aApple just yesterday released its latest update for macOS Big Sur with improved Bluetooth reliability and a handful of bug fixes. And today, it’s rolling out the first beta of macOS Big Sur 11.3, which will bring further refinements to Safari, Reminders, Apple Music, Apple News, and other apps. This update will also try to improve the experience of running iPhone and iPad apps on M1 Macs, which can still be a little awkward at this early stage (and without a touchscreen display).
iPadOS apps will now appear larger than before — if your screen size allows for it — and beta testers will find a new preference pane for iPhone and iPad apps that’ll let them better personalize the “touch alternatives” keyboard commands. Touch alternatives allow for “keyboard alternatives for tap, swipe, and drag gestures, and enables multi-finger gestures using the option key and a trackpad.”
Big Sur 11.3 will make Safari’s start page more customizable, letting you rearrange the different sections (favorites, Reading List, Siri suggestions, etc.) to your own liking. Developers will gain the ability to make extensions that run on the new tab page, and they can also take advantage of a new web speech API to integrate speech recognition on their web pages.
As for the Reminders app, you’ll be able to sort your reminders based on title, due date, priority, or creation date. And with this update, Apple will let you easily print your reminders if a paper copy might prove helpful when running to the store or completing other tasks.
Apple Music gets small tweaks like a shortcut to your “Made for You” personalized playlists and mixes. Live and upcoming special events will be highlighted in the For You tab, as well. The Apple News app is undergoing some design improvements in the Apple News Plus tab to make your magazines and newspapers easier to reach (and download).
And like the upcoming iOS 14.5 update, macOS Big Sur 11.3 adds support for the latest Xbox and PlayStation DualSense controllers; the same compatibility is coming to Apple’s mobile devices as part of iOS 14.5.
Today’s review is of the PowerColor Radeon RX 6800 Red Dragon graphics card. The Red Dragon brand by PowerColor strikes a balance between the enthusiast-focused Red Devil brand and the vanilla reference-design, and the new Fighter series. Competition in this segment comes from the likes of the Sapphire Pulse and ASUS TUF Gaming. The Radeon RX 6800 is the most affordable of AMD’s “Big Navi” GPU family so far, and at a starting price of $580 for the reference-version, AMD is confident that it beats the GeForce RTX 3070. This should mean maxed out gaming with raytracing at 1440p, while the card is fairly capable of 4K UHD gaming with high settings.
If you’re gaming at 1440p or below, the Radeon RX 6800 has an interesting proposition—maxed out gaming, perhaps even at higher refresh rates while offering more future-proofing than an RTX 3070 on account of its 16 GB of faster video memory. Like the RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT, the RX 6800 is based on the new RDNA2 graphics architecture, which meets the full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set, including real-time raytracing, variable-rate shading, mesh shaders, and sampler feedback. This is also the same architecture powering both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which means it’s easy for game developers to optimize for this architecture on the PC. Raytracing requires an enormous amount of compute power, which AMD has nearly doubled over the previous generation. A by-product of all this compute power is a dramatic increase in conventional raster 3D performance, which enables AMD to finally compete with NVIDIA in the high-end segment.
The Radeon RX 6800 is based on the same 7 nm “Navi 21” silicon as the RX 6900 XT, but is heavily cut down. 60 out of 80 RDNA2 compute units physically present on the silicon are enabled, working out to 3,840 stream processors and 60 Ray Accelerators. There are proportionate reductions to other components, such as the TMU count being down to 240, and the ROP count down to 96 (from 128). However, what hasn’t changed is the memory sub-system. You get 16 GB of memory using the fastest JEDEC-standard 16 Gbps memory chips across a 256-bit wide memory bus—the same configuration as the RX 6900 XT. This is faster than the 14 Gbps GDDR6 setup on the RTX 3070, and AMD takes things a step further by deploying a fast on-die L3 cache it calls Infinity Cache. This is a 128 MB scratchpad for the GPU that operates at 2 TB/s in concert with the GDDR6 memory.
As we mentioned earlier, the PowerColor Radeon RX 6800 Red Dragon can still be considered a premium custom-design product even though it’s not as loaded as the flagship Red Devil. You still get a triple-slot cooling solution that uses a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink, a triple fan setup with idle fan stop, and an all-metal shroud and backplate design that looks good in a case. The card is factory overclocked, with its faster OC BIOS running the card at up to 2170 MHz boost (vs. 2105 MHz reference) and a quieter BIOS running it at up to 2140 MHz. The card is currently out of stock everywhere. We did a bit of research and found that it can be found online for $950, which actually makes it one of the most affordable RX 6800 cards out there.
January was a huge month for Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi Foundation released the Raspberry Pi Pico, a brand new board that serves as a microcontroller and uses the organization’s first custom silicon, the RP2040 CPU. There’s now an entire ecosystem of Pico products to go along with all the traditional best Raspberry Pi accessories and HATs.
While the influx of Pico projects is just getting started, the onslaught of awesome innovations based on traditional Pi models continues unabated. February’s best Raspberry Pi projects list includes an Etch-a-Sketch, an intercom and a Lego sorter.
Star Wars-Themed Raspberry Pi Terminal
(Image credit: Maz_Baz)
Cyberdeck projects provide a fun way to be creative and productive. This maker decided to pay homage to Star Wars by theming this Raspberry Pi cyberdeck after the classic sci-fi movie franchise. It can be used for basic things like browsing and coding.
Why we love it:
The force is strong with this Raspberry Pi project, what’s not to love? The concept is fun enough in itself but the final execution makes for a quality machine that can actually be used in a practical manner.
Read:Raspberry Pi Star Wars Terminal
Raspberry Pi Intercom
(Image credit: Bruno, Chordata)
Keeping up with everyone while working from home can be tricky. This project bridges the at-home communication gaps that come with remote working by using a Raspberry Pi to control a custom intercom. It has multiple buttons and relies on Telegram to transfer audio.
Why we love it:
This is a simple and fun project that brings people together in a time when we’re living at a distance. It’s well-designed and hits every marker for an at-home DIY project with the kids. All you need is a Raspberry Pi Zero, a speaker, some buttons and a little bit of patience.
