Maxon sees a world of potential, announcing that Cinema 4D and ZBrush, long-time features in our guides to best 3D modelling software and the best animation software, will get touch support for the new MacBook in late November. And that's not all. Cinema 4D is also getting a new capability that allows artists to preview 3D creations with Apple Vision Pro.

• Get the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display for $2,899 at Amazon

Maxon believes the new MacBook Pro will introduce an "entirely new dimension to professional creative workflows" with its tandem OLED display, intuitive touch capabilities, and powerful M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. The touch display means artists will have new ways to explore interact directly with their 3D creations.

Whether building and animating complex 3D worlds in Cinema 4D or developing intricate digital sculptures in ZBrush, touch support is intended to bring the responsiveness of hands-on interaction to professional desktop workflows, complementing traditional mouse, keyboard, and trackpad workflows.

Maxon already has ZBrush for iPad, which made digital sculpting in the app more mobile and allowed artists to shape and refine their work with their fingers or Apple Pencil. Touch support on MacBook Pro extends that to the more familiar desktop experience.

While touchscreen displays on Windows laptops have been around for many years, Apple's PROLED XDR Display also delivers exceptional brightness, contrast, and color accuracy.

Meanwhile, upcoming Apple Vision Pro support for Cinema 4D will extend the creative process opening up collaborative, real-time three dimensional workflows. Through the new Spatial Preview API, artists using Mac Virtual Display on Apple Vision Pro will be able to explore, preview, and interact with Cinema 4D designs in immersive life-size detail, making it easier to evaluate proportions and composition before moving forward with production.

Rather than judging work based on a 2D image, artists and designers will be able to move through an interior, evaluate a proposed installation, or explore the layout of a space at real-world scale before anything is physically built. This could be particularly valuable for architectural visualisation, retail environments, exhibition spaces and experiential design.

The integration also aims to enable more seamless communication with clients and collaborators, allowing them to inhabit the same space at the same time, immersed in the scene or from a bird’s-eye view using Apple Vision Pro. For reviewers who may not be familiar with navigating 3D software, this could allow them to better understand the space, identify potential changes, and provide more informed feedback earlier in the creative process.

Cinema 4D and ZBrush will be immediately available on Apple's new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, which begins shipping 6 November, 2026. Touch support for Cinema 4D and ZBrush along with Open in Spatial Preview for Apple Vision Pro running visionOS 27 and Mac running macOS 27 will be available in late November.

A new Cinema 4D iPad app is also slated for release before the end of the year. You can learn more on the Maxon website.

Okay, ‘ends’ might be jumping the gun a little. Elon Musk hasn’t said outright that the Cybertruck is being discontinued, and it’s not clear whether production could move elsewhere. But as posted on X, Texas is the only known facility equipped to build its rather specialised parts, so the writing is pretty clearly on the wall.

Cybertruck is winding down

It was always going to be a tough sell. When Musk unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, he promised a revolution in pickup design. What we got looked like it had rolled straight out of a dystopian sci-fi movie: angular stainless steel, sharp edges and a comically oversized windscreen with one comically oversized, slow wiper. Different? Absolutely. I’ll give it that.

The reaction was instant, with designers and the internet having a field day. We covered the fallout in our 2019 look at the designers taking aim at Tesla’s Cybertruck, and the argument over whether it’s genius or a low-poly disaster has never really gone away.

The launch event set the tone for everything that followed. Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, took a metal ball to the supposedly unbreakable windows, and they promptly shattered. Not exactly the show of strength Tesla was after, and a pretty cringe bit of live theatre for a truck sold on its toughness.

Then came the production delays, shifting specs, and a price that jumped from the original promises. Musk once talked about selling 250,000 Cybertrucks a year. According to Kelley Blue Book figures reported by Reuters, Tesla sold just 20,237 in the US during 2025, down 48% from the year before. Yikes.

Cybertruck design fails

We’ve been tracking the Cybertruck’s design misadventures since that first reveal, and it constantly surprised us for all the wrong reasons. We looked at early Cybertruck sketches that show how different the finished design could have been, and even imagined what happens when other carmakers go angular in our look at what every car would look like as a Cybertruck. The Mini Cooper, the first car I ever owned, in particular, wasn’t the looker it used to be.

But the issues ran deeper than looks. In June 2023, we reported on leaked design and engineering flaws that made the Cybertruck sound even more terrifying, including problems with braking, handling, noise and water leaks. Then there’s the branding. In April 2024, we rounded up the six worst Cybertruck design fails, from that questionable logo to the accelerator pedal recall.

Then came the reports of bits falling off and the off-road truck getting stuck in mud – are you getting the picture? In March 2025, another Cybertruck design disaster emerged involving exterior panels coming loose. It’s quite something when a truck styled like an armoured tank can’t keep its own bodywork on.

To be fair, the Cybertruck was never meant to be universally loved, and ambition may have overtaken the practicalities of mass production. Musk wanted a vehicle that looked like nothing else on the road, and he got it. But good product design has to do more than turn heads. It has to work, make sense for the people buying it, and survive the rather less glamorous reality of everyday use, whether it's offroading or just driving to the shops without a bumper falling off. The Cybertruck struggled on all three counts.

That heavy, angular build also proved a barrier in Europe, where it failed to meet pedestrian-safety requirements. And the stainless-steel exterior may look suitably apocalyptic, but it brought its own manufacturing and finishing headaches.

Then there’s the branding. That huge angular silhouette was already shouting loud enough, and the aggressive typography and Cybertruck identity just pushed the whole thing further into concept-car territory. I love seeing designers take a big swing at something genuinely unusual. But there’s bold, and then there’s a design that seems to have skipped the bit where someone asks, ‘Is this actually a good idea?’

Is Cybercab really the future?

For contrast, check out some of the best car logos on the road today. Ferrari, Porsche and Mercedes have built enduring identities for a reason: they tell you something about the product and its heritage without yelling at you.

Tesla is now turning its attention to the Cybercab, its two-seat autonomous taxi, with the Texas factory being repurposed to ramp up production. The company is also pushing harder into AI and robotics, so the Cybertruck’s exit is part of a much bigger change of direction.

We’ve already had a glimpse of what that next chapter might look like, and Tesla’s Cybercab has its own rather silly design fail. Maybe the Cybertruck’s lessons haven’t quite sunk in yet.

So here’s to the end of the Cybertruck era, one that made us smile more than it had drivers, and to whatever the Cybercab era has in store.

The good news is, for browsing, streaming, gaming and a bit of sketching, the classic 11-inch iPad (2025) does everything you probably need. If you have specific tasks beyond that, it might be worth shelling out for a more expensive iPad Air, iPad Pro and iPad mini. But for most people (including me) this is the best iPad to get.

Below, I’ve compared the latest versions of all four models – because they are the best versions of all the families – drawing on both my own experience and reviews by the Creative Bloq team, which has been using iPads since Gen 1 in 2010.

Let's get into it...

The best iPad for most people

Our top pick for most people is what people often call the basic iPad. But don't let that put you off, because "basic" is purely a relative term here. So yes, this is the cheapest iPad Apple sells, but it’s still a lovely tablet to use every day. Web browsing, streaming, video calls, note-taking and email are all fast and easy, and the bright, colourful screen is big enough to be comfortable without weighing you down.

It’s a decent gaming tablet too, as long as you're not set on playing AAA titles at the highest frame rates. Call of Duty Mobile runs okay, for instance, until you go up to 120fps mode, while Infinity Nikki might need dropping to medium. The lack of an M-series chip also locks you out of some games entirely.

