SotE rivals Dark Souls with a corkscrew world design layered with wondrous and horrific secrets to discover. FromSoftware has perfected its command over creating a dark fantasy world layered with history and details that cement Elden Ring as one of the most creative and satisfying action RPGs ever made. Old enemies return in new contexts, new weapon and spell types stretch your approach to combat with acrobatic animations and potent synergies with existing items, and new characters come to blur the morality of major figures we've spent hundreds of hours learning about. Shadow of the Erdtree's storytelling is so masterfully embedded into the fabric of everything you see and do that it's practically elemental.

The gnarled tree at the center of the Land of Shadow, a shrouded counterpart to the golden plains of the Lands Between, anchors you to the anguish of SotE, inescapable no matter where you go. Razed by the Golden Order long before your Tarnished shows up, the Land of Shadow is an ancient, festering wound that won't heal. In the first major dungeon, a blind old woman—who mirrors the Finger Reader crone that proclaims you Elden Lord in the original game—calls you a villain and asks if the years of bloodshed weren't enough. Even if you don't consider yourself an oppressor, to her, being a graced-touched Tarnished makes you complicit in the atrocities committed by Messmer, and by extension, the Golden Order. 

She returns later to awaken SotE's first major boss, a group of dancers wearing a ceremonial lion costume. The fight against this swirling mass of hair and horns is more overwhelming than some of the Elden Ring's late-game battles. The room is showered in lightning and icicles, setting a precedent for every major fight to come.

A dual-wielding sorcerer who attacks with a fury no boss in the base game could match. An old dragon rises into the sky and blankets the arena in apocalyptic storms. Even against minor bosses in SotE's dungeons, the spectacle is as dazzling as it is terrifying. Knights will sprout wings and lift off into the air, completely changing the dynamic of a fight, and when the largest bosses prepare for a room-clearing attack, the music will drop out and return a moment later with an entirely different mood. FromSoft repeatedly bends the typical crescendo of a boss fight to communicate something new about your opponent, whether that's a monstrous transformation or the fleeting energy of an opponent who has already lost.

Bosses aren't just a test of your skill and ability to react in SotE: They're short narrative arcs that can embolden the thrill of victory or completely hollow it out.

FromSoft revitalizes its boss encounters with creative counters to habits formed from playing Elden Ring, nudging you to either fully invest in your chosen playstyle or mold your build around these dramatic new fights—fans of the Meteorite spell, for example, will need to accommodate for bosses who can't be knocked out of dangerous attacks. I found myself too sluggish sticking with the two-handed mace I walked into the DLC with, but saying goodbye to it led to me falling in love with some of the new weapons, like the throwing daggers that magically rematerialize in my hand. In a flexible spellcaster build, they complemented faster (but weaker) spells.

You'll need to adapt because combat encounters constantly deny old tricks, like a catacomb dungeon that brings back Bloodborne's dreaded frenzy debuff to force you to run straight into the unknown or risk instant death. FromSoft has also invented a new, somehow worse type of bird that will pester you everywhere you go like horse-sized mosquitos on a camping trip. Even the hand spiders return after nobody asked them to—get ready for the dread of running through a field full of them lying in wait. Almost everything you hated having to deal with in Elden Ring is back in a way that feels like a middle finger from FromSoft, followed by a confident handshake signaling that you willingly signed up for this and will actually enjoy every minute of it.

Weapons like the new great katanas—which also feel like a middle finger to anyone who was tired of seeing the Rivers of Blood—push Elden Ring's rhythmic combat into new directions. Upgrade materials are abundant enough that it's not a chore to give them, and the many other new weapons, a shot. I would've never thought FromSoft would let me leap into the air and spin kick a giant scorpion to death at a speed that could work in faster action games like Devil May Cry, but it absolutely does with the new martial arts weapons.

These weapons, and some of the newer movement-based spells, show that FromSoft has the chops to innovate on a combat style it made synonymous with the soulslike and shift it into a gear that competes with the best action games out there. The backhand blades were my favorite: they supercharge the age-old trick of circling around gigantic enemies with a skill that lets you dash behind them at the same speed as a regular dodge roll.

But for every old trick in SotE there's a devious new counter: Some enemies, like the new Fire Knights, are too smart for this and will fling out delayed magical attacks in a circle around them. They'd catch me mid-swing every single time. Other enemies, like the towering furnace golems, don't take meaningful damage until you find a way to expose their weak spot, which adds a satisfying wrinkle to mounted combat. FromSoft remains a step ahead no matter how experienced you are with its games, and yet this back-and-forth is what keeps me coming back every time.

Hiding in plain sight

The heightened difficulty allows SotE's new leveling system, which requires finding two new upgrade items scattered in the Land of Shadow, to lure you through the maze-like design of the new map. SotE is as dense and vertically aligned as Lordran in Dark Souls, with forking paths to distract you from your initial destination.

From the very start you can see poison swamps and castles begging to be explored, but with no clear way to get to them. Deep ravines and lakes block your way, naturally funneling you into the caves or one of DLC's new dungeons. Some paths are dead ends, but a surprising number open up into vast new sections of the map you've never seen before, like an area blanketed in bright blue flowers that was tucked just underneath a ridge in the game's opening region.

Most of these parts of the map can be accessed from multiple directions if you know where to look, intensifying the DLC's dreamlike quality: it feels like there are entire realms to explore lurking right outside your field of view. Turn your head just so, and suddenly there they are.

Every time I return to the beginning of the game, I'm amazed at how considered the construction of the world is, carefully constructed to preserve its deepest mysteries while still letting you get a glimpse of what's to come. SotE's smaller map doesn't limit the expansiveness you'd expect out of Elden Ring, it just reorients it in another direction, where ladders send you into hidden ruins and elevators take you into forests grown on stone pillars reaching into the sky.

The payoff for your occasionally grueling path through SotE are dozens of secrets and gorgeous views to stumble into. I once got lost trying to avoid those hand spiders and fled to the nearest site of grace that happened to be overlooking a field of massive stone structures—which are instantly recognizable to anyone who played Elden Ring—sprouting out of the ground. It was like taking the elevator down into Siofra River for the first time again, but heightened with the gut-punch of those familiar shapes. SotE does this again and again, teasing you with a captivating view of the corpse of a dragon lying in a pool of blood-red flowers or the fading silhouette of a tower piercing through a golden sky. If Elden Ring was like exploring a pristine painting, SotE is like exploring that same painting after it's been dunked in alcohol; the colors are smeared and fleeting, but its beauty endures.

Shadow of the Erdtree refuses to let you look away from the point it's trying to make about the hypocrisy of the Lands Between. Even when you're galloping through its ruins and an arrow sends you flying off your horse like you're in an episode of Jackass, the hostility cuts deeper when you know no hero could save this place, its fractured reflection. FromSoft is careful not to badger you about morality and lets the slapstick humor of death provide levity, but SotE cleverly contrasts your ascent to Elden Lord with a grotesque tour of the bodies buried underneath the throne. 

SotE's new characters also call back to the original campaign, widening your perspective of figures now lost to history, and manage to be just as idiosyncratic as you'd expect from a FromSoft game. Freyja is a woman who fought alongside Radahn and daydreams about gladiatorial combat. Her love of battle and admiration for you is surprisingly charming in a DLC that is otherwise extremely dour. One initially heroic character—whose identity I won't spoil—asks you to lend a hand in a series of betrayals that make Lautrec in Dark Souls look like a level-headed guy. After the first murder, they have an epiphany about their actions: "I've come to a realization … There's ample evidence … I'm quite mistrustful of others." You don't say!