Read:Raspberry Pi Intercom
Raspberry Pi Pico Tetris Demo
(Image credit: Jools64)
While we wait for more Pico projects to roll in, there’s already a couple we can show off! This maker was eager to get the Pico running and developed a quick Tetris demo using Pimoroni’s Display Pack Module. The buttons control the piece direction, speed and orientation.
Why we love it:
We’re super excited for the Pico projects that are coming and this one is a delicious taste of what’s to come! For something thrown together in a few hours, it looks great and like fun to play. We could easily sink an hour into some Pico Tetris if we aren’t careful.
Read:Raspberry Pi Pico Tetris Demo
Raspberry Pi Monitors Your Power Usage
(Image credit: Mark Bryan Milligan)
Keeping an eye on your bills is one thing, but anticipating them by monitoring your own power usage is an entirely new level! This project uses a Raspberry Pi to help monitor power usage and solar panel data.
Why we love it:
Raspberry Pis are a popular choice for smart-home makers and it’s projects like this that demonstrate why. This is an incredibly useful and fascinating application of the Raspberry Pi.
Read:Raspberry Pi Power Monitoring System
PiStation 2
(Image credit: Farizno)
This PlayStation 2 looks like your average, beloved, unsuspecting console from the ’90s but, in fact, it’s home to our favorite SBC. That’s right! This PlayStation 2 is a retrogaming emulator running on the Raspberry Pi.
Why we love it:
It’s a beautiful meld of retro hardware and modern technology. If you’ve got an old, broken console that can’t be refurbished, projects like these are a great way to bring a little life back into them.
Read:Raspberry Pi Playstation 2
Raspberry Pi Etch-A-Sketch
(Image credit: BenB116)
We know you’ve probably seen an Etch-a Sketch before but have you ever seen one so huge? This Raspberry Pi operated board has working knobs and can automatically draw a pre-programmed image for you. The housing was 3D printed while the image displayed is a custom app running in a browser window on the Raspberry Pi.
Why we love it:
We’ve never seen a Raspberry Pi project quite like this one! It’s wonderfully creative and makes for a well-finished piece of art that can be displayed inside your home.
Read:Raspberry Pi Etch-a-Sketch
Raspberry Pi 4-Track Looper
(Image credit: he Psychotenuse)
This groovy Raspberry Pi project is cool enough to make you get up and dance. This maker used a Raspberry Pi to make a 4-track audio looper. He even provides a real-time demo which we absolutely recommend our readers check out.
Why we love it:
Why spend money on specialized hardware when you can make it yourself and even customize your experience along the way? This project is really cool and looks like it would be plenty of fun to recreate at home.
Read:Raspberry Pi 4-Track Looper
Raspberry Pi PlottyBot
(Image credit: Ben Akrin)
Plotters are fun and all, but this one copies your handwriting and can even memorize it as a custom font! This awesome Raspberry Pi project is known as PlottyBot and can also be used to reproduce images. The pen can be replaced with a fountain pen which provides more options for specialized ink.
Why we love it:
We’re writers, what did you expect? It uses fountain pens and a Raspberry Pi. This project is brilliantly crafted and demonstrates the power of creative discipline. Excellent work!
Read:PlottyBot Raspberry Pi Plotter
Raspberry Pi Universal Lego Sorter
(Image credit: Daniel West)
Can’t find the Lego brick you need? We feel you. That’s where this Lego brick sorting Raspberry Pi project comes in! It’s beyond thorough, using AI and machine learning to predict and sort unfamiliar brick shapes.
Why we love it:
It’s made of LEGO bricks for LEGO bricks. There’s just too much fun in this project not to love it! The sorting process is extremely well designed and the final LEGO design is a nice finishing touch.
Read:Raspberry Pi LEGO Brick Sorter
Custom Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Tablet
(Image credit: Ostahos)
Makers have tried to make Raspberry Pi tablets before, but the thick form factor of models like the 3 B+ and 4 always gets in the way. This custom PCB solves that issue by providing a platform for the CM4 module to operate a touchscreen panel.
Why we love it:
This Raspberry Pi project provides all the power of a CM4 module with the user-friendly experience of a tablet interface. It’s one thing to build your own Pi project but designing an open-source PCB is an extra step that gets points in our book.
Read:Raspberry Pi CM4 Tablet
MORE: Raspberry Pi GPIO Pinout: What Each Pin Does
Remastering a series like Mass Effect — not quite a full remake of the trilogy, but more substantial than a port — is a thorny task. It requires work on all three games and dozens of downloadable content packs. There are fan expectations, from players who want to see a beloved universe preserved to those who are still salty about how it all ended. As Mac Walters, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition project director, put it: “We talk about it sort of like we were restoring a beautiful, beloved car. But then it quickly turned into sure, if that car had been buried in cement, and every time you tried to clear off some of the cement you were worried about dinging the paint, or ripping off a mirror.”
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, coming May 14th for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and backwards-compatible with current consoles, packages the Shepard trilogy into one game. That includes over 40 DLC packs released during the series’s run, as well as Mass Effect 3’s extended cut. The game’s story will stay intact, including its controversial ending. Speaking about the extended cut of Mass Effect 3, Walters referred again to developers caught in a cycle of always wanting to fix one last thing. “The extended cut was really that opportunity for us to add a little bit more love and a little bit more context around the ending,” he said.
The first Mass Effect game launched in 2007, and the final game came out in 2012. There are more than a few elements of the game that are dated. “The opportunity now to be able to go back with all of those lessons learned and with all of the advancements … [has] been a dream for me,” Walters, a longtime developer on the original series, said. That includes returning to familiar characters and worlds. “You don’t often get a chance to revisit a lot of these things.”
When it comes to making games, Walters said that developers have to learn to eventually let go. “You have to kind of say we’re done with the game and we’re moving on.” With Mass Effect being a trilogy, the team was able to take that “developer angst” and use it for the next game. “Over the course of three games, we were fortunate enough to sort of build on that and really bring the game and the franchise kind of to where we saw it in our minds’ eye at the very beginning.”
In the new remaster, all three entries can be accessed from a single menu, with players able to start from any game they choose. The tweaks range from a more convenient, comical ability to skip through elevator rides faster to overhauling the look of entire levels like Eden Prime, the very first world players are introduced to in Mass Effect 1. “Ultimately what this was about was bringing this forward onto the current gen and for future generations as well, with the kind of fidelity and taking off some of the edges that people would expect with that,” Walters said.
