Category: Technology

A series of missteps put Microsoft in second place before the Xbox One even came out. With the launch of the Xbox Series X and S, though, Microsoft is in a great position to compete. Both are well-priced, well-specced consoles with a huge library of games spanning two decades.

Microsoft’s console strategy is unique. Someone with a 7-year old Xbox One has access to an almost-identical library of games as the owner of a brand-new Xbox Series X. That makes it difficult to maintain meaningfully different lists for its various consoles — at least for now. But while “next-gen” exclusives may be few and far between, with PS4 outselling Xbox One by a reported two-to-one, there are a lot of gamers who simply haven’t experienced much of what Microsoft has had to offer since the mid ‘10s.

It’s with that frame of mind that we approach this list: What games would we recommend to someone picking up an Xbox today — whether it’s a Series X, a Series S, One X or One S — after an extended break from Microsoft’s consoles?

This list then, is a mixture of games exclusive to Microsoft’s consoles and cross-platform showstoppers that play best on Xbox. We’ve done our best to explain the benefits Microsoft’s systems bring to the table where appropriate. Oh, and while we understand some may have an aversion to subscription services, it’s definitely worth considering Game Pass Ultimate, which will allow you to play many of the games on this list for a monthly fee.

Deathloop

Deathloop, from the studio that brought you the Dishonored series, is easy enough to explain: You’re trapped in a day that repeats itself. If you die, then you go back to the morning, to repeat the day again. If you last until the end of the day, you still repeat it again. Colt must “break the loop” by efficiently murdering seven main characters, who are inconveniently are never in the same place at the same time. It’s also stylish, accessible and fun.

While you try to figure out your escape from this time anomaly, you’ll also be hunted down by Julianna, another island resident who, like you, is able to remember everything that happens in each loop. She’ll also lock you out of escaping an area, and generally interfere with your plans to escape the time loop. (The online multiplayer is also addictive, flipping the roles around. You play as Julianna, hunting down Colt and foiling his plans for murder. )

As you play through the areas again (and again) you’ll equip yourself with slabs that add supernatural powers, as well as more potent weapons and trinkets to embed into both guns and yourself. It’s through this that you’re able to customize your playstyle or equip yourself in the best way to survive Julianna and nail that assassination. Each time period and area rewards repeat exploration, with secret guns, hidden conversations with NPCs and lots of world-building lore to discover for yourself.

Originally a timed PlayStation exclusive, Deathloop landed on Xbox in September 2022.

Overwatch 2

Even though Blizzard has improved the onramp for new players this time around, Overwatch 2 still has a steep learning curve. Stick with it, though, and you’ll get to indulge in perhaps the best team shooter around. Overwatch 2 has a deceptively simple goal — stand on or near an objective and keep the other team away long enough to win. It’s much more complex in practice. To the untrained eye, matches may seem like colorful chaos, but Overwatch 2 has a deceptively simple goal — stand on or near an objective and keep the other team away long enough to win.

It’s much more complex in practice. Blizzard reduced the number of players on each team from six to five. That, along with across-the-board character tweaks, has made gameplay faster-paced and more enjoyable compared with the original Overwatch. There’s a greater emphasis on individual impact, but you’ll still need to work well with your teammates to secure a victory.

Now featuring a cast of more than 30 heroes, each with distinct abilities and playstyles, you’ll surely find a few Overwatch 2 characters that you can connect with. The first batch of new heroes are all a blast to play. There are many great (though often fairly expensive) new skins to kit them out with too. The game looks and sounds terrific too, thanks to Blizzard’s trademark level of polish. At least until you figure out how to play Overwatch 2, you can marvel at how good it looks.

Control

Take the weird Twin Peaks narrative of Alan Wake, smash it together with Quantum Break‘s frenetic powers and gunplay, and you’ve got Control. Playing as a woman searching for her missing brother, you quickly learn there’s a thin line between reality and the fantastical. It’s catnip for anyone who grew up loving The X-Files and the supernatural. It’s also a prime example of a studio working at their creative heights, both refining and evolving the open-world formula that’s dominated games for the past decade.

Control on the last-gen Xbox is a mixed affair, with the One S struggling a little, but the One X being head-and-shoulders above the PS4 Pro when it comes to fidelity and smoothness. With the launch of the next-gen consoles, an ‘Ultimate Edition’ emerged which brought the ray-tracing and higher frame rates that PC gamers enjoyed to console players. Although you’ll only get those benefits as a next-gen owner, it also includes all the released DLC and is the edition we recommend buying, even if you’re not planning to immediately upgrade.

Halo Infinite

Master Chief’s latest adventure may not make much sense narratively, but it sure is fun to play. After the middle efforts from 343 Industries over the last decade, Halo Infinite manages to breathe new life into Microsoft’s flagship franchise, while also staying true to elements fans love. The main campaign is more open than ever, while also giving you a new freedom of movement with the trusty grappling hook. And the multiplayer mode is wonderfully addictive (though 343 still needs to speed up experience progression), with a bevy of maps and game modes to keep things from getting too stale. The only thing keeping it from greatness is its baffling and disjointed story, but it’s not like Xbox fans have many options when it comes to huge exclusives right now.

