickly flash when the light gun was fired, as its photo sensor and lens focused on a small part of the screen. Because the console or computer controlled the video signal, it was able to calculate which pixels were illuminated when the signal came back, allowing it to approximate the shot's location.

Unfortunately for light gun fans, by the early 2000s, flat-panel TVs, with their lack of electron beams and added latency, started to replace CRTs, putting an end to the viability of that well-worn technical approach. New technology was implemented, including infrared, or IR, tracking, which required a sensor bar or other type of sensor array. It worked well, but was a bit clunky and sensitive to external light sources.

More recently, camera-based tracking, like that found in Sinden's technology, has come into fashion. Unlike IR's limitations, camera-based tracking is self-contained within the light gun and less sensitive to external light sources. While Sinden requires a visible border around the game display, Tassei Denki's G'AIM'E implementation uses AI-powered training data to implement borderless tracking. G'AIM'E also features a 1,920 x 1,080 camera resolution versus Sinden's 640 x 480, and can work with displays or projections as small as 15 inches, all the way up to 150 inches or greater.

G’AIM’E Time Crisis Light Gun – Options and Setup

The G’AIM’E Time Crisis Light Gun is available in three configurations: Basic, Premium, and Ultimate. The Basic ($99.99) includes the light gun with a 13.1-foot cable, a mini console with the arcade version of Time Crisis built in, a 3.28-foot USB-C to USB-C power cable, a 3.38-foot HDMI to HDMI cable, and a quick start guide. The Premium ($149.99) adds a foot pedal that works with Time Crisis, a collectible pin badge, and three additional arcade games: Point Blank, Steel Gunner, and Steel Gunner 2. The Ultimate ($199.99) adds a second light gun, a Type-C multi-region power adapter (20W), a keychain, and a collectible acrylic diorama stand. The gun ($69.99) and foot pedal ($29.99) are also available separately.

There's no way to add additional games once you have the console, so it frankly makes little sense to invest in the Basic configuration that only includes Time Crisis. While I don't consider there to be much relative value in the tchotchkes or the 20W USB-C power adapter that's included with the Ultimate, I'd argue it's worth the extra $50 over the Premium for the second gun, maximizing each game's potential for two-player simultaneous fun.

Setup is straightforward. Connect the power cable to the mini console, then to a USB-C power adapter. If you don't have the Ultimate package, the power adapter you use needs to have a minimum output of 5V/3A (15W). The next step is to connect the HDMI cable from your console to your display, then connect your gun or guns, or pedal, to the console. Finally, hold the power button for one second until the blue LED turns on.

Although Tassei Denki makes a point about its self-calibration technology, there is, in fact, a calibration step each time you power on so that it can learn your play area. Calibration is guided, but it essentially boils down to aiming the gun or guns using both the front and rear sights, taking slow and precise shots, and then staying in the same approximate position while playing that you did during calibration.

The recommended distance from your display depends on the display's size. For instance, for a 32-inch or smaller screen, you should be at least 1.5 feet away from the display, while 65-inch or greater, you should be at least 13.1 feet away. For projection sizes of around 100 inches, you should be about 20 feet away, while for 120 inches, you should be about 26 feet away. Of course, the included cables only extend so far, so you may have to invest in USB-C extension cables for the best results on particularly large displays or projections.

Since there's no gamepad, every function is controlled from the gun. The trigger button is used for selecting games, advancing to the next screen, and – surprise! – shooting. Short-pressing the pause button pauses the game, while long-pressing restarts the game when paused. Short pressing the Coin Button (Credit) button adds credits, while long pressing returns to the Game Select when the game is paused. The A (left) and B (right) buttons are used for additional actions like standing or reloading during the game, as well as skipping through the calibration screen. Finally, there's a recoil on or off switch.

Besides the power button and power LED, the front of the console features a reset switch and two USB-C ports. Time Crisis is only a one-player game, so you plug a gun into one port, and, if you have it, the foot pedal in the other. Otherwise, the other three games support up to two players and no foot pedal, so you can plug a gun into each port if you have two. Port order is ignored, so whatever light gun gets plugged in either port first becomes player one.

While not unexpected, it's important to note that there's no headphone or Bluetooth audio support. Considering the audible trigger (and recoil if you have it on), it would be difficult to have a private listening experience anyway.

G’AIM’E Time Crisis Light Gun – Games and Gameplay

Each of the up to four games, including Time Crisis, Point Blank, Steel Gunner, and Steel Gunner 2, plays just a bit differently from each other, but they are all straight-up shooters. While it might have been nice to include the Sony PlayStation console ports for some of the games, there's something to be said for the consistency of play and overall quality of the arcade originals. Of course, that's no excuse for not including even more games, like Point Blank 2 and 3, for example, but what's there is still a good representation of 1990s-style light gun gaming.

It's also important to note that you're talking arcade games with native resolutions as low as 288 x 224 pixels. There's only basic upscaling and filtering here that's not adjustable, so your HD or 4K display shows every chunky polygon and pixel from the original game. It's also in a square, rather than widescreen, format, so you'll have black bars (pillarboxing) on the left and right of your display.

Finally, each game can be adjusted in the Settings menu between Easy, Medium, and Hard, providing less time and fewer lives with each difficulty increase. Time Crisis specifically allows for the gun crosshair to be turned on or off. It's off by default.

Time Crisis (1995)

Play as VSSE (Vital Situation, Swift Elimination) agent Richard Miller, tasked with rescuing the President's daughter, Rachel. She's been kidnapped by the Garo family, who seek to reclaim rule of the Republic of Sercia. You have to infiltrate the castle, defeat all enemies, and save Rachel before sunset. It's an on-rails shooter where you have to strategically use cover and reload before blasting the enemies. This is a single-player-only title.

Although the foot pedal is optional, I really love using it to reload and remove myself from cover. The A or B button is arguably quicker, and they're required in other games, but the independent action of the foot pedal adds a little extra depth to the experience.

Point Blank (1994; known as Gun Bullet in Japan)

Blast targets in shooting gallery mini-games. You'll be ranked on accumulated points, lives remaining, and how many continues were used as you complete the Accuracy, Intelligence, Memory, Simulation, Visual Acuity, and Speed stages. Up to two players can play at the same time. This is the only (mostly) non-violent option of the four games and is a nice change from the others due to the relative variety of mini-games and often comic nature.

Steel Gunner (1990; Namco's first light gun game)

Up to two can play as future cops Garcia and Cliff, who pilot "Gargoyle" suits to fight the terrorist group, STURM, that's attacking Neo Arc City. You need to rescue kidnapped scientists and ultimately stop the superweapon. Like Time Crisis, it's an on-rails shooter, but it plays at a faster pace, emphasizing rapid, continuous fire over precision shooting. You can shoot anything on-screen, but lose energy if you accidentally (or otherwise) hit civilians. A limited number of missiles can take out more enemies, but they also run a higher risk of hurting civilians.