The changes throughout the series, especially in the first game, are hard to miss. In a presentation offering a direct comparison, characters who previously had curious features — eyelashes like spider legs or potato-shaped heads — now look sleek. Game textures, a well-known buggy feature of Mass Effect 1, in particular, have been fixed to actually resemble the materials they’re meant to be. The team has apparently squashed hundreds of bugs that stuck around throughout the original trilogy.
“It wasn’t that long ago that if you made a very expansive, large playbox kind of game, you could be excused for all sorts of bugs,” Walters told The Verge in a separate interview, reflecting on the memeable nature of bugs these days. “They expect a lot. They expect us to do our jobs, and part of our jobs is shipping a game to quality, bug-free as much as possible.”
But it’s not always so simple. Walters compares it to trying to take a family photo with every relative, plus their pets. “You can imagine that you’re gonna take about 1,000 photos near the end, and one of them’s going to work. That’s the one you ship, and it’s as close as possible.” But look closely, and you start to see that someone has their eyes closed. And in the photos before and after, someone’s passed out in the background. “There’s a lot of challenge there, but no excuse,” Walters said. “I think the expectation from fans more and more is that you ship a quality game period.
As for whether he enjoys all of those memes? “It’s funny if it’s someone else’s bug,” Walters said.
(Pocket-lint) – The rise of Amazon Music Unlimited has gone hand-in-hand with the explosion in the use of Amazon Echo speakers and Alexa, its digital assistant. It integrates seamlessly with Echo devices, while also working just like any other streaming service on your phone and other devices.
Spotify is probably the first service you think of when you think of music streaming – it’s been around the longest, integrates with loads of services, and has some very clever features.
But which service is best for you – Amazon Music or Spotify? We’ve looked at the features of both, how much Spotify and Amazon Music cost, and how you can access them to help you make your ultimate decision: Spotify or Amazon Music Unlimited?
Want to check out other options such as Apple Music or Tidal?
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Prices compared
Amazon Music Unlimited is available with several different pricing tiers available. To help you get to grips with Amazon Music Unlimited and to decide if it’s the right service for you, Amazon offers a 30-day free trial.
If you don’t subscribe to Amazon Prime, a Music Unlimited membership will cost you £9.99/$9.99 a month, but if you do have a Prime account then you’ll only pay £7.99/£7.99 a month or £79/$79 for the whole year.
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited UK
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited US
Amazon also offers a membership for £3.99/$3.99 a month but you can only stream music through the Echo speaker or Echo Dot. Note that you can only use the £3.99 month Echo membership on a single Echo device and it can’t be transferred. If you have multiple Echo devices in your home and want to use Amazon Music Unlimited with all of them, you’ll need a regular individual membership. There’s also a Student membership at $4.99.
A Family membership is available for £14.99/$14.99 a month for up to 6 family members or £149/$149 for a year.
Spotify has a much simpler pricing structure with just three tiers: a free, ad-supported tier and a Premium tier that costs £9.99/$9.99 month. Again, there’s a 30-day free trial.
Spotify also offers offer a family subscription plan which costs £14.99/$14.99 month for you and up to five family members. Each member gets their own personal account.
Students can also get a discounted membership for just £4.99, but they have to sign up through UniDays or NUS Extra.
Sign up for Spotify
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Devices
While Amazon Music can be played on a wide range of devices, it’s in connectivity that Spotify has a killer feature – Spotify Connect. And even though Amazon now has Alexa Cast – enabling you to cast to a variety of Alexa or Bluetooth devices from within the Music Unlimited app – it’s not quite as flexible as Spotify Connect.
Spotify Connect enables you to control what is playing on any Spotify Connect device or Spotify app, from any other. That means you can use your desktop app to control Spotify on your Echo, you can pause it on your phone, find something else and play that on your PC instead. Each app gets to control the music wherever it’s playing.
Amazon Music Unlimited is accessible through the Amazon Music app. The app can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices, as well as Mac and PC. You can also access it through a Web player in your browser and through the company’s Echo devices and Fire tablets. You can also play music through a Sonos multi-room system or Roku media streamer.
Amazon has also said that select BMW and Mini cars are Amazon Music-enabled and provide access to the service through its infotainment system when connected to a smartphone.
Spotify is available almost everywhere, there’s an app for iOS, Android, PC and Mac but is available via Spotify Connect on a list of devices that’s almost too long to put here. You can get a Spotify app on select TVs from Panasonic, LG, Sony, Samsung, B&O and Philips while Spotify works with stacks of audio products including those from Bose, Sonos, Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha, Pionner, Naim, Libratone and Revo.
A wide range of car manufacturers, as well as Uber, have either built-in access via Spotify Connect, Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. The Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox One have apps for Spotify, along with Google Chromecast and Chromecast Audio. Check out this full list of Spotify Connect Devices.
We’ve mentioned both on Amazon Echo devices – while Amazon Music is slightly better integrated, Spotify plays natively too, so there isn’t a huge difference in experience.
And, naturally, you can always stream either from your phone to a Bluetooth speaker or another Bluetooth-enabled device.
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Which offers better sound?
Amazon hasn’t revealed the streaming bitrate quality of its library, but we’d have a guess and say it will be 320kbps as this would put it on par with Spotify.
Spotify reserves 320kbps streaming for its Premium tier. It’s called “extreme quality” on mobile. If you use the free tier and listen on a mobile, you can choose between 96kbps normal quality or 160kbps high quality. The same 160kbps streams are called standard quality on a computer.
However, Amazon also offers a premium tier called Amazon Music HD, which unlocks lossless music at a higher quality, for audiophiles. It’s pricier, and has a more limited library, but is a great way to get higher-quality audio, so that’s a major leg-up over Spotify for now.
What is Spotify Spotlight and how does the new format work?
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Other features
Radio
Both Amazon Music Unlimited and Spotify offer personalised radio stations based on artists and tracks you like.
Both have mood-based playlists and a list of auto-generated stations and you can also choose to start a station based on an artist or song you’re currently listening to. These can also be accessed on Echo devices.
Playlists
Both services will let you create your own custom playlists you can then share with friends, or you can save curated ones to your collection.