Elden Ring already contained FromSoft's most ambitious challenges and themes, and SotE is obviously essential for fans who want more of it. But the ways the DLC deliberately mimics the original game elevate it from a simple epilogue to a clear thesis on what Elden Ring has always been about, no matter how much dialogue you skipped or item descriptions you left unread. It wields these familiar things to satisfy all the sickos they've created since Demon's Souls. And then, in a few late-game moments, pushes it all aside to look you in the eyes and make it clear what it's getting at.

It's a stunning achievement that reminds me why I fell in love with FromSoft's games in the first place and why this studio remains unparalleled in creating eclectic, unforgettable worlds time and time again.

Mesh systems work by having more than one router, or node, scattered around your property. They all broadcast the same SSIDs, and communicate with one another over Ethernet, if your house is wired for it, or using a high-capacity wireless network separate from the usual ones you'll use for streaming and that Wi-Fi kettle you bought on a whim. That can certainly be more convenient as long as you get a good connection. Placing mesh nodes, however, especially if you're trying to eliminate Wi-Fi dead spots caused by quirks of architecture or distance, is an artform in itself.

The thing about the Eero Max 7, though, is that one is probably enough. There's definitely a case for mesh if you're connecting an office environment, a house split over multiple floors, a thick-walled basement or a farm, but Wi-Fi 7 itself, with its extra speed and ability to cut through interference, is pretty good on its own. That said, though, put it in a mesh system and you've pretty much got something that can make itself heard anywhere.

The Eero Max 7 node comes as a smooth and shiny white rectangle that wouldn't be out of place as an Ikea wall light or Apple product from the time of the Anglepoise iMac. The Eero logo is picked out in silver, with a single coloured LED to tell you the router's status, and it's a minimal, classy design you won't mind having on display.

There are no visible antennas or multiple blinking lights, it just sits there being completely silent and unobtrusive—which is what you want if you're planning on dotting a few of them around your enormous property. It is kind of large though, which is something Wi-Fi 7 routers all seem to have in common. If space is a concern Eero has much smaller Wi-Fi 6 mesh nodes available.

The back is more interesting, although there's still a lot of smooth white plastic on show with cooling vents at the top and bottom. It's where the Ethernet ports are and Ethernet ports are interesting, dammit, especially when they're as fast as these. Eero has gone for some definite future-proofing here (though with Wi-Fi 7 we wonder how many cables these sockets will actually see, beyond the one that hooks up to the internet in home use) with a pair of 2.5Gb ports next to two more 10Gb connections. That's a lot of networkingness, and you'll need to make sure any cables and hubs you're using are rated for the same speeds to get the most out of it. 

But you don't buy a Wi-Fi 7 router just to use Ethernet cables, and the Wi-Fi options here are comprehensive. Setup is straightforward, but assumes you're tech savvy enough to find and download the phone app yourself—there's no printed guide in the box or QR code on the node itself. 

Once you've got it hooked up there aren't a lot of fine-grained controls on offer, which is generally fine as you can just leave it to get on with the job of running itself and transferring your data. The Max 7 comes with a trial subscription to the Eero Plus security package, which adds a VPN, MalwareBytes protection, content filters, ad blocking and enhanced support to the package. It costs $100 a year, though, and provides many things you could do yourself. Still, with the Eero's commitment to simplicity and its hands-off approach to router management, I can see it being popular.

Wireless speeds are, of course, promised to be spectacular. The Max 7 can theoretically handle up to 574 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band, up to 8,677 Mbps on the 5 GHz band, and up to 11,529 Mbps on the 6 GHz band. That's a grand total of just over 20,000 Mbps if you take your shoes and socks off and add them all together. Though it's obviously something you'll never achieve in reality, it's still a lovely big number. 

This, of course, assumes perfect conditions and no inconvenient walls, but while even the 2.4GHz band, which is usually the longer-ranged of the trio thanks to the way it penetrates solid objects better, can outpace the average internet connection it doesn't offer the same (claimed) high speeds as the Netgear Nighthawk RS700S.

In our testing, which involves transferring a gig of data at varying distances over the Wi-Fi and working out the transfer rate using our fingers and toes, the Eero Max 7 put up a good fight, giving an average transfer rate over Wi-Fi 7 of around 570 Mbits/s whether it was in the same room or had a floor and a few walls in the way. This rate wandered, however, being as high as 624 Mbits in one test and as low as 499 Mbits in another. Its fastest rate was lower than that of the Netgear RS700S, but its slowest rate was better. It's the networking equivalent of a score draw.

Such is its commitment to simplicity that the Max 7 combines all its SSIDs into one, and doesn't allow you to separate them, relying on the devices to negotiate the best connection they can. There's a guest network, however, so you can hive some users off that way.

There's nothing else on the Max 7 beyond a USB-C power connection and a WPS button, but what is noticeable by its absence is the otherwise ubiquitous USB port, which allows you to set up simple file sharing through a flash drive (or USB hard drive for a multi-device backup solution), or share a USB printer, just by plugging it in. It's a feature that probably doesn't get a lot of use, especially as network storage and Wi-Fi printers are now commonplace, but having had USB ports on routers since the days before Wi-Fi 4, it seems wrong not to see one. 

Being an Amazon device—the well-known online grocer is Eero's parent company—there's plentiful IoT support in the Max 7. It will pair with your Echo and contains the necessary radios to control Zigbee and Matter devices, sidestepping the need for an extra hub. 

The question that arises with these high-speed, high-capacity routers, however, is just who are they for? These kinds of network speeds, especially over wired connections, are only really useful if you're transferring a lot of data to and from a server. Perhaps one day when we're all streaming 8K and have AI edge servers running our homes it'll be different, but a PC gamer wanting to share a sub-gigabit internet connection between their rig, phone, laptop and tablet is going to get the same sort of results from a much cheaper router, and might get a USB port too. 

With its speed, capacity, future-proofing and the ability to add extra nodes if your house suddenly gets bigger, the Eero Max 7 is one of the best Wi-Fi routers it's currently possible to buy, but you'll need to pay for the privilege.

Instead I pick up one of the post-campaign quests from Micah-10 to track down a lost Ghost somewhere else in the system. Sure, the Ascendant Shards it drops will be handy for masterworking some of the exotic class items I've picked up over the last couple of days. But more than that, each one hints at a future mystery—an unresolved thread teasing a potential story hook for this year's episodes and beyond. Here, with The Final Shape's campaign finished, the 'Light and Darkness' saga is over. But rather than feeling like an end, Destiny 2 is now brimming with potential. The story of the last few years—our big confrontation with The Witness—is done. The future could be anything.

The sheer amount there is to do—the density of missions and loot and other distractions—is testament to how good The Final Shape has been. I'll say it bluntly: This is the best Destiny expansion since The Taken King.

It wouldn't have mattered if the campaign had been a let down. Given The Final Shape's role as the end of a decade-long saga, the pressure was on to deliver—to create something that justifies the time that its players have put in across the 10 years of the series' life. Finally, we're heading inside the Traveler itself—getting a chance to uncover some of the mysteries at the heart of the giant orb of space magic that defines Destiny's setting. It's an ethereal place, full of symbolism and memory—a decision that manifests in the return of some memorable locations.

The nostalgia is rich but, aside from the return of the original Tower, it all feels like it's in service of the story being told. The first missions are a riff on the Destiny 2 campaign—tracking down the Vanguard leaders and putting the band back together. And it becomes clear that it's their memories, as well as yours, that are defining the space. Crow's attachment to the Dreaming City. Zavala's pain over his lost wife and son.

The Witness is here too, corrupting those spaces—trying to tempt and manipulate each of your team. We find Zavala in the memory of the cottage where he once raised a family, now a battlezone full of Fallen and Dread. From the chimney of the cottage, thick smoke pours out taking the form of The Witness's heads. There's always a danger that mystical, unreal spaces devolve into something meaninglessly abstract, but the Pale Heart mostly holds up to scrutiny. It feels like there are rules defining why things are allowed to exist here, giving some meaning to the story as it plays out. And it means that, when you do encounter something familiar—a location, a mechanic, an enemy—it feels like a fun nod to the past rather than a tiresome retread.

