The television industry’s brightness war may have hit its inflection point in 2025, the year TCL and Hisense released the first consumer TVs capable of 5,000 nits under specific settings — a figure that would have seemed absurd not long ago when manufacturers struggled to reach 2,000 nits. LG introduced Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology, moving from a three-stack panel design to a four-stack red-blue-green-blue configuration that the company claims can achieve 4,000 nits. The technology appears in the LG G5, Panasonic Z95B and Philips OLED950 and OLED910.

RGB mini-LED also emerged as a new category. The technology uses individual small red, green and blue LED backlights instead of white or blue LEDs paired with quantum dots. Hisense demonstrated it at CES 2025, TCL announced its Q10M for China, and Samsung unveiled its own version called micro-RGB. These sets range from $12,000 to $30,000. Sony has confirmed it will debut RGB TV technology in spring 2026. HDR content is currently mastered at a maximum of 4,000 nits. The situation echoes the audio industry’s loudness war, The Verge points out, which peaked with Metallica’s heavily compressed Death Magnetic in 2008.

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Instacart has agreed to pay out $60 million in subscriber refunds, the Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday.

The refunds will help settle a lawsuit the FTC raised, accusing the grocery delivery app of engaging in “numerous unlawful tactics that harmed shoppers and raised the cost of grocery shopping for Americans.”

Under the settlement—which expires after 10 years—Instacart agreed to stop marketing its app with allegedly deceptive claims. That includes supposedly offering “free delivery,” when customers actually paid up to 15 percent in “service fees” not charged for pickup orders. Those service fees, the FTC alleged, were “just delivery fees by another name.”

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Whether you want them to or not, appliances are getting smarter. It’s increasingly challenging to find even basic models without some kind of “smart” feature or embedded artificial intelligence. If you don’t believe me, just try to find a “dumb” television at your local Best Buy. You will be disappointed.

While it’s true that many of the “smart” features offered by these nifty new appliances are quite useful. The ability to pre-heat your oven or adjust your thermostat by pressing a button on your phone is great, and getting alerts when the fridge door is left open or when you forget to move your laundry from the washer to the dryer is undeniably a boon.

But sometimes, the convenience these features offer is an illusion, as many supposedly smart features in modern appliances aren’t very smart at all—and they can actively make your life harder instead of easier. If you’re shopping for a new appliance, considering avoiding these not-so-smart features.

Dryer with moisture sensors that leave your clothes damp

Modern clothes dryers offer a lot of great capabilities. Some can even talk to your washer, pre-setting themselves for the laundry coming its way, and many can remind you to collect your laundry, sparing you wrinkled clothes, and to clean out the lint filter. But modern dryers often come with moisture sensors that shut off the dryer when it detects that your clothes are dry. In theory, sensor drying saves you money and time over a fixed time dry. But the sensors in these dryers are notorious for being inaccurate shutting the dryer down when your clothes are still a bit damp. And you still have to make a guess as to how much drying you need and set the sensor to the proper level. At best, this can mean running another drying cycle. At worst, your clothes will sit there getting mildewy until you remember to check the machine.

Dishwashers with “eco modes” that leave dishes dirty

New dishwashers often come with efficient or “eco” modes that use less water and less energy to clean your dishes. That’s a great idea—in theory. But these modes achieve those efficiencies the only way they can: By running at lower temperatures and literally using less water in their cleaning cycles. This can often leave your dishes visibly dirty after running a load, forcing you to cancel out the benefit by running them a second time. Worse, these modes don’t get hot enough to kill dangerous bacteria like E. coli, so even if your dishes come out looking clean, they may not be sanitary.

Smart fridges that misidentify your groceries

Smart fridges are often at the top of people’s complaints list for two main reasons: One, they are often abandoned by their manufacturers soon after they arrive on the market, with updates and support vanishing in as quickly as two years. That transforms your pricey smart fridge into a pricey dumb fridge. More frustratingly, smart fridges that supposedly use artificial intelligence to identify your groceries as you place them inside (in order to help you track your shopping needs and expiration dates) often get things wrong. For example, this woman complained that her smart fridge often mistook her husband’s head for an avocado, among other problems, which rendered the feature worse than useless.

Sensor-cooking microwaves that don’t cook

While the modern microwave remains the steadfastly boxy, unsexy beast it’s always been, there have been attempts to make it smarter—and sometimes these attempts backfire on you. Some microwaves offer “sensor cooking,” the ability to sense the weight and moisture level of the food in order to adjust cooking time and power levels to cook your food perfectly. Except when it senses incorrectly and leaves you with a half-cooked mess, or if you’re trying to cook something that simply doesn’t work well with sensor cooking, like dry foods that don’t produce enough steam for the sensor to detect.

Smart kitchen scales that are just making guesses

A smart kitchen scale might seem like a nifty idea; you weigh your food and use an app to get nutritional information, like the amount of calories in what you’re about to eat. That’s fine, but it really just adds an unnecessary step to your cooking routine, because most “smart” scales are just regular, standard kitchen scales and an app that Googles on your behalf. You’ll get the same general experience—and likely better accuracy—by weighing something and using your phone to search for nutritional information yourself.

Smart garage doors that are less secure

Smart garage doors are a great example of a piece of technology that isn’t improved much by being smart. And the core technology that makes the garage door smart—a WiFi connection to a cloud server—can also make it worse than useless. Aside from the fact that any disruption in the door’s connection can cause it to remain locked in the open position, leaving your home vulnerable, there’s also the fact that the manufacturer can make changes any time they like that could potentially alter the way your door functions or brick it entirely.

Amazon is selling Apple’s USB-C Magic Mouse for $68, which is a discount of 14 percent. This isn’t a record-low price, but it’s darned close. The mouse typically sells for $79, though today’s sale only applies to the white model.

It’s rare for official Apple accessories to go on sale, and the USB-C Magic Mouse is pretty much a must-have for those working on desktop computers. It’s also fairly handy when combined with a laptop, letting folks avoid the trackpad.

As the name suggests, this mouse charges via USB-C. Apple stuck with replaceable AA batteries for way too long, so this change was much appreciated. A charge should power the mouse for around a month, a metric I find to be more-or-less accurate depending on usage.

This is a good mouse, and a great option for Apple devotees, but it’s not without its flaws. The biggest one is port placement. The USB-C port is underneath the mouse, rendering it unusable while charging. Bloomberg recently reported that a major redesign is coming for Apple’s wireless mouse that should address that issue.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-usb-c-magic-mouse-is-back-on-sale-for-68-175424709.html?src=rss

Earlier this month, Strava, the popular fitness-tracking app, released its annual “Year in Sport” wrap-up—a cutesy, animated series of graphics summarizing each user’s athletic achievements.

But this year, for the first time, Strava made this feature available only to users with subscriptions ($80 per year), rather than making it free to everyone, as it had been historically since the review’s debut in 2016.

This decision has roiled numerous Strava users, particularly those who have relished the app’s social encouragement features. One Strava user in India, Shobhit Srivastava, “begged” Strava to “let the plebs see their Year in Sport too, please.” He later explained to Ars that having this little animated video is more than just a collection of raw numbers.