Discovery
Amazon’s Music app and the web player have a recommended section which serves up albums and playlists that it things you’ll like based on your listening habits. The Music app itself has had a major redesign, and now claims to make music discovery easier than ever before.
Spotify meanwhile has a feature called Discover Weekly, which is an automatically curated playlist of songs that it thinks you’ll like based on your listening habits. It’s updated every Monday morning and from our experience, we’ve always liked what we’ve heard.
Assistant
Because of the integration with Echo devices, Amazon Music Unlimited can be used with Alexa. You can ask Alexa all manner of questions to get the music you want, such as “play music for a dinner party” or “play Britney Spears greatest hits” and so on.
Spotify has no built-in assistant as such, but can be controlled with Alexa or Google Assistant – so you can simply ask for the music you want “on Spotify” and it will play.
Offline
Both Amazon Music Unlimited and Spotify offer offline playback. Amazon offers it as standard but you can only download songs from Spotify if you subscribe to the Premium tier.
Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify: Which is best?
If you already have an Amazon Prime membership and you’ve bought an Echo speaker or Echo Dot, paying just £3.99 a month makes it incredibly worthwhile if you just want playback on your Echo – certainly cheaper than paying for a full Spotify subscription. And the cheaper price for Prime members mean Amazon Music Unlimited is a no-brainer if you already have a Prime membership.
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited UK
Subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited US
But if you aren’t within the Amazon ecosystem already then Spotify is our pick. Spotify is available almost everywhere and offers a free tier. It’s worth noting that while the free tier still lets you listen to Spotify’s entire music catalogue, it does come with some limitations on where and how you can play your music, restricting downloads and so on.
It helps that Spotify is incredibly easy to use, sounds good and has some incredibly useful music discovery features. We also rate Spotify Connect – it’s the best system if you have a range of different speaker types.
Sign up for Spotify
Also why not check out these Spotify tips and tricks, if you want to level up your experience.
Writing by Max Langridge and Dan Grabham. Editing by Max Freeman-Mills.
For almost a decade and a half, the Yakuza franchise was all but exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation consoles. Other than a Japan-only Wii U remaster of the first two games, every single mainline entry or spinoff was released solely on the PlayStation 2, PSP, PS3, or PS4.
Then Microsoft came along. Along with Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, Yakuza has slowly become a flagship Japanese series for Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service. It all started under a year ago with the addition of Yakuza 0, and as of this week you can play almost every mainline Yakuza game on Game Pass.
Couple this with the fact that the next-gen version of Yakuza: Like A Dragon is still exclusive to Xbox Series consoles, with a PS5 version not set to arrive until March, and the improbable conclusion is clear: Xbox — including the PC branch of the ecosystem — is now the easiest and best way to get into the series.
What’s changed this week is the addition of three new mainline Yakuza games. Remastered versions of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 are all now on Game Pass for Xbox and PC after getting a bundled PS4 release in 2019. (You can also buy the trio for $39.99.) These games originally all came out on the PS3, meaning they wouldn’t otherwise have been playable on modern systems through backwards compatibility.
These aren’t particularly impressive ports on a technical level. Like most other Yakuza games on the Xbox, they run at 1080p and 60fps with little apparent benefit for the more powerful Xbox consoles. But honestly, given the aging source material, that’s perfectly fine.
What matters is that you’ll be able to play almost the entire mainline Yakuza series for the price of a Game Pass subscription. And I definitely think you should do that, because this series is incredibly good. There’s really nothing like the way Yakuza blends brutal violence, goofy comedy, and incredible pathos in the context of a crime drama action RPG.
Without spoiling anything, here’s how I’d recommend getting into it:
Start with Yakuza 0. Normally you’d want to play the first game in a series before tackling its prequel, but Yakuza is different. 0 is set decades before Yakuza, in bubble-era ‘80s Japan, and it’s widely considered to be one of the best in the series. It’s the perfect place to start, and it’ll tell you all you need to know about the background for what’s to come.
Next, play Yakuza Kiwami. This is a full-on remake of the original Yakuza, which was released for the PS2 in 2005. Kiwami came out shortly after 0 and is technically very similar, with a bunch of narrative callbacks to the prequel, which is why it makes sense to play 0 first.
Up next, Yakuza Kiwami 2. Like Kiwami, this is a remake of a PS2 game, 2006’s Yakuza 2. But it moves to the PS4-era Dragon Engine, first seen in Yakuza 6, and it’s a much bigger and more accomplished game than Kiwami.
Now play Yakuza 3, 4, and 5. At this point I’m guessing you’re pretty into the series, so the prospect of three straight-up PS3 remasters won’t seem intimidating at all. I think 4 is the best of these three games, but you’re going to want to get through all of them.
Wait for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life to come to Game Pass. That won’t be too long a wait — it’s happening on March 25th. Or you could just play it on a PS4 before then. But make sure you do play it, either way, because it’s wonderful.
Now it’s time for Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Otherwise known as Yakuza 7 in Japan, I actually think you could start with this one too if you really just wanted to play the newest game. It’s very different to the others, with an all-new cast and turn-based battle system, and right now it’s best on the Xbox Series X. But you will get a little more out of it if you’ve played the other games in the series, so I’d hold off if you can. It’s also not on Game Pass — you’ll have to buy it separately. And as a final warning, it’s two or three times longer than most of the other games. (But worth it!)
You may also want to play Judgment, which is a pretty good spinoff set in the Yakuza Cinematic Universe, but it’s not important to the overall story and is still only on PS4. I’d slot it in after 6 if you have the chance.
The other Yakuza spinoffs aren’t really worth worrying about. There’s Kenzan and Ishin, two separate samurai-era games that were never localized into English. That was also the case for the PSP-exclusive Kurohyo and its sequel. And while Dead Souls, a PS3 zombie shooter set on the streets of Tokyo, did make it out in the West, you’re better off pretending it never happened.
I’ve been playing the Yakuza series from day one on the PS2, but back then I never imagined it’d get so expansive or accessible. I’d recommend these games to anyone, and the barrier to entry is so low now for anyone with an Xbox or a PC and a lot of spare time on their hands. If you haven’t gotten into the series yet, it might be the single best reason to subscribe to Game Pass.
There’s a new Cyberpunk 2077 patch making the rounds, and the sole reason for its existence is to fix the bugs introduced from the previous patch.