For drawing, though, it does the job nicely. Add an Apple Pencil and you can sketch happily in Procreate, although the first-generation Pencil is the one to get, as the cheaper USB-C model doesn’t have pressure sensitivity. As our reviewer Ian Evenden says: “You don’t get desktop-level processing power, but you do get one of the friendliest, most useful tablets around, especially if you combine it with a Pencil for sketching.”

A couple more things to point out: there’s no Apple Intelligence, the USB-C port is slow and the screen has an air gap beneath the glass, so it feels a little less refined under a stylus. In short, the compromises are there... but they won't be deal-breakers for most people. Finally, bear in mind that reports suggest a replacement could arrive in early 2027 – although Apple hasn’t confirmed anything so that's currently just speculation.

Read more: Apple iPad 2025 (A16) review

The best step-up iPad

The Air costs $300 / £320 more than the basic iPad. In return you get a much faster chip, twice the memory, Apple Intelligence, Apple Pencil Pro support and the option of a 13-inch screen.

That extra power is overkill if all you want to do on your iPad is check emails and watch Netflix. But if you want to run demanding creative software or games, then it may be worth it. In our Geekbench 6 tests, the M4 Air’s multi-core score of 13,168 was more than double the 6,338 we got from the basic iPad. Its graphics score of 53,071 also matched the 53,252 of the previous M4 iPad Pro.

That will really make a difference, for example, if you want to run 3D software. Our reviever, Glen Southern, who has used iPad Pros for professional work since they launched, found that he could sculpt models of up to 16 million polygons in Nomad Sculpt. But he cautions that for some, all that power will be overkill. “For a lot of creative users, 12GB of memory and an M4 chip may be more iPad than they’ll ever actually need,” he says.

On the other side of the equation, the Air isn't quite as capable as the Pro. For instance, it has an LCD screen rather than OLED, and a 60Hz refresh rate rather than 120Hz. For many people, though, that line won’t be worth paying to cross.

The best iPad for creative pros

The Pro is the absolute best tablet Apple makes, and so if price is no object then please, knock yourself out. It is very expensive, though, and for most people, it’ll be total overkill. However, if you have a specific work need for a Pro such as 3D modelling or video editing, then it may be worth the investment. And it truly is a lovely thing to have and use.

The tandem OLED screen is the best on any iPad, with deep blacks, high contrast and a 120Hz refresh rate. And it’s the most powerful iPad by a distance, scoring 16,443 for multi-core and 74,046 for graphics in our Geekbench 6 tests. “Whether it’s for building up a lot of layers in Procreate or Illustrator, video editing in Final Cut Pro or Davinci Resolve or crazy stuff in Zbrush or Nomad Sculpt, the M5 iPad Pro barely breaks a sweat,” says our reviewer Ian Evenden.

That price, though, is not to be sneezed at. And the cost climbs quickly once you add a Magic Keyboard, Apple Pencil Pro and extra storage. So unless you're certain exactly what the Pro would do for you, we'd say: get the Air.

The best small iPad

The iPad mini is, just as the name suggests, small and light. That makes it a great choice if you want something you can carry easily in a small bag. It's also useful for using in tight spaces, like a crowded railway carriage.

If you’re a fan of small, and you want the best, the 2026 version is the one to choose. It's the first mini with an OLED screen, the first with IP67 water and dust resistance, and at 255g, it’s noticeably lighter than its predecessor.

We haven’t tested it ourselves yet, but our sister site TechRadar praised both its screen and fast performance. So if you want an iPad for reading, travel, note-taking and sketching on the go, it's a great choice; especially if you opt for the paper-like nano-texture screen, which costs an extra $100 / £100 on the 256GB and 512GB models.

The catch? It's a whopping $250 / £270 more than the basic iPad and only $50 / £50 less than the 11-inch Air, so you really are paying a premium for the smallness. The 8.5-inch screen is also stuck at 60Hz. However, if you want to save some cash and the upgrades aren't important to you, retailers still have the previous A17 Pro model, which has dropped to a record low.

FAQs

But annually increasing capabilities, and largely a price freeze, has meant that it's no longer my idea of the best iPad around anymore. That title now goes to the (not really that) humble iPad. The A16, 2025 version, to be precise.

Right now, you can buy the 11-inch, A16-chipped iPad for $399 over at Amazon, in what is the earliest Black Friday iPad deal that I've seen. I've got both this model and the most recent Air, and though I still enjoy the Air more, for the money, the entry-level iPad is the only one I would buy today.

The best early Black Friday iPad deals

• Browse iPad deals at Amazon

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As the brand's first-ever holiday campaign, the beautiful stop-motion animation is a sparkling debut that captures the joy of the festive season. A masterful display of tactile craftsmanship, the 'e.l.f. Made to Stand Out' campaign carries many of the traits of the best Christmas adverts, proving that analogue storytelling is the perfect tool for sparking festive joy.

Narrated by iconic actor Alan Cumming, the campaign follows friends Kit, Echo and Cleo as they reunite in their hometown for a holiday get-together. What could be an uncomfortable hangout turns into a celebration of the qualities that make them extraordinary, spreading festive cheer.

“For a campaign about the power of standing out, the medium needed to stand out too, and stop motion felt like such a natural fit for this story," explains Oshiya Savur, chief marketing officer at e.l.f. Beauty. "We're seeing a real appetite for nostalgia and a return to simpler times, with 72% of Americans saying nostalgic memories inspire them when life feels complicated.

There's something about stop motion that takes you right back to the holiday specials you grew up watching, but we saw an opportunity to give that familiar art form a uniquely e.l.f. twist. There's an incredible level of craftsmanship and character that comes from building an entire world by hand, and when you combine that with our signature wit and wink, you create something that feels both familiar and completely unexpected.”

Created by Apartment D Films, each element of the ad reads as a love letter to analogue craft, from individually moulded characters to intricately constructed miniature sets. "We used a wide variety of different materials! It's truly a mixed media project," Cami Kwan, Creative Director of Apartment D, tells Creative Bloq. "The puppets have aluminium and steel wire armatures inside, which makes them posable. Their hands and heads are made of printed resin, which we then painted and finished with actual e.l.f. products! The cheeks and mouths of the puppets are colored using a combination of e.l.f. Powder Blush Palette, e.l.f Perfect 10 Eyeshadow Palette, and e.l.f. Halo Glow Silky Powder Highlighter.

All the characters' hair is made with different weights and textures of yarn, to call back to super nostalgic toys, but with a modern sensibility. The eyebrows and eyelids of the characters are made of a mix of wax and clay, so they're super mouldable to get big expressions in the performance, and also so you can literally see the animators' fingerprints on the characters as they emote.

A lot of the world around the character is made of wood, but with hand-painted textures so the wood grain is more painterly and stylized. The mini products and bottles the characters use are all hand-sculpted out of clay, and then finished with a variety of nail art techniques, like cured acrylic, gels, and powder shimmers! The mini bottles are really so, so small; none of them is more than 1 inch tall."

It wasn't a project without some difficulties, as Cami explains. "One of our challenges was integrating real beauty products intended to live on human skin with stop-motion puppets. Unlike real humans, our puppets don't have pores and don't have a body temperature, both of which e.l.f. beauty products are chemically formulated to interact with.

On top of that, stop motion puppets are designed to be handled and touched constantly during the animation process, so the treatments and colors on them need to be incredibly resilient to constant wear and tear. We spent a good deal of time on the material testing of the e.l.f. beauty products to see which ones would integrate best with our fabrication techniques.