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Uber is hiring more engineers rather than fewer because AI tools have made them “superhumans,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, pushing back against the industry trend of using productivity gains to justify headcount cuts. Speaking on the “On with Kara Swisher” podcast, Khosrowshahi noted that other tech executives see AI making engineers 20% to 30% more productive and conclude they need 20% to 30% fewer engineers. His view: every engineer has become more valuable. Between 80% and 90% of Uber’s developers now use AI tools, according to Khosrowshahi.

The company no longer keeps scores of engineers on call to diagnose issues because AI agents are constantly monitoring systems, he said. The latest AI models are producing “hundreds of millions of dollars of benefit” for Uber, he said, describing the company as an “applied AI” business that harnesses the technology for pricing, payments, matching, routing, identification and customer complaints.

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The idea of using AI to help with computer programming has become a contentious issue. On the one hand, coding agents can make horrific mistakes that require a lot of inefficient human oversight to fix, leading many developers to lose trust in the concept altogether. On the other hand, some coders insist that AI coding agents can be powerful tools and that frontier models are quickly getting better at coding in ways that overcome some of the common problems of the past.

To see how effective these modern AI coding tools are becoming, we decided to test four major models with a simple task: recreating the classic Windows game Minesweeper. Since it’s relatively easy for pattern-matching systems like LLMs to play off of existing code to re-create famous games, we added in one novelty curveball as well.

Our straightforward prompt:

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As you get stronger, you become able to lift heavier and heavier weights. That’s the idea at the heart of an often-misunderstood fitness concept: progressive overload. Unfortuantely, there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about this principle, so here’s how to use it to plan your own workouts or judge whether a program you’re following will keep you on track.

What is progressive overload?

Progressive overload is the increase, over time, in the amount of work or stress you ask your body to handle. The term is used two different ways: as a principle of how the human body works, and as a description of how a workout program changes over time. If you want to know how to “do progressive overload,” you’re thinking of the second one—how to design a workout program.

The simplest way to implement this is to just do a little more each time you’re in the gym. More weight, or more reps, or making the workout harder in some other way. You can still take some easier “deload” workouts (or weeks) from time to time, but over the long term you want to see a trend of the workouts getting harder. They won’t necessarily feel harder, because you’ll be getting stronger. It’s more like the workouts are keeping up with you.

In other words, progressive overload is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. As you get stronger, your workouts need to get harder to keep up. But in a sense you are also becoming stronger because you’re challenging yourself with harder workouts.

What does progressive overload look like in real life?

If you’re bummed out by the idea of working harder and harder forever, don’t panic. You’ll work harder in absolute terms—by lifting heavier weights, let’s say—but the challenge stays about the same in relative terms. Your workouts will fall into an effort level you might call “hard, but doable,” and you’ll notice progress because your numbers are going up. (A similar approach applies to endurance sports. As cyclist Greg Lemond reportedly said: “It never gets any easier, you just go faster.”)

When I started lifting weights many years ago, 65 pounds was a decently challenging bench press for me. I remember being proud of myself for being able to squeeze out a rep or two at 85 pounds. Now, if I’m going to do a bench workout, I don’t even bother loading those amounts onto the bar. My warmup sets start at 95 pounds, and a heavy single might be around 135. That 135 feels just as hard as 85 used to, but it’s undeniably more weight.

How did I make that progress? Well, I kept lifting the weights that felt heavy for me. Over time, the same weights that used to be challenging started to feel easy, and I needed to add more and more weight to the bar to get something that actually felt heavy. (I have a guide here to figuring out whether you’re lifting “heavy.”)

Most of the time, I either followed a program that told me how many pounds to lift, increasing that amount slowly over time, or one that told me what effort level to lift at (a concept called RPE), which allowed me to choose an appropriate weight each day. Following a program will usually net you better progress than just winging it, but as long as you’re using the overload principle and the progression principle, you will get stronger.

Workout routines that use progressive overload

Here are some examples of workout routines that use progressive overload:

Double progression. Let’s say you’re aiming for three sets of eight to 12 reps of dumbbell shoulder press. You choose a weight that you can handle for 3 sets of 8 reps. The next time you do shoulder press, try to add at least one rep. If you can’t, that’s fine—just do your three sets of eight. One day maybe you’ll get 10 reps on the first set, then only eight on the next two. Another time maybe you get 12, 10, and eight. After a few weeks you manage three full sets of 12. That means it’s time to increase the weight! The next time you do the exercise, you’ll use a heavier set of dumbbells and start again at three sets of eight. It’s called “double” progression because first you increase the reps, and then you increase the weight.

Linear progression. This is a common progression for barbell exercises for beginners. You do the same number of reps every time (say, five sets of five reps) but add a small amount of weight every workout. Often the program will have instructions for what to do if you can’t complete the five sets of five reps at the new weight. These workouts aren’t usually realistic for experienced lifters, since you can’t keep increasing the weight forever, but they’re great for people who are learning an exercise for the first time or returning to the gym after a break.

Set progression. This may be used along with double progression, or may be its own thing. You start with just a few sets of an exercise per workout, say two or three, and then add a set each week. Once you’re doing, say, five sets, you’ll start over with heavier weight. If you’re using it with double progression, you’ll increase sets, and then reps, and then weight.

Density progression. This is commonly used in timed sets, like Crossfit WODs (“workout of the day”) or for accessory lifts. Set a timer for several minutes and do as many reps as possible in the given time, resting as needed. The next time you do the workout, try to do more reps in the same amount of time. Once you can do the lifts with little to no rest, you’ll either add weight or find another way to make the exercises harder (for example, doing dips instead of pushups).

As you can see, weight isn’t the only variable that progresses. You can increase reps, or sets, or increase the amount of work you do in a given time by decreasing rest. You can increase the difficulty by choosing a harder exercise (like progressing from dips to pushups). As long as things get harder over time, you’re doing progressive overload.

How to use progressive overload even if you can’t add more weight

Adding weight is part of most progressive overload schemes, but you don’t have to add weight to the bar literally every time you lift. There’s a wide range of weights and rep ranges that can be effective for building strength and muscle. For example, if I did a bench workout today, I might do sets of 10 at 100 pounds, or sets of five at 120, or some heavy singles at 140, or any combination of these. If I’m really tired or stressed, I might decide to do the sets of 10 at just 90 pounds. If I’m feeling great, I might be able to do them at 105. This is what I mean by a wide range: All of these are hard enough work to spur my muscles to adapt and get stronger. (There are reasons you might choose one of these workouts over the others, but we don’t need to get into those details at the moment.)

What wouldn’t be progressive overload? Well, if I did sets of 10 with just the bar, that wouldn’t help me get stronger. If I had a mini barbell set, and it maxed out at 85 pounds, my strength would stagnate once I got to the point where 85 pounds isn’t a challenging weight anymore.

Even as your strength improves, you don’t have to do more every single workout, as long as you’re getting stronger in the long term, and your workouts are still in the range that is challenging to you.

So let’s say you’re doing bicep curls with a 10-pound dumbbell. You can do eight or 10 reps with it. Perfect. But the only way to add weight, at your gym, might be to pick up a 15-pound dumbbell. If that weight is too heavy for you, that’s okay. Keep working with the 10-pounder, and in time you’ll be ready for the 15.

You can progress on more than one metric

While you’re probably itching to lift heavier weights, weight on the bar is not the only way to progress. Sometimes you can’t add weight because of equipment issues, or just because your strength is improving slowly. (Even if your beginner gains were meteoric, everybody’s progress slows down at some point.)