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 deftly walks a fine line by being an extremely deep and complex racing game that almost anyone can just pick up and play. The game has hundreds of cars that you can tweak endlessly to fit your driving style, and dozens of courses spread all over a gorgeous fictional corner of Mexico. If you crank up the difficulty, one mistake will sink your entire race, and the competition online can be just as fierce.

But if you’re new to racing games, Forza Horizon 5 does an excellent job at getting you up and running. The introduction to the game quickly gives you a taste at the four main race types you’ll come across (street racing, cross-country, etc.), and features like the rewind button mean that you can quickly erase mistakes if you try and take a turn too fast without having to restart your run. Quite simply, Forza Horizon 5 is a beautiful and fun game that works for just about any skill level. It’s easy to pick up and play a few races and move on with your day, or you can sink hours into it trying to become the best driver you can possibly be.

Gears 5

Gears 5 tries to be a lot of things, and doesn’t succeed at them all. If you’re a Gears of War fan, though, there’s a lot to love here. The cover-shooter gameplay the series helped pioneer feels great, and the campaign, while not narratively ambitious, is well-paced and full of bombastic set pieces to keep you interested. As they stand, the various multiplayer modes are not great, but Gears 5 is worth it for the campaign alone.

It’s also a true graphical showcase, among the best-looking console games around. Microsoft did a great job optimizing for all platforms and use-cases, with high-resolution and ultra-high (up to 120fps on series consoles) frame rates.

Nier: Automata

It took more than a while to get here, but Nier: Automata finally arrived on Xbox One in the summer of 2018. And boy, was it worth the almost-18-month wait. Nier takes the razor-sharp combat of a Platinum Games title and puts it in a world crafted by everyone’s favorite weirdo, Yoko Taro. Don’t worry, you can mostly just run, gun and slash your way through the game, but as you finish, and finish and finish this one, you’ll find yourself pulled into a truly special narrative, one that’s never been done before and will probably never be done again. It’s an unmissable experience, and one that feels all the more unique on Xbox, which has never had the best levels of support from Japanese developers.

On Xbox One X and Series X, you effectively have the best version of Nier: Automata available, short of a fan-patched PC game. On Series S and One S… not so much, but you do at least get consistent framerates on the Series S and a passable experience on the One S. 

Ori and the Blind Forest

Arriving at a time when “Gears Halo Forza” seemed to be the beginning, middle and end of Microsoft’s publishing plans, Ori and the Blind Forest was a triumph. It’s a confident mash of the pixel-perfect platforming popularized by Super Meat Boy, and the rich, unfolding worlds of Metroidvania games. You’ll die hundreds of times exploring the titular forest, unlocking skills that allow you to reach new areas. It looks and sounds great — like, Disney great — and its story, while fairly secondary to the experience, is interesting. Ori might not do much to push the boundaries of its genres, but everything it does, it does so right. Its sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, is very much “more of everything,” so if you like Blind Forest, it’s well worth checking out too.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the kind of game no one but Rockstar, the team behind the GTA series, could make. Only when a studio is this successful can it pour millions of dollars and development hours into a game. Rockstar’s simulation of a crumbling frontier world is enthralling and serves as a perfect backdrop to an uncharacteristically measured story. While the studio’s gameplay may not have moved massively forward, the writing and characters of RDR2 will stay with you.

While Rockstar hasn’t deemed fit to properly upgrade Red Dead Redemption 2 for the next-gen yet, Series X owners will at least benefit from the best last-gen (Xbox One X) experience with the addition of improved loading times. The Series S, on the other hand, gets the One S version, but with an improved 30 fps lock and swifter loading.

Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village is delightful. It’s a gothic fairy tale masquerading as a survival-horror game, and while this represents a fresh vibe for the franchise, it’s not an unwelcome evolution. The characters and enemies in Village are full of life — even when they’re decidedly undead — and Capcom has put a delicious twist on the idea of vampires, werewolves, sea creatures, giants and creepy dolls. The game retains its horror, puzzle and action roots, and it has Umbrella Corporation’s fingerprints all over it. It simply feels like developers had fun with this one, and so will you.

A word of caution before you run to buy it, though: This game doesn’t play great on every Xbox. On Series X, things are great: There’s the option to turn on ray-tracing with the occasional frame rate issue, or to keep it off and have perfect 4K/60 presentation. With the Series S, while there is a ray-tracing mode, it’s almost unplayable. With ray-tracing off, the Series S does a decent job, though. The One X’s 1080p/60 mode is also fantastic, although its quality mode feels very juddery. If you own a base Xbox One or One S, though, there’s really no mode that actually feels enjoyable to play.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice isn’t just another Dark Souls game. FromSoftware’s samurai adventure is a departure from that well-established formula, replacing slow, weighty combat and gothic despair for stealth, grappling hooks and swift swordplay. Oh, and while it’s still a difficult game, it’s a lot more accessible than Souls games — you can even pause it! The result of all these changes is something that’s still instantly recognizable as a FromSoftware title, but it’s its own thing, and it’s very good.