Steel Gunner 2 (1992)

Just like the first game in the series, up to two can play as future cops Garcia and Cliff, but this time you're fighting the terrorist group, Vanguard. This sequel is considered better in just about every way over its predecessor, including for its audio-visuals and longer story, and I'd have to agree. Still, I'm glad the first game is available as another fast-paced option, particularly for two players.

Light Gun Quality and Overall Gameplay Impressions

The quality of the light gun makes or breaks an arcade shooter like this, and I'm happy to say that these mostly feel arcade quality. It's a little front-heavy, but overall well-balanced. The buttons are clicky and responsive. The recoil is a nice touch, but it's more like vibration with a slight pushback rather than a true recoil. That's particularly disappointing since the light guns are wired and therefore should have been able to receive enough power to drive a more powerful feature. And while I do appreciate the generous 13.1-foot USB-C cable length, that also means it tends to get tangled when stored. Wireless would have been much more convenient. Still, lack of a wireless option or proper recoil aside, I have no complaints about the build quality or overall accuracy.

Speaking of accuracy, Tassei Denki continuously warns about light sources on or near your display. I actually had some pretty aggressive light sources as part of my testing and can report no significant issues with accuracy. While I would still try to heed any and all warnings – and there are ways to confuse the camera – it's good to know that they err on the side of caution rather than strict need. If you do have an issue, however, a firmware update is available that allows you to tweak the display border for your room conditions, although you’ll need a Windows computer to install it.

Along those same caution lines, one of the challenges might be getting to the recommended distance depending upon your display size. Fortunately, I found that being closer than recommended still works well. For instance, with my 77-inch LG C4 OLED, I was only about 10 feet 7 inches from the screen, rather than the recommended 13.1 feet or greater. Similarly, although I'm not sure of the actual projection size from my Xgimi MoGo 4 Laser Projector (I couldn't fill the 100-inch screen area), there's no way I was near the recommended distance. It still worked fine. The only display I was able to use the recommended distance with was an Arzopa M3RC 32-inch 4K 144HZ Gaming Monitor, where I was easily able to achieve the greater than 1.5 feet and experienced no issues with overall accuracy.

Manufacturer guidelines aside, based on my varied usage, you really don't have to have an enormous room to play in if your display is on the larger side, as long as you ensure the light gun is able to see the entire display area at once. And of course, don't forget to set your display to Game Mode or equivalent to minimize lag for such a timing-dependent experience.

Finally, it's a shame there's no way to add more games. What you buy is what you get. The only option would be additional consoles as game packs. I doubt that's going to be an option, so consider the four games – and you really should only purchase one of the two options with the four games – as all you'll ever get. For me, it's enough, because there's sufficient gameplay diversity between the four games, and they all play so well. And opposed to something like Arcade1Up's Time Crisis Deluxe Arcade Machine ($699.99), which features the same games and overall accuracy, you're not tied down to one spot in your home or limited to the 17-inch white-bordered LCD screen required by the Sinden light gun technology.

Bill Loguidice is a contributing freelancer for IGN specializing in video game and computer hardware and accessories. He has several decades of experience and has written for a wide variety of publications. Bill has authored a dozen mass market books and was a writer and producer on a major feature film documentary on the history of video games.

Valve is opening a reservation queue for the Steam Controller following overwhelming initial demand. The Steam Controller (which is excellent) went on sale earlier this week, but sold out nearly instantly and many users reported a frustrating experience trying to secure a unit of their own.

To alleviate future problems, Valve is opening a reservation queue tomorrow, May 8, at 10am PT. This queue will function similar to the queue system used for the Steam Deck launch, where Valve will send out order emails to reservation holders as stock becomes available.

Here's the full details from Valve:

• Reservations will be limited to one Steam Controller per user.
• Once you receive an order email, you have three days (72 hours) to make your purchase on Steam.
• For now, customers who have already purchased a Steam Controller are not yet eligible to reserve another Steam Controller.
• Your account must be in good standing on Steam
• You must have made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026

Valve says it will begin fulfilling reservations next week in the US and Canada and the following weeks for the UK, EU, and Australia. That said, there's no mention of how long it will take to work through the queue, or how long it'll be until the Steam Controller is simply in stock and available for purchase without a reservation.

For context, Steam Deck reservations originally opened in July of 2021 and began fulfillment in February 2022. It then took until October of that year for the system to be available for purchase without a reservation. Of course, the Steam Controller is a significantly less complicated piece of tech than the Steam Deck – most importantly it doesn't use any RAM, else it would be affected by the ongoing RAM shortage – so hopefully Valve will be able to crank out the units much faster this time around.

Meanwhile, it looks like Valve is finally ramping up to launching the Steam Machine soon, but we're still waiting to find out how much it will cost.

Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.

Amazon’s Kindle Scribe Colorsoft represents the tech giant's most ambitious, and expensive, E Ink device to date. It marries the large-format digital notebook concept of the original Scribe with the color technology recently introduced to the smaller Kindle lineup. Priced at a premium that puts it in direct competition with Apple's iPad Air and the ReMarkable Paper Pro, this device is purpose-built for users who want a distraction-free reading and note-taking experience, but are unwilling to compromise on color. It’s the ultimate luxury Kindle, offering meaningful hardware upgrades over its predecessor, though its steep price tag and Amazon-centric ecosystem limitations might make it a tough sell for the casual reader.

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft – Setup and Display

Right out of the box, the Colorsoft impresses with its razor-thin 5.4mm profile and a lightweight 400g chassis. Amazon has opted for a symmetrical design this generation, utilizing uniform half-inch bezels around the entire screen instead of the asymmetrical side grip found on previous iterations. While this gives the tablet a sleek, modern, iPad-like aesthetic, it does mean you have to be a bit more careful with thumb placement to avoid accidental screen taps while reading.

The Scribe Colorsoft comes bundled with a Premium Pen, replacement tips, and a USB-C charging cable. As usual, you'll need to provide your own charger. Setup is a breeze, easily importing any previous Scribe notebooks you've saved to the cloud once connected to Wi-Fi.

There's a power button on the upper right side and a USB-C charging port at the bottom. The pen attaches magnetically to the right side of the unit, just below the power button. Next to the USB-C port is a microphone, which is not yet enabled. Amazon promises AI query tools and other features that will take advantage of the microphone via a software update later in 2026.

There's no built-in speaker, so you must use Bluetooth audio output. Whispersync for Voice is supported if you connect to a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, but Immersion Reading, which plays an audiobook and automatically highlights the text on the screen simultaneously, is not.

Finally, there are four small rubber feet on the backside of the tablet so it stays put on a surface. Optional cases accommodate these feet.