It was actually really interesting to let our puppet team dip into their extensive knowledge of material science! We've found that generally anything based in a powder pigment merged really well with our typical techniques, and those combinations were really successful in getting puppets with a lot of character and a lot of dynamic color and shimmer on screen!"

Honouring such a tactile animation style is a time intensive practice, but are audiences hungry for analogue creativity? “Absolutely," says Oshiya. "The more purely AI-generated content we see, the greater the opposite and equal reaction from people craving something real: human connection and creativity they can actually feel.

We're seeing a renewed appreciation for the analogue, and I think that's a natural response to an increasingly digital world. At e.l.f., we're human first, human last. AI can be an incredible tool, but taste, discernment and original ideas come from human ingenuity. At the end of the day, we want to make people feel something, and that human element is what makes it possible.”

"The thing I'm most proud of is how kind and collaborative our crew on this project was. It's not something you can point to on screen, but it's something you can feel in how much care was taken with every frame, and how lively the animation is. There was so much joy in the creation and filming of this project, and I do think you can feel that in how kinetic and inventive everything is. It's a little zany, a little imperfect, and really so captivating when all seen together!" says Cami.

"For a more specific on-screen detail, though, I love the smear frames we used when Echo is zooming between the tables and getting everyone amped up! Smear frames are an animation technique that's most typical in 2D animation – they're moments when, for just a few frames, you distort the character and literally smear them to give a sense of speed, mimicking the way something moving too fast on a live-action camera will appear blurry.

You hardly ever see smear frames in stop motion, but one of the things that we really focus on at Apartment D is pushing the stylistic boundaries of stop motion and finding ways to bring 2D animation techniques into our three-dimensional medium. So, in that Echo zooming scene, we actually used pieces of cut paper to create practical, dimensional smear frames! Jen Prokopowicz, the animator of that shot, curved the paper smears to get an extra sense of dimension, and created smears of different sizes to get a sense of speeding up and slowing down. It's just so cool, and something that generally only real animation nerds will notice," Kami adds.

“At e.l.f., we've never been interested in being part of a sea of sameness. We're a brand that celebrates the unexpected, embraces individuality and believes that what makes us different is what makes us extraordinary. That's what I love about stop motion. Every quirk and detail adds personality to the story, and there's no expectation of perfection. Just as no two handcrafted creations are exactly alike, no two people are either. It's a playful way to bring our belief in celebrating every eye, lip and face to life, and a reminder that your difference is low-key your gift,” says Oshiya.

For more creative inspiration check out Prada's Disney inspired Christmas campaign or take a look at Dior's festive ad that ruffled some feathers.

But whether you’re working monochromatically to draft an illustration or using it for a finished piece, a black and white approach is full of benefits. It can even make you stand out in an art world that's saturated with vibrant talent (if you need the tools for your own art, see our guides to the best drawing tablets and the best pens for artists).

Foregoing colour can be an intentional creative choice rather than the result of a limitation, but for illustrator Sarah Koudelka-Mason it was born out of convenience. “After trying out all sorts of tools, I found pencils to be the simplest, least fussy medium,” she says. “All you need is a pencil and paper, which you can bring anywhere. Perhaps because pencils were also my first and most consistent tool in my art journey, I feel the most comfortable with them.”

For character artist and illustrator Joe Vriens, a black and white approach was the result of a fear of colour theory mixed with a dash of impatience.

“I’d always get excited to see the bare line work of a comic, too; it seemed much more achievable,” he reveals. “I could grab a pen and paper and make a comic without expensive markers, paints or digital tools.

“I’m also old enough to remember King Kong in black and white. I made my parents rent that thing probably once a month. In retrospect, maybe King Kong informed my approach all along?”

Illustrator Isabella Mazzanti points out that working in black and white plays into a long tradition of art styles, including her own influences which range from Gustave Doré’s engravings to contemporary manga.

“They seemed accessible and reproducible to me,” she says. “These early experiences were fundamental, because they shaped my aesthetic sensibility and my approach to drawing.”

Seeing as working in black in white is a deliberate approach, it also depends on specific considerations.

“You have to make sure the shading values are balanced well,” Sarah advises. “It’s easy for your shading to look flat or ’muddy’ if your tones are too similar, so you really have to figure out your darks, mediums and lights, and then tie them together with the between shading. I personally like to work lighter and work my way to the crisp dark lines at the end. So satisfying.”

“Line weight and shape design are also key,” says concept artist Alexander Joseba, who has worked for Epic Games, HBO, Ubisoft and more. “A strong silhouette can communicate a character or object very quickly, and different line weights can help separate forms and create depth. Since you cannot use colour to separate materials or planes, you need to do it through values, textures, edges and rhythm.”

“For me, black and white forces you to be more disciplined, although I also like to play with a more wild and instinctive approach. If the image works in black and white, it usually means that the composition, lighting and structure are solid.”

Alexander grew up looking at the work of great artists such as John Buscema, Mike Mignola, Alberto Breccia and many others.

“I was fascinated by the way they were able to communicate so much with ink: how they separated planes, created depth, controlled light and shadow, and made the whole image work so clearly, each one with their own very distinct style,” he explains

Some extra considerations are required when working in black and white, however. Alexander believes the most important consideration is readability.

“Without colour, you have to rely much more on values, contrast, shapes, silhouettes and composition to guide the viewer’s eye. Everything needs to be clear from the beginning: what the focal point is, what belongs to the foreground, middle ground and background, and where the main light is coming from.

“Working in black and white forces you to focus on the foundation of the image. You need to solve composition, lighting, values, silhouette, volume and overall readability properly. I think any artist who works well in black and white will also improve their colour work, because they understand values, light and structure better. Colour does not replace that foundation; it complements it.”

Isabella also warns against assuming that working in black and white is a simpler approach.

“A solid grasp of the visual language is essential in order to use it effectively,” she argues. “Black and white is not simply the absence of colour; when working with chiaroscuro, one chooses to tell a story based on duality, contrast and the exaggeration of ambiguity. I believe it is vitally important for an artist to understand this element, which has the power to intensify the viewer’s emotional engagement.”

When it comes to making black and white art work professionally, Isabella stresses that economic forces may be influencing publishers just as much as aesthetic considerations. “It lends images a classic, refined and timeless quality,” she says.

“Even when telling a certain type of story – for example, Gothic literature – black and white seems to be the most natural choice. It can be a risky choice, because one is foregoing the emotional appeal of colour, but when used in the right way and in the right context, it’s a winning decision.”

Sarah claims that black and white art is underrated, and that it’s not the usual approach commissioners are looking for. “But at the same time, if there are clients specifically looking for works of that nature and you’ve established yourself in that niche, you will find them. This applies to any unique niche of art, and I personally enjoy the challenge of going against the grain!”

For Alexander, black and white artwork is useful for both commercial production pipelines and for final illustration styles. “It depends on the project: sometimes it is a practical development tool, and sometimes it becomes the final artistic language,” he says.

Even if artists don’t gear their black and white artwork towards clients, focusing on it can still improve their overall craft. “Balancing tones in a final image is super-important, so if you can master greys then moving on to colour will feel easier,” says Joe.

“You can guide the viewer’s eye with tones alone, so it can help your compositions greatly. Focusing on greys or even black and white can take a lot of the pressure off as well, which allows you to really dig into lighting and form.”

Meanwhile Sarah is a firm believer that practising black and white art is one of the best ways to strengthen your understanding of the fundamentals.

“Without the distraction or support of vibrant colours, you are encouraged to look at your work in a simpler and more intentional way,” she says. “You start to see shape language, values, lighting, contrast, composition and depth a lot clearer.