Even the return of Cayde has more bite than you might initially expect. It's in the character's nature to hide behind jokes and banter, but there's a weight to him here that makes him a compelling presence beyond the comic relief.

There's a satisfying sense of progression, too. The campaign is entirely linear. You can't explore the Pale Heart freely until you've finished. Instead, when a mission is over, you're dropped into a campsite set up at that location—a space for your allies to discuss (or bicker over) current events and next objectives. And then it's on to the next space, pushing forward towards The Witness's spire. It's a big improvement from previous campaigns, which at their worst can feel like a meandering tour through destinations—spinning wheels to fill time ahead of the final confrontation. Here, you can see the castle you're progressing towards. The feeling of a journey—of the finality of your destination—gives some necessary stakes.

In its couple of appearances in previous expansions, The Witness has until now been a somewhat abstract presence. A gestalt entity empowered by Darkness, whose end-of-the-universe plan involves freezing all reality into a perfect, ordered state. The nature of the final shape as a threat makes for an arresting aesthetic that becomes more prominent as you approach The Witness itself. The final few missions do a great job at setting the tone—eerie and ominous and alien. The Witness itself becomes more interesting, as its failings and flaws become more apparent.

When Lightfall's story arrived in such bad shape, I assumed it was because Bungie was trying to fit in more plot than a Destiny 2 campaign could handle. But while The Final Shape is more focused, it's trying to do just as much—if not more—and largely succeeding. Temptations, doubts, a Guardian's relationship with their Ghosts and with each other, the big metaphysical stuff about Light and Darkness and the meaning to be found in each. There's a lot going on here. It doesn't all work perfectly—Zavala's character progression in particular feels rushed, the Vanguard descending into argument and infighting just a couple of beats too soon. Mostly, though, the big story moments are given enough room to land.

After the seventh mission—the traditional ending of the campaign—I was satisfied, thinking Bungie had made something that at least rivalled The Witch Queen. But the real ending unlocked later, after the world first completion of the Salvation's Edge raid. A new 12-player activity—a first for Destiny 2—unlocks the final fight of this story, and the cutscenes that followed it felt like a true payoff to 10 years of Destiny. Here the focus is purely on the characters that have followed you across this journey—it's masterful stuff.

As for the missions themselves, there are a handful of particularly memorable encounters and boss fights. The early campaign is relatively easy going, even on legendary difficulty. But the challenge ramps up as you approach The Witness, and find yourself facing larger numbers of Tormentors and Subjugators—the heavy hitters of the new Dread faction.

A new enemy type makes a massive difference to how fights play out. I've been playing Destiny 2 for long enough that target prioritisation is second nature, so adding a new element to the mix makes for some fresh and unexpected challenges. Their presence is particularly dramatic in the new raid—possibly one of the best Bungie has made to date. The time pressure and mechanical complexity already make for a challenging set of encounters, one my clan has been slowly working through over the last couple of weeks. But the Dread's focus on crowd control is the perfect foil—an extra stressor that all but guarantees forced errors and moments of panic. They're complete bastards, but that's exactly what makes them such a great addition to the game.

It's not just the new faction that adds some extra spice to the moment-to-moment play. Throughout The Final Shape, there's a much greater emphasis on puzzles. The missions themselves frequently borrow from previous raids and dungeons, using glyphs, motes and other mechanics in a more simple, direct form.

Whereas a mission in Lightfall might ask you to follow the objective marker into a sideroom to destroy the macguffin that was blocking your abilities, The Final Shape draws on the language of the game's past to lead you in the right direction without outright telling you what to do. If some Taken blights spawn, destroy them. That might open a portal that takes you to the side room with a miniboss that, when it's dead, shows a glyph. Head back to the main arena, pick up the shard that displays the matching glyph and viola, you've removed the main boss's shield. On a practical level the mechanics are often just a way to stop me using a Bait & Switch grenade launcher to insta-nuke the boss and quickly end the encounter. But they also provide a natural flow that makes working through the process feel satisfying.

Combat is also refreshed thanks to some new sandbox features. The new Prismatic subclass is the major addition for this release. Rather than add a completely new element, it lets you mix and match parts of existing subclasses. An Arc grenade with a Strand melee. A Solar aspect to complement your Stasis super. Each class gets one grenade, super, melee and aspect from each of their subclasses, and so the limitations of Prismatic are defined by what isn't part of the kit. Titans don't get access to Banner of War. Warlocks can't use Well of Radiance. That's probably for the best—it keeps the elemental subclasses viable through their specific focus and synergies. But even with that in mind, some strong Prismatic builds have emerged.

On Warlock—the class I've used in most of my playtime so far—you can lean hard into buddies, using Getaway Artist to spawn an Arc Soul and the Hellion fragment to create a Solar orb that lobs mortar fire at anything in sight. It's a fun little combo with absurd ability regeneration potential. But even with the extra power offered by Prismatic, and particularly Transcendence—which acts like a mini-super, letting you chuck empowered grenades that are specific to each class—I'm still finding plenty of playtime on older subclasses.

On the Hunter and Titan front, plenty of strong Prismatic builds have emerged too—even if the community reaction to the Titan kit seems less enthusiastic right now. Overall, Prismatic isn't the big shake-up of a brand new elemental subclass—like Strand in Lightfall or Stasis in Beyond Light—but it works well as an avenue for more advanced and varied buildcrafting. So far my experience with Prismatic has been one of experimentation, swapping out specific elements to see if it better fits my play style, rather than simply sticking to the strongest synergies.

If the campaign is a triumph, it's what you'll do after it's finished that cements The Final Shape's staying power. There's plenty of post-campaign missions to tackle, but more important is that the Pale Heart as a destination is less disposable than the patrol zones of past expansions. The new destination activity, Overthrow, is a blast. Here you're dropped into an area, and left free to progress through its multiple stages of completion however you want. Enemies killed, chests spawned, events completed—all add points to the board, and once the required total is met, you move to the next stage. At the end, a boss fight and a decent chunk of loot.

As a basic activity it has a nice cadence, helped by the fact that enemy difficulty has been toned down from Lightfall's destination, Neomuna. And it gels well with other pursuits throughout the Pale Heart. The map is constantly filling up with things to do—lost Ghosts to hunt down, weird secrets to find, and Pathfinder objectives to complete. The latter is The Final Shape's replacement for bounties. It's a series of basic objectives—usually killing a number of enemies with a specific element, weapon type or in a particular location—that you complete to build a path towards its major reward. Once you've claimed your prize, you reset your path and start again. It's pretty basic stuff, but having a constant tick of XP and rewards without needing to pay attention is a nice little bonus.

Pathfinder has also replaced the bounties of the ritual activity vendors for Strikes, Crucible and Gambit. This has proved a more controversial change, in part because the ritual Pathfinder is combined across all three activity types. If you're not a PvP player, you'll sometimes find yourself unable to progress to the final reward without venturing into the Crucible, and vice versa. And for the type of player that obsessively completed bounties in pursuit of Bright Dust—the free currency used in the Eververse cosmetic shop—it's a straight downgrade in what they could earn. Personally, though, as someone who'd long stopped interacting with the bounty system, the system is a marginal improvement—a way to get some rewards without having to interrupt what I was doing, load into the Tower and pick up a bunch of extra objectives I didn't want to do. Now at least I'll accidentally complete a few, and get some free XP because of it.