This is one game that’s really not had a lot of love from its developer or publisher, as, despite the fact next-gen consoles should be easily able to run this game at 60 fps, the Series S is locked to an inconsistently paced 30 fps, while the Series X doesn’t quite hold to 60 either. With that said, it’s more than playable.

Lost Judgement

This is private eye Takayuki Yagami’s second adventure; a spin-off of Sega’s popular, pulpy and convoluted Yakuza saga. He lives in the same Kamurocho area, the same yakuza gangs roam the streets, and there’s the very occasional crossover of side-story characters and, well, weirdos. But instead of punching punks in the face in the name of justice or honor, which was the style of Yakuza protagonist Kazuya Kiryu, Yagami fights with the power of his lawyer badge, drone evidence and… sometimes (read: often) he kicks the bad guys in the face.

The sequel skates even closer to some sort of serialized TV drama, punctuated by fights, chases and melodrama. For anyone that’s played the series before, it treads familiar ground, but with a more serious (realistic) story that centers on bullying and suicide problems in Japanese high schools, which is tied into myriad plots encompassing the legal system, politics and organized crime.

Yagami has multiple fighting styles to master, while there are love interests, batting cages, mahjong, skate parks and more activities to sink even more hours into. On the PS5, Lost Judgment looks great. Fights are fluid and the recreated areas in Tokyo and Yokohama are usually full of pedestrians, stores and points of interest. While Yakuza Like a Dragon takes the franchise in a new (turn-based, more ridiculous) direction, Lost Judgment retains the brawling playstyle of the Yakuza series, with a new hero who has, eventually, charmed us.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

We already mentioned this one but it’s difficult to overemphasize how good a deal Game Pass is for Xbox owners. For $15 a month you get access to a shifting and growing library of games. The company does a good job explaining what games are coming and going in advance, so you won’t get caught out by a game disappearing from the subscription service just as you’re reaching a final boss. There are 11 games mentioned in this guide, and seven of them are currently available with Game Pass. The full library is broad, and, while still Microsoft’s cloud service is still just in beta, you’ll have access to many of the games on your tablet, phone or browser through xCloud at no extra fee.

 

Sifu’s long-awaited Arenas mode will arrive next March. Developer Sloclap made the announcement through IGN, which shared a trailer for the upcoming DLC. The studio first teased the mode last April when it published a free content roadmap for Sifu. At the time, Sloclap said the update would arrive in the winter of 2022. However, true to its initial promise, the mode will include new outfits for players to unlock.

“Successfully completing the arenas will progressively unlock a massive new modifiers batch, which doubles the current game’s amount and notably brings alternative moves to the Kung Fu palette of our main character,” Sloclap told IGN. “Completing the new Arenas challenges will also unlock new cheats and exclusive new outfits.” If you haven’t had a chance to play Sifu yet because it’s not available on Xbox, there’s more good news. The arrival of the Arenas mode update will coincide with the game’s release on Xbox and Steam. Sloclap promised to share more information about both news items soon.

 

The United States Postal Service said it expects to buy more than 66,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2028 in a significant change from previous plans. In February, the USPS said it would purchase 5,000 fully electric versions of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, with gas-powered trucks accounting for the remaining 45,000 of the initial order. After pushback from the Biden administration and resistance to that from the USPS, the agency has graduallyincreased the proportion of EVs in the order.

Now, the postal service aims to buy at least 60,000 Next Generation Delivery Vehicles by 2028, at least 75 percent of which will be electric models. Starting in 2026, the USPS expects that all NGDV acquisitions will be electric versions. The NGDVs are expected to start operating on delivery routes late next year. In addition, the agency plans to buy another 21,000 off-the-shelf EVs through 2028.

Overall, the USPS plans to buy 106,000 delivery vehicles by the end of 2028 to start replacing its aging, inefficient and not-as-safe fleet of more than 220,000 vehicles. That means the agency still expects to buy around 40,000 gas-powered models over the next six years. The USPS said in a statement that the feasibility of fully electrifying the fleet “will continue to be explored.” However, it believes there will be more EV availability in the future, which will certainly help.

The agency expects to spend $9.6 billion on these vehicle purchases and related infrastructure, $3 billion of which is from Inflation Reduction Act funding. “The $3 billion provided by Congress has significantly reduced the risk associated with accelerating the implementation of a nationwide infrastructure necessary to electrify our delivery fleet,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said. “While most of the electric vehicle funding will continue to come from Postal Service revenues, we are grateful for the confidence that Congress and the Administration have placed in us to build and acquire what has the potential to become the largest electric vehicle fleet in the nation.”

 

A year ago, Meta was riding high on the metaverse. The company had just completed its rebranding from Facebook to Meta. Social networks, as Mark Zuckerberg explained, were no longer a singular focus for the company. “From now on, we’re going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook first,” he said.

Now, as Meta finishes its first full year as a “metaverse company,” the outlook is considerably less rosy. The company has lost billions of dollars on Reality Labs, the division overseeing its metaverse work. Its stock has cratered. The company has, for the first time, shed thousands of employees in mass layoffs. Even longtime shareholders are starting to do what was once unthinkable: question Zuckerberg’s vision for the future.