Isabella agrees: “The absence of colour changes the way an image is perceived,” she says. “Rather than depriving the image of something, a black and white approach reveals its essential and most intimate nature; it speaks to the viewer in a more universal, almost archetypal language.”

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.

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So what's so good about it? First of all, they're dirt cheap. Charity shops are rife with random CDs, and sifting through them often brings a welcome burst of nostalgia. Also, it's more compact – no need for a whole shelving setup; bring back the humble CD wallet that won't interfere with your interior design trends.

But you may be asking, how can I listen to my newfound collection of pretentious CDs? On a pretentious CD player, of course. My favourite compact player has just dipped under $100, now $99.99 $84.98 at Amazon, making it a no brainer for those looking to kickstart their latest obsession.

Not quite what you're looking for? Check out the top CD player deals based on your region.

Evercade Nexus is the retro game brand cracking its knuckles, stretching and embracing an even larger catalogue of retro games. Evercade has established itself as the easy entry point to retro gaming. It’s the antidote to wasting afternoons lost to getting ROMs running and fiddling with settings, and as much as I love ways to play like the Sinclair Gamer Card, I also enjoy the ease of Evercade’s cart approach, and I’ve been a fan since the first Evercade EXP.

With the Nexus, we have a retro game console that can play all the existing properly licensed games in the Evercade library, with authentic emulation and physical cartridges that scratch the collector itch, while ushering us into a ‘new’ 3D era. You pop a cart in, and you play.

So this is 'next gen', then, in the most Evercade way, with new cartridge collections stretching up to around 1998, proper 3D alongside the pixels, and a handheld that looks and feels like it belongs in 2026. I got my first hands-on with the console at the Nexus community launch in September, where I got to play Doom and Banjo-Kazooie, and I also got context for Nexus, as the room was lined with old Evercade consoles leading up to this moment. You can find many of these in our best retro consoles guide.

Nexus is a new shape for Evercade

First thing to know: the Nexus is much bigger than the Evercade EXP and the newer EXP-R and can feel a little chunky compared to the older model. The Nexus is a proper handheld in the vein of the Nintendo Switch, not a jacket-pocket gadget. That said, the Nexus is still smaller and lighter than a Nintendo Switch 2; for context, it’s about the size of the Switch 2 display, and I've been happy playing for hours at a time.

The design has some fun touches you expect from a Sony console. The rear grips feature a subtle mesh of raised 'A' symbols that nod to the Evercade logo, and the textured rubber pads sit where your hands land to keep it from shifting. For me, and even though I love it, the Switch 2 can feel slippery in handheld mode, as its slimmer design and smaller, curved finger bridges can be too subtle. The Nexus doesn't move in the hand; it’s bulkier, yes, but also more solid in the grip.

Up front is the 5.89-inch IPS display, with controls arranged around it as you expect from a modern handheld. Evercade has opted for symmetrical analogue sticks rather than the Xbox and Nintendo offset layout, and I'm a fan. It feels closer to a PlayStation pad, and it suits 3D games well while also making 2D games easy to play.

Under the display, you get a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage, plus Wi-Fi 6 for system updates. The 5,000mAh battery lasts more than five hours and charges via USB-C. You also get Bluetooth headphone support, a 3.5mm jack and front-facing stereo speakers.

The D-pad, you see, is also symmetrically placed opposite the face buttons, but it’s also a big step up from the older EXP's pad. It's light and responsive, which is exactly what you want for fighting games, and I've sunk plenty of time into King of the Fighters 2002 on it, and it's still going well. Switching to the classic controls for the new Atari collections feels natural, too.

The buttons are a touch clicky and light; they don't have the premium feel of pricier handhelds. Next to a Switch 2, you can see where the money went. At this price, and for the games it’s designed to play, from Doom to Activision Decathlon, that's fair, and the controls never distract.

Nexus is bigger, brighter and ready for 3D

The screen is the Nexus's biggest upgrade and one reason for its size, because embracing 3D and the more complex pixel art of games from the mid-90s onward demands a larger screen. It's a 5.89-inch IPS panel at 840 x 512, rated at over 500 nits. It isn't OLED, so don't expect the deep blacks of a premium handheld, but I came away impressed. Colours pop, contrast is solid and older games look crisp without losing their grit. The simulated CRT and other retro game effects on many cartridges sit nicely, too.

Banjo-Kazooie comes bundled in the box, and it's a brilliant showcase. Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie both get new native ports with widescreen support, higher resolution and 60fps, and that second analogue stick transforms how they play. These aren't old N64 ROMs run through an emulator. They've been nicely reworked, with modern control options and Stop 'n' Swop content. It's one of the best reasons to buy the Nexus and joins the likes of the recent Croc 2 remaster in showing how these old 3D platfomers can be improved on new hardware..

The display keeps up with faster games, too. I've been flipping between the new DOOM and DOOM II collection and the SNK titles on the new Neo Geo Arcade 4 cartridge I always drift back to because Metal Slug 4 is just too good, and the Nexus handles both. Twin sticks make DOOM feel far more natural than a D-pad ever could, and placing them symmetrically works wonders.

TATE mode is back as well, rotating the screen for vertical arcade games. The Nexus's larger size makes this mode easier to use, as I often found the Evercade EXP a little too narrow to be comfortable. The Nexus's bulk makes it a tad better than the Switch 2 for TATE mode, as I found when playing the Toaplan Arcade Garage: Flying Fire Shark; Nintendo’s console can be too slim for its own good.

The cartridge collection remains the real star

The Nexus is only half the story, of course, because Evercade's physical games are the main draw, and the new handheld plays the entire existing library: more than 80 cartridges and over 700 officially licensed games from Atari, Capcom, Taito, SNK, Rare, Activision and more. Each collection arrives in its own box with a full-colour manual, and building a shelf of them is a joy a digital storefront can't match.

No downloads, no games vanishing from a subscription service, no hunting for ROMs in dodgy corners of the internet. Cart in, game on. It's refreshing and plays into the idea of celebrating how we play and not just what we play, and by plan or by accident. Evercade has become the zeitgeist brand, treating gaming like a vinyl collection.

The Nexus also debuts EverSync, a local wireless multiplayer feature. Only one player needs the cartridge; the second console receives the game from the first. It's clever, and it makes owning physical games feel more flexible and inclusive, but it also reminds me of how we used to play back in the day, when you’d share games and play on the couch. You'll need a second Nexus, though, so maybe part of Evercade is happy playing by 2026’s rules.

What's missing from Evercade Nexus?

Two omissions stand out. The big one is HDMI. The original Evercade EXP had a Mini HDMI port; the Nexus is strictly a handheld. You can't plug it into a TV or use it as a portable home console like some rivals.

I get why. Evercade already has the VS and VS-R for TV play, and there's a business case for keeping the products apart. It's still a shame if you want one device to do everything.

The other gap is a proper sleep mode. There's no suspend and resume, so you power down and restart every time you put it away. That feels odd on a modern handheld, especially if you're used to picking up a Switch and jumping straight back in. Boot times aren't speedy either, at around 40 seconds (I know, we're in such a low attention span era, how did I survive ZX Spectrum tape-loading?), so I'd love to see a fix in a future update.

Neither is a deal-breaker. Both remind me that the Nexus is a focused console, and Evercade has clearly balanced features and specs to make it affordable.

Should you buy the Evercade Nexus?

Yes, if you want retro gaming without the faff. The Evercade Nexus is the best version of what Evercade has been building towards: comfortable, well-made, with a big screen and a huge library of classics from day one that's dead easy to play.