The real star of the show is the new 11-inch Colorsoft display. By utilizing a custom-built oxide-based panel and tightly fitting miniaturized LEDs, Amazon has largely mitigated the dark, shimmering grain that typically plagues Kaleido 3 color screens. Like all color E Ink devices, the screen utilizes a color filter that drops the resolution from a crisp 300 ppi for black-and-white text down to a softer 150 ppi for color imagery. Because this filter naturally darkens the unlit screen, making it look a bit muddy, you'll need to lean heavily on the built-in front light to get any real vibrancy. Once illuminated, however, the screen offers excellent contrast and pleasingly-rendered colors that you can toggle between Standard and Vivid modes. While you might notice a slight drop shadow near the bezel due to the gap between the glass and the display panel, and the matte back is a bit of a fingerprint magnet, the hardware is undeniably premium.

Battery life predictably takes a hit compared to standard black-and-white Kindles, but it still offers up to eight weeks of reading or two weeks of writing on a single charge. That feature alone is a massive advantage over a traditional tablet.

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft – Reading

For manga and comic book fans, the 11-inch canvas is an absolute revelation, provided you mostly buy your content directly from Amazon. Colors are pleasantly muted, closely resembling the look of classic newsprint or non-glossy comic book stock, which is delightfully easy on the eyes during long reading sessions. The reading experience feels significantly snappier thanks to a new 2.0GHz quad-core processor that makes page turns roughly 40% faster than previous models. This larger, color-capable canvas makes reading graphic novels, magazines, and textbook PDFs with a lot of detail a genuine joy.

Purists, however, should be aware of the inherent compromise, that, without the front light turned up, the screen contrast isn't quite as perfectly stark as a dedicated black-and-white e-reader. The magic also fades a bit if you prefer to source your reading material outside of Amazon's own Kindle Store or Comixology. Getting third-party color comics onto the device requires jumping through frustrating hoops, such as using conversion software to chop DRM-free CBZ or EPUB files into 100MB chunks just to bypass Amazon's strict Send to Kindle limits.

When reading standard text, the experience remains top-tier, elevated by features like the new Active Canvas. This lets you write directly onto the page, but because the text dynamically reflows around your notes, it shifts the pagination and can break your reading flow. It's a jarring experience compared to Kobo's superior approach, which treats the page as a static canvas and lets you simply scribble in the margins like a real book.

A recent software update finally enabled a system-wide Dark Mode. It lets users change surfaces like Home, Library, and Settings, as well as customize where and when you’re using Dark Mode, such as keeping notebooks in Light Mode.

Finally, despite the performance improvements and color, the built-in web browser is still best saved for only occasional use. It remains just sluggish enough to be annoying, particularly on more complex websites.

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft – Pen and Note Taking

The note-taking workflow is where the device's color capabilities truly shine. The included Premium Pen has been redesigned into a sleek, fully-cylindrical shape that magnetically snaps to the side of the tablet with satisfying force. Utilizing Wacom EMR technology, the stylus requires no charging and feels phenomenal to use. Amazon boasts a blistering 12ms of latency, and in practice, digital ink flows almost instantaneously. Writing on the new texture-molded glass feels incredibly natural, emitting a quieter, less scratchy sound than previous models while still offering a satisfying, near paper-like friction.

You're given 10 distinct pen colors and five highlighter shades to play with, alongside a new shader tool for creating watercolor-like gradients. Amazon has also introduced a brilliant upgrade to the Lasso tool that allows you to select previously drawn strokes and retroactively change their color, which is a feature entirely absent on most competing color E Ink tablets. Another major software addition is the AI-powered handwriting search, which impressively indexes your non-converted handwritten notes so you can search for specific terms globally across all your notebooks.

Thanks to a recent update, Smart Shapes in Notebooks allows you to add structured lines, arrows, circles, triangles, and rectangles directly from the toolbar. Hold-to-snap allows for freehand drawing that automatically converts strokes into precise lines, circles, triangles, or rectangles. However, even with the update, the software still holds the hardware back from its full potential.

Unlike the ReMarkable Paper Pro or Onyx Boox tablets, the Scribe Colorsoft lacks layers, limiting its usefulness as a dedicated drawing tablet. And while Amazon has finally added robust cloud integrations for importing and exporting via Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, file management remains rigid and clunky compared to Android-based competitors. It's also a shame there's no keyboard support, as this expansive and relatively speedy display would make a fantastic distraction-free writing device.

Ever since Nvidia revealed frame generation with the RTX 4080, I have been dreading the day that a game developer uses it as a requirement to get to an acceptable frame rate. And while we’ve gone almost four years without that happening, it seems like Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is going to cross that line.

This past weekend, developer TT Games released the system requirements for the new Lego Batman game, and while at first glance they seem kind of reasonable for a Unreal Engine 5-based game, a closer look reveals that the company wants you to turn on frame generation just to hit 30 fps with the minimum settings. That’s not really how frame generation should work.

If this isn’t just an error, it suggests that the minimum spec will only really be able to get 15-20 fps without frame generation, and at that point, no amount of AI frames is going to save it from being an unplayable mess.

What is Frame Generation For?

For the uninitiated, it’s easy to look at frame generation and just assume it’s a magical boost to your frame rate. But to understand why it’s a bad thing to lean on frame gen in order to hit 30 fps, it’s important to know how this technology actually works.

Essentially, frame generation uses a machine learning model to generate frames based on a rendered frame and motion vector data taken from the game engine. While this frame is being generated by your GPU, the actual rendered frame is held back for a tiny bit, and then both the original frame and the generated frames are then paced out by either your CPU or your GPU.

By its very nature, this process introduces latency, or input lag. At a higher frame rate, the added latency is barely noticeable, if at all, but there’s a reason that even AMD and Nvidia recommend that this feature is only turned on if you’re already getting a decent frame rate – typically at least 30 fps, but preferably 60 fps or above. At a lower frame rate, like the 15 fps suggested by these Lego Batman requirements, you’re already getting extremely high latency, and frame generation will only make it worse, even if it “looks” more smooth.

Not to mention, at lower frame rates, there isn’t enough data generated by the rendered frames and the motion data to accurately generate an extra frame. That means, the lower your frame rate is when you enable frame gen, the more likely you’re going to run into artifacts and other visual glitches.

It’s too early to know whether or not Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight will actually run at such a low frame rate without frame generation. But if it does, playing this game is going to be an awful experience unless you have a powerful enough gaming PC to brute force good performance out of it.

Frame Gen with Old Hardware

What makes things even weirder is that TT Games requires at least an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 to run Legacy of the Dark Knight, which would be a pretty modest spec on its own. But, even with this now-ancient graphics card, it’s still recommending frame generation – but DLSS frame gen doesn’t even work on this old of a GPU.

Instead, for these older GPUs, TT Games is relying on FSR or XeSS frame generation, which still works much in the same way as Nvidia’s tech, but because it’s not accelerated by specialized cores in the GPU, it’s slower and not as accurate. That just makes a bad performance situation even worse.