At the same time, Meta still hasn’t clearly articulated what the metaverse is or effectively made the case for why the billions of people currently using its social media apps would want to be part of an “embodied internet.” Worse still, the company’s initial metaverse product has proved underwhelming, and turned the metaverse into a punchline, rather than a source of anticipation.

We still don’t know what the metaverse is for

Meta and Zuckerberg have offered various definitions over the last year. The metaverse is the “successor to the mobile internet,” and “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience.” It’s virtual reality, but also (eventually) augmented reality. It will also, somehow, tie into our existing social graphs on Facebook and Instagram. But, unlike Facebook and Instagram, it will be interoperable with other companies’ platforms. It might have something to do with NFTs and web3.

“The defining characteristic of the metaverse is that you really feel like you’re present with other people or in another place,” Zuckerberg said during an interview at SXSW in February. “You might look at documents, you might look at a website but in the future you’re going to be in it.”

Zuckerberg might think this is explaining the beginnings of some grand vision for a future internet, but it also just sounds a lot like plain old virtual reality. Moreover, it’s telling that one of his go-to examples is “looking at documents.” Over the last year, the company has leaned hard into Horizon Workrooms, its social VR experience geared toward office workers.

When the company showed off its new high-end Quest Pro, it offered up Horizon Workrooms as one of the key experiences optimized for the new headset. You can now recreate a whole virtual workspace in VR. Soon, you’ll be able to use a slew of office and productivity software, from Zoom to Microsoft Word.

But the idea of working in VR with a headset strapped to your face is still pretty far from appealing to most people. And there are a vanishingly small number of jobs and industries where working in VR is even remotely justified.

Perhaps what’s most telling is that Meta has apparently struggled to persuade its own employees to use Workrooms. Despite making Quest 2 headsets free to all employees last year, a recent push from Zuckerberg for teams to start holding meetings in VR revealed that many either hadn’t taken advantage of the offer or hadn’t set the headset up, The New York Timesreported.

Meta’s metaverse is a meme for bad graphics

Without a clear vision, it became far too easy for Meta’s critics to seize on aesthetic issues and other problems. For now, the closest thing Meta has to the “metaverse” is Horizon Worlds, its social VR playground where users are free to explore as their avatar. But the experience of actually using it is far different than the polished videos and demos Meta has shared.

This was never more apparent than when Zuckerberg earnestly posted a screenshot of his avatar in front of the Eiffel Tower and Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia to mark Horizon World’s launch in France and Spain. The screenshot was hilariously bad and quickly took on a life of its own as people mocked the “1995 level graphics.”

Zuckerberg quickly promised new and improved avatars, and showed off a more realistic likeness of himself, saying that “graphics in Horizon are capable of much more.” (A post on LinkedIn, which has since been deleted, later revealed that the “improved” Zuck avatar took about a month and “40 iterations” to complete.)

Then, at the company’s Connect event, Zuckerberg promised an even bigger advancement: legs. Soon, Horizon’s cartoonish, legless avatars would be replaced with ones resembling actual, walking humans. We watched as Zuckerberg’s “full body” avatar casually strolled around Horizon Worlds. But while it was first thought to be a turning point — adding leg tracking to VR has been a notoriously tricky problem — it turned out this particular demo was more stagecraft than actual innovation. The company later confirmed that the demo was created with motion capture and wasn’t live VR.

Meta still says that its avatars will eventually have legs, but it’s not clear when, or if the feature will even look like the demo.

The metaverse is a money pit

It’s impossible to ignore that Zuckerberg’s metaverse pivot has also coincided with the company’s worst financial performance in recent memory. Meta’s revenue has shrunk for two straight quarters for the first time ever. Its stock has lost more than 60 percent of its value this year, wiping out billions of dollars.

To be fair, the metaverse isn’t entirely to blame. Apple’s anti-tracking changes in iOS have hurt the company’s advertising business. And the entire industry is reeling from an economic downturn that’s affected even the largest tech giants.

At the same time, Meta is undeniably losing vast amounts of money on its metaverse investments. Reality Labs lost $10 billion in 2021, and 2022’s losses already amounted to $9 billion by the third quarter. Those losses are expected to “grow significantly” in 2023, according to the company’s CFO.

It’s no surprise, then, that Meta’s investors are starting to question whether all this metaverse stuff is really worth it. The CEO of Altimeter Capital, a longtime Meta shareholder, made headlines when he wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year that called the company’s metaverse investments “super-sized and terrifying, even by Silicon Valley standards.”

In the company’s most recent earnings call, where Zuckerberg more often fields peppy questions about the company’s ad business, one analyst also raised the issue of “experimental bets versus proven bets.”

“I think everyone wants to hear why you think this pays off,” he asked. Zuckerberg, who seemed a bit flustered by the question, replied that “the metaverse work is a longer term set of efforts that we’re working on, but I think that it’s going to end up working.” Patience, he said, will be rewarded.

 

Earlier this year, Alienware released what’s arguably the best all-around gaming monitor on the market right now: the AW3423DW. But last week, LG quietly announced its latest batch of UltraGear gaming monitors and after getting a chance to check them out in person, I can say that Alienware’s display has some formidable new rivals.