I like that Evercade hasn't pushed the hardware too far. Banjo-Kazooie shows what the Nexus can do in 3D, and the 8-bit and 16-bit games that built the brand are still right at home.

At $199.99 / £169.99 for the base console ($229.99 / £189.99 for the 64 Edition and $249.99 / £199.99 for the Doom Edition), it isn't competing with cheap emulation handhelds, and it's not directly competitive with Switch 2. The lack of OLED, HDMI and sleep mode will put some people off, but those are clearly choices made to keep Nexus affordable and dodge a headlong fight with Nintendo.

Evercade is selling something different: a curated, licensed, and collectable way to play some of the best games from past arcade and console eras. If you already own cartridges because you have an EXP-R or VS-R, the bigger screen and twin sticks make this a tempting upgrade. If you're new, it's still an easy recommendation.

We just discovered a gem on a topic that's close to our own hearts. Here at Creative Bloq, we consider ourselves something of an authority on design fails. We've written about enough of them over the years, from disastrous rebrands to AI adverts.

So imagine our delight when we discovered that typing the term 'design fails' into Google delivers results presented in one of the world's most controversial typefaces.

I say one of the most controversial fonts, because these days we would much rather have Comic Sans back in place of that generic AI font that's cropping up on flyers everywhere.

Putting Google's joke aside, the typeface has its place, and not every use of Comic Sans is a design fail. Indeed, many designers have come out in defence of Comic Sans over the years.

It was created in 1994 by Microsoft in-house designer Vincent Connare to solve a specific design problem. He needed a suitable font for the dog in the Microsoft Bob interface – Times New Roman just didn't suit the pup's playfulness, so Vincent created a comic book-inspired font to match the cartoony design.

Mimicking informal, handwritten speech in cartoons, it was perfect for injecting levity into casual communication pieces for schools, community spaces, standing out from stuffy serifs and dull sans serifs while also being very clear and readable thanks to its wide spacing.

The problem came when people started using it in inappropriate applications, including official notices, and its infamy only grew with the 'graphic design is my passion' meme.

The good news as we approach the holiday season is that a pack of 48 refillable Kahuku acrylic pens is now reduced by 26% from $34.99 to $25.99 at Amazon. We loved these direct-ink markers when we tested them thanks to their vibrant colours and their flexibility for decorating on hard surfaces like rock, wood, ceramic, glass and plastic.

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“We didn’t want to use CG to just ‘simulate’ an illustration,” Carloni says of making the new 2026 animated movie. The aim was for audiences to feel the familiarity of Seuss’s painterly illustrations while experiencing the depth and immersion of modern 3D animation.

The creative partnership behind the film was just as collaborative. Asked how they divided the writing and directing duties, Rivinoja says they didn't split the work between them. “It was less ‘divide and conquer’, and more ‘unite and conquer’. To streamline the process, we were usually in meetings together.”

How to watch Made to Make

Working with Autodesk software such as Maya and Flow was key, as revealed in a new video series called Made to Make, which has now been expanded to include more behind-the-scenes details; watch it on the Made to Make YouTube channel.

Put simply-ish, it meant rethinking lighting, surfaces and even the edges of objects. The team paired simple, almost flat surfaces and key lighting with softer, more volumetric fill and bounce lighting. They also developed a stylised, painterly edge treatment to avoid the harsh sharpness of digital imagery. Then came realistic lens behaviour, including halation, aberration, and lens flare, which Carloni says helped ground the images in believability. The team developed the combination specifically for the film, creating its own visual style.

How Maya helped make Cat in the Hat

Maya sat at the pipeline's centre. Production designer Aidan Sugano’s hand-drawn designs were translated into 3D models there, and everything in the film, from characters and props to entire worlds, was built in the software.

For the animators, Maya was also the only way to touch the characters. Marek Kochout, for example, shaped the Cat’s performance through the Graph Editor, where a single expressive shot can involve hundreds of layered curves. The Pose Library let animators save and reuse expressions and attitudes, and over time it became a shared reference for how the Cat moves, with standout scenes added so every animator could draw on them.

Keeping a film like this on track across four countries, with teams in India, Montreal, London and Los Angeles, fell to Autodesk Flow Production Tracking, which followed every character, environment, prop and version from boards through to final compositing over roughly two years. Sugano, in New York, and VFX supervisor Matt Waters, in London, used RV within Flow Production Tracking to review the same footage in real time. Executives and partners screened the film through PIX, now part of Autodesk Flow Capture, whose watermarking and access controls helped keep it under wraps. As Carloni puts it, “This movie would not exist without the tools we had.”

For a fuller look at the workflow, visit Autodesk’s blog on the making of the film.

Keeping the Seuss look at cinema scale

For Rivinoja, preserving Seuss's visual language was essential. The team wanted fans to recognise his signature design motifs, from hatch marks and negative space to his colour palettes, arches and mechanical hands. “We wanted to make sure people who love the books saw something of the book in the film,” she says.

It wasn't going to be a straightforward page-to-screen adaptation, though. The filmmakers wanted to expand the world and make it a cinematic spectacle, exploring what happens after the original story ends, including where the Cat goes when he leaves the house. They came up with the idea that entertaining bored children is his job, which explains why he shows up at the house on a rainy day. He's also one of many specialists at the company, and his famous hat is actually his company uniform.

The film also needed several distinct environments: the real world, Seuss’s world and three further worlds connected to characters in the story. Rather than altering the characters to suit each setting, the team kept their designs and shape language consistent.

“We kept consistent shape language throughout, and we didn’t change the looks of the characters,” says Rivinoja.

The differences come from colour, surfacing, rendering style and lighting, Carloni explains. The characters stay recognisable while the emotional feel of each world changes as the story progresses.

The Cat has to be lovable

Carloni says the hardest problem was making sure audiences would want to spend time with the Cat, explaining: “To make sure the character of the Cat was truly lovable. The kind of character anyone would want to spend time with. If we loved him, we had a movie. If he's unlikable, then no matter how fun the story or how fantastic the adventure, the movie would never work.”

He describes animation's greatest advantage as the same thing that makes it daunting: ultimate freedom. “There are limitless possibilities. You can literally do anything at all in animation. As the saying goes, the only limit is your imagination, which makes it perfect to tell a Seuss story and create a Seuss world.”

The Cat in the Hat arrives in cinemas and IMAX in North America on 6 November 2026, with international releases beginning on 4 November.

Dior's latest holiday ad has been lambasted for allegedly using AI-generated content, disguised as the work of human craft. While the best Christmas adverts don't follow a formula, Dior's 'animated' ad appears to be stolen valour, proving that audiences are hungry for authenticity when it comes to advertising.

Directed by French animator Sylvain Chomet, “Christian Dior’s Night in Color,” is (on the surface) a charming short film inspired by the founder's friendship with film star Marlene Dietrich. With an all-star cast including Robert Pattinson, Rihanna, Josh O’Connor and LaKeith Stanfield, the ad captures a familiar festive warmth, supported by its seemingly hand-illustrated animation.

But soon eagle-eyed viewers spotted some subtle discrepancies. Strange warped lettering, a lazy eye here, a misplaced phalange there – all signs seemed to point to AI slop.

But it was not the alleged AI that irked critics so much; it was the deception. A 'behind-the-scenes' look at production shows only sketches, and as the end credits roll, a short list of animators are listed with no mention of AI, (despite evidence suggesting otherwise). Paired with Chomet's creative legacy, Dior's intentions become clear – it wants you to believe this is 100% human animation.