But if you’re smart, you probably don’t want to only get better at one specific thing. A lot of beginners start off doing squat, bench, and deadlift in sets of five reps, and trying to add weight each workout. But you’ll be a more well-rounded lifter if you also know how to lift heavy singles and sets of 10 or 15. Depending on your goals you might consider front squats in addition to back squats, and reverse hypers or kettlebell swings in addition to deadlifts. There are ways to improve at all of these things, and it’s normal for a lifter to be simultaneously increasing their reps in accessory lifts, increasing their weight on the bar for heavy singles, and increasing the amount of time they spend on conditioning workouts.

How to spot workouts that don’t use progressive overload

Not every workout or routine will have progressive overload built in. For example, if you have a favorite workout that you do every day, but you never make it any harder (say, it’s always three sets of ten pushups), you won’t make progress over time. That’s OK if you enjoy the workout for another reason, like if you’re just trying to get the mental health benefits of a little exercise boost in the morning. But if you want to get better at pushups, you need to find a way to do more of them over time, or make them harder in some way (like elevating your feet, or doing them with a backpack on).

Workouts with progressive overload tend to be personalized to you. If the workout tells you exactly what to do, down to the exact weight of dumbbell to pick up, it’s not giving you room to choose the weight that matches your current strength level. The 12-3-30 treadmill workout, for example, is the same for everyone every time. If it’s one-size-fits-all, there’s no way to progress.

That said, some workouts have a sneaky progression built in. If you jog for 30 minutes each day, chances are you’ll get a little faster over time even if you don’t realize it, and then you’re doing more work within the same amount of time. Or if you do “three sets of 10” of an exercise, but each day you pick up whatever dumbbells feel appropriate for that level, you’ll probably end up using heavier ones over time. Just make sure you don’t get stuck doing the exact same thing month in and month out.

The limits of progressive overload

One last thing, now that we’ve discussed what progressive overload looks like. It’s important to remember that progression happens in the long term. Some competitive lifters might not test their one-rep max outside of competition, which means they’ll only find out once or twice a year how much their deadlift has gone up. That doesn’t mean they haven’t progressed in the meantime. If they’re doing an effective program, consistently challenging themselves, they’re still working.

Plateaus are a fact of life when you’re a lifter. Sometimes it takes a while to get stronger. Sometimes you need to work on your technique to be able to express your newfound strength. Sometimes factors like stress or weight loss or changes in your training can make you weaker in the short term, but if you keep training in a way that challenges you, you’ll set new PRs soon enough.

iRobot, the Bedford, Massachusetts-based company that brought the Roomba vacuum cleaner into American homes over its 35-year history, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday and will be acquired by Picea, its Chinese contract manufacturer that also produces competing household devices.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board placed blame for the company’s demise on the Federal Trade Commission under Chair Lina Khan, which opposed Amazon’s $1.7 billion bid to acquire iRobot. That deal collapsed in January 2024 amid regulatory pressure from both the FTC and European antitrust authorities. Senator Elizabeth Warren and other progressives had urged Khan to block the acquisition, arguing in a September 2022 letter that Amazon is “‘almost universally recognized’ as the leader in warehouse and fulfillment robotics space” and that the deal “would open up a new market to Amazon’s abuses.”

After the deal fell through, iRobot cut 31% of its workforce and moved “non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions.” The company had shifted production to Vietnam to reduce its exposure to China but was hit by tariffs under Trump’s Liberation Day trade measures — initially 46%, later reduced to 20%. iRobot said the trade uncertainty made it difficult to operate.

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TikTok has signed a deal to spin off its American business, according to reporting from Associated Press and others. This should keep the popular social media app available in the US for good, capping off years of drama.

We now have some new data as to the specifics of the deal. Nearly 50 percent of assets will be split between three companies. Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will each control around 15 percent of the newly-formed entity. It’s worth noting that MGX isn’t an American company at all, but rather Abu Dhabi’s state-owned investment firm.

The rest will remain in the hands of affiliates of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. That company will also take a direct ownership stake of around 20 percent. US platform operations will be managed by a seven-member board of directors. The majority of this board will be Americans.

US data will be stored under a system operated by Oracle. That company is run by Larry Ellison, a long-time ally of President Trump who once brainstormed ideas on how to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Oracle has been trying to get its mitts on TikTok since at least 2020. As for Silver Lake, it has deep ties to Trump allies like Michael Dell and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The deal is expected to close on January 22, according to an internal memo shared by TikTok CEO Shou Chew. “With these agreements in place, our focus must stay where it’s always been — firmly on delivering for our users, creators, businesses and the global TikTok community,” he wrote to employees.

If a deal is truly finalized by next month, it will come just over a year after Trump’s first executive order to delay a law that required a sale of the app to prevent a ban. He has signed several other extensions since.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/we-have-more-details-on-the-tiktok-deal-including-some-ownership-statistics-163003507.html?src=rss

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Bone conduction headphones (BCHs) have been around for a while, but I didn’t really start using them until this year, and they’ve honestly changed everything for me. They have helped keep my mind occupied—usually with an audiobook—while I tackle mundane tasks while leaving me able to communicate with my wife without constantly taking my earbuds out. As I result, I’ve listened to more books than ever this year, but beyomnd that accomplishment, I love that I’m able to remain aware of my surroundings while listening to my music, podcast, shows, calls, or, yes, my audiobook. That’s why BCHs are my tech upgrade of 2025.

Why I love the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2

Earlier this year, I reviewed the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, and I’m glad I did. I’d tested other BCHs previously, but the OpenRun Pro 2 were on a different level entirely. They employ a hybrid of BCH technology and open-air sound that projects low frequencies to your ears. This means they sound almost like regular headphones, while keeping the benefits of BCH. (they don’t cover your ears, so you’re more tuned in to the world around you).

Shokz OpenRun Pro 2

$139.95
at Amazon

$179.95
Save $40.00

$139.95
at Amazon

$179.95
Save $40.00

No more losing an earbud

I used to use regular earbuds while taking work calls or doing household chores, and I would often find myself only using one earbud so I wouldn’t be totally tuned out to my surroundings. Yes, most earbuds now have a transparency mode of some sort, but I’d usually find it easier to just take one out rather than remembering how to toggle it on or off. The downside here is that I’d typically leave whichever earbud I’d removed lying somewhere around the house, or lose it outright. Moreover, if I was listening to something in stereo, I’d be missing out on half of the experience. That all changed when I started using the OpenRun Pro 2 as my go-to headphones.

Comfortable and functional

Unlike earbuds or over-ear headphone, which can be fatiguing after extended use, the OpenRun Pro 2 are so comfortable, I sometimes forget I’m wearing them. Their microphones are great, so I can use them to take calls or virtual meetings without issue. Because of their hybrid audio model, I don’t experience the sensation of vibration that tickled my ears when I tried other BCH models. I love that I can have a full conversation with my wife while washing the dishes or cooking and not have to worry about pausing my media or fumbling with my earbuds. And the best part is that they’re waterproof, so I can go from a runs and straight to the shower without missing a beat—or, more often, a chapter of my current book (you’d be surprised how many minutes of extra listening you can rack up over the course of a year of showers, not to mention washing dishes, walking the dog, and other everyday tasks). With the help of these headphones, I look forward to beating my audiobook record again in 2026.

The Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest society of computing professionals, announced that all publications and related artifacts in the ACM Digital Library will become freely available to everyone starting January 2026. Authors will retain full copyright to their published work under the new arrangement, and ACM has committed to defending those works against copyright and integrity-related violations.

The transition follows what ACM described as extensive dialogue with authors, Special Interest Group leaders, editorial boards, libraries, and research institutions globally. Students, educators, and researchers at institutions of all sizes — from well-resourced universities to emerging research communities — will gain unrestricted access to the full catalog of ACM-published work. The Digital Library houses decades of computing research across journals, magazines, conference proceedings, and books.

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For several years now, in discussing plans for its human spaceflight program beyond the International Space Station, Russian officials would proudly bring up the Russian Orbital Station, or ROS.

The first elements of ROS were to launch in 2027 so it would be ready for human habitation in 2028. Upon completion in the mid-2030s, the station would encompass seven shiny new modules, potentially including a private habitat for space tourists. It would be so sophisticated that the station could fly autonomously for months if needed.

Importantly, the Russian station was also to fly in a polar orbit at about 400 km. This would allow the station to fly over the entirety of Russia, observing the whole country. It would be important for national pride because cosmonauts would not need to launch from Kazakhstan anymore. Rather, rockets launching from the country’s new spaceport in eastern Russia, the Vostochny Cosmodrome, would easily reach the ROS in its polar orbit.

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More carbon dioxide in the environment is making food more calorific but less nutritious — and also potentially more toxic, a study has found. From a report: Sterre ter Haar, a lecturer at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and other researchers at the institution created a method to compare multiple studies on plants’ responses to increased CO2 levels. The results, she said, were a shock: although crop yields increase, they become less nutrient-dense. While zinc levels in particular drop, lead levels increase.

“Seeing how dramatic some of the nutritional changes were, and how this differed across plants, was a big surprise,” she told the Guardian. “We aren’t seeing a simple dilution effect but rather a complete shift in the composition of our foods… This also raises the question of whether we should adjust our diets in some way, or how we grow or produce our food.”

While scientists have been looking at the effects of more CO2 in the atmosphere on plants for a decade, their work has been difficult to compare. The new research established a baseline measurement derived from the observation that the gas appears to have a linear effect on growth, meaning that if the CO2 level doubles, so does the effect on nutrients. This made it possible to compare almost 60,000 measurements across 32 nutrients and 43 crops, including rice, potatoes, tomatoes and wheat.

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Welcome to Edition 8.23 of the Rocket Report! Several new rockets made their first flights this year. Blue Origin’s New Glenn was the most notable debut, with a successful inaugural launch in January followed by an impressive second flight in November, culminating in the booster’s first landing on an offshore platform. Second on the list is China’s Zhuque-3, a partially reusable methane-fueled rocket developed by the quasi-commercial launch company LandSpace. The medium-lift Zhuque-3 successfully reached orbit on its first flight earlier this month, and its booster narrowly missed landing downrange. We could add China’s Long March 12A to the list if it flies before the end of the year. This will be the final Rocket Report of 2025, but we’ll be back in January with all the news that’s fit to lift.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Rocket Lab delivers for Space Force and NASA. Four small satellites rode a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle into orbit from Virginia early Thursday, beginning a government-funded technology demonstration mission to test the performance of a new spacecraft design, Ars reports. The satellites were nestled inside a cylindrical dispenser on top of the 59-foot-tall (18-meter) Electron rocket when it lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. A little more than an hour later, the rocket’s upper stage released the satellites one at a time at an altitude of about 340 miles (550 kilometers). The launch was the starting gun for a “proof of concept” mission to test the viability of a new kind of satellite called DiskSats, designed by the Aerospace Corporation.

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From indies like Silksong, to AAAs like Ghost of Yotei, and everything in between, 2025 truly had it all, and is likely to go down in the history books as one of the best years in gaming. But these are the games that felt truly special to the Engadget team. 

Arc Raiders

I’m genuinely shocked by how much I love ARC Raiders. I’ve never been very interested in the whole PvE (Player vs. Environment) genre, aside from some brief stints with Destiny, but ARC Raiders‘s sci-fi post-apocalyptic vibe just works for me. I love the Blade Runner/anime-like aesthetic of its environments, enemies and outfits. I’m a sucker for its synthy soundtrack and immersive soundscape. And somehow, I’ve just fallen for the game’s loop, which involves running out for resources and missions, and hopefully making it back home safe. 

Sure, I’ve had a few runs where I’ve lost all my gear, thanks to random online jerks. But even those setbacks kept me motivated to play. You can always head out into the world with free gear, so if you fail, all you really lose is a bit of time. ARC Raiders reminds me of playing Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast decades ago, an early multiplayer experience that’s genuinely been hard for me to replicate since then.   

I sometimes explore maps just to soak up their architecture and environmental sounds. Sometimes I jump in to help other players, especially when they’re being harassed by others. Through success or failure, I can’t wait to head back in. 

— Devindra Hardawar, Senior Editor 

Avowed

Obsidian kicked off 2025 with a bang, introducing a fresh and deeply engaging fantasy RPG universe in Avowed. It’s an expertly crafted and narratively rich adventure through mystical lands blighted by a mysterious fungus, set against a backdrop of political scheming, spiritual manipulation, colonization and resistance. The writing is stellar throughout, though the sidequests that reveal your companions’ backstories are particularly poignant. Avowed is gorgeous, its combat systems are fully customizable, its characters are intriguing and its encumbrance limit is generous. There’s a real sense of magic about the entire game — and no, that’s not just the mind-altering mushrooms talking.

— Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter

Baby Steps

Baby Steps is a true walking simulator: Your left trigger controls your left leg, and your right trigger controls your right. At first, you’ll be stumbling and comically falling every few paces, and it’s easy to write the game off as some sort of Octodad affair, where half the fun is dealing with the jank of basic navigation. But before long, you’ll find the rhythm and confidently pace through the game’s open world.

Of course, the challenge ramps up with your skill. Baby Steps has incredibly tight mechanics and a rewarding if punishing difficulty curve. Various surfaces and steeper inclines are introduced, and the game ends with a truly horrific mountain pass. Through it all, you’ll be treated to a light but touching story full of comedic improvisation from the game’s developers, who voice most of the characters themselves.

— Aaron Souppouris, Editor-in-chief

Ball X Pit

I don’t usually go in for roguelike-style games, but my colleague Kris Holt convinced me to try Ball X Pit and, in doing so, ruined my autumn. This is, quite simply, one of the most addictive games I’ve ever played. The base gameplay is rooted in classic Brick Breaker-style games from the ‘80s. Balls bounce from the bottom to the top of the screen, but instead of hitting and breaking bricks you’re bouncing them off a massive series of demonic enemies. There are eight levels and over a dozen different playable characters, each with their own distinct strengths and play styles, and the vast combination of upgrades you can unlock means no run will ever be quite the same. 