When CD Projekt Red released patch 1.0 for Cyberpunk 2077, it broke a critical mission in the game, introducing a game-breaking bug. During the quest “Down on the Street,” those with Cyberpunk 2077 version 1.06 save data and then updated to patch 1.1 had noticed that the dialogue options were missing during the “Wait For Takemura’s Call” segment. This prohibited game progression and, as you can imagine, frustrated those making their way through the game. This bug affected all versions of the game.
Hotfix 1.11 is available on PC, consoles and Stadia!This update restores item randomization and fixes a bug which affected some users’ holocall with Takemura in Down on the Street quest.Details: https://t.co/SsVYRGfdha pic.twitter.com/TAQmRilNxqJanuary 28, 2021
While hotfix 1.11 was released to fix the game-breaking bug, the item randomization was rolled back to pre-patch 1.1 as well. Visit CD Projekt Red’s website for more info for a full list of changes.
Before installing this hotfix, make sure you have enough space to do so. Multiple users have reported that at least 60GB of space is needed during the installation process for the game’s GOG version. In comparison, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions need at least 15GB free to install the update.
At this point, I’m just waiting to see what else happens. Fingers crossed that this hotfix 1.11 doesn’t introduce any other unforeseen issues.
Cyberpunk 2077 is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia worldwide.
Tesla’s all-new Model S not only offers a higher peak power, longer range, and faster acceleration, but in a tweet from Patrick Schur spotted by PC Gamer it is rumored that the Model S also features an infotainment system with a combined compute horsepower of around 10 FP32 TFLOPS, which is powerful enough to play Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3. But can it mine cryptocurrency like this BMW i8 with six RTX 3080 in the trunk?
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The new car uses an all-new infotainment system that uses a computer featuring 10 presumably FP32 TFLOPS of compute power, which is comparable to that of Sony’s PlayStation 5. That horsepower is presumably shared between all three displays, so one user cannot have access to all that performance. The infotainment system is still good enough to play such games as Cyberpunk 2077 as well as The Witcher 3. To make the gaming experience better, the new Tesla S features a 22-speaker, 960-Watt audio system with active noise cancelling.
What is unclear is which hardware Tesla uses for the new Model S. Historically, Tesla used SoCs designed by Nvidia, but we have no idea what SoCs power 2020 Model S’s infotainment system.
The new Model S Long Range starts at $79,990, whereas the new Model S Plaid starts at $119,900. The car maker will start delivering its latest vehicles this March.
Cyberpunk 2077’s big new 1.1 patch introduced a game-breaking bug earlier this week, and now Developer CD Projekt Red is fixing it. A new 1.11 hotfix is available across PC, Stadia, and Xbox / PlayStation consoles today. While it also restores item randomization to a previous state, the primary purpose is to fix the game-breaking part of the “Down on the Street” quest.
The quest includes a holocall that’s supposed to trigger progress through the main part of Cyberpunk 2077’s storyline, but some players found the call was silent and blocked progress of the game. CD Projekt Red published a workaround after a few hours, and has now followed up with a hotfix after the problem was spotted earlier this week.
Cyberpunk 2077 has been plagued by bugs since its release on December 10th, and this marks the fourth hotfix release to quickly fix problems. Most of the bugs and issues haven’t been game-breaking like this one, and it’s encouraging to see CD Projekt Red fix the problem after just a few days.
CD Projekt Red is also planning another major 1.2 patch that is supposed to be a “larger, more significant update” that will arrive in the coming weeks.
(Pocket-lint) – Feeling all nostalgic? Well, if you want to dabble in a bit of old-school gaming then there’s no need to go digging the PS1 or Dreamcast out of the attic – so many of those machines’ older games have been lovingly picked up and remastered by developers. No scratched CD nightmares or cartridge-blowing attempts required.
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Best PS5 games: Amazing PlayStation 5 titles to pick up
Here, we round up 10 stone-cold classics that have been given a proper update, bringing those early PlayStation, Xbox, SNES, Dreamcast and Saturn crackers into the modern era. If you’re looking for some throwback fun, why not head straight into the past through modern technology, eh?
Demon’s Souls
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Demon’s Souls is probably the best-looking launch game for next-gen, making the most of the PS5 with amazing environments and graphics. Its sound design is unrivaled, and there’s a thrill of discovery throughout whether you’re a returning player or a first-time explorer.
It’s also a perfect remake of a classic game, which launched the Souls-like genre and introduced the world to its challenging combat and unforgiving mechanics. If you have a PS5, you owe it to yourself to try this one out.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
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It’s hard to believe that the original Link’s Awakening released some 27 years ago on the SNES. Nintendo has really dug deep for the Switch remaster, ramping up the graphics to ultra-cute levels, while maintaining the original game’s isometric viewpoint. The thing that will really take you, though, is just how darn good this game still plays – it’s got the story down to keep you hooked and feels like it could have been made yesterday, rather than decades ago.
Read our review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Just over a decade ago one of the most controversial first-person shooters to ever arrive on the shelves caused all kinds of outrage due to one specific airport mission. And now it’s back, fully intact, and without quite so much fanfare about its questionable level. The graphics have been dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era, giving what was arguably one of the best COD titles ever a remaster that will make you relive the action all over again.
The Last of Us Remastered
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We can think of no other game before it that brought storytelling to Hollywood levels, seamlessly integrated into a wonderfully deep and engrossing action-adventure. The original game appeared on the PlayStation 3 at the very end of its life, so when the PS4 launched soon after this one was a no-brainer to bring back to life (just like a zombie, albeit far more appealing) with all the new hardware could throw at it. Still one of the best games of all time.
Read our review
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
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When Halo arrived as an Xbox exclusive almost two decades ago it gave Microsoft the stamp of approval it needed to become a console-selling winner. It was the title to redefine first-person shooters for a new generation, before Call of Duty and the like got their claws in. Throughout the Xbox and Xbox 360’s lifespan we saw Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4 – all with awe-inspiring titles, we’re sure you’ll agree – which is what makes up this extensive package, in remastered glory.
Read our review
Resident Evil 2
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We know, we know, the remastered Resident Evil 3 is also out now. But there’s just something about the second title in that series that really gets us; something altogether more classic about it. And after 22 years its debut, the remastered Resi almost feels more applicable than ever. In times of lockdown and social isolation there’s something all the more terrifying about this one.