Unlike the AW3423DW, LG’s monitors are available in two sizes intended for slightly different use cases. There’s the 27-inch 27GR95QE-B, which sports a flat panel with 2,560 x 1,440 resolution meant for both general use and more demanding competitive play, while the 45-inch 45GR95QE-B packs a curved display with 800R radius and 3,440 x 1,440 resolution designed to deliver a more immersive experience.

Like its bigger sibling, the 27-inch 27GR95QE-B sports a blazing 240Hz refresh rate, but with a smaller non-curved OLED panel.

The nice thing about these monitors is that regardless of which one you pick, both feature 240Hz refresh rates – the highest you can get from any OLED monitor available today. On top of that, both models have incredibly fast response times of just 0.3 ms (gray to gray). What’s more, they each support both AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync while also outputting a dazzling range of colors (up to 98.5 percent of the DCI-P3 spectrum). In short, LG’s new UltraGear displays deliver a laundry list of premium display tech with one clear downside: a relatively low max brightness of just 200 nits.

Admittedly, low brightness might not be a big deal if, like many people, you prefer gaming in dark environments – especially since you’ll probably want to turn the lights down anyway to make the most of LG’s built-in RGB light strips. You can even sync the LEDs on the back to what’s being displayed on screen, which adds a bit of bias lighting without the need for additional hardware. Another small bonus of having a lower max brightness is that there’s no need for an ABL (auto brightness limiter) setting like you see on some other OLED monitors, so you don’t have to worry about the display randomly getting dimmer when looking at primarily white screens (like when you’re viewing word docs or spreadsheets).

The 800R curve on the 45GR95QE-B is even more rounded than many of its rivals and delivers an almost cocoon-like gaming experience. 

Unfortunately, because of the size of the displays – particularly the huge 45-inch model – text doesn’t look quite as sharp as I’d like. When you’re gaming that’s not an issue, but when I browsed the web, I could see color fringing and a bit of general blurriness when reading stories and headlines. Now, it’s important to mention that color fringing is something that can be seen on a handful of new OLED displays (most notably QD-OLED panels due to their triangular sub-pixel arrangement), and it’s possible that tools like Better ClearType or an update to Microsoft’s own Clear Type feature could address this issue. But unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to test that out during my brief hands-on.

To test its new UltraGear gaming monitors, LG flew in pro Valorant players Com (pictured here) and Jawgemo from Evil Geniuses.

That said, while the new UltraGear monitors may not be the best all-around displays for both productivity and entertainment, they look stunning in gaming scenarios. The 27GR95QE-B is the more approachable of the two as it only costs $1,000 (versus $1,700 for the 27GR95QE) and has a better chance of actually fitting on your desk – at least without you needing to rearrange everything. At 27 inches, it’s also closer in size to what pro gamers use in tournaments (most competitions feature 24-inch monitors), while support for tilt, swivel, height and even portrait adjustments make it super easy to position the display properly.

But the best thing is just how good everything looks in motion. LG brought in some pro Valorant gamers from Evil Geniuses to show off the new UltraGears and even in the midst of a firefight everything stayed tack sharp which brings me to the monitors’ most important spec: their 240Hz refresh rates. Previously, the highest you could get on an OLED monitor (including premium rivals like the Alienware AW3423DW and Samsung Odyssey OLED G8) was 175Hz.

If you can ignore the moire pattern from my camera, you’ll notice some color fringing or rainbow outlines around some of the text. The issue may be caused by an issue with the ClearType feature in Windows, so there’s a chance Microsoft may be able to address it in the future. 

For people still using 60Hz displays, that gap might not sound like a big deal. However, the issue is that the general rule when it comes to monitors is that you typically only notice a difference in perceivable performance when you double the refresh rate (e.g., from 60Hz to 120Hz or 120Hz to 240Hz) That means anyone upgrading from a 120Hz displays to one of Alienware’s or Samsung’s rivals might not notice a big improvement while still having a panel that can’t quite hit the super high frame rates (typically from 240 to 300 fps or more) that competitive gamers prefer. But with LG’s latest UltraGears, you get the deep blacks and rich vibrant colors that OLED displays are known for and a refresh rate that rivals all but the very fastest LCD screens.

As for the larger and more expensive 45GR95QE-B, while it has a slightly lower pixel density than its smaller sibling, its curved panel delivers an encompassing experience. Its 800R radius is meant to mimic the natural shape of your eye while wrapping around you even more than more typical 1000R curved displays. The sweet spot for the monitor is about two and a half feet from the screen and it’s basically perfect. You can still see from edge to edge so you get that glorious panoramic view, but it’s not so expansive that you need to constantly move your head to spot buttons or icons that might live in the corners. Interestingly, when I asked EG Com if the 800R curve messed up his aim when compared to a flat display, he said even though it was his first time using this monitor he didn’t have to adjust much at all.

LG’s latest gaming monitors even feature a dedicated dashboard for quickly adjusting image settings or viewing things like the display’s refresh rate. 