Crimson Desert was another game that relied on FSR frame generation to boost performance on handhelds like the Steam Deck or Xbox Ally X, for instance, but that game relied on this technology to reach 60 fps, not 30 fps.

TT Games doesn’t even mention handhelds in the system requirements for Legacy of the Dark Knight, so it’s pretty safe to assume this game isn’t going to run well on portable systems. And that’s a shame, because it’s the type of game that’d be awesome to pull out on the train or on a long flight across the country.

A Bad Port in a Sea of Good Ports

What’s particularly wild about Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight having such ridiculous PC requirements is that the best PC games so far this year have been extremely well optimized. Crimson Desert, Resident Evil: Requiem and Pragmata have all run like a dream, and while none of these games are running on Unreal 5, they do make the latest Lego game stand out a bit more.

What makes it worse is that these Lego games are designed for kids, and while there’s sure to be some out there whose parents have expensive rigs, it’s entirely possible that these inflated system requirements are going to place the game out of reach for many.

Just based on the previews we’ve seen so far, Legacy of the Dark Knight does look very nice. It’s making good use of what appears to be ray traced global illumination and reflections, and the cloth textures on the detective’s cape look excellent. But if all of that comes at the cost of a playable frame rate, it’s just not worth the trade off – at least not on PC.

If TT Games’ system requirements are accurate, most people will be better off playing this game on consoles where, at least for now, frame generation isn’t a thing. Although, it does seem like the PlayStation 6 and Xbox Project Helix will support the technology, so I’m sure this isn’t the last time we’re going to see developers try to pigeon-hole frame generation into a game that doesn’t run well in the first place. I hope I’m wrong.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Mice from leading Chinese manufacturers used to be called "clones," but that no longer feels fair. Many are clearly inspired by the shape and features of well-known Western devices but they're also solid mice in their own right, and often cheaper.

Rawm is one of the brands whose reputation has swollen from a somewhat obscure budget specialist to a genuine high-end competitor and its chunky flagship, the Rawm Leviathan V4, is often compared favorably to Razer's Viper. If you spend any time on the gaming mice subreddits you'll have seen it recommended.

It retails for $130 direct from Rawm but I always see it discounted under $90 – and after testing it for weeks, I can confidently say that you get far more for your money than simply a Viper wannabe.

Rawm Leviathan V4: Premium Feel, With a Couple of Nitpicks

The Rawm Leviathan V4 feels durable. It doesn't creak or rattle when I shake, squeeze or hit it, and the matte coating feels grippy without attracting sweat. The left panel flexed the tiniest amount when I really squeezed it hard, but not enough to be abnormal or worrying. Despite its relatively light weight of 55g it feels solid and reassuring in my hand.

That's likely because of its size: like Razer's Viper it's larger than average, and specifically designed for medium-to-large hands. Mine are ever-so-slightly bigger than average for a man and spreading my full palm across on its body – known as a palm grip – felt luxurious. Its wide, relatively flat shape filled my hand and my fingers nestled in its gentle humps and curves. It felt completely natural and I could make adjustments big and small with no effort.

The large feet feel smooth and agile on a mousepad, and sending the Leviathan V4 in wide arcs is a joy.

In palm grip it'd work for average-sized hands – but you might struggle in fingertip or claw grip. It took me a while to find a hand position that felt natural in those grips, and the width of the mouse forced me to hold it on a slight slant. With adjustments I found a comfortable position, and it's worth noting that most users find it most comfortable in claw grip.

Left and right clicks feel superb. They're light and snappy, they sound crisp, and they're bouncy enough to spam fast. In isolated testing I noticed their pre-travel – the distance they move before registering a click – was alarmingly high, particularly if I pressed away from the centre of the buttons. But when I was actually using them in games I never had any issue: their concave shape dips more aggressively in the middle than most, guiding my fingertips into the right spot.

I love the optical scroll wheel, too. It glides smoothly with very little effort, but you can still feel the bumps between each increment.

Its side buttons are a rare weak spot. They feel spongier than the main clicks, and on my model the back button was particularly soft, although I didn't ever miss a click in games.

I also wish its large dongle was a bit heavier. It's so light that the wire twists it, preventing it from sitting flat on my desk unless I keep adjusting it. The size is fine with me because this is very much a mainline desktop mouse for serious gaming rather than an ultra-portable device. Its connection was flawless – as I'll go into later.

Those are relatively minor issues, though: the Leviathan V4 looks, feels and moves like a premium gaming mouse.

Rawm Leviathan V4: Lightning-fast Performance and Solid Battery Life

The Leviathan V4's gaming performance is essentially perfect. I tested it in Marathon for quick first-person twitches and rapid clicking, Fortnite for third-person shooting and movement, and the citybuilder Whiskerwood for slow pointing and pressing.

In every scenario it felt smooth and responsive: I always felt it mirrored my movements instantly and exactly, and whenever I died I never felt like my mouse was holding me back. I could spam left click to rapidly fire semi-automatic weapons, and my quick flicks to land headshots felt precise. In Whiskerwood I never misclicked, and the slower pace allowed me to enjoy those big smooth sweeps across my mousepad.

I didn't notice a single stutter, jitter, or connection dip in all my testing. That's not surprising given it houses a top-notch Pixart PAW3950 – the sensor of choice for most smaller brands who don't have their own bespoke tech. The headline numbers are that it supports a DPI (dots per inch) of up to 45,000, tracking speed of up to 750 inches per second and acceleration up to 50G. Those figures are overkill (I rarely use a DPI above 1,600) but it's always good to have some headroom.

The Rawm Leviathan's polling rate – the number of times the mouse reports its position to your PC – reaches 8000Hz. That's standard for modern high-end mice and the fact you get it here for less than $100 is a boon.

It, too, is overkill: high polling rates should allow for smoother, more accurate tracking, but you'll need a powerful PC and a high refresh rate monitor (ideally 240Hz or above) to take advantage. Even with an ideal setup, the vast majority of people won't feel a difference between 4,000Hz and 8,000Hz, and many users – including me – barely feel a difference between 1,000Hz and 4,000Hz.

I personally play on either 1,000Hz or 2,000Hz, with very occasional forays up to 4,000Hz if I feel I need a particularly sweaty session (although I'm sure any differences I feel are placebo).

At those lower polling rates, the battery lasts ages. Rawm says you can get up to 150 hours in "high performance mode", the default setting in the Leviathan's companion software (which I'll get onto shortly). Higher polling rates will drop that, of course. I'm on track for just over 100 hours at my current burn rate, where I've played at a mixture of 1,000, 2,000 and 4,000Hz. That's more than enough.

Rawm Leviathan V4: Comprehensive Software That's Hard to Understand

Credit to Rawm for offering users the choice of browser-based software and a downloadable app – not every manufacturer gives you both.

They look a bit amateur but are comprehensive. You can adjust sensitivity and polling rates in increments of one; you can pick between four modes (from "office" to "gaming+") to balance between performance and battery life depending on what you're doing; angle snapping, ripple control and motion sync are easy to toggle on and off.