Read our review
Uncharted Trilogy: The Nathan Drake Collection
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Developed by Naughty Dog, Nathan Drake’s escapades throughout the trio of Uncharted games titillated gamers in a series of releases equally spaced over six years. The action-adventure game brought what Naughty Dog does so well: integrating story into really fun video-gaming. Knowing that Uncharted 4 was coming to PS4, Sony did a clever thing in releasing the original trio for that console back in 2015. Even now these games are a step-by-step masterclass in structure, well worth a revisit.
Shadow of the Colossus
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This is an unusual one. The original PS2 went against the grain, delivering an open-world with not a huge amount of direction, places to visit or interaction. Which sounds like a mirror of the lockdown world of today, eh? The goal in Shadow is to take down huge colossi, making it more of a puzzler than many games of the era. And reimagined for PS4 everything looks altogether more, um, colossal in the graphics department.
Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy
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The first three Crash Bandicoot games were a breath of fresh air in an era that took platform games into three-dimensions. Even in the 90s these were immense fun, but if you were to look at the originals now your jaw would drop for the lack of fidelity. Thankfully, Sony has brought the trio right back up to date with N Sane Trilogy – you wouldn’t even know these were over two decades old. And if this is up your street, don’t forget about Spyro Reignited too.
Read our review
Panzer Dragoon
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Some will love it, some will hate it. We’re very much in the former camp, as this classic was the game to introduce us to next-gen playing as it was back in Sega Saturn era 1995. Sure, the PlayStation stomped all over the 3D rendering capabilities, but as Japan-style shooters went, this one always made us think of Star Fox, Sega style. And now you can pick it up, reworked, for the Nintendo Switch. Lovely.
Writing by Mike Lowe. Editing by Max Freeman-Mills.
AMD is firing on all cylinders these days: it’s the guts of every modern PlayStation and Xbox, it has the desktop CPUs to beat, it’s nearly caught up to Nvidia in GPU performance (if not availability), and it’s about to challenge Intel in laptops as well — with its Ryzen 5000 mobile CPUs and RDNA 2 GPUs due later this year.
All of that can translate to eye-popping dollar signs: the chipmaker just announced its Q4 and full-year 2020 earnings, and it’s adding billions of dollars wherever you look:
$3.2 billion in revenue this quarter, up 53 percent from $2.1 billion last quarter
$1.78 billion in profit this quarter, up 948 percent from $170 million last quarter*
$9.76 billion in revenue this past year, up 45 percent from $6.7 billion in 2019
$2.49 billion in profit this past year, up 630 percent from $341 million in 2019*
AMD says it’s a new revenue record for the company, despite previously saying it expected weakened demand in the second half of the year due to the pandemic.
The big dollar signs don’t all represent consumer-grade chips, of course, as the company has its fingers in many silicon pies, but more than half of its quarterly revenue came from its Computing and Graphics segment, which was “up 18 percent year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter primarily driven by strong sales of Ryzen processors.”
We’ll update this post if there are any intriguing details on the earnings call, particularly about when we can expect the company’s desktop CPUs and GPUs to become less hard to find.
*Those profits include “a fourth quarter income tax benefit of $1.30 billion associated with a valuation allowance release,” according to the company.
(Pocket-lint) – The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S have been out for a little while now, not that getting hold of one is getting any easier than it was at launch. Still, if you’re the proud owner of a new console, or know your TV is a little old, you might want to upgrade your display to go with it.
Xbox Series X vs PS5: Battle of the powerhouses
But which TV should you go for? The new consoles bring a bunch of interesting new (and less new) features to the table that depend on your TV, from HDR to Ultra HD 4K resolutions and high refresh-rates. Some of these depend on your hardware, so picking the right TV can be a minefield.
We’ve selected some of the very best options, though, to help guide you to a stellar gaming experience for years to come.
Our pick of the best Ultra HD TVs for PS5 and Xbox
LG
LG CX series
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LG’s CX line of TVs comes in a few sizes, and is quite simply the standout choice of basically everyone in the industry when it comes to next-gen gaming, with good reason.
It’s one of the few TVs that brings all the bells and whistles that Sony and Microsoft have been mentioning, including high-refresh rates, HDMI 2.1, HDR and stunning OLED picture quality. That said, you’ll pay for it all – these are mighty pricey sets, and their prices really haven’t come down much at all since release.
This is one of very few widely available TVs out there that ticks every box, so jump on it if it fits your budget!
Sony
Sony Bravia KD-XH9005
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You’d hope that Sony would be able to make a TV that can maximise the power of the PS5, and it’s popped up with the KD55XH9005 to show what it can do.
It’s a gorgeous TV, that’s for sure, an LED panel that’s still got great blacks and crystal-sharp 4K to boot, with HDMI 2.1 on board. However, the TV will only be able to handle faster refresh rates once an incoming software update lands, which is something to bear in mind if that’s a high priority for you.
Samsung
Samsung QEQ90T
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Samsung’s right up there with the best when it comes to picture quality, its QLED tech making for gorgeous detail and great colour, with impressive blacks that perhaps don’t quite match an OLED.
Still, the Q90T is a beauty that caters to high refresh rates and embraces HDMI 2.1, making for a brilliant package, albeit one that’s still pretty expensive. Samsung’s Tizen OS is also nice and simple to use, and its game mode is a reliable automated little wonder. It all adds up to a superb option.
Samsung
Samsung TU8500
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You don’t normally associate Samsung with lower-cost options, and it’s fair to say this is still on the pricier end of the whole market, but if you want a TV that’s got some next-gen features without breaking the bank completely, it’s a good choice.
You’re getting Samsung’s Crystal UHD display rather than QLED, which is the big cost-saver, but the picture is still superb and 4K games look excellent. You also miss out on 120Hz compatibility, but we genuinely think that many people won’t mind that at all when they can have 60FPS gaming that looks this good.
Samsung
Samsung Q950TS
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Returning to the other end of the affordability spectrum, if you really want to feel like you’re living in the future you could opt for an 8K TV – the next-gen consoles can output at that level technically, although we don’t think you’ll see many games that actually do so.