Comments were suitably heated, with one X user writing "Your budget couldn't fit in an actual animation studio? You had to use AI? Disappointing." Another added "After the Prada commercial, its so easy to see its AI. Its so sad to see many good artists put their names behind this," while another added, "Oh Dior can rot in a ditch for not disclosing they resorted to ai-slop. All these 'pretty' visuals mean nothing if no artist animated them."

During this year's Christmas ad season, human-made craft has become synonymous with nostalgia and luxury – praiseworthy traits that earn brand's the audience seal of approval. Dior's sly attempt to capitalise on this trend has only peeved critics further, proving that even the most subtle AI blemishes will be called out. While Dior's AI augmentation is merely speculation, the brand's lack of transparency only aids in audience mistrust and frustration.

For more advertising news, check out the reaction to John Lewis' new Christmas ad or take a look at the most beautiful Christmas films to inspire you this festive season.

So does DLSS 5 ride roughshod over Hogwarts Legacy's art direction and create entirely new characters like people expected when the leaked unfinished DLSS 5 iteration surfaced online back in August? Erm...

As demonstrated by Nvidia in the launch trailer above, the impact of DLSS 5 in Hogwarts Legacy looks surprisingly subtle. The chip giant maintains that the aim is to enhance lighting and material quality to "boost environmental uplift while preserving character identity".

"With the addition of DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering to Hogwarts Legacy, our complete suite of DLSS technologies will now be supported, enabling you to accelerate and enhance your experiences in the wizarding world," Nvidia says.

It seems it just can't please people. After the ridicule Nvidia faced for the initial tests of DLSS 5, some people are now saying that the actual implementation in Hogwarts Legacy is laughably subtle. Some are struggling to see a worthwhile difference even in side-by-side comparisons "Before vs Before", one person jokes in the comments on the trailer above.

What do you think of the comparisons below?

"People complained too much that they just completely nerfed it. Now we just have fps loss with basically little difference in image quality," one person complains in the comments on YouTube.

"I find it hilarious how the first presentation was so completely over the top strength wise, and now it's reduced to a point where you really can't even tell if it's even on anymore without a direct comparison," someone else writes.

"Asking for another 100-200 watts of power for basically no difference is crazy work," a third person suggests.

Alas, the relatively subtle implementation is unlikely to end the DLSS 5 controversy. While some scenes arguably benefit from a subtle boost in contrast, the extra detail in some of the environments actually makes them feel less atmospheric in my opinion.

Official DLSS 5 support is currently limited to GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs and RTX Spark systems. Activating DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering, 6X Multi Frame Generation, Ray Reconstruction, NVIDIA Reflex, and ray tracing, allows Hogwarts Legacy to run at a max of 4K at up to 300 frames per second on RTX 5090 (see our guide the best GPUs).

"For an optimal experience, we also recommend enabling DLSS Super Resolution under 'Upscale Type', DLSS Multi Frame Generation under 'Frame Generation', NVIDIA Reflex under 'Low Latency Mode', and 'DLSS Ray Reconstruction' if you're also activating Hogwarts Legacy's immersive ray-traced effects," Nvidia adds.

DLSS 5 is also coming to the free-to-play military combat game War Thunder from mid-November and to the wuxia-inspired Where Winds Meet from 23 November. You can read the full blog post on the Nvidia website

Nvidia said back in March that its next-generation DLSS would bring "photorealism" to gaming through the use of a new generative AI model designed to enhance frames and add detail to lighting, textures and materials in real time. But the GPU maker's early demo immediately sparked controversy by giving Grace from Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem a glamour makeover.

Leaked through the nvngx_dlssnr.dll library via NBA 2K27, modders soon began testing DLSS 5 for themselves and sharing the videos and screenshots on social media. Faces were the main area of contention, with some modders complaining that Nvidia's new tech makes characters look uncanny and AI-generated or older than they're supposed to be by sharpening skin texture.

That sparked a big debate around artistic intent, with some people concerned that the technology would effectively change game artists' original vision.

And what's better, is that they are offer Creative Bloq an extra 2% off with the code CBHOSTINGERBF10. That's 87% off in total!

Just for context, we think Hostinger is the best web builders for small businesses working with Word Press. At its normal price, it balances performance with affordability, and recently Hostinger has seriously levelled up its website builder offerings. It strips away the overwhelming technical complexities of building a site, replacing them with a streamlined, grid-based drag-and-drop editor and a surprisingly robust suite of built-in AI tools.

While it might lack the infinite, blank-canvas customisation of some pricier competitors, it makes up for it with sheer speed and usability. Now, with Black Friday upon us, the platform is rolling out these mega discounts that are incredibly difficult to ignore.

The deal in detail

You are effectively locking in to four years of premium web hosting for roughly the cost of a couple of chocolate bars a month.

If you value a low-friction setup, it is genuinely an outstanding bargain. Hostinger’s builder shines because it offers an all-in-one approach. There is an initial $133.92 payment, and then a low fee and for that you aren't just getting server space; you get a free domain, automatic SSL certificates, full e-commerce functionality, and unmetered bandwidth. The drag-and-drop editor is zippy and intuitive, supported by AI generators for copy, logos, and layouts that give you a brilliant jumping-off point when you are staring at a blank page.

However, it’s not for absolutely everyone. If you are an expert web designer seeking pixel-perfect, unrestricted creative freedom, Hostinger’s structured grids might feel a bit restrictive. Furthermore, once you commit to a template, you can't simply switch to a new one without rebuilding.

So, who is this for? This deal is tailor-made for freelance creatives, small design studios, and independent business owners who need a sleek, professional portfolio or storefront launched by this weekend. You get impressive speed, top-tier uptime, and all the essential tools to grow your brand, all without the premium price tag.

For pure, long-term value, it’s a steal.

Apple's first-ever touchscreen MacBook is finally here! Find my hands-on impressions below, and scroll down for rolling coverage as reactions from critics and creators start to pour in across the web.

Reviews roundup

• We call the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display "Perhaps the ultimate device for creatives," with "the best laptop screen [we've] every seen." Scroll down for our hands-on impressions.
• TechRadar says, "The touchscreen is arguably not its most interesting feature; it works fine, but macOS is still an operating system built for traditional laptop inputs. Instead, it’s the gorgeous tandem OLED screen and industry-leading battery life that should get you excited here."
• The Verge calls it, "a lighter, thinner, and all-around better laptop," but adds, "Even if you love the touchscreen, you’ll use it a lot for a day or so and go back to using your laptop almost exactly the way you did before."
• Tom's Guide says the machine "impresses thanks to its astonishing touchscreen OLED display that’s the brightest we’ve ever seen on a laptop. On top of that, it has a thinner, lighter design, punchy speakers, and super-long battery life. Plus. Apple finally ditches the notch."
• T3 says: "The short version is that it feels pretty great, full of impressively designed touch interactions – but also with plenty of little hiccups that are probably keeping Apple grounded."

Our hands-on impressions

They said they wouldn't do it. A touchscreen MacBook has been rumoured since the dawn of time (well, the noughties), but, in a quote that's been infinitely dredged up across the internet over the last couple of weeks, Steve Jobs himself decried the concept as "ergonomically terrible". But Jobs also famously asked, "Who wants a stylus?" And the answer among millions of Apple Pencil users seems to be a resounding, "Us!"

And after a few days with the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, I'm happy to report that this is very much a device—perhaps even the ultimate device—for creatives. But rather than the ability to touch the screen, it's all about the quality of that 'PROLED' display itself. Turns out there's a reason Apple decided to lead with that, and not touch, in the name of the device.