Perhaps the most fun thing about it is unlocking the different fusions and evolutions you can find along the way. Beyond the basic balls that your character shoots, you have slots for special balls that do things like freeze enemies, deal extra damage or blind enemies so they can’t accurately attack you. You can combine those special balls into even more powerful weapons, and finding the best evolutions that work with each character and each level adds yet another layer to the madness. While you can easily pick it up and play for 20 or 30 minutes, I’ve found it pretty difficult to end a session without whiling away multiple hours. Think carefully about whether you’re ready to ruin your productivity for a few weeks (or months) before you dive into Ball X Pit.

— Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor

Blue Prince

My absolute favorite experience in all of gaming is when I’m several hours into a puzzle game and I discover there’s more going on than meets the eye. It’s the moment where I realize an already-good game is in fact an excellent one, and I want to simultaneously curse the creators’ evil brains and applaud their brilliance. I feel fortunate if I have that reaction once during a playthrough. Blue Prince provided me with that experience of total delight many times over. 

The biggest downside to a game like Blue Prince is that it’s hard to talk about. For starters, it defies categorization. Sure, there are some roguelike elements and obviously plenty of puzzles, but playing it goes beyond a single genre tag. And more importantly, the journey of uncovering its surprises is a big reason why this game is so special. If you haven’t tried it yet, I strongly suggest you do so and that you read as little about it as possible before diving in. All you need to know is that if you enjoy burrowing ever deeper into a rabbit hole of mysteries and problem-solving, you must play this game. Blue Prince is a real masterpiece by creative lead Tonda Ros and the whole Dogubomb team. It earns all the hype it gets.

— Anna Washenko, Contributing Reporter

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

No game I played this year has stuck with me the way Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector did. At a time when it feels like our governments are failing us and corporate greed is destroying the world, Citizen Sleeper 2 tells a critical story about finding hope and purpose in the people and communities around you. And as great as the original Citizen Sleeper was, the new one is an even better game, with more polished systems that do a great job of reinforcing its narrative themes. 

There’s a good chance many of you missed Citizen Sleeper 2, seeing as it arrived at the start of the year, but if you’re feeling down about the state of the world, I can’t recommend it enough. It will change your perspective.

— Igor Bonifacic, Senior Reporter

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Clair Obscur made a striking impression when we first glimpsed it in 2024, with its French dark fantasy aesthetic, its wild concept of a god-like Paintress and a turn-based combat system that seemed uniquely cinematic. It instantly became my most anticipated game of 2025. Thankfully, the game itself lived up to my expectations, with a thrilling story, memorable characters and some of the most beautiful visuals I’ve ever seen in a game. Sure, its twists and turns might not feel entirely surprising if you’re an RPG connoisseur, but no other game captures such a specific vibe. It may not fully stick the landing, but Clair Obscur was certainly one of the most fulfilling narrative experiences I experienced this year.   

— D.H.

Date Everything!

This dating sim is witty as heck. That’s the first reason I loved Date Everything. The writing is equal parts sharp and sensitive, silly and sincere, with a dose of pointed social commentary in between bouts of flirtation with anthropomorphized household items. Even the artwork is witty, transforming everything from a toaster to a treadmill into attractive humans in wildly clever and creative ways. 

The second and most important reason I loved this game is that Date Everything is a cavalcade of virtuoso voice acting that must be heard to be appreciated. I’ve played a bunch of visual novels without voiceover where the writing alone wasn’t strong enough to make the characters pop, as well as voiced ones where middling performances detracted from the story. Date Everything‘s cast of 100 of the best in the business make their dialogue shine (and like I said, the dialogue is really damn good). 

There are some endearingly obvious casting choices. The horny clothes dryer? Yeah, it’s Neil Newbon, who probably charmed your pants off as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3. Your D&D dice set? It couldn’t be anyone but Matt Mercer. On the flip side, Cherami Lee as perky Chairemi (yep, your chairs) was unrecognizable from her stellar turn as V in Cyberpunk 2077. Laura Bailey has voiced countless heroines over the years, so the last place I expected to hear her was screaming her lungs out as one half of the toxic relationship playing out in your laundry room. Whether you’re looking for love or laughs, Date Everything is a marvelous showcase of talents that often go underappreciated in gaming. 

— A.W.

Despelote

Having grown up with grandparents from South America, I’m familiar with a flavor of soccer fanaticism that hasn’t quite taken root in the US. What makes Despelote so moving to play in 2025 is how it makes that sports fandom universal. The semi-autobiographical game lets you play your way through narrative vignettes, rendered in a stunning mix of filtered, photorealistic backgrounds and almost comics-inspired characters, primarily with a soccer ball at your feet. There’s more to the game than kicking, however.

Despelote asks players to walk, run and kick through the life of the game’s lead developer Julian Cordero as he recounts his memories of Ecuador’s historic attempt to win the World Cup. It’s a personal history and national one, and by the end of the game, not quite what it seems. To put it another way: Despelote is melancholy, humorous and quite possibly the first game to capture what soccer means rather just than what it feels like to play.

— Ian Carlos Campbell, Contributing Reporter

Dispatch

If you miss the heyday of Telltale’s multiple choice narratives, like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, and you aren’t tired of superheroes yet, you’ll love Dispatch. Developed by AdHoc Studio, which was formed by former Telltale alum, it’s essentially a workplace dramedy for superheroes. But the mechanics don’t matter as much as the characters, who are all uniquely intriguing, sad and hilarious. 

You play as Robert Robertson III, AKA Mecha Man, a former Iron Man-esque hero who can no longer fight crime on his own. He decides to manage a group of former villains for SDN (the Superhero Dispatch Network), hoping to imbue them with his own ideals of heroism. By day, you assign them to deal with crimes around Los Angeles, but through conversations and crucial Telltale decisions, you also encourage them to work as a team and hopefully become better people (or mutants). Buoyed by strong voice acting (including actors like Aaron Paul as the lead, and Jeffrey Wright in a hilarious supporting role), AdHoc’s sharp writing, and excellent animation, Dispatch is a reminder of just how powerful adventure games can be.   

— D.H.

Donkey Kong Bananza

The Switch 2 had a decent enough first year, but there’s only one true killer app so far in my mind. Donkey Kong Bananza is the primary reason to pony up for Nintendo’s new console. It’s a 3D platforming classic up there with any Mario game, which makes sense given that the team behind Super Mario Odyssey made this one. 

It actually reinvents the formula by adding wanton destruction into the mix. Donkey Kong can destroy just about everything in the game and that’s not hyperbole. You can literally spend hours absolutely pummelling entire game worlds into dust. This isn’t just a stress reliever, as it leads to new kinds of puzzles and platforming ideas. As a bonus, DK is joined by a young Pauline, making this the cutest riff on The Last of Us ever. 

— Lawrence Bonk, Contributing Reporter

Fast Fusion

Fast Fusion is a sci-fi arcade racer that wants little more than to bring the old Wipeout and 3D F-Zero games into modern times. Those games ruled. So does this one. 

As the name implies, it is seriously fast, and it commits to enhancing that sense of speed with every choice it makes. Whooshing lines drag from the back of your hard-angled, anti-grav ships. Their engines wheeze. The backgrounds blur. Each course is littered with boost pads, and there’s a boost meter you can keep persistently charged by taking turns just right. Because this is what some may call a “video game-ass video game,” you can also make your ship jump, skipping entire turns or launching into a fiery wreck in equal measure. 