This mammoth Samsung set is still great for 4K content, though, and upscales really nicely to make for crisp and gorgeous images. It’ll cost you an arm and a leg, but 8K will probably roll out to be normal eventually, so you could choose to jump aboard now, if you like.
Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Dan Grabham.
With over 300 million active users worldwide (almost half of which are paying subscribers), Spotify is the world’s largest and most popular music streaming service. But thanks to Spotify Connect – arguably the streaming world’s most important feature – you’re no longer restricted to listening to the catalogue solely through your phone or desktop.
The feature allows you to play the catalogue over wi-fi to any compatible audio product (more on that later) you have in your home – and with just two presses of a button! It’s so simple and convenient that streaming service rival Tidal has now launched its own Tidal Connect feature.
Spotify Connect is a godsend for house parties – so long as you trust your friends with the controls! – but it’s really for anyone who wants to easily access Spotify’s 60-million-song-catalogue and curated playlists on hi-fi and AV kit and smart speakers without the hassle of Bluetooth pairing.
So how does it work? How do you set it up? And what are the perks of Spotify Connect?
Spotify review
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What is Spotify Connect?
As we touched upon above, Spotify Connect is a way of playing Spotify through your wireless speaker, soundbar, AV receiver, voice-control smart speaker, or any other compatible device, over wi-fi. That means you can play your favourite tunes anywhere in the house, all without the need for any convoluted Bluetooth pairing between devices every time you want to listen to music. Just note that it’s a Spotify Premium feature, so you won’t be able to benefit from it if you’re a user of Spotify’s free, ad-supported tier.
Best of all, Spotify Connect doesn’t use your smartphone (or tablet or desktop) app to stream music. It plays music directly from its servers to the device, leaving your smartphone free for making calls and all other uses. You only have to use your phone to identify the speaker in the first place and then control music playback.
To ensure the best quality possible, Spotify Connect always streams in 320kbps, which is the highest bitrate Spotify currently offers.
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How does Spotify Connect work? What products support it?
Just like Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect works over wi-fi. It seeks out compatible devices that are connected to the same wi-fi network and links them together to wirelessly to stream music.
To use Spotify Connect, you’ll first need a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer with the Spotify app downloaded on to it. To use Spotify Connect with most devices you’ll also need a Spotify Premium subscription, although some (the PlayStation 4, for example) are happy to work with Spotify Free. Other perks of paying for the Spotify Premium subscription (£9.99, $9.99, AU$11.95 a month) include no ads and being able to pick songs on the mobile app rather than just shuffle.
And then you just need the right product. Chances are you might already have a speaker or amp that supports Spotify Connect: there are heaps of Spotify Connect-enabled products, including smart speakers, music streamers and other hi-fi streaming components, wireless speakers, smart TVs, wearables and car audio systems. You can find the full list of compatible kit here.
Spotify Connect really has become a must-have feature in the AV and particularly audio world, and these days you won’t see many streaming-enabled products without it. In fact, it’s become so ubiquitous it’s usually the first feature you’ll see on a streaming-capable product’s feature list.
Spotify Connect works on one device at a time, unless you’re using a multi-room system such as Sonos, where you can select a group (two rooms or more, set up via Sonos’s app) to stream music to.
Spotify vs Tidal – which is better?
Apple Music vs Spotify – which is better?
How to set up Spotify Connect
Spotify Connect is simple to use. Download the latest version of the Spotify app to your control device – a smartphone, tablet or computer, say – and make sure both it and your chosen product(s) are connected to the same wi-fi network.
On your smartphone, launch Spotify, log into your subscription account, and select a song to start playing. Click the ‘Now Playing’ bar, then the device logo at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. This will show which of your connected products can play from Spotify. Select a device (the text will go from white to green) and music will start playing on that device. Magic!
If you’re using Spotify Connect to listen to a song on another smartphone or tablet, make sure both devices are logged in to the same Spotify account and simply follow the steps above.
On the desktop app, click the ‘Connect to a device’ button in the bottom-right corner. This brings up the devices menu. Select the one you’d like to use, and it’ll do the rest.
Spotify claims using Connect lets you switch between multiple products “without skipping a beat”. In reality, there’s always a tiny bit of delay when you swap products, but it’s much quicker than having to pair to Bluetooth every time.
Once you’re all set, your smartphone or computer becomes the remote control: select a song or playlist, pause, skip or shuffle through Spotify’s vast catalogue.
Another big advantage of using Spotify Connect (especially on a product that supports it natively), is when you fire up the app or switch between products, it will always adjust the volume automatically for the chosen audio product. Pretty neat.
Best music streaming services 2021
How do you use your smartphone while using Spotify Connect?
You can use it normally without worrying that whatever you’re doing – sending a text, playing a game, watching a YouTube clip – will interrupt the music.
All songs are streamed directly from Spotify’s cloud servers to your Spotify Connect product; your phone acts purely as a controller.
First of all, this means playing Spotify won’t sap your smartphone’s battery – a fine reason to invest in a Premium account. Since you’re only using your smartphone or tablet to control playback, it goes a long way in prolonging the battery life.
Secondly, it means you can wish your mum happy birthday or make that pizza delivery call without having to pause and interrupt your carefully curated playlist.
You can also switch between devices seamlessly. Were you listening to Spotify through your headphones on your way home? Once you’ve walked through the door, simply select your Spotify Connect-compatible stereo system in the app and the song will carry on playing through your speakers without having to pause or restart it. If it’s non-stop music you want, you’ve got it.
Listen to the What Hi-Fi? playlist
Does Spotify Connect work with voice control?
If you use a smart speaker, such as the Amazon Echo, Sonos One or Google Nest Audio, you can use voice commands to play music from Spotify on them.
Add your Spotify account to the list of music streaming services (this can be done in the Alexa or Google Home apps) and make sure you select Spotify as your default music player so you don’t have to specify which service to use at every turn. Then simply say “Alexa, play the new Taylor Swift album” or “OK Google, play the John Wick soundtrack” and your smart speaker will comply.
We can’t see the Apple HomePod and HomePod Mini with Siri voice control supporting Spotify Connect anytime soon, although you can play Spotify through those Apple speakers via AirPlay.
But you might not need to rely on other brands and services to get voice controlled Spotify music: there are reports that Spotify is testing its own in-app “Hey Spotify” voice assistant.