• Get the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display for $2899 at Amazon

Simply put, it's the best laptop screen I've ever seen. With up to 2000 nits of peak brightness, 10,000,000:1 contrast, and P3 + Adobe RGB colour, this is a best-in-class display that puts every other OLED laptop screen I've used to shame. It gives creatives a portable reference-quality display, which means it recreates video, colour and contrast as faithfully as possible. Once you've used the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, everything else looks washed-out in comparison, and for that reason alone it's impossible not to recommend for creatives – so long as the small matter of the $2,899 starting price isn't a barrier.

When it comes to touch, as I've written before, in my testing I've found it to be a nice-to-have rather than a need-to-have. Now that we're all touchscreen natives (which wasn't so much the case when Jobs made those comments in 2010), certain navigational actions just feel right, even on a laptop. Scrolling through windows, pinching to zoom in on a photo or map, scrubbing through the timeline in Final Cut Pro; there are plenty of times when touching the screen feels more intuitive than reaching for the trackpad. And Apple's subtle UI tweaks, such as having navigational icons expand when touched, make the whole thing feel more natural.

But equally, there were plenty of times when I preferred to use the trackpad – particularly when a certain level of accuracy was required. And despite Apple claiming to have produced a newly designed hinge with greater stability, it still wobbles. There's just no getting around the fact that a touchscreen on a vertical display is less ergonomic than it is on a flat one.

From a design perspective, the new MacBook Pro isn't a game-changer – unless you really missed the illuminating Apple logo (another noughties mainstay). There are improvements here and there; the Dynamic Island takes up less space than the notch, and slightly smaller bezels result in slightly larger viewing areas. But perhaps the most meaningful design change is the reduction in weight. That OLED panel has allowed for a 14% weight loss – making the 14-inch model, somewhat ironically, lighter than the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air.

But everything pales next to the screen. The PROLED XDR looks incredible. If you're looking for the most impressive visual fidelity available on a laptop, here it is. You can touch it if you like.

The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display is released tomorrow, with preorders available now. Prices start at $2899 for the 14-inch model, and $3399 for the 16-inch model.

The design detail hiding inside the Gillette logo is completely true to the brand's core product – it's a razor blade, sitting inside the wordmark itself – and the Gillette social media team confirmed it on Instagram this week. Take a look below and see if you think it qualifies the design for our best logos ever list.

Designers and consumers are delighted in the comments, with praise for the design team. One designer goes even further by sharing "As a graphic designer, one could say the two “ll”’s is an actual stainless blade, thank me later".

But one designer thought the design could have included something extra: "Leads me to question why they didn't add the notches in the negative space to look like a razor blade". Someone else pointed out that "they had 3 blade design in the logo before this, integrated into the G."

There have been a host of other hidden logo design treats over the years, with notable examples being FedEx, NBC, Nintendo GameCube and more. You can explore others in the bumper infographic above.

And for something new, see this awesome example of negative space in a logo that's been electrifying the internet for years.

"We had the idea of fusion as a central mechanic, which Pokemon can't tap into because Pikachu is a mascot that you can't dilute by merging it with a thousand other beasts to get new beasts," he explains. "We also thought about focusing on the human characters, so maybe the beasts could be a reflection of the human characters, which led to the idea of transforming into them."

It also helped that Cassette Beasts aimed itself at a slightly older audience compared to every Pokemon game always having you start out as yet another schoolkid, though its British humour and sensibilities also stood out, which is something the Brighton-based studio is leaning even more directly on with its upcoming sequel.

Cassette Beasts 2002's very British setting

Cassette Beasts 2002 is set in London (as well as its alternate world of Nodnol), but it aims not to give the tourist version of the capital, but a quieter Zone 6 suburb version of it, with the town of Elmwich.

"We don't lean into a certain Paddington-esque twee Britishism about it," Bayliss explains. "Crucially, we're Northerners living down South in Brighton; we don't really play with that twee Britishness. We enjoy portraying quite a mundane, crappy version of suburban English life. We're so bored of the Harry Potter-esque upper middle-class boarding school fantasy take on it. I think this version's more fun."

As the title's palindrome suggests, Cassette Beasts 2002 is also set in 2002. That appeals to me personally, much like one of my favourite indie games released earlier this year, Perfect Tides: Station to Station, because it taps into my formative teen years. "The early 2000s also mark this crossing point between the analogue and digital age," Bayliss explains. "The internet exists, but you don't have smartphones. People do have mobile phones in the game, but we haven't got the Panopticon of social media. For artists younger than me, they reflect on this ethereal time they just missed out on, just before we had the baggage of the modern world overwhelming you."

Getting the Y2K art and design right

It was also important to reflect the era's aesthetic and fashion. "Skewing male, game developers often don't appreciate fashion, but if you go on TikTok and social media, people are very interested in noughties fashion," Bayliss explains. "There's a lot of interest in exploring that time that we don't discount, and that's reflected in the fashion sensibilities of the characters and the character designs themselves as well."

Perhaps a major visual shift with this sequel is a more 3D one. Well, it's a case of perspective, literally. The original Cassette Beasts, while presented in the traditional top-down perspective of classic Pokemon and other 8- and 16-bit RPGs, was actually made in a 3D engine, albeit with environments given pixelated textures to match its 2D character sprites. In Cassette Beasts 2002, the camera drops down so things are presented as a third-person 3D game, except its characters are still pixel-art sprites presented with a billboarding technique.

"We were like, what if we can design this game with higher resolution sprites, with eight directions so when you pan the camera around, it feels less awkward?" Bayliss explains. "From a technical point of view, you have to rethink how you're designing worlds, but suddenly the perspective and scale you have in these worlds is very different. If you took the first game and dropped the camera down, it would probably feel very small, so it changes how we sculpt and design the world."

Why use the Godot Engine?

Cassette Beasts 2002 is also developed with the open-source Godot engine, which more indies are turning to. Although Bayliss recalls the challenges of porting the game's predecessor, which was developed with Godot 3, the latest iteration, Godot 4, that the studio is using has greatly improved features, including porting and performance, that make it a more viable alternative to Unity.

"If you sign up to Unity, you're kind of on the hook for any changes that Unity makes, whereas with an open-source engine, if you don't like changes, you can change the engine," Bayliss explains. "I think the flexibility of Godot is what allows a team of two full-time developers to make a big 25-hour RPG. It's just a very uncomplicated engine - you make stuff, you put it in, it's in the game. If there's anything that you need to fix, you don't have to submit a bug report to the back-end team and hope they fix it in the next two years; you just go in and fix it yourself."

Cassette Beasts 2002 is releasing in March 2027 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2. You can wishlist it now on Steam.

The 2027 poster design was created by the French illustrator Malika Favre and the Sri Lankan sculptural artist and designer Kumkum Fernando. The former's distinctive geometric graphic style merges with the latter's colourful retrofuturism in a striking maximalist design that channels diverse influences into the form of a divine being that represents music as a joyful, spiritual journey.

Montreux has a long history of artist-designed posters. Other previous contributors have included David Bowie, Jean Tinguely, Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid), Lakwena, Kévin Germanier and Christian Marclay.

Keith Haring designed for the festival twice. For his second commission, in 1986, he worked with Andy Warhol as a collaborator. The festival invited Malika to adopt a similar approach for her second contribution, ten years after her first design for Montreux.

While her 2017 poster stood out for its minimalism, the new design goes in the opposite direction. A densely packed arrangement of colour and shapes creates a fantastical figure that looks like a cross between a robot, sacred altar and a jukebox. In fact, the design is also being turned into a sculptural vinyl cabinet (see further below).