Aside from the new panels themselves, there are a couple of other design tweaks I want to call out. The first is that to better cater to competitive gamers, LG is using new feet on the UltraGears’ stands so you can position your keyboard closer to the monitor. But to me, the bigger upgrade is the inclusion of a dedicated remote for adjusting image settings. Instead of having to fumble around with hidden buttons or a joystick on the back of the monitor, you can just sit back and enjoy a more TV-like experience. The addition of a remote is something we’ve seen from other flagship monitors like Samsung’s Odyssey Ark and it’s a trend I’m really hoping to see trickle down to more mainstream displays across the market.

Instead of relying on hidden buttons or a joystick, for its latest UltraGear gaming monitors LG created a new dedicated remote for adjusting image settings. 

So while LG’s new UltraGear monitors don’t have the best brightness, they’ve got pretty much every other high-end feature you could want on a gaming monitor right now. And with the 27-inch model going for $1,000 while the bigger 45-inch version going for $1,700, LG suddenly has some very interesting alternatives (both smaller and larger) to Alienware’s fantastic QD-OLED display.

 

We’re not that far away from CES, where we should expect new chip announcements from Intel and AMD. That’s normally followed by a raft of Windows 11 laptop announcements that use the new silicon, but Lenovo has decided to get its news out of the door well ahead of time. Unfortunately, that means there’s some vague references to next-generation chips from Intel, AMD and NVIDIA. But you can probably guess when those details will be filled in, and what they’ll likely represent.

Of the many machines Lenovo has announced today, only a handful are coming to the US, such as the IdeaPad Pro 5 and 5i. This is coming in 14- and 16-inch variants, both of which will only come with Intel’s “next-gen” Core i5 and i7 options, with the option of a 14-inch 2.2k display or a 2.8k 120Hz screen, while the 16-inch comes with a 2.5K 120Hz model by default. Lenovo adds that you can expect “enhanced performance” thanks to better thermals, allowing for a cooler and quieter experience overall. Other tweaks for these machines include a 25 percent larger touchpad, a new FHD IR webcam with a Time of Flight sensor and, for the 16-inch model, an SSD expandable storage slot.

As for the IdeaPad Slim, you’ll be able to pick up the Slim 5i with a 16-inch display, packing Intel’s as-yet unnamed processor. You’ll also be able to snag a 16-inch Slim 5 with options for AMD’s Ryzen 3 (7330U), 5 (7530U) or 7 (7730U) processor, although you’re stuck with a 60Hz display no matter which option you go for. With one eye on privacy, these new models get a physical shutter on the webcam. The only other major change is the greater choice in paint jobs, since you’ll now be able to grab them in Violet, Cloud Grey and Abyss Blue.

In terms of availability, Lenovo is saying that these models won’t reach the US until May 2023, with prices for the 16-inch 5i starting at $1,500. The Slim 5, meanwhile, will start at $650 for the AMD edition, while the Intel-toting 5i is priced at $750.

 

We may not have had quite as much unfettered reading time as we did in the lockdown days of the COVID pandemic, but Engadget’s editors have still managed to pick out, peruse and ponder a broad variety of this year’s most intriguing books. Whether we learned how to wield a wok, listened to life lessons from Hideo Kojima, or dove into the seedy underbelly of an alt-universe 1940’s San Francisco, here are a few of our favorites from 2022.

Razzmatazz by Christopher Moore

Classic noir cinema was a staple in my house growing up — I mean, my first celebrity crush was on The Thin Man series co-star, Myrna Loy — so any story from the days when mugs were mooks and gals were dames holds sway over my heart. But The Thin Man, like the rest of the media made at that time, only showed a very narrow, very male, very white view of life. Christopher Moore’s latest novel, Razzmatazz, adds some much needed color to the otherwise black-and-white world of noir.

Razzmatazz is the second title for Moore’s satirical murder mystery series, following 2019’s Noir. In this latest installment, we’re returned to Post-WWII San Francisco as bartender Sammy “Two Toes” Tiffin and his cadre of misfit friends hustle to survive in Fog City. Now, helping disappear your best friend’s girlfriend’s abusive husband is one thing but, as the team soon learns, stealing back a possibly magical, definitely priceless, heirloom from the local Tong is another entirely — and that’s before some madman starts murdering the city’s drag kings.

Razzmatazz is a smart and just a bit snarky adventure mystery featuring a diverse and developed cast of characters, fast-paced action that seamlessly transitions between the varying viewpoints of said ensemble and doesn’t get bogged down in world building. At around 350 pages apiece, Noir and Razzmatazz will each provide a solid weekend’s entertainment and, if you’re still looking for more Moore after that, check out 2020’s Shakespeare for Squirrels. – Andrew Tarantola, Senior Editor

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

I always look forward to new Blake Crouch releases because his writing is vivid and fast-paced, so much so that I can see the movie version playing out in my head as I devour his latest title in just a couple of days. This year’s Upgrade was no exception – we’re in a world in which gene editing is real yet highly regulated, and we follow Logan Ramsay, a member of the Gene Protection Agency as he tries to apprehend those who may be involved in nefarious gene-editing activities.