We hope that if and when it does happen, Spotify finally unveils that lossless Hi-Fi tier – we’ve had our fingers crossed for over three years now.
MORE:
Read how Spotify saved the music industry but left some genres behind
Where is Spotify Hi-Fi? And do we still want a lossless Spotify tier?
Best free music apps: get free music on Android and iPhone
8BitDo is best known for its affordable retro controllers, but its latest product is quite a bit more ambitious. It’s a wireless arcade stick for the Nintendo Switch and PCs, simply called the 8BitDo Arcade Stick, and at $89.99 it’s now the most expensive controller in the company’s lineup.
Arcade sticks can be pretty pricey, though. Hori sells a $199.99 PlayStation-licensed PS4 model, for example, so 8BitDo is still at the more accessible end of the market if you do want an arcade stick. And if you do want one for the PC or Switch, I think this one is actually a great place to start.
8BitDo’s stick is specifically designed for the Switch and PC (via XInput), and it manages to feel native to both platforms thanks to a neat little trick: the button labels are red LEDs that switch on and off depending on where you’re playing. Turn the knob at the top left of the stick and the labels you don’t need will disappear. It looks cool and makes the stick easier to use, which makes it a pretty inspired decision in my book.
The stick’s visual design otherwise comes off like the offspring of a NES Advantage controller and a Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer, with its gray, red, and black color scheme offset by round colored buttons in the corner. It’s quite small, as arcade sticks go, but it feels hefty and well-built. And while the compact size and wireless connectivity make it easy to pack away, the design is sleek enough that it could happily sit on a coffee table for a while. (At least it could on mine.)
There are three ways to connect the stick: a 2.4GHz USB dongle, Bluetooth, and a USB-C cable. The dongle can be stored in a door at the back of the stick, which is a helpful touch. Hardcore fighting game enthusiasts wouldn’t dream of using a wireless stick in competition, so the wired functionality is very welcome, but I found wireless performance to be fine for casual play. Battery life is good in wireless modes, too — 8BitDo says you should get 40 hours with the dongle and 30 hours with Bluetooth, and I haven’t needed to recharge the stick since unboxing it.
In terms of feel, 8BitDo’s stick isn’t quite up there with the most high-end options, as you’d expect for the price, but it’s still very playable. The micro-switched stick is reassuringly clicky and the buttons feel solid, plus you have the ability to swap them out if you feel like diving into the rabbit hole of stick customization. My one complaint is that I’m used to bigger sticks and tend to grip from the side, so I sometimes found my (admittedly big) left hand “slouching” on the edge of the boxy chassis, which wasn’t too comfortable. But it did at least encourage me to improve my “broomstick” grip technique.
I used the stick to play various arcade-style games, mostly fighting games like Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Garou: Mark of the Wolves, as well as some scrolling shooters like Ikaruga. Did it make me any better at any of these games? Well, no, but I had more fun playing them than I would with a controller. While arcade sticks aren’t for everyone, there are some types of games that I’ll always prefer to use one with, and 8BitDo’s Arcade Stick is up to the task.
I really like the 8BitDo Arcade Stick, and I think it’d be a great product for most people looking for a stick for their Switch or PC. It’s relatively affordable but has a uniquely stylish design and user-friendly feature set, making it an easy way to get started in the world of arcade sticks.
8BitDo is best known for its affordable retro controllers, but its latest product is quite a bit more ambitious. It’s a wireless arcade stick for the Nintendo Switch and PCs, simply called the 8BitDo Arcade Stick, and at $89.99 it’s now the most expensive controller in the company’s lineup.
Arcade sticks can be pretty pricey, though. Hori sells a $199.99 PlayStation-licensed PS4 model, for example, so 8BitDo is still at the more accessible end of the market if you do want an arcade stick. And if you do want one for the PC or Switch, I think this one is actually a great place to start.
8BitDo’s stick is specifically designed for the Switch and PC (via XInput), and it manages to feel native to both platforms thanks to a neat little trick: the button labels are red LEDs that switch on and off depending on where you’re playing. Turn the knob at the top left of the stick and the labels you don’t need will disappear. It looks cool and makes the stick easier to use, which makes it a pretty inspired decision in my book.
The stick’s visual design otherwise comes off like the offspring of a NES Advantage controller and a Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer, with its gray, red, and black color scheme offset by round colored buttons in the corner. It’s quite small, as arcade sticks go, but it feels hefty and well-built. And while the compact size and wireless connectivity make it easy to pack away, the design is sleek enough that it could happily sit on a coffee table for a while. (At least it could on mine.)
There are three ways to connect the stick: a 2.4GHz USB dongle, Bluetooth, and a USB-C cable. The dongle can be stored in a door at the back of the stick, which is a helpful touch. Hardcore fighting game enthusiasts wouldn’t dream of using a wireless stick in competition, so the wired functionality is very welcome, but I found wireless performance to be fine for casual play. Battery life is good in wireless modes, too — 8BitDo says you should get 40 hours with the dongle and 30 hours with Bluetooth, and I haven’t needed to recharge the stick since unboxing it.
In terms of feel, 8BitDo’s stick isn’t quite up there with the most high-end options, as you’d expect for the price, but it’s still very playable. The micro-switched stick is reassuringly clicky and the buttons feel solid, plus you have the ability to swap them out if you feel like diving into the rabbit hole of stick customization. My one complaint is that I’m used to bigger sticks and tend to grip from the side, so I sometimes found my (admittedly big) left hand “slouching” on the edge of the boxy chassis, which wasn’t too comfortable. But it did at least encourage me to improve my “broomstick” grip technique.
I used the stick to play various arcade-style games, mostly fighting games like Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Garou: Mark of the Wolves, as well as some scrolling shooters like Ikaruga. Did it make me any better at any of these games? Well, no, but I had more fun playing them than I would with a controller. While arcade sticks aren’t for everyone, there are some types of games that I’ll always prefer to use one with, and 8BitDo’s Arcade Stick is up to the task.
I really like the 8BitDo Arcade Stick, and I think it’d be a great product for most people looking for a stick for their Switch or PC. It’s relatively affordable but has a uniquely stylish design and user-friendly feature set, making it an easy way to get started in the world of arcade sticks.
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