“I fell in love with the festival on my very first visit in 2017. The poster I created for that edition remains one of my personal favourites to this day. I knew it would be hard to match, so I wanted to take the opposite approach: to create a work bursting with colour, as maximalist as the first one was minimalist. Kumkum was the ideal artist for this,” Favre says of the collaboration.

The design draws on diverse influences, including South Asian traditions, retro-futurism and '60s counterculture. The flowers evoke the lakeside quays of Montreux but also the flower power movement of the hippie era, a nod to the fact that Montreux Jazz Festival was founded during the 1967 Summer of Love. The floral patterns also subtly outline lips, kisses and female faces – symbols of love, pleasure and sexuality that recur throughout Malika's artistic universe.

“I had this vision of music blooming in Montreux, this feeling of the entire town coming alive during the festival,” Favre adds. “I wanted to convey that joy. The world is going through strange times, and a festival like Montreux is an opportunity to celebrate. For me, flowers also symbolise eroticism, an explosion of the senses and the pleasures found in music. I always like to tuck in something a little cheeky, and I thought I could bring that touch of a feminine sensuality. When I sent the first flowers to Kumkum he said, ‘Oh yes, that’s sexy!’”

From the outset, the idea was also to bring the poster’s divine entity into the world as a three-dimensional object, following Kumkum’s practice of creating futuristic, geometric sculptures. The result is a made-for-order vinyl cabinet with a dedicated turntable compartment and pull-out drawers for record storage.

“The spark came when we noticed the resemblance between the shape of certain religious altars and that of a jukebox, both sharing the same sense of symmetry,” Fernando says. “We imagined a kind of gateway into a sacred realm of music, a timeless entity, part retro-futuristic robot, part mythological being, that embodies music as a joyful, universal experience.”

The 61st Montreux Jazz Festival will take place on the Lake Geneva shoreline from 2 July to 17 July 2027.

In the UK, the arrival of the John Lewis Christmas advert was long seen as the unofficial start of the season. The department store chain features twice in our pick of the best Christmas adverts of all time. But its 2026 offering has sparked a fierce backlash over what people see as confused messaging, with some people even calling for a boycott of the store.

Titled Gloria and Pickles, the 2026 John Lewis Christmas advert is an opulent affair. Set to a Sam Fender cover of The Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want, it sees National treasure Kristin Scott Thomas star as a wealthy grandma who can't find anything to entertain her spoiled grandchildren and stop them from messing up her huge, gloomy mansion.

The kids are, naturally, unimpressed by an ancient Fisher-Price Little Snoopy Toy. She's about to give them some cash when the wooden dog turns into canine Chat-GPT with the voice of Paul Whitehouse and admonishes her for the lack of imagination. "Do you want them to like you?" the toy asks her at one point.

Off they go shopping, passing through several sub-standard stores until arriving at John Lewis. There, Kristin spends a fortune on decorations to turn one of her many spare rooms into a festive party space, which convinces the kids to finally show her some affection.

The message is supposed to be that a personal gift is more in keeping with the spirit of Christmas than cold, hard cash. But what comes across is that, either way, spending money is the only way to get you grandkids to like you. Good luck if you can't afford to shop at John Lewis.

According to the creative effectiveness company System 1, the ad achieved 5.6 stars on its rating system, making it John Lewis's strongest-performing festive campaign since Excitable Edgar in 2019. Its testing found that 61% of viewers felt happy watching the advert, nearly twice the UK TV advertising average.

That's not the impression you get from the comments on social media. Writing on X Piers Morgan (what's the opposite of a national treasure?) described it as "possibly the worst advert I’ve ever seen for anything".

There's some hyperbole there. It least it's not Coca-Cola's AI slop. But he has a point, and a lot of people agree. The family is unlikeable, the children entitled and overindulged, and the materialistic tone feels out of touch amid the cost of living crisis, reminding younger viewers how skint they are (everything from the dog to Kristin's outfits is shoppable). Even the colour grading is depressing.

John Lewis switched from Adam&Eve to Saatchi & Saatchi as its creative agency back in 2023. Unlike the whimsical ads of the past that became such an annual event, this piece feels cold and clinical. It's more obviously geared towards conversion, attempting to shape behaviour by guilt tripping grandparents.

This is a Bean to Cup coffee machine, which means it grinds your beans as well as making the coffee. Fresh grounds are one of the keys to getting the perfect brew, and an all-in-one machine saves having to buy separate appliances and find the space and sockets for them.

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That's a lot cheaper than most of the best office chairs for back pain, and the Doro C300 Pro has a wide seat, breathable mesh, lumbar support, lots of adjustability and fantastic armrests.

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We recognise that the C300 Pro is not the most beautiful office chair, and, like all Sihoo chairs, it takes some patience with assembly. But once you've got it set up, it is very comfortable.

The highlight is the lumbar support, which is one of the more comfy that we've tested, helping to support the back's natural 's' shape without making you feel like it wants to break you into submission.

Most of the chair's adjustability is as you'd expect from a higher-mid range ergonomic chair, but the armrests stand out. They go up/down, forward/back, and tilt and, most impressively, move laterally in and out from your chest. This is no minor detail: it provides more options for how you sit and allows you to freely move your arms as you want.

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The response has been pretty spectacular. The remake is sitting at 96 on Metacritic, with a hefty collection of perfect scores and very few critics finding much to complain about. That's quite an achievement for a game whose original version already has such a place in gaming history.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake launches on 5 November, and Nintendo has done rather more than give Link a fresh coat of paint. Hyrule has been rebuilt with a striking new visual style (while staying tonally true), the soundtrack has been re-orchestrated, and the original's occasionally clunky controls have been updated. Now it offers free jumping, a modern camera, and fully voiced cutscenes, alongside redesigned dungeons and expanded character interactions.

It's a substantial overhaul, even if the adventure itself remains reassuringly familiar to those who grew up on this classic Nintendo game. If you're a fan, take our Ultimate Zelda quiz and test your knowledge.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time review scores

GamesRadar+ awards the remake five stars, calling it "a remake for the ages". Reviewer Anna Koselke is particularly taken with how Nintendo has brought Hyrule to life without losing the original's charm, praising its "stunning visuals" and newly voiced dialogue.

TechRadar is equally impressed, awarding five stars and describing the remake as "a thoroughly well-thought-out retelling of one of the most loved video games of all time". Reviewer Josephine Watson highlights the redesigned locations, enemies and puzzles, as well as the refreshed soundtrack. There is a little caution, though, with TechRadar suggesting the remake could have been more ambitious and that some of the original's difficulty has been lost along the way.

A familiar adventure, with a few surprises

Game Informer awards the remake 9.25/10, describing it as "a straightforward recreation. But an admittedly very good one." Reviewer Kyle Hilliard likes the visual overhaul and improved camera but feels Nintendo has played it relatively safe with the changes. It looks new, he argues, without necessarily feeling like an entirely new adventure.

Shacknews is considerably more enthusiastic, awarding a perfect 10/10 and calling the remake "a tour de force that redefines what remakes can be". Its review highlights how Nintendo has made familiar mechanics feel fresh, from the reworked combat to the redesigned dungeons. It also singles out Navi, who has been given a much bigger role as a companion rather than simply popping up to shout "Hey! Listen!"

Destructoid also hands out a 10/10, calling it "one of the best examples of how to properly reimagine an enduring masterpiece". The review praises the improved visuals, 60fps performance, and updated controls, though it agrees the remake can feel a little too easy in places.