You can also use "angle tuning" to calibrate the skew of the sensor axis so it matches your grip – if you hold your mouse at an angle, it'll adjust so that your natural sideways movement stays perfectly horizontal. Not every high-end gaming mouse has that.

Unfortunately, the software is buggy and confusing.

The battery monitor is all over the place: I watched it go from 83% to 90% and back to 86% in 15 seconds.

It often forgot my settings – every so often, I'd plug in the mouse to find Motion Sync turned back on.

The web-based software defaults to Chinese and some segments won't auto-translate properly when it loads, at least in Chrome, so you have to wait for it to load then click the translate button each time.

Weird inconsistencies appear between the web software and the app, too. The web hub, for example, doesn't have a button to calibrate angle tuning, making it pointless unless you happen to know the right value. The app doesn't label some of the features, leaving you to guess at what they actually do.

It's a bit of a mess all-round. Feature-wise it's rich, but it's confusing to use.

Samuel is a freelance reporter and editor specializing in longform journalism and hardware reviews. You can read his work at his website.

Just this week, Valve launched the Steam Controller on its own, despite it initially being planned for launch at the same time as the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame. But it looks like Valve has been getting a lot of shipments of "game consoles." Could this mean an imminent Steam Machine launch?

This all comes via Twitter user Brad Lynch, or @SadlyitsBradley, who noticed the uptick in Valve's imports on NBD Data, a shipping analysis platform. It appears that over the last couple of weeks, Valve has received multiple shipments of mysterious "game consoles" from China, which suggests the company is building up for a release sometime in the near future.

Valve is receiving a ton of “Game Consoles” these past couple weeks in their USA distribution warehouse..

— Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) April 30, 2026

Even more..

so many… https://t.co/G2CZo3LHTv pic.twitter.com/dqx1CBM529

— Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) May 3, 2026

It is entirely possible that these shipments are just a giant Steam Deck restock. After all, Valve's handheld has been out of stock for months at this point and a restock is probably coming at some point. However, even though some of the shipments that Lynch spotted are a couple weeks old at this point, the Steam Deck is still sold out on Steam. And given that we talked to Valve last week and it doesn't seem like it's planning on launching a new handheld any time soon, the Steam Machine would be the best explanation.

It's important to take this all with a grain of salt, though. No matter how promising a bunch of console shipments looks, we won't actually know these are Steam Machines until Valve actually makes some kind of announcement. According to The Verge, which did a little bit more digging, though, it seems like the sheer scale of the shipments does mean Valve is planning something.

Valve has been delaying the Steam Machine all year, due to high RAM prices. If Valve was waiting for RAM to get back down to a normal price, we're not quite there yet. A 16GB kit of RAM will still set you back a good $250 on Amazon right now, so we're not quite in the clear yet. If Valve is getting ready to ship the Steam Machine now, I can't help but wonder whether or not it was able to secure a great deal on memory, or if it's just launching the Steam Machine for a higher price.

When we asked Valve about what it's doing about memory prices, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais told us they're "trying to make sure to keep options open and to work with as many different manufacturers as we can." and that "from the get-go, we've been trying to make sure that we have many options there, and that's been proving really useful in this kind of climate, because we can work with all the big players and some of the smaller ones as well."

I guess we'll find out one way or another soon enough.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

High-end modern gaming mice float in tasty but samey soup. A snappy sensor, 8,000Hz polling rate, and a 100-hour battery feel almost mandatory – variations in shape are the main differentiator.

The Logitech Pro X2 Superstrike is, quite literally, built different. Its Haptic Inductive Trigger System (HITS) is genuinely transformative tech: basically, it swaps on/off mouse switches for an analog system that detects the position of each button from the moment you apply pressure. If you press your left click down by a third, then half, then back up to a quarter, then a full press, it tracks you all the way.

You can read our 10/10 review for the full benefits, but the headlines are that clicks – if you can call them that – register faster and you can spam your buttons quicker. Both could theoretically help you in competitive multiplayer matches.

Among the many gaming headset manufacturers out there, few are doing it as well as SteelSeries; and the new Arctis Nova Pro Omni is further proof. It's a new entry into the Arctis Nova line, in addition to the Arctis Nova Pro, which has been one of our top headset recommendations for years here at IGN. And while the improvements on this new model are somewhat incremental, it's still a fantastic headset that packs features you simply can’t find elsewhere.

I recently praised SteelSeries' offering at the budget-level with the Arctis Nova 1, and it has options up the chain for every price range, all the way through the super-expensive but state-of-the-art Nova Elite. At $400, the Nova Pro Omni wedges itself a notch below that luxury tier – it's still a hefty price tag, but between the sound quality, long-term comfort, and versatility that few others can offer, SteelSeries has another certified winner in its catalog.

Arctis Nova Pro Omni – Design and Comfort

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? The Nova Pro Omni sports a nearly identical design to the Nova Pro (and the rest of the Arctis Nova roster, really). It's a fairly slim physical design in the realm of gaming headsets with a low-profile frame and SteelSeries' signature elastic headband that hooks onto notches for fitment and provides some comfort atop your head. The telescoping arms slide continuously and feel secure once they're adjusted. And don't let the relatively thin profile of the headset fool you, it's both flexible and durable enough to handle with confidence.

The earcups are lined with deep foam padding and premium-feeling leatherette – it gets a little hot, which comes with the territory for leatherette, although it creates a better seal than velour or sports mesh. While the Nova Pro Omni has a slightly tighter clamp force than what I'm used to, I had the headset on without issues for sessions up to five hours because of the comfortable earpads. They finely ride the line between firm and soft, and they sink around my ears nicely.

I appreciate that SteelSeries keeps its onboard controls simple; aside from the Bluetooth toggle, all controls are relegated to the left earcup with the power button, microphone mute toggle, and volume wheel. Alongside them is the 3.5mm audio jack for aux inputs and the retractable built-in microphone that conveniently tucks into the headset to sit flush along the earcup when you're not using it.

You may be wondering; where's the USB-C port? It's hidden away behind the magnetic cap on the outside of the left earcup (which is easily removed by wedging your finger into the notch underneath the cap). It may seem odd at first, but other than a quick firmware update, you never have to really plug it in through USB-C. That's because SteelSeries' unique swappable battery system returns in the Nova Pro Omni. The battery is located within the right earcup, which you can access by removing its magnetic cap. This was a key feature of the original Nova Pro, and even in the years since, it's still an innovative design that beats simply having a longer lasting battery.

Arctis Nova Pro Omni – Features and Software

If you're not familiar, the headset comes with two distinct battery packs – one for the headset itself and another to insert into the base station to stay charged. This way, you always have one battery ready to go, creating this infinite loop of battery life. It takes maybe 10 seconds to swap them, and if done fast enough, the headset will just stay powered on. The individual batteries themselves can last around 25 hours depending on the features you have active (such as active noise cancellation), and that's plenty of juice for a handful of sessions before having to actually switch them out.