The courses here aren’t as thematically consistent as those in Mario Kart World. One minute you’re dashing through an Endor-style forest, the next you’re dodging tornadoes on a rainy highway. There are no cute mascots, either. But the tracks are spectacles, and they always give room to keep up your pace. When there is an obstacle to dodge, you tend to just whiz by, furthering the sense of threading the needle. In a year unusually loaded with high-profile arcade racers, few are better than Fast Fusion at keeping you engaged. It makes blinking feel risky. 

— Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter

Ghost of Yōtei

Sucker Punch Productions’ return to a feudal Japan setting is another triumph for the studio. In Ghost of Yōtei, the developer crafted a world that I happily got lost in for hours, doing everything and anything but the main story missions until I absolutely had to. There was something to do around almost every corner and some of the game’s many secrets were well-hidden. That’s not to say the game’s plot is anything to sniff at: this is a brutal tale of revenge, featuring rich writing and performances. 

The open-world format is a little at odds with protagonist Atsu’s steely desire for vengeance, but Ghost of Yōtei is beautifully orchestrated enough for that to be a minor complaint. The combat is stellar — to be most effective, you’ll need to swap between weapons to counter what your current opponent is wielding. Still, I couldn’t help but use the kusarigama whenever possible, especially to carry out stealthy assassinations from a distance. Strengthening Atsu’s bond with a wild wolf that becomes an ally in combat is also a highlight, while the deeply customizable difficulty settings are very welcome.

Like its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, this is a technical masterpiece. Sucker Punch created another lush game that will surely be the source of countless desktop backgrounds. Blood-stained snow has rarely looked this good, especially if you enable the Miike Mode (named after director Takashi Miike and his gory films) to really paint the landscape red.

— Kris Holt, Contributing Reporter

Hades 2

The first thing to know about Hades II is that it’s more Hades. It’s the standard roguelite RNG grindfest, but with charm and enough detail-oriented flourishes to disguise what is essentially cranking the arm on a slot machine. The second thing to know is that you are no longer Zagreus, but Melinoë, princess of the underworld, and if you are a gay woman this game exists to roast you mercilessly. 

Zag was a lovable himbo engaged in a petty dispute against his father and free to romance a variety of Greek gods along the way. By contrast the world around Mel is coming apart at the seams, and her dating options are considerably less satisfying. Several of her in-game relationships with women are written to be warm and reciprocal, but of course they’re with the found family of deities who support her. Nemesis and Eris, her two options for romance, seem to actively hate her and, after dozens of runs, are never interested in anything beyond a threadbare situationship. 

Juggling two different mission paths with their own distinct enemies and biomes is a treat — as are the new, sometimes brutally hard bosses. If only the rest didn’t so closely resemble the indignities of dating in your 30s. 

— Avery Ellis, Deputy Editor

Is This Seat Taken?

Every incurable people pleaser has been told, at some point in their life, “you can’t make everyone happy.” Perhaps not in life. But in the sweetly cozy, zero-pressure, logic-puzzle indie game Is This Seat Taken? making people happy is not only possible, it’s the entire point. 

The game is set in a line-drawn, sepia-toned Barcelona and other cities. You act as a set of pinching fingers that lifts and places shape-people in their preferred seats — on the bus, in a restaurant, at a movie theater and so on. Each person has preferences (window seat, no bad smells, wants to read) and attributes (forgot to shower, plays loud music) that mesh or conflict.

Tiny accessories and icons not only make each shape more adorable, they help keep track of some of their proclivities. Bubbly smiles or heartbreaking frowns tell you whether you’ve met a seated shape’s needs, and tapping on them tells you exactly what they want. A simple story involving a few of the shapes and an indie film takes form as you advance levels, but for the most part, you’re just checking in on what people want and arranging them to optimize happiness. 

I obsessively plowed through the game, soothed by the strummy music, delighted by the plops, bloops and chatters of the sound effects. As more people get on the bus (show up to the coworking space, arrive at the restaurant) it gets increasingly tougher to satisfy everyone — more than once I had to clear everyone off the train and start from scratch — but achieving 100 percent contentment is always possible. And if that’s not true IRL, then at least it is here.   

— Amy Skorheim, Senior Reporter

Keeper

Keeper is a surprisingly quiet and soul-soothing experience from Double Fine Productions, a studio best known for sassy, cartoon-style games like Costume Quest, Psychonauts and Brütal Legend. Keeper is a gorgeous and dialogue-free adventure through fantastical lands of deep shadows and vivid pastels, presented in a claymation-like art style that’s a joy to interact with. The game follows a sentient, walking lighthouse and its bird companion as they attempt to reach a mountaintop and cleanse the land of a nasty parasitic presence. Keeper only lasts about four hours tops, but its striking visuals, smooth mechanics and heartwarming story leave a lasting impression.

— J.C.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a modern-day Morrowind. I mean that as a compliment. It’s a game built on a series of complex, interlocking systems that work together to create one of the most immersive worlds I’ve had a chance to experience in recent years. 

As I guided my version of Henry of Skalitz through Warhorse Studios’ beautiful recreation of 15th century Bohemia, I spent dozens of hours doing mundane things like blacksmithing, playing dice, foraging for herbs and concocting potions. Each of these activities feels like it could be a game on its own, and they work together to create an experience that feels refreshingly old-school. No one is making RPGs like Warhorse anymore — not even Bethesda — and that’s what makes this game feel so special. It’s the kind of experience studios used to make when games didn’t need to appeal to everyone to recoup their development costs. 

— I.B.

Look Outside

Months after its release, Look Outside is still the game I can’t shut up about, and it probably will continue to be for the foreseeable future. In Look Outside, your character wakes up to discover that an apocalyptic event has taken place, and anyone who looks outside to observe it is transformed into some sort of abomination. You have to survive two weeks inside your apartment building, gathering resources and, if you’re trusting, accumulating allies to fight by your side. There are monsters everywhere, and their designs are wildly creative. It’s a joy encountering all of the freakish creatures for the first time.

There are tons of choices to make in Look Outside that will affect the course of your playthrough, and there are both moments of gut-wrenching bleakness and sheer absurdity. It’s in a league of its own, blending a multitude of horrors — survival horror, cosmic horror, body horror, psychological horror — and captivating artwork (not to mention an S-tier soundtrack) into a gripping RPG that has enough substance to justify playing it again and again. 

— Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor

Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders

Most games involving mountains are about a heroic climb. Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is about a series of humbling descents. This is a physics-driven downhill skiing game that, like its predecessor, starts you at the top of various summits and tasks you with racing to the goal in one piece. The way down is filled with interweaving routes and shortcuts, but there are no directional markers to guide you. Nor is there any music to pump you up, just the sounds of skis cutting into powder, winds whipping, birds chirping, nature being nature. 

The result is a game that pits you against yourself. You rush down to beat a target time, but you’re always fighting gravity and cold, hard earth. So you crash, again and again, until you manage to survive that one clean run. The mountain becomes something to respect, not conquer. It’s fast, thrilling and total slapstick: Steering your low-poly, literally blockheaded avatar into a tree or off a cliff is always good for a laugh. (Seeing others do it in multiplayer is even better.) It’s also gorgeous, all glistening snow, intimate sounds and serene vistas. More than an enjoyably tense sports game, Snow Riders is a vivid expression of our relationship with nature. Think of it like a more contemplative SSX. 