But after a violent encounter on a mission, Logan starts to feel less and less like himself and more like a better version of himself. He can read faster, he’s physically stronger and he needs less sleep. He soon finds out his genome has been hacked, and he also discovers he’s part of a much larger plan that could change humanity as he knows it. As he works to stop this plan from being executed, he’s forced to confront some of the darkest parts of his past and the tarnished family legacy he’s been working so hard to escape.

Crouch excels at putting readers into his protagonist’s shoes, forcing them to feel the same anxiety, dread and confusion inflicting his main characters. But to think that produces an overall unpleasant reading experience would be incorrect: Upgrade is an intriguing thrill ride that moves at break-neck speed, while posing a lot of questions about humanity as a whole. – Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

On its face, Notes on an Execution may seem like a typical examination of a serial killer. The novel begins with Ansel Packer counting down his last 12 hours before he’s to be executed for killing many women. But Danya Kukafka is much less interested in this murderer as she is in telling the stories of three women who were all affected by Ansel in some way. We follow Lavender, Ansel’s mother, as a lost teenager pushed to the brink as she struggles to protect her children and herself; Hazel, Ansel’s sister-in-law who watches her twin lose herself in this toxic relationship; and Saffy, the lead investigator on Ansel’s case with more hidden trauma than you might expect buried just under the surface. But these women aren’t victims with a capital V. Instead, they work to flip the serial-killer narrative on its head by focusing our attention on the fact that, despite everything, they survived. Notes on an Execution is a dark, engaging story with lovely prose and a surprisingly, underlying element of hope at the end of it all. – V.P.

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Our Missing Hearts, in the grand tradition of near-future dystopian fiction like The Handmaid’s Tale or 1984, presents a vision of our country that feels far too close for comfort. In Ng’s third novel, she writes of a 12-year-old boy named Bird and his father, who live in a United States where laws enshrining America-first culture have been put in place following years of economic and social turmoil.

In this world, Asians have been made the scapegoat for all of America’s ills; while Asian Americans are still technically free and full citizens, many of them are under the thumb of police and subject to various degrees of violence from so-called “real” Americans. And any parents deemed to be un-America could have their children immediately confiscated – no questions asked. As in any good dystopia, books deemed unpatriotic have also been seized and destroyed, including a book of poetry by Bird’s mother, a woman who disappeared years earlier.

This story is simultaneously small and universal. The meat of the narrative focuses on Bird pushing to learn more about his mother and the circumstances of the world he’s living in, and there are only a handful of major characters. At the same time, Ng skillfully paints a plausible picture of an America that’s given in to its worst instincts. Ng has pointed out multiple times that all the atrocities being committed in Our Missing Hearts are things that have taken place in the US or other parts of the world already – not a comforting thought.

But as bleak as this world is, the book is filled with moments of unexpected beauty and small triumphs. Perhaps most crucially, there’s a sense that while an extremist minority currently may rule over a more sensible populace, there’s a way out of the darkness. Our Missing Hearts isn’t a light story, but it’s an important one, artfully told by a writer who can deftly weave together a compelling narrative with poignant social commentary. Ng may have made a big impact in popular culture with Little Fires Everywhere (and its accompanying Hulu miniseries), but Our Missing Hearts feels like her definitive work thus far. – Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor

The Creative Gene by Hideo Kojima

Hideo Kojima is a video game designer best known for the Metal Gear series, which popularized the stealth genre and had a plot that could charitably be described as ridiculous. Perhaps shamefully, I am a Kojima fan. His studios’ games are often in dire need of an editor and almost constantly tow the line between insight and navel-gazing. Sometimes, they’ve also seemed incapable of treating their female characters with respect. But they are always bursting with ideas, trying things with an unmistakable voice and a ceaseless, pulverizing earnestness. His post-apocalyptic delivery sim Death Stranding is at once laughably on-the-nose (one hard-to-kill character is called “Die-Hardman” AKA: John McClane, of course), and one the most enchanting games I’ve played in the past decade.

I give you this background to help explain how I ended up reading Kojima’s book, The Creative Gene, earlier this year. (It was technically published in late 2021.) Instead of telling some weirdo techno-thriller or a behind-the-scenes look at game development, though, this is a collection of previously published essays about the books, movies and other cultural objects that Kojima finds essential to his being. Like his games, it can border on hokey and self-mythologizing, but it is disarmingly honest, personal and anti-cynical.

In many ways, the Metal Gear games are about identity – who we are and how we got there. That’s more or less what Kojima gets at here; for about 250 pages, he raves about things he likes with a tangible verve, not to recommend them to consumers, but to explore how they’ve shaped his experience. More than a memoir, though, The Creative Gene is an appreciation of how art of all stripes can spark inspiration in a recyclable process.

The prose is nothing extraordinary, and there are certainly more essential subjects out there. While you don’t need to be a gamer to get something out of this, having a familiarity with Kojima’s work doesn’t hurt. Still, The Creative Gene’s sincerity and enthusiasm are easy to appreciate in a time of widespread detachment. – Jeff Dunn, Senior Commerce Writer

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel delivered one of the essential reads of the pandemic when she published The Glass Hotel in March 2020. It was no small feat given she previously wrote the award-winning Station Eleven, a novel that’s set partly after a world-ending flu. Given that there was a five-year gap between Station Eleven and Glass Hotel, I didn’t dare hope one of my favorite authors would release a new novel so soon, and that it would be as good as her previous works. Thankfully, Sea of Tranquility does not disappoint.