The main success of the Pale Heart is that its loot is worth pursuing. Previously, destination weapons have been underwhelming, with poor stat distributions and mediocre perks. But the new expansion's arsenal is full of desirable new guns, including brand new frame archetypes that offer some obvious avenues to expand our arsenals in future. On my personal wishlist are crafted versions of the new support-focused auto-rifle, that heals teammates when you hipfire at them, and the Strand rocket-assisted sidearm that has barely left my kinetic slot since RNG blessed me with a Demolitionist and Hatchling roll—ideal for spamming threadlings absolutely everywhere on Strand.

A week after the launch of The Final Shape, the first episode—this year's replacement for seasons—arrived. With it, even more interesting weapons were added to the sandbox, including a new grenade launcher archetype that acts as a legendary version of Witherhoard. I've barely touched the episode so far—I've still got too much to do in the Pale Heart—but based on what I've seen I'm not blown away by its structure. Right now, it feels like any other season—a series of story beats, unfolding week-by-week, with a couple of activities to pass the time. How it'll progress over the coming weeks and subsequent acts will be a big test of how Year 7 will feel, and whether the switch from four seasons to three episodes makes for a justifiably meaningful improvement.

It's no secret that Bungie has had a difficult year. Following Lightfall's disappointing release, the studio was hit by lay-offs—with many key figures being let go. Numerous reports surfaced about tensions between employees and management, with much of the blame for the game's most controversial design decisions being placed at the studio management's feet. That Bungie's development team created an expansion this good out of that chaos is nothing short of miraculous, but now that it has it feels crucial that Bungie as a studio listens to the community's reaction. This is the path forward—the version of a Destiny 2 expansion that delivers what its most dedicated players want. It's the expansion all future expansions should aspire to be.

When Destiny 2 is firing on all cylinders, there's really nothing else like it. No other studio is creating a live-service shooter with this kind of scale, with this much attention paid to story and encounter design and puzzles and secrets. It's a game that has to live with its mistakes—alienating for new players, off putting to those still appalled at the decision made years ago to remove its oldest campaigns and raids—while still forging a path into the future. The Final Shape doesn't fix all of Destiny 2's problems, and it doesn't guarantee that the future will be bright. But here, now, in the moment, it feels triumphant—a celebration of the decade that's come before, and a welcome reward for those of us who've chosen to give it our time.

Going into Still Wakes the Deep, I was confident in my ability to withstand the horror cliches that I knew were about to come my way. But, instead of just dealing with your typical chase scenes and jumpscares, The Chinese Room decided to pull something out of its sleeve that I hadn't experienced before—the most traumatic dialogue and voice acting I've ever heard in a horror game.

You play as Caz McLeary, an electrical engineer on the Beira D oil rig running from the law and some stupid decisions. Despite his past mistakes, Caz is a breath of fresh air for a few reasons: he's likeable, funny, and quite pragmatic when making life-and-death decisions, which happens to be what I value in a protagonist. But the best part of playing as Caz is that he's already been on the rig for a while, so you don't have to worry about getting to know your co-workers—meaningful relationships have already been established. Still Wakes the Deep skips the usual slog of tutorial-like character introductions and just throws you into the meat of the story, and all of the interactions feel natural and worthwhile.

Entering the canteen for the first time was surprisingly sweet. Sitting down at a table with Brodie and Rafs, I found out that it was Rafs' first dive and that he was more than a little scared. While I wouldn't trade places with him, he seemed like he was in good hands with Brodie, someone with more experience. Then there was Trots' passionate speech to Gibbo and O'Connor about unionisation and how the Beira D was falling apart because Westminster was too greedy for its own good. These short interactions told me everything I wanted to know about my place on the Beira D and only made what came next all the more traumatic. 

After drilling through something that was probably best left alone, the rig descends into chaos. With communication patchy thanks to a selfish manager named Rennick and decaying safety mechanisms making escape impossible, you and the crew end up putting out fires in the hope that someone will notice the radio silence and come help. 

No one takes charge, so most of the time I just darted around the rig desperately trying to save as many people as I could, all while fixing the Beira D, which mostly just involved pressing buttons in a certain order or flicking the right switches. Usually, I enjoy having more complex puzzles in horror games as a way to break up the action, but I didn't miss them this time as the excellent story made up for it—it's more interesting than any keycode puzzle I've come across. Plus, if you don't fix everything in a timely fashion, the rig will explode into a flaming ball of gas and oil, taking you and everyone else down with it.

But even with all your expert button pushing, you can't rescue everyone. In the chaos and fear, sometimes all I could do was try to ignore the blood-curdling screams for help echoing from the people I'd grown so fond of as I ran to my next objective.

The hardest moment had to be a short phone call I had with a friend who was trapped in the lower levels of the rig. As the small room he sat in filled with gas and water, all I could do was listen as he came to terms with his death and then let out one last panicked whimper for help as the water finally touched his leg.

Weather the storm 

The monster that arrives on the Beira D isn't as novel as Still Wakes the Deep's surprisingly emotional story and superb voice acting, as most horror games involve some kind of bizarre and violent creature. But that still didn't stop me from breaking into a cold sweat every time it got too close. 

The interior of the rig is constantly morphing and breaking around the creature, which means it could be anywhere at any time. But once I realised that the strange bubbles and colours around my screen signified where and how close the monster was, I found it easier to make my way through the rig undetected, mostly by hiding in lockers or under debris or by throwing cans and bottles I found lying around to distract the monster so I could make a break for it. 

But even with all of that, getting chased through dark hallways or flooded areas by something recklessly barreling down the rig took at least a couple of years off my life—it never got easier. At one point, I was cowering in the vents after I thought I had outrun the monster, only for its grotesque head to burst through the vent cover like Jack Nicholson in The Shining and almost give another heart attack. 

Thankfully, Still Wakes the Deep isn't as exhausting as some other horror games, which are full of relentless jumpscares and chase sequences. For example, while I liked Amnesia: The Bunker, its psychological horror pushed me over the edge too much for me to even think about playing it again. Whereas Still Wakes the Deep strikes a good balance between horror and action, which meant I wasn't constantly petrified. Venturing outside the rig gave me a break from the monster's terrifying antics as I dealt with the adrenaline rush of jumping over broken walkways, reacting to quick time events, and clambering over rusty pillars, all while terrified of plummeting into the icy cold ocean below me. 

My time split between inside and outside the rig was just right, so I never got bored or overwhelmed with either. This impressive achievement helped make Still Wakes the Deep feel very concise. I never found myself grumbling over pointless action or horror, which felt like it was added to pad out the run time.    

Still Wakes the Deep also looks superb. I spent a lot of time taking pretty pictures around the rig, even when I was on the verge of death. The loading scenes between major locations never lasted too long (most of the time, I was just happy to have a break), and I only experienced one black screen towards the end. There's also a lot of settings to customise, almost all of my advanced graphics were scaled to the highest option with no issue on my RTX 3070, and you can also remap keyboard bindings or adjust controller settings easily. 

I also really appreciated the granular accessibility settings. There are tons of options for subtitles and interface appearance as well as three kinds of colour blind modes (deuteranope, protanope, and tritanope). For me, the motion sickness adjustments were a lifesaver. I always scale down the FOV and while the head bob and roll may seem very realistic, it was just too much for me to handle while also staring out on a rocky sea. 

If you can bear with the emotional toll and terrifying moments, then Still Wakes the Deep is an experience that I couldn't recommend more highly.  Its unsettling monster and horrific setting are elevated by something that's rare in horror games: meaningful relationships with other characters. (Sadly, your friendships don't tend to last long.) 

The Gigabyte A620I AX is very much an entry level Mini-ITX option. As the name suggests, it is built around AMD's budget A620 chipset. Even an ATX A620 option won't come with the goodies of the premium chipsets, while Mini-ITX A620 boards have to sacrifice even more. You won't find PCIe 5.0 or CPU overclocking support, and you'll have to give up usable PCIe lanes, SATA ports and fast USB. 