— J.D.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is not a perfect game. The story barely hangs together at times, the addition of a squad of companions can really disrupt the atmospheric isolation the series is known for, there are a few unfair difficulty ramps and the open-world desert is a bit of a slog. And yet, it also does so many things right. As with most Metroid games, there are varying biomes to explore, each with a distinct identity and various flora and fauna that do not like intruders. As with most Nintendo games, the design of these levels are excellent across the board, with clever challenges and puzzles that reward continued exploration.

But for me, seeing a Metroid Prime game in 4K was worth the price of admission alone. Beyond doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it presents an absolutely gorgeous and immersive spectacle the likes of which we haven’t seen in a Metroid game before. Given that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came out in 2007 on the Wii, a console that maxed out at 480p, seeing the series’ impeccable art style brought to life on modern hardware was a delight. It may have some issues, but Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is still worth experiencing.

— N.I.

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound

I’d somehow never played a single Ninja Gaiden game until this year, but I could hardly have had a better introduction to the series. The Game Kitchen’s Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is an old-school, hack-and-slash platformer with top-notch pixel art, an excellent score and slick level design.

The combat helps ensure that everything hangs together. Dual protagonists Kinji Monzu and Kumori (whose souls fuse together) have distinct abilities that work in harmony, and using the right tools to tackle each enemy helps charge up a powerful hyper attack. Ragebound isn’t necessarily easy, but it isn’t frustrating either — unless you’re trying to put it down and do something else, because this is a very absorbing, entertaining game.

— K.H. 

Peak

Peak perfectly captures the delightful, simultaneous disasters that can happen when multiple people make stupid decisions at the same time. Ostensibly a multiplayer game about child scouts who crash land on a deserted island and are forced to climb to the top of a mountain to get rescued, Peak‘s multitude of dangerous biomes, status-affecting consumables and hidden secrets make it fun to get you and your friends killed. The game is an awkward first-person platformer where it’s sometimes easier to shoot someone out of a cannon than it is to get them to toddle up a hill, but those obstacles feel good to overcome because the game lets you talk to people while you do it. 

The term “friendslop” was coined following the popularity of Peak and games like it, a burgeoning micro-genre where games with deceptively simple virtual tasks are paired with proximity-based voice chat. Unsurprisingly, it’s fun to play video games with your friends, but Peak stands out because the ongoing support of developers Aggro Crab and Landfall has managed to keep things interesting in the game for nearly half the year.

— I.C.C.

Oblivion Remaster

There’s a comfort in knowing exactly what you’re going to get from a game. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered delivers all the things I love about Bethesda creations. It’s a world I want to get lost in, where the detours are the true point of the journey. I become a stealth archer cat person who can cause chaos or save the day. And I can enjoy the studio’s signature open-world RPG experience without suffering through the wonky design ideas that made the original game frustrating. For Bethesda fans, this remaster is a joy whether it’s your first time playing Oblivion or your fiftieth.

— A.W.

Öoo

I have a deep appreciation for games that give you a limited set of tools and many ways to use them. Puzzle-platformer Öoo is a brilliantly constructed example of that. It’s so thoughtfully crafted that even the name is perfect. The large Ö looks like the caterpillar character you control and the smaller characters resemble the two bombs that you drag around and use to solve a variety of conundrums. Öoo is also the noise I involuntarily made when I solved some of the puzzles.

Nama Takahashi (who made Öoo with help from Tiny Cactus Studio and Tsuyomi) uses deeply clever level design to teach you how to use the bombs and move forward. Takahashi clearly wants you to succeed. Checkpoints are everywhere, so if you die while trying to find a puzzle solution, there’s no lengthy runback to worry about. The developer (who previously created ElecHead) even made his own walkthrough video to help you get to the end.

Öoo — which you can complete in a single sitting — respects your time. It looks and sounds wonderful too. The music reminds me a lot of the outstanding Poinpy. While I remain sad that it’s not currently possible to play that game, I’m more than happy to have Öoo to return to.

— K.H.

Silksong

It’s such a relief to know that, finally, this is probably the last time I’ll write about Silksong. (Oh no, more is coming.) Seven years in the making, from DLC to standalone game to Reddit meme, Silksong arrived across pretty much every mainstream gaming platform. 

The Hollow Knight sequel swaps to a new protagonist, Hornet, who was a recurring boss in the original. She’s faster, she can attack in diagonal dives, and just plays pretty differently from the Knight. Off the back of the slowburn hit of Hollow Knight, Team Cherry have lavished more attention, more fun and more diverse boss battles, ensuring this feels like a better (although possibly more challenging) game. 

I prefer the faster, risk-and-reward playstyle too. Hornet uses silk to heal, which, like soul in Hollow Knight, you build up by attacking enemies. However, Hornet does this in bulk, healing three hearts at once. When you die, you’ll leave a bounty of silk behind, making for a tempting health top-up you can grab mid-boss fight. If you don’t die before then. 

You can equip Hornet with different weapon and subweapon loadouts, adding a little more variety in this sequel. Heavy, slower weapon swings, or relentless strikes with a much shorter range? Your choice.

When it launched, half the Engadget team were sharing tales of bottlenecks and seemingly impossible boss fights, and we were all exploring the world of Silksong in entirely different directions. That’s the blessing and the curse of a Hollow Knight game. 

— Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief

Silent Hill f

It’s a rare and special thing when a horror game lives up to the gruesome promises of its cinematic teaser trailer, and Silent Hill f accomplishes this and more. Silent Hill f is a heart-pounding survival-horror game set in a rural Japanese village in the 1960s and starring Hinako, a high school student with crappy friends and a tormented home life. Hinako’s town is ravaged by demonic creatures and an infectious botanical fungus, and she has to fight her way through it, shifting among realities and encountering a cast of untrustworthy peers and fox worshippers. The combat starts out great and only gets better as Hinako sacrifices her flesh in the name of salvation, meaning the body horror steadily ramps up as the game progresses. Hinako’s world is filled with terrifying mannequin minions, bulbous pus monsters and disturbing, trypophobic visuals. It’s beautiful.

— J.C.

Subway Builder

Subway Builder is an indie transport sim like no other. Creator Colin Miller combined OpenStreet maps of large cities with government data about where people live and work. This creates a complex web of nodes representing residents and workplaces for you to connect. You’ll start with no public transport infrastructure and try to build out a profitable network. In dense cities like New York this is incredibly easy, but freeing even 20 percent of Phoenix’s endless sprawl from cars without going bust is very challenging. 

The game scratches the same itch for me as Mini Metro, only instead of cutesy vector graphics you’re basically working in Google Maps. It’s also expanding at a rapid pace: When I first played in October, there were maybe 15 locations, and as of writing there are now 29 US cities and, most recently, five UK options. I spent the first 35 years of my life bouncing around Croydon and Lewisham in London; giving South Londoners a proper tube network (while ignoring anything north of Highbury) has been a real treat.

— A.S. 

Sword of the Sea

While the game might always be evoked in the same breath as Journey, the PlayStation classic with which it shares a key creative, Sword of the Sea is more than just another beautiful trek towards a mountain. Combining delectable traversal mechanics from The Pathless and beautiful sea creatures like those in Abzu, the game is a culmination of everything developer Giant Squid is good at. More importantly, though, Sword of the Sea‘s surfing mechanic just looks and feels damn cool.