It shares many of the same strengths as Mandel’s past novels, including a brilliant sense of atmosphere and prose that rewards close reading. Sea of Tranquility is also in conversation with Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel in a way that will delight fans. That’s not to say you need to have read those books to enjoy her latest, but it may make you look at them (and Mandel’s career) in a new light. Add to that themes that will resonate with anyone who has lived through the past two years and you have one of the best books of 2022. – Igor Bonifacic, Weekend Editor

 

Lenovo has launched the IdeaPad Flex 3i 2-in-1 Chromebook with improved features over last year’s Flex 3i Chromebook, along with a higher price tag. The 16:10 12.2-inch display is an inch larger than before, and it can be used as a laptop, tablet or made to stand in tent-mode for entertainment. It also comes with thinner bezels and looks a fair bit less chunky than the previous model. Performance-wise, it offers the latest N-series Intel processors (the N100 or N200), up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Other features include an optional Full HD webcam with a physical shutter and designated mute key, along with faster connectivity via WiFi 6E. It offers up to 12 hours of battery life, an optional backlit keyboard, tuned speakers and a drop-hinge feature that lifts the keyboard for a more ergonomic typing experience. It’s shipping in May 2023 starting at $350, a fair chunk more than the $190 price on the current Flex 3i.

If it’s an Android tablet you’re after, Lenovo also took the wraps off the Tab M9 ahead CES 2023. It’s essentially designed as an entertainment unit, with a 9-inch “Netflix HD-supported” 1,920 x 1,200 display, Dolby Atmos spatial audio support and dual stereo speakers. If you’re more into books, it also offers an immersive reading mode that simulates the color of real book pages, lets you soften the tone for your eyes, and choose from various ambient background sounds. 

It comes with a MediaTek Helio G80 Octa-Core processor, Android 12 OS, up to 128GB of storage, 13 hours of battery life, face unlocking and WiFi 5 connectivity. It arrives in Q2 2023 for $140, though it’ll cost more with the optional folio case shown above. 

 

CES 2023 usually features some pretty eccentric gadgets, and Lenovo is kicking off that trend with the Go Desk Station with Webcam. It’s designed for those of us with limited desk space, serving as a webcam, adjustable desk light, Qi wireless charger and expansion hub all in one. It doesn’t compromise on any of those things, but is priced accordingly.

The primary feature is the Lenovo Go 4K Pro Webcam (also available as a standalone camera) designed for video conferencing and high-res streaming. It can stream 4K at up to 30 fps and includes autofocus and auto-framing with an adjustable field of view, along with auto ambient light adjustment, via the built-in desk light.

That desk light rides on a height-adjustable and rotating arm, and can be positioned in almost any direction to illuminate your face or objects on your desk. You can choose from three color temperature options to match your environment, including 3,000K (yellow white), 4,500K (cool white) and 6,500K (daylight), with brightness up to 1600 lux at 0.5 meters (1.5 feet). 

It’s a versatile hub, as well. It has a 135-watt USB-C power input with a full-function 65-watt USB-C port for laptop power, to start with. It also includes 15-watt Qi compliant charging pad for mobile devices, a 20W USB Type-C port, two USB Type-A 3.1 ports and an HDMI 2.0 output for external displays up to 4K at 60fps.  

If you’re already looking for a desk lamp, wireless charger and USB hub, this could fit the bill in just a single purchase. You’ll pay for it though. The Go Desk Station with Webcam arrives in March 2023 starting at $329, or you can grab the Lenovo Go 4K Pro webcam by itself for $150, also in March next year. 

 

The algorithm that powers TikTok’s “For You” page has long been a source of fascination and suspicion. Fans often remark on the app’s eerie accuracy, while TikTok critics have at times speculated the company could subtly manipulate its algorithm to influence its users in more nefarious ways.

Now, the company is taking new steps to demystify some aspects of its algorithm. The app is introducing a feature that will “help people understand why a particular video has been recommended to them.” With the update, users will be able to tap on a new question mark icon, which will list some factors that played a role in the recommendation.

In a blog post, the company notes that its “recommendation system is powered by technical models” and the feature is meant to make “technical details more easily understandable.” For now, that also means the details shared sound a bit vague. For example, “this video is popular in the United States,” and “you are following Hanna” are two of the explanations provided by Tiktok. Other explanations may be based on “user interactions, such as content you watch, like or share, comments you post, or searches.”

The company says it plans to add “more granularity and transparency” to the feature over time, though, so the explanations could eventually get more detailed. A TikTok spokesperson said that future versions may also incorporate other factors that influence the app’s algorithm, like an individual’s account settings.

While the feature will likely not do much to assuage critics who think TikTok, or parent company ByteDance, uses the algorithm to manipulate users, it could help make its recommendations a bit more understandable to its users. And the change is part of a broader move from TikTok to prove it’s willing to be more transparent about the inner workings of its app. The company has also partnered with Oracle to conduct a review of its algorithms and content moderation system.