The base station is the key to making the Nova Pro Omni stand out, not just because of the battery system, but also for the versatility it offers. It has line-in and line-out for wired connections – a boon for those who also run external speakers in their setup – as well as three USB-C ports to bring wireless connectivity to three separate devices. In what may be a big deal to some, you'll no longer have to pick out the right model for your Xbox console (since all Nova Pro Omni base stations include Xbox's proprietary wireless protocol). This means you can keep a PC, PS5, Xbox, and an aux source all connected at the same time, and Bluetooth, and you can swap between them (or even run multiple simultaneously) through the base station.

This does mean you have to use this base station in lieu of having a small USB dongle for 2.4GHz wireless, which could be cumbersome depending on your situation, but the advantages it brings are well worth the trade-off. It's especially convenient for desktop PC setups because the base station can control a few of the headset's features through the large tactile volume dial and the touch button alongside the monochrome LED screen. You just need to press and hold the dial inward for a few seconds to access the wide menu of options that you can adjust on the fly. But you can get more granular in the SteelSeries GG software suite.

Off the bat, you can tinker with basic functions and settings like custom EQ, ANC, noise gate and sidetone on the microphone, among other things. It's straightforward and intuitive with tooltips that explain each feature, and it doesn't feel bloated like other apps. But if you want to get in the weeds, enabling Sonar in the SteelSeries app adds an extra layer of customization and the ability to assign up to nine custom profiles for certain types of media. Here, you can access much finer tuning of the EQ band and even dial in how spatial audio behaves (changing how it reproduces certain sound effects with "performance" for competitive scenarios and "immersion" for cinematic-style experiences). Although I'm generally not a huge fan of virtual surround for spatial audio because of how artificial it can sound at times, this allows for a level of control that you rarely see. The software has more knobs and sliders than most would typically have to worry about, but they're there for those who want to get more from a high-end headset and create a precise kind of audio experience.

Arctis Nova Pro Omni – Sound Quality and Microphone

I wasn't exactly surprised during my testing process to find that the Nova Pro Omni's out-of-the-box sound quality is fantastic. Clean and detailed are the easiest ways to describe its audio profile, with all frequencies coming out clearly even at much louder volumes; solid bass at the low-end and minimal (if any) distortion at the higher pitch. Considering this sits as a tier above the praiseworthy Nova Pro, that's the expectation with headsets of this caliber, and it's great to hear SteelSeries clear that bar once again.

You get the kind of positional audio required to be competitive at high levels, of course. I ran my usual rounds of ranked matches in Counter-Strike 2 to get a sense of the headset's performance and it checked all the boxes wonderfully. With sound cues like footsteps, reloading, and gunfire coming through detailed in both direction and distance, it provides the kind of advantage you'd want sonically.

Playing through the new Patch 7.5 content in Final Fantasy XIV, I got to enjoy how the Nova Pro Omni sorts through the MMO's busy soundscape. Having the great soundtrack playing, spells firing off, enemy attacks hitting, and the party banter all at the same time – it can be a lot for lesser headsets to handle. But the way it all comes through distinctly and elegantly is another example of why you'd ball out for a headset of this quality.

I spared one of those USB ports on the base station for my PlayStation 5 Pro, and gave Saros another whirl since that game has wonderful sound design. Everything just had an impactful punch to it, but it's the subtle sound cues from enemy attacks that were more important – paying attention to those audio cues help you anticipate what's coming and react accordingly in life-and-death situations because this game is a tough test of your reflexes.

A chunk of my in-game test sessions were conducted using the default EQ settings, but tweaking your audio profiles can help you get more out of the headset. For example, messing with spatial audio balance did make Resident Evil Requiem sound more full without losing much of the detail I needed for survival. And the hundreds of built-in profiles for specific games in Sonar give a little extra fine-tuning without having to fiddle with much yourself, which works great for Counter-Strike 2, though your mileage may vary as I feel the FFXIV profile wasn't quite as drastic of a change. Although the Nova Pro Omni isn't exactly tuned to be bass-heavy, the audio drivers responded well to something as small as boosting bass a touch to help round out some of the music I listen to.

Hi-res audio is a tricky thing to test because of how subtle the difference can be, depending on how you're sourcing your audio and how that audio itself is recorded. I went with the Spotify Premium lossless quality and set the Nova Pro Omni to do 96kHz / 24-bit audio in my Windows 11 settings. While outputting proper hi-res audio is one of this headset's key features, it won't be as strong as a selling point unless you're a serious audiophile who wants their gaming headset to do it all. There are nuances to pick up on, but as someone who has one foot in the audiophile world, the best I can say is that the difference is minimal, although it is nice to have (if anything, for the peace of mind knowing you have the best sound capabilities possible all in one device).

Lastly, I must mention that the Nova Pro Omni's microphone is super-impressive – it's probably the biggest singular improvement from the original Pro. My voice came through incredibly clear, just shy of using a decent standalone mic and just a notch below the all-timer on the high-end wired Beyerdynamic MMX 300/330 Pro. It doesn't pick up much background noise even with minimal noise gating, and setting the ClearCast AI noise cancellation to medium-low does the trick for isolating my voice. It does so without sounding compressed or digitized much at all, and you can further tweak your output in the mic's EQ settings. And one final nice touch, the mic now automatically mutes when it’s retracted into the headset, much as how flip-to-mute works on headsets with that style of mic.

It's no secret that gaming on Windows 11 has been a little rough in recent years. Performance and usability problems have been plaguing the OS for a while now, but it seems like Microsoft is finally trying to do something about it.

Microsoft has kicked off an internal initiative codenamed Windows K2, according to Windows Central. Rather than being a version of Windows itself, this project seems to aim to change the design philosophy of future Windows updates instead.

Over the past several years, Microsoft has been focused on releasing new features as fast as possible, which has led to some incredibly awful updates. Just look at Recall, a Copilot+ feature which uses AI to save screenshots of literally everything you do on your PC so that you can reference them later. Back in 2024, Microsoft tried to rush that out super quickly, only to have to hold it back due to obvious security issues.

With K2, Microsoft slowing things down a bit and trickling out updates with a higher bar of quality. We've already seen evidence of this program, with the recent AutoSR update coming to the Xbox Ally X nearly six months after its release. Microsoft could have just shipped the feature without making sure it worked properly – after all, it's been available for Windows ARM systems for more than a year.

Hopefully this means that Microsoft will have some semblance of restraint when comes to shoving new features into Windows 11. Or, at the very least, less frequent updates that make you restart your gaming PC.

Microsoft Wants PC Gaming Back

PC gaming on Windows is obviously still huge, with Microsoft's operating systems making up for 92% of gaming PCs, according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey. While Windows does have a comfy majority, Linux gaming is growing at an incredible rate, thanks in large part to the Steam Deck, and other handhelds that are now running SteamOS or Bazzite.