I don’t know that I ever mastered how to surf on a sword during Sword of the Sea‘s silent and surprisingly brief narrative, but I do know it didn’t take long to care. Carving through sand and snow immediately came easy enough that getting to any of the game’s intriguing landmarks and collectibles was a matter of how, not if. That’s not to discredit the game’s other charms, like a score from Austin Wintory and a photo mode that’s perfect for capturing close encounters with dolphins, whales and sharks. If you need a reason to play Sword of the Sea, though, let it be the surfing. It tells you more about the game and what it wants you to feel than any piece of dialogue could.

— I.C.C. 

Sworn 

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Yes, Sworn is a Hades clone, but it’s a darned good one. This game swaps out the Olympian gods for characters sourced from Arthurian legend, but the nuts and bolts gameplay is pretty much the same. So why was this one of my favorite games in a year when Hades 2 set the world on fire? The combat is extremely addictive and there are multiple character classes that truly change how everything plays. 

Some characters are for up close combat and others are better at dropping turrets and related items that do damage over time. It’s super fun to litter a bunch of poison-soaked cannons in a level and just let them do their thing. It also has four-player co-op, which is chaotic in all the best ways. The story is totally forgettable when compared to Hades, but that’s not why I play roguelites. 

— L.B. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/engadgets-favorite-games-of-2025-153000109.html?src=rss

The Apple Watch is both a companion to the iPhone, as well as a very capable device in its own right. Out of the box, it offers notification mirroring, so you feel every alert on your iPhone on your wrist, as well as workout tracking, so you can keep up with your fitness goals. But this wearable can be so much more than that. In fact, it doesn’t take much to make your Apple Watch more personal and efficient. If you own one, here are ten hacks you need to know about:

Disable every notification you can

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Get your notifications under control. By default, Apple likes to forward every single alert from iPhone to your watch. That’s just a recipe for distraction. You should turn off most of these alerts, and only keep the most important notifications. An important message from Slack or a text from a close friend is worth the distraction; a promotion from Uber is not. Open the Watch app on your iPhone, go to Notifications, scroll down and disable most of the apps that mirror alerts from the iPhone.

While you’re at it, it might help to keep your Watch in Silent mode at all times. Open the Control Center by pressing the Side button and tap the Bell icon to quiet your watch for good.

Master the Apple Watch’s wrist gestures

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

The Apple Watch’s recent wrist gestures have turned out to be a sleeper hit for me. What I thought would be a gimmick is something I use multiple times a day now. If you have an Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2, SE 3, or higher, you get access to two gestures: Double Tap and Wrist Flick. First, if you tap your index finger and your thumb twice in the air, you’ll perform the major action current on-screen. This could include answering a call, stopping a timer, or stopping a workout. I use this all the time now, even when I don’t have my hands full. Second, you can flick your wrist up to go back a screen on your watch. This is a simple way to get back from menus, or to go back to the watch face, without actually tapping the screen.

Automatically unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

This is a feature I’ve been using for years, but since it’s buried quite deep in settings, many users don’t know about it. Once set up, you can unlock your Mac automatically as long as you’re wearing your Apple Watch. It doesn’t even have to be on the same wifi network, so this works when you’re out and about.

To set this up, go to System Settings on your Mac, then choose Touch ID & Password. In the Apple Watch section, simply turn on the sync feature for your Apple Watch. Once you authenticate with your Mac password, you’ll be good to go. The next time you lift the lid on your Mac, macOS will automatically sign you in.

Start using widgets

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

I used to love customizing my watch face with all the various complications for timers, shortcuts, and, weather, just to name a few. But I was never really satisfied with how cluttered things looked when it was all set up. That changed once I embraced the Photos watch face, and moved all the contextual information and shortcuts to widgets. Keeping all those functions and data points in a collapsable stack of widgets, rather than all on screen at once, looks so much better.

To try this out for yourself, scroll using the Crown or swipe up on the watch face to access your widgets. Go to the bottom and tap the Edit button to start customizing your widget stack. You can add three app shortcuts to the top widget. I usually save this for workouts, battery, and the quick timer. Then, I have dedicated widgets for my Activity Rings, Weather, Shortcuts, Sleep, and more. You can pin widgets in the order that you want, and watchOS will also automatically suggest relevant widgets depending on your usage. Dive in deeper with our detailed guide on customizing widgets.

Create your watch face stack, and cycle through them

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Once you move your app interactions to widgets, your watch faces suddenly open up. Take some time to create and customize two to three watch faces that you can switch between as you wish. It’s easy to do at any time: just swipe in from the left or the right edge to change the watch face.

Creating and customizing watch faces is actually easier on the Watch app on the iPhone. In fact, it’s the only place where you can set up my favorite watch face: the Photos watch face. This watch face cycles between the photos of my wife, nature, and urban landscapes, showing me a fresh selection each day. I love this watch face quite a lot. You can also create a watch face for fitness tracking and fitness modes, and a simple watch face for regular use. (My favorites here are Typograph and Meridian watch faces.)

Adjust your Activity Rings as needed

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For almost a decade, you couldn’t edit your Activity Rings. If you got sick, or just wanted to take an easy day, you’d lose your fitness streak. This, of course, isn’t the healthiest approach to fitness—for that, you should check out the Gentler Streak app. However, since last year’s watchOS 11, you’ve had the option to pause or change your Activity Rings. You can do this from the Fitness app on iPhone, which is slightly easier than using the Apple Watch itself. From the Fitness app, tap Activity Rings, then scroll down, where you’ll see Change Goals and Pause Rings. Choose the relevant option to get started. I have detailed instructions in my guide as well.

Control your Apple TV from your wrist

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If you use an Apple TV, you know how easy it is to lose the remote. You might be familiar with the Apple TV’s remote control feature on the iPhone, but that same feature exists on the Apple Watch as well. You’ll have to find the Remote app from the app list, then choose your Apple TV. It should appear as long as it’s on the same network as your watch, and nearby. From here, you can use swipe gestures and buttons to control playback on your TV.

Blare your alarms, even in silent mode

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On the Apple Watch, silent mode and alarm sound levels are married to each other, unlike on the iPhone. But recently, Apple added a feature where you can break-through silent mode for a particular alarm—it’s just not enabled by default for all alarms. To set it up, open an alarm from the Alarms app, go to the Edit Alarm menu, scroll down, and enable Break Through Silent Mode.

Customize Focuses with Apple Watch in mind

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Focuses on the iPhone are supremely powerful, and underrated. And things get a lot more interesting when you add Apple Watch to the mix. Each Focus can have its own watch face associated with it, so you can have a different watch face for your work Focus, another one for your personal Focus, and a fitness watch face for your workout Focus. Go to Settings > Focus to customize or create any Focus.

Track your sleep

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Your Apple Watch comes with a built-in sleep tracker. To use it, you can either go to the Sleep app on Apple Watch, and create a sleep schedule, or simply switch to the Sleep Focus. When you’re in sleep mode, your watch automatically goes dark and silent, so you won’t be bothered by any notifications.

With watchOS 26, your Apple Watch now also gives you a sleep score, which offers more insights into your sleeping habits. I’ve been using the Sleep mode this past year with my Apple Watch Series 10, and I’ve gotten a lot out of the sleep tracking feature already.