As you might have guessed after reading that, the Gigabyte A620I AX isn't what you'd call a feature rich board, but at $139 / £162 / AU$259, you wouldn't expect it to be. A mid-range option like the MSI MPG B650I Edge WiFi I reviewed recently costs nearly twice as much, and an X670 board will set you back even more. The Gigabyte A620I is a no frills board that's built to house a single graphics card, an SSD or two, and a mainstream memory kit with a standard set of peripherals. 

The A620I AX won't win any beauty contests. Not that looks matter much in a small form factor system when the board is often hidden. It's a socket AM5 board that supports AMD Ryzen 7000 and 8000-series processors. The good news is, Gigabyte has already released a Zen 5 supporting BIOS, and given that AMD has stated it plans to support AM5 for some time yet, there's every chance you'll be able to insert a Zen 6 chip into it a couple of years from now.

The board supports mainstream memory kits at up to DDR5-6200 . That's not a lot by current standards, but that's fine for a budget gaming PC. The VRM is very much an entry level design, too, being a 5+2+1 system. At least it's got a reasonable heatsink. Gigabyte's CPU support page lists support for chips including the Ryzen 9 7950X. It might be capable of handling it, but I'd suggest something a bit more upmarket in the motherboard stakes if you plan to run such a high-end chip. 

The board's real weaknesses are in its storage and connectivity capabilities. It supports just a single PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD and two SATA drives. That is the absolute minimum any PC gamer should put up with in these modern times of ours. The M.2 slot doesn't include a heatsink, and the underside is actually the chipset heatsink, which will only add heat to an SSD. I'd certainly recommend buying an SSD with an integrated heatsink. 

The rear I/O isn't filled with ports, either, and it lacks an integrated shield, which is a rare thing these days. There are six USB ports, made up of a single 10 Gbps port, two 5 Gbps ports—one of which is Type-C—plus three USB 2.0 ports. There's a BIOS flashback button, DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 ports, which are essential for using integrated graphics and especially 8000G-series chips. Incidentally, if used with the latter, you'd have yourself an appealing and affordable little gaming system.

The networking capabilities are as good as you can hope for in this price range. Realtek 2.5G LAN and WiFi 6E are all you'd reasonably expect on boards costing twice the price. It's Realtek all-round as the audio codec is ALC897. Again, not unexpected in this price range.

System Performance

Gaming Performance

For testing, I used a Ryzen 7 7700X rather than the 7950X I would normally use for AM5 testing. It just makes more sense to use such a chip with an entry level board, and even the 7700X has a 105W TDP, and can use up to 142W at default. A 65W option makes more sense with an A620 board like the A620I AX. The VRM heatsink proved to be adequate and didn't get hot to the touch.

When compared to a couple of B650 motherboards including the ASRock B650E PG-ITX WiFi, the little Gigabyte did what was expected of it. In fact, in the CPU limited gaming tests, the Gigabyte squeaked out a consistent lead, which bodes well if you plan to build a gaming rig with the A620I AX.

Whether you should consider buying the Gigabyte A620I AX will essentially come down to how large or small your budget is. If you've got a 105W CPU, then I'd recommend looking upmarket. But if you're on a tight budget, then there are some key characteristics that make it an interesting option.

I believe it will be a solid choice if you plan to build a small form factor system with a Ryzen 8000-series APU. You'll be able to game at 1080p, and the savings you make from not having to buy a GPU could be significant.

It's also the kind of board that only really makes sense for a fairly basic system, even if you use a high-end graphics card. Add an M.2 SSD for your OS, a SATA drive for a game library, and 32GB or 64GB of memory and you've got the core of a capable SFF system.

There's not much competition in this price range. The ASRock A620I Lightning WiFi is an option. It can house a second M.2 SSD, but it lacks a rear DP port, which I'd consider essential for gaming with integrated graphics. The choice in the end would be yours.

The Gigabyte A620I AX is a no frills board that does the realistic minimum. It's a solid but unspectacular option, though its important to keep expectations in check at this price point. It'll happily sit at the heart of a budget gaming system, and with its ability to house upcoming Zen 5 CPUs, it'll also have a good life ahead of it.

The Q60 is a big beast. It's an all-in-one liquid cooler with a radiator double as thick as some, coming in at 52 mm. That's reportedly to utilise space not often utilised to its fullest in modern PC cases, according to Hyte—it's opting for a thicker radiator in the place of a longer one. 

The Q60 is billed as a 240 mm radiator, on account of the two 120 mm Thicc FP12 fans included, but it's actually 288 mm from top to bottom. The remaining space is taken up by the pump, which takes residence on the radiator rather than in the more traditional spot behind the cold plate. The benefit of this being, for the Q60 at least, more room for the enormous screen above the CPU.

The 5-inch screen on the Q60 is best described as a tiny computer. It includes a quad-core Arm Cortex CPU, with 2 GB of DDR4 running at 2,666 MT/s, and running at 1.3 GHz. It also has 32 GB of eMMC storage. All to run the many widgets, which Hyte has named 'faces', available via the Hexus application, which is pretty much a must-install with this cooler.

"You can watch the entirety of Shrek on the Q60 if you want to," a Hyte representative tells me.

I've opted for a parade of system monitoring 'faces': liquid in temp, liquid out temp, CPU temp, and GPU temp. Oh, and the clock, which I cannot seem to remove. There are a lot of options to choose from and a few more 'coming soon'—clock speeds, fan speeds, and throughput are all reportedly on their way to the app. You can also set the screen to display your current media playing via Spotify. And play your own media. And you're free to change the background. It can do a lot of stuff, actually.

The screen is only capable of showing four custom faces, however, which feels pretty limited. I'd like a bunch more. Though I'm told you could also break out some Android commands and run anything you like on this thing, even ditching the entire Hyte Hexus application altogether.

"If you're a software developer and have the know-how and tools and abilities, we kept the door open."

I'm not usually a fan of sticking a screen on peripherals and parts for no discernable reason except 'we could'. But I'm sorta into the Q60's central screen. It's impressive and not at all as domineering as I had originally expected. The subtle two-tone design of the rest of the cooler helps—if the fans were also adorned with RGB lighting, it'd probably feel a bit too much. As it stands, the screen is pretty wicked.

Yet as I mentioned at the beginning, the Q60 isn't only about appearances. It is a capable liquid cooler in its own right.

In balanced mode, with the PC idling, the Q60 is nominally audible. During gaming it's only a little noisier—I've been running the Metro Exodus benchmark many times over and the only noise coming from the Q60 throughout is a steady, polite hum. It doesn't noticeably fluctuate between speeds, either, which makes the noise it does produce much less distracting. 

Only during more CPU intensive workloads did I begin to take note of the sound coming from the fans and pump unit. Moreover, for adequate cooling performance, I found I needed to crank up the cooler to performance mode. This increases the fan RPM considerably, even when idling, which makes for a notably louder buzz. 

Though, in return, this cooler delivered the lowest temperatures while gaming out of those I tested, which included a 360 mm AIO.

The Q60 isn't quite as capable as others when it's really pushed to the limit, however. The Q60 didn't fair as well in Cinebench R23. There was no thermal throttling, but the Q60 was the only cooler to hit 90°C.

It couldn't quite cope with the bouncy demand of the X264 benchmark, either, which seemed to get the better of the Q60 more than any other. That might be because the Q60 also appeared the slowest cooler to reset back to idle temperature. At a certain threshold, around 35°C, the fans switch off completely, which means the CPU tends to stay hotter than with other coolers that don't do this.

It's possible to reduce idle temperatures into the twenties by setting the Q60 to be controlled by a firmware-set curve. There are a few control options to choose from in the Hexus application: Hexus, firmware, or motherboard. Firmware is made up of two simple curves: one for fans, the other for the pump. With this set I saw the idle temperature drop to 27°C, as the fans were never fully off.

The fans will go up to a whopping 3,000 RPM, and they do not get anywhere close with Hyte's preset fan curves. That said, I've tried running at full RPM and it's not worth the extra noise generated—I recorded only marginal reduction in CPU package temperature through Cinebench R23.

A bit of a mixed bag then. If you want pure cooling performance for the money, look elsewhere. Though if you want to strike a balance between performance and noise levels, and mostly plan on gaming, the Q60 is a stronger pick.

There are other reasons to consider the Q60. 

It's extremely neat and tidy, for one. It requires only a handful of cables, collected into a single dual-USB Type-C connector, and plugged seamlessly into the radiator. It's then easy to keep this single cable run out sight, and, unlike most liquid coolers, there's no need to run any cables around the VRM or RAM. The screen is controlled via cables embedded into the mesh-covered tubing, which is thicker than most liquid coolers on the market as a result.

The fans can also be bought separately and daisy-chained together with a dedicated cable-free connector or specially fitted cables. Same goes for the RGB lighting kit, which hooks together via USB-C. The Q60 offers one spare port for both connections, which are called Nexus Link ports, and means it can act as a hub for a heap of other stuff.

It also comes with a six-year warranty, which matches the likes of Corsair and Arctic.

I do end up coming back to the Q60 on looks alone. Though they have to mean a lot to you—not only can be matched by simpler devices but often significantly cheaper ones, too. The Q60 is priced at the tremendous sum of $300/£330. With a massive screen attached to the centre of it, I can see why. Though for that much money, and for being so thicc, I'm a bit disappointed it couldn't match a more traditional 240 mm cooler in demanding tests.

Though I'll be damned if it doesn't look good.

Don't expect fancy swivel cups with joints that will likely wear in a couple of years: this thing feels like you could pull it out like a snap band. People with enormous heads, you're in luck. Pushers, shovers, known klutzes: this may be for you. 

This utilitarian approach extends to its interface. The left cup has a big volume wheel attached, meaning you'll never accidentally unpair your headset or switch it to Bluetooth mode while adjusting the volume. The detachable mic is a pull back to mute affair, and I think few would argue with the brute simplicity of this approach. 

There's a power button and two buttons that toggle between Bluetooth and wireless modes, and an LED denoting power or a near-spent battery. Its battery has an advertised 50 hour life, and I only charged it twice during the three weeks I spent using it.

The overall impression is of a headset that promises to work. It's aesthetically restrained, and the polyurethane shell doesn't feel expensive in the hand. Its headband is made of a flexible mesh that some may clock as cheap, until its benefits shine through. This band is adjustable with velcro and is probably the main contributing factor towards both the Atlas Air's lightness and its superlative comfort during long gaming sessions.

It's hard to convey objective 'comfort' when it comes to headsets because a lot tends to rest on the size of one's skull and one's habits using it, but as a big skulled man who spent upwards of four hours in-session at a time for this review, I don't think I've ever felt as unencumbered. 

I mean, look how far these cans stretch out. There is 300mm between the cushions here:

The memory foam cushioned-cups 'float', which is to say, they're not technically connected to the band at all but rather tightly secured via a total of 12 elastic bands. As you can probably imagine, this contributes to the stretchability of the unit as a whole. Securing the two most important components of a headset together in this fashion might seem a bit dubious in theory. While it's yet to be seen how the Atlas Air fares long term, in my view it feels much more secure than cups that pivot from the band, or are held via usually thin metal hinges. I've had headphones worth more than double the Atlas Air break within six months of use based on these mechanisms: maybe some thinking outside the box is welcome.

Over the three weeks I spent using this thing for review—both at my desk gaming and also using it as a Bluetooth set of headphones for walking and commuting—the Atlas Air's featherweight comfort is the quality that stuck out to me. It has other strengths, but boy, does this thing seem to dematerialise once you've placed it on your skull.

But that's just one major aspect of the Atlas Air's pitch; the other is its audiophile chops. It's little wonder that half of the contenders on our list of the best audiophile headphones for gaming are open back. Note that list is for "headphones" too—not gaming headsets. It's a relatively niche demand, and its drawbacks are often too severe to warrant inclusion in a device designed specifically for gaming. 

Open back headphones strive for more accurate sound reproduction by doing away with the backside of the speaker enclosure, which eliminates the errant sounds that can arise from an enclosed reverberating speaker. Sure, the sound is more authentically true to its source—almost on par with monitoring headphones—but there's the problem of sound leakage, which is unavoidable under this design principle, thus undermining one of the main reasons we use headsets.

But the difference is not insignificant, and it doesn't take an audiophile to notice (though it may take an audiophile to care). Playing Animal Well on my HyperX Cloud III—a headset I use a lot because it's always on my desk—I was impressed by the dank, subterranean atmosphere: the labyrinthine world oozed with an almost overwhelmingly menacing reverberation. Switching to the Atlas Air, the atmosphere of the game basically changed: the ooze took on more detail. Distant coos and cries otherwise obscured by lower frequencies were faintly evident in the distance. It was less a soup of foreboding mood, and more a subtlety-laden environment that I was sonically transported to. Actually, I was in the well.

When closed back headphones are working that's basically the stark difference one should expect. But one should also expect, as a by-product of the open-back design, sound not only leaking out but seeping in. At low volumes this can be a concern, though I was only especially bothered by seepage while using the Atlas Air for a purpose it wasn't expressly designed for: walking down a busy street while listening to ambient music. Given the Bluetooth functionality here (it also has a 2.4GHz wireless dongle which is a much better option for actual gaming, and a 3.5mm jack for the luddites) it's tempting to consider the Atlas Air as perhaps an on-the-go wireless headset in addition to a gaming one. But this is definitely not going to live up to a mid-range set of headphones with active noise cancelling (ANC) capabilities for that use case: ANC and open-back are basically mutually exclusive concepts.

This is, according to Turtle Beach, the first wireless open-back headset "designed for PC". It's of course not the first open-back gaming headset—I reviewed this Audio-Technica model a few years back—but the combination of wireless and open-back is ostensibly new here. As someone who generally prefers open back and can cope with its inherent drawbacks, this combination is extremely welcome. Which leaves one final consideration: how's the mic?

As you can hear in the sample above, it's perfectly clear and, mirroring the qualities of the speakers it's connected to, has no truck with accidental lower frequencies. In other words, it doesn't add bass to my voice like some mics do, and in practice it cuts through with all attendant detail thanks to its 100 to 16,000Hz frequency response.

What's the verdict, then? As someone who prefers the detail and 'truth' of open-back headphones, I love this marriage of that principle with wireless functionality and a great microphone. The fact that this appeal to my niche interests comes in a bizarrely feathery and flexible form factor is a bonus. The Atlas Air is niche, and you probably shouldn't buy an open-back headset without understanding the drawbacks. If your gaming PC is set up in the same room as the family TV, for example, this is probably not for you. But if you've been waiting for a wireless open-back for gaming, well: this is it. And it's done very well.

This may not be a big deal, as touch typists and those who play games with the keys will rely on muscle memory to find the key. But if you ever look down to see which key you're about to press then the letter can be hard to see. Conversely, if you turn the backlight off, it becomes clearer. Lit-up WASD keys aren't a novel idea, but the implementation of them here is distinctly questionable.

Elsewhere, you'll find the kind of laptop that's great to play games on. With a 14th-gen i7 CPU and an RTX 4070 GPU, it's well set up for high detail levels and frame rates at the 165Hz display's 2560x1600 native resolution. It's bright too, with my colorimeter showing the supposedly 400-nit screen putting out 573 of the head-itching brightness units at its peak.

There's a bit of typical gaming laptop design in the 'Team up, fight on' slogan printed right under where your hand rests when typing, the plethora of vents, and the way it lights up the Aorus word mark onto your desktop from the rear of the chassis in the same way some cars project their manufacturer's logo on the ground. It's kinda nice, while simultaneously being the sort of thing you'll turn off immediately.

Further keyboard woes come from Gigabyte's decision to place the Home row keys (End, PgDn, etc) to the right of Enter, meaning you'll regularly clip them when trying to confirm things until you get used to the layout. The Enter key itself is half height to make space for a massive slash that may be useful if you use the terminal a lot. It's a tenkeyless design, and the keys are otherwise nicely sized with good travel—including the arrow keys—and it incorporates Microsoft's fancy new Copilot key for chatbot fans. They are quite resistant to a press, however, and need to be bottomed out to register. The trackpad, which takes up a broad swathe of the chassis front and centre, is much better, being responsive, smooth, and unhindered by the pattern of lines painted across it.

The laptop also comes with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, which is really nice to have in these days of 150GB games, as 500GB drives are starting to feel distinctly tight. Both of them are user-upgradable too. The IPS screen is surrounded by a slim bezel with a thicker top edge to house the Windows Hello-capable webcam. It's a fairly standard setup, as are the ports spread wound the sides - you get a full-size HDMI 2.1 for all those clever VRR tricks on an external screen, and USB3.2 Gen2 in both its Type-A and Type-C guises. There's a single USB4/Thunderbolt port which you can also use for charging, though there's no symbol next to it that would indicate this, plus Ethernet, a headset jack and a microSD card slot. It's well-equipped, and comes with Wi-Fi 7 on board so you'll be able to get the best speeds from the latest routers. 

The bundled power adapter showcases another curious design decision, as it plugs into the side of the laptop but doesn't have an L-shaped connector, so it sticks straight out to the left instead of neatly running to the back of your desk. The 99Wh battery gets you around six hours of use in a charge, however, which is good for a gaming laptop though will drop considerably if you push its GPU hard all the time.

Our tests show the laptop getting decent frame rates from games such as Cyberpunk 2077 with Ultra ray tracing at 1440p. The Gigabyte's RTX 4070 runs at a slightly higher wattage than that in the Lenovo Legion 7 16 PC Gamer reviewed recently, and in some benchmarks it beats that machine despite that one having an Intel Core i9 processor. That CPU's influence makes itself visible in other tests, however, where the Gigabyte model lags behind, but never by much.

Does that i7 make a big difference compared to the i9-equipped machines? Not that much, where it counts. If you look at the Cinebench R23 results, which render the same scene using a single CPU core, then again using all of them, the i7-14650HX in the Aorus 16X manages 117 points less than the i9-14900HX in the £3,600 Razer Blade 16 in single-core mode. As a 5.2GHz i7 against a 5.8GHz i9, you'd expect a difference, but it's not huge.

The huge difference comes when you open up all the cores, and it becomes 16 on the i7 vs 24 on the i9—the gap between them opens up to over 6,000 points. But you have to remember you're paying a lot less for the i7 Gigabyte machine than you are for the i9 Razer, though there is an i9 version of this Aorus out there too.

There's AI in the 16X too, more than just slapping the Copilot key to generate an image of a sexy motherboard. Gigabyte is so excited about it that there's an AI logo on a sticker stuck to the front of the machine alongside the screen stats and the Wi-Fi 7 logo. In practice, the effect of this is twofold. There's an AI Nexus in the Gigabyte Control Centre app, and you can allow it to monitor your usage in AI Auto Gear mode, switching between the Nvidia and integrated GPUs as needed in exactly the same way laptops have for years, only now with AI. There's also an AI Generator tab, which opens a frontend to the Stable Diffusion image generator, and Wahey! It's sexy motherboard time all over again.

Laptops like this have had their thunder massively stolen by Microsoft with its Copilot+ announcement, and the associated laptops all running on Snapdragon chips. Being a Raptor Lake Refresh chip, the CPU doesn't have the NPU shenanigans of a Meteor Lake Core Ultra, and it remains unclear which of the Copilot+ features will run on it once they're released.

SteelSeries' latest headset comes in at a practically featherweight 277 grams. That makes it something of a non-event to pull from the substantial packaging, as something ringing in the back of my brain still thinks that heavy = well-made. On closer inspection, however, the Nova 5X reveals a build quality that, on first appearances, goes some way to justifying its $130 price.

Twisting it around in my hands, it feels springy, with tight tolerances and smooth joints. Inside the headband is an adjustable soft-touch piece of fabric with a neon green patterned design, but really that's the only giveaway that this is a gaming headset. You can absolutely wear the Nova 5X in public without looking like you've brought your hobbies out into the big wide world.

That's helped by the fully retractable mic design that neatly tucks itself away inside the chassis of the left earcup. Combine that with a subtle, matte black finish, and there's really little to tell you this is anything other than a good-looking pair of regular wireless headphones. Given that it can switch between 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth 5.3 connections at the touch of a button, the restrained design doesn't make me feel like too much of a prize plum using the Bluetooth mode on the train.

It's very comfortable, too. That soft-touch headband and some cushy memory foam ear cups make for a headset that barely feels like it's on my head at all. The clamping force is strong enough to keep it attached while moving around, yet light enough that it's easy enough to forget I'm wearing it.

A word of warning though: while this headset is adjustable, its top size setting is a little small. Those with a very large head may wish to look elsewhere.

When it comes to sound, the Nova 5X has some tricks up its sleeve. The 40 mm neodymium drivers are the same found in more expensive models like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7, a headset we rate very highly. But the real party piece here is a companion app that allows you to select over 100 presets "tailored by esports pros and audio engineers" to deliver custom EQs tuned on a game-by-game basis. 

Hmm. While there's a large selection of very different EQ settings to play with here, whether they make a huge amount of difference over one, well-balanced EQ in different games is up for debate. I switched between them in various games to see whether I could gain an audio advantage, and while they're all slightly different, I don't think the feature is quite as revolutionary as it's advertised to be.

What I can say, though, is the fantastically detailed drivers do a great job of delivering accurate, positional audio, no matter the game setting. There's a lot of shiny clarity here in almost all EQ presets, and it feels like the physical drivers themselves are doing most of the work more than the multitude of tuned EQ options.

What's lacking a little, unfortunately, is some really low-end rumble. While the Arctis Nova 5X can deliver plenty of punch when it comes to thundering drums and the odd chunky explosion, music listening (even in the Music: Deep Bass EQ setting) reveals a slight lack of 'oomph' in the bottom end.

The bass is definitely present, but no matter the EQ it does feel like the drivers are holding back a touch when confronted with a thick, round bass line. It's nearly there, but I'd like a little more for music listening on a high-bass setting. In the grand scheme of things, however, the overall balance and excellent clarity make up for it.

What's also nice is the ability to keep separate EQ profiles for the wireless connection and the Bluetooth mode, meaning I can keep the bassiest setting for thumping music on the train and a more detailed EQ for some multiplayer gaming when I get home.

The microphone is well-balanced, too, with a clear and distinct sound that cuts through background audio in the middle of the fray. Unfortunately, the discreet, tucked-away design means there isn't room for a foam shield, which can make it a bit prone to plosives. 

SteelSeries' Sonar software (all the esses, all at once) does feature Clearcast AI noise cancellation, however, and it does a pretty good job of minimising the effect.

Battery life is impressive. The Arctis Nova 5X is rated for 50 hours in 2.4 GHz wireless mode and 60 hours using the Bluetooth connection, and those figures seem about right based on my usage. In fact, I'm often surprised by how much battery is left after long sessions, and it charges very quickly over a USB Type-C connection, too.

I also had the opportunity to torture test the set over a frantic week spent at Computex. Shoving it in my backpack, bumping it against luggage, and using it extensively over two very, very long-haul flights, the little lightweight set of cans held up admirably. That being said, the outer headband does show some light marking from all the abuse.

It's only really noticeable if you twist it in the light, though, and the rest of the unit feels as tight as it did the day I pulled it from the box.

So then, we come to price. This is positioned as a more affordable alternative to SteelSeries' slightly pricey headset range, although at $130 it's still a fair chunk of change. That being said, it is very versatile, supremely comfortable, and with excellent battery life. It's taken a lot of punishment, and is just as suited to being chucked in a backpack as it is adorning your head for a supremely long gaming session.

If you're looking for battery life above all, then there's still no beating the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless and its immense 300-hour rating. Still, with its bright red accents and sizable ear units, it's neither discrete nor as lightweight, and it's only got a 2.4 GHz wireless connection, making it a gaming headset through and through.

You could also go for the Arctis Nova 5X's bigger brother, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Wireless, which also boasts multi-connection options. That being said, given that the Nova 5X uses the same drivers and is much lighter, with much better battery life, personally I'd go for the cheaper model here instead.

Comfy, versatile, detailed, and with excellent battery life and build quality, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5X Wireless gets very close to its promise of a jack of all trades. It's just that slight lack of deep bass and a small maximum size holding it back. Otherwise? I reckon it's a bit of a winner. Lightweight has won me over, and my neck muscles are much better for it.

"gOD, yoU'Re SO ANnoYiNg! JUst sHUt uP ANd LiSTeN! IT'S poP qUiZ tIME!"

I only asked the giant mothman if he wanted to join my team, so I'm not sure I deserved to get an insult-laden lead up to a quick demon recognition test in response. Still, it's better than that time an angry magic horse told me to dig my own grave, or all the instances I've been laughed at, called an idiot, or had some sneaky spirit demand I hand over all my health, magic, or (sometimes and) money only to dash off after they've drained me dry.

Negotiating with demons in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is as dangerous, unpredictable, and hilarious as it's ever been in the 32 years of the series' existence, and like much in this latest entry will feel very familiar to fans of Atlus' longrunning apocalyptic RPG. Tokyo is once again the place where sassy mythological beings and neon-lined sci-fi meet, where programming and prayers have equal power. 

And as is now expected of a series that tends to treat reality-warping catastrophes and fights with every god and demon around as just another Tuesday, Vengeance begins with an enticing mix of everyday life, ethereal mysticism, vague warnings of impending doom—and then throws in a brand new choice, just to make sure I don't get too comfortable. A single new interactive scene has been seamlessly slotted into SMT5's original opening, a simple decision determining whether the story afterwards plays out in exactly the same way it did on the Nintendo Switch back in 2021 (now dubbed the Creation story) or whether it follows the new Vengeance route. 

This new path swiftly unfurls into a fascinating string of significant changes containing everything from exclusive major characters, new enemies, and shocking plot twists to very different takes on old events. Even if you've already cleared the old SMT5 in every way possible, Vengeance still has an entire game's worth of surprises ready to go. 

Demon hunter school

And getting to see them isn't as difficult as the series' intimidating reputation might make it sound, either. Appropriately enough for a game whose central themes are freedom, choice, and knowledge, Vengeance is eager to give me the tools I need to forge my own path through the trials ahead. Noteworthy features are explained clearly in concise popups as they arise, thoughtfully covering the entire spectrum of potential issues from battle system intricacies to "What the heck is a main quest?", ensuring nobody gets left behind.

The objective-smothered maps make it clear where the next main objective is, as well as dozens of alternative ways to spend my evenings, and roughly what I can get out of them if I do make the trip. Do I want to challenge some really tough bosses? Finally hand in the items that side quest I picked up hours ago wanted me to gather? Work my way over to some treasure squirrelled away in a corner I missed the last time I was here? Whatever I feel like doing, Vengeance makes it easy to get it done, with the ability to quickly warp back to and then between any leyline fount (multipurpose recovery/shop/fusion points found just about everywhere) turning region-spanning journeys into quick detours.

Knowing where I am and where I'm going doesn't help me avoid the fights along the way though, and there's a lot to learn right from the start. Even the most basic enemies come with multiple resistances and weaknesses as standard, and then there are all those status effects, weird items, and moon phases to worry about on top. Between those and unhelpfully impenetrable spell names like "Masukukaja" it'd be easy to give up on the whole thing in an element-induced rage.

It doesn't happen though, because Vengeance tries its best to make everything as clear as possible, even when I'm facing hordes of monsters lifted from every folk tale ever told. The UI breaks down everything, revealing enemy weaknesses, explaining the effects of skills and spells, showing who they've been applied to, and indicating if they've stacked with a buff or debuff. Getting all of my demonic ducks in a row is a relatively painless process.

And it's vital I get the hang of all this quickly because unless I'm drastically overleveled there's a real chance some random group of nobodies could wipe out my entire party. I'm always one careless decision away from a trip back to the title screen, one lazy assumption that healing can wait standing between me and my entire team getting burned to ash.

As unforgiving as Vengeance is of any slip-up, it always feels fair because the game can't do anything to me that I can't do to it. The series' now signature Press Turn system offers huge rewards for making even the mildest effort to engage with it, with every critical hit and exploited enemy weakness giving my team more turns in a row, and that means even more opportunities to pile on the pain—or recover from it.

Bullying bosses

And with so many deadly skills to learn and demons to fuse together into new and increasingly outlandish abominations, I'm encouraged to get creative about combat too. If I can't overpower a boss, then why don't I try weakening it instead? Why not boost my party's evasion, forcing its attacks to miss and its upcoming damage-dealing turns to disappear in the process? Why not use an item that completely blocks its favourite elemental attack just before it has a chance to unleash anything? The strategic possibilities here are endless, and before long I'm leaving bosses begging for a turn of their own, after which they'll probably just hit someone on their own team.

Most of the time, anyway. Some days I'm too tired, or too busy, or just too excited to see where the story goes to want to spend my free time carefully constructing the sort of teams and tactics able to topple gods and send demons scuttling back to the netherworld. So it's a good thing Vengeance is happy to help, once more. Thanks to its easy-going approach to difficulty settings it can keep the story going for everyone, from dedicated demon hunters to first-timers. 

Three options are available by default—Casual, Normal, and Hard—and the first two can be switched between at will at any time outside of battle, with the only penalty being to my pride (Hard players can also switch down to either, but can't go back up). So if there's one fight that just isn't working out the way I hoped it would, I know there's always a way to tip the scales in my favour that doesn't involve rushing off to copy someone else's SMT homework or hours of mindless grinding, and I also know that once I've found my feet/confidence/brain again I can go back to Normal and carry on as before.

Or I can just keep trying instead. Vengeance's new save anywhere feature gives my more daring attempts to win a welcome safety net. Why not try out some weird demon build or risk some strange negotiation option that's never come up before when I only have to worry about losing a few minutes worth of progress at most? Maybe my attempt will end in a quick and embarrassing death, maybe it'll end with me laughing out loud as a talking animal-monster with a bad attitude insists I'd be better off throwing my brain away, but whatever happens at least I have the opportunity to experiment.

Vengeance is an easy game to like.  It's an epic adventure packed full of surprises, with enough bite and strategic depth for the oldest of old hands, and more than enough assistance to help newcomers feel right at home. No series does the whole 'taking on god' thing as perfectly as Shin Megami Tensei, and seeing every deity and spirit imaginable wandering around Tokyo, right next to schools, trains, and vending machines will always be an incredible sight. On PC the game's sharp-edged style shines, the otherworldly monster designs really coming into their own at high resolutions. It always runs smoothly even when the screen's packed with detail too, and the game's relatively humble Switch beginnings make it a comfortable—and good looking—fit on a wide range of hardware. This is an essential RPG.