Just last month, the amount of people running Linux on their gaming PCs has gone up 3% to 5.33% of Steam's install base. Certainly a big part of that is there are more devices out there that come with SteamOS these days, but right now Linux just has better gaming performance than Windows, especially on low-end hardware.

It seems like Microsoft is aware of this. As Windows Central reports, Microsoft is now looking at SteamOS as the benchmark for gaming performance, trying to match its performance with comparable hardware. Hell, even in my testing, I've definitely noticed that handheld gaming PCs running on Valve's operating system have a bit of a lead, which is why the Lenovo Legion Go S can still hold its own against the Xbox Ally X and the Legion Go 2 despite having a slower chip.

Microsoft paying more attention to its operating system's efficiency and performance is a good sign, but it'll be some time yet before we see whether or not this renewed push for quality pays off. However, Windows 12 is lurking somewhere on the horizon, so hopefully Microsoft carries this K2 initiative forward to its next major OS launch.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

When the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X was first announced, one of its biggest promised features was AutoSR, or automatic super resolution. And now, almost seven months after the handheld launched, the feature will be available to Windows insiders today.

AutoSR functions similarly to Nvidia's DLSS or AMD's FSR, in that it takes a lower resolution image and upscales it to a higher displayed resolution. Just like these other solutions, AutoSR would be using an AI model to upscale your games, but instead of using special cores in the GPU, it's using the Xbox Ally X's NPU, or neural processing unit.

Unlike other AI upscaling methods, AutoSR should work on pretty much any game. Because it isn't implemented on a per-game basis like DLSS, AutoSR works at the driver level, so potentially any game running with DirectX should be compatible.

According to the DirectX blog about the technology, offloading the upscaling to the NPU allows for a larger model, which means greater preservation of detail, with a bit of a cost to latency. Microsoft also claims that its AutoSR model is more memory-efficient than other GPU-based upscalers, which are a bit more demanding on memory bandwidth. This is important, because handhelds like the Xbox Ally X don't have a ton of memory bandwidth to spare.

However, rather than just kicking off for everyone using the Xbox Ally X, AutoSR will only initially be available to folks who connect their handhelds to an external display. That's mostly because the higher resolution of a TV is hard for the Z2 Extreme to handle, so game-agnostic upscaling should go a long way to making games run a bit faster. Microsoft claims that this new technology can improve 1440p performance by about 30%, which could be the difference between a stuttering mess and a playable game.

Either way, I'll be trying out this technology myself when the update goes live later today. And hopefully, Microsoft will allow this to be used in handheld mode soon – there are more than a few games that don't exactly run super well at 1080p on the Xbox Ally X, after all.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

For most people, the Alienware Area 51 is the best prebuilt gaming PC on the market right now. It delivers a solid middle ground between your run-of-the-mill, mass-produced gaming rigs and boutique beauties like the Maingear Rush. Of course, building your own PC is still the best way to get into PC gaming, but not everyone has the time to do that.

If you don't build your own rig, you might miss out on the satisfaction of building your PC from the ground up, but all that time you saved skipping research, waiting for components to arrive, building your machine, and inevitably troubleshooting when something goes awry can be spent actually playing PC games.

The half-baked prebuilt systems of yesteryear are no more, cutting far fewer corners for a long-lasting gaming PC that can take on all the action you throw its way. With the latest and greatest graphics cards and processors becoming pricier than ever, you may even save money by opting for something from Alienware, MSI, or HP. Plus, most options are easy enough to open up to upgrade components down the road, including our favorite gaming PC, the Legion Tower 7i.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Gaming PCs:

Buying a gaming PC is a bit more involved than a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S. You’ll need to determine the types of games you want to play and how you want to play them – even great budget gaming PCs won’t be running Cyberpunk 2077 at the highest settings. Finding the proper processors, storage, memory, cooling, and other hardware and ensuring all the components work well together can make or break the rig. Luckily, many manufacturers take care of a good chunk of that guesswork so you don’t bottleneck the system.

One thing to keep in mind is that RAM prices are extremely high right now. This is thanks in large part to AI data centers scooping all of it up, according to a post from Bontech Labs, which has led to prices of memory going up significantly. This hasn't significantly impacted the price of prebuilt gaming PCs yet, but as PC builders start working through their existing inventory, I'd expect that to change.

Whether you're looking for something more affordable for indie games, want a compact option to save space in your studio apartment, or are after a top-tier rig to tackle the action in 4K, we’ve got you covered. One of the five pre-built gaming PCs we’ve selected will align perfectly with your needs.

What's Going on With Gaming PCs Right Now?

Gaming PCs, and the parts that make them, have been steadily increasing in price for the last few years. However, in the last few months, RAM has been particularly affected due to the increased demand from datacenters, thanks to the AI boom going on right now. It's at the point where 32GB of DDR5 RAM will set you back around $450–$500, as opposed to just $90 six months ago.

That'd be bad on its own, but the exponential price increases aren't ending at more expensive memory. SSDs have also doubled in price, and high-end graphics cards like the RTX 5090 are more expensive than they've ever been. And we can't count on Nvidia releasing its mid-generation RTX 5000 Super cards to breathe new life into that market.

For the most part, pre-built gaming PCs have been insulated from these price increases, but I don't think that's going to last much longer. It's only a matter of time before major PC manufacturers like Lenovo have to restock and memory, and when that happens, you can bet the prices are going to go up accordingly. This is also the reason the Steam Machine was recently delayed. If you've been in the market for a gaming PC, I'd suggest either pulling the trigger on a pre-built soon before things get any worse, or waiting for prices to stabilize. You might be waiting a while for the latter, though.

1. The Best Prebuilt Gaming PC

Alienware Area-51

2. Another Great Prebuilt Gaming PC

Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 10

3. Best Budget Gaming PC

iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh Gaming Desktop

4. Best Mini Gaming PC

Asus ROG NUC

5. Best Boutique Gaming PC

Maingear Rush Artist Series

How to Choose a Gaming PC

Prebuilts are the most surefire way of getting into gaming and arguably the most cost-effective hardware you can buy. With a system, you’re not only getting the hardware inside, but time savings of having to track down the best processor to best RAM for your system and putting it all together yourself and praying it actually boots up correctly.

Prioritize the GPU

Just like building your own PC you want to make sure you’re spending your money where it’s needed most. Firstly, you should prioritize getting the graphics card you need for the gaming monitor or the gaming TV you’re gaming on. There’s no need for anything better than an Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti if you’re just playing games on a 1080p display.

Likewise, you should only need an Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5 processor with at least four cores to play most modern games comfortably at any resolution.

Think about how comfortable you are with swapping out parts

System memory and solid-state drives can be the biggest money sink for any system. Those comfortable with upgrading their system after it arrives should choose a configuration with the smallest storage and RAM capacities possible, as buying these components yourself can often be more cost-effective.

If that last suggestion resonates, perhaps a barebones system is what you seek. Those can be much cheaper since they come with all the major hardware – such as the CPU, GPU, and power supply – installed, but they usually lack storage, memory, and an operating system as a trade-off.

Consider a boutique builder

Lastly, if you want more control over what exactly is going into your build, go with a boutique PC builder. Origin, Maingear, DigitalStorm, Falcon Northwest, PC Specialist, and many more companies offer excellent PC building services that let you pick exactly which components go into your gaming PC. From there, they build your system with the sort of cable management some can only dream of while ensuring it all works properly out of the box.

In case this all sounds a little overwhelming to you, NZXT has its own PC building service called BLD. Instead of picking every part that will go into your PC, you chose the games you’ll actually play and the service gives you several configuration options that will be able to run the games for a smooth experience.

Similarly, iBuyPower offers an Easy Builder service that operates in very much the same fashion. Users can select games that they play from a small pool that includes Fortnite, GTA V, Apex Legends, WoW, League of Legends, Overwatch, and Battlefield V. From there, users can select whether they play at a 1080p or 1440p resolution, as well as their budget, and the system will spit back a few configurations to choose from.

Prebuilt PCs also come with several features and pieces of software you might find convenient. Many gaming PCs in this category come with some sort of overclocking support and even a one-click button to boost your system's performance. Of course, it's easy enough to download a piece of overclocking software like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision X. Additionally, your machine may come with system monitoring software that makes downloading and updating drivers a breeze.

Gaming PC FAQ

Should you buy a gaming PC or a gaming laptop?

Unless you’re looking for an all-in-one portable package, a gaming PC is usually better than even the best gaming laptops. With a desktop, it’s much easier and less expensive to upgrade parts, and they tend to last longer before going obsolete. Read more about gaming PCs vs. gaming laptops.

Is it easy to upgrade your prebuilt gaming PC?

It depends. Most PC manufacturers have figured out users absolutely hate proprietary parts. While you might still find no-name motherboards installed into the heart of your PC, they should all at least fall in line with the standard size and layout of Mini ITX or Micro ATX motherboards. The best gaming PCs should allow you to easily swap out the CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage on your system with just a few simple tools or just a screwdriver.

Better yet, systems that tout tool-less upgradability don't require you to undo screws or anything to replace any of the major components. One of the things you'll likely find on most modern chassis are thumbscrews, which can be removed after a few quick twists with your fingers rather than a screwdriver. Additionally, tool-less SSD and hard drive caddies make expanding and replacing your storage just a little bit easier.

Should you buy a gaming PC or a console?

When comparing a gaming PC vs. console, there appear to be more similarities than differences these days, but one still comes out on top: the gaming PC.

Not every aspect of a gaming PC beats consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Consoles are much easier to use. You’ll also find that even the most expensive consoles are cheap compared to a quality gaming PC with a good graphics card, although there are good budget GPUs. There are some great handheld gaming PCs and mini PCs that are more affordable, but they’re better for indie games or older cross-platform console titles.

Where a gaming PC pulls ahead is in its gaming library, peripherals, upgradeability, and overall performance. There’s no denying that there are a massive amount of PC games, and of course, a gaming PC has cross-platform compatibility with popular console titles. Beyond gaming keyboards and gaming mice, you’ll find a wealth of other peripherals, from racing wheels to controllers, that all work seamlessly with a PC. You can also enjoy better visuals and a higher performance ceiling, and it’s easy to upgrade components. That makes a well-equipped PC the clear winner.

Can you find a good gaming PC for under $1,000?

Yes, it’s absolutely possible to find a great gaming PC for under $1,000. You just need to manage your expectations. Less powerful hardware will usually come in these ultra budget-friendly desktops, meaning gaming performance is more limited. Even still, you should have no problem running many of your favorite games in 1080p or sometimes even 1440p at respectable frame rates. Your PC may struggle during more graphically intensive games running at their top settings, but the savings you enjoy might be worth the trade-off.

Should you build your own gaming PC?

Building your own gaming PC has many benefits. First and foremost, you get to customize your PC to your own specifications, including only the components you want and need. Rather than purchasing a prebuilt desktop that may not be tailored to your requirements, you can select all of the individual parts that make up a gaming PC.

However, you will need some knowledge of how to build PCs, or at least be able to closely follow an in-depth YouTube video. This is where things get a little tricky. If you’ve never built a custom gaming PC before, you will need to do some research. From understanding how each component interacts with each other, to how to hold a stick of RAM or a CPU so you don’t damage it, there’s quite a large learning curve.

If you do decide to build your own gaming PC, you will likely find that you can save some money over the long run compared to buying a prebuilt machine. Choosing your own parts means you can keep an eye on sales and offers to get the best deal possible.

But building a gaming PC isn’t for everyone. If you aren’t rigid on the specifics and don’t have a particular build in mind, it can be less troublesome to let someone else do it for you. You also get the added reassurance that the PC will be professionally built, and there’s no chance your warranty can be void.

After you've scored an awesome gaming PC, be sure to grab the best gaming accessories for the ultimate PC battle station.

Jacqueline Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN. When she's not helping her friends and family buy computers, you can usually find her tinkering with her own PC.

Image Credit: Annalee Tsujino is a multi-disciplinary designer and illustrator. Check them out on Instagram @antsu_illustrations.

The Blood of Dawnwalker finally has a release date, but developer Rebel Wolves also released the PC system requirements and they're a little extreme.

As has been the trend for recent games like Crimson Desert, Rebel Wolves released its PC requirements with a chart, detailing the kind of hardware necessary to run the game at different resolutions, quality presets, and the target frame rate for each. These range from the minimum settings to running at 4K with the Ultra preset.

Running the game at its minimum settings is pretty reasonable, only calling for an RTX 3050 or GTX 1070 – but that's just to run the game at minimum settings, at 1080p and at 30fps to boot. If you want to max the game out, you're going to need an RTX 5090, which is the most expensive consumer graphics card in recent history. And rather than targeting a high 120fps, that's just for 4K 60fps.

To put it in perspective, the RTX 5090 launched back in January 2026 for $1,999, but since then it's exploded in price to the point where you're looking at $3,699 on Newegg — and that's on the low-end. However, it's important to keep in mind that the performance tier that's asking for an RTX 5090 is running at native 4K, which means no DLSS or FSR. It's very likely that turning on some kind of upscaling will significantly cut down on the GPU load.

It's too early to tell if these high demands are due to optimization issues or if the game truly is that demanding. However, given that Rebel Wolves has a lot of CD Projekt Red alumni, it's not that surprising that it's targeting high-end gaming PCs with The Blood of Dawnwalker.

Either way, once the game launches on September 3, I'll be putting it through its paces on several GPUs to see just how well it runs. Hopefully it makes good use of that high-end GPU – The Witcher 3 certainly did back in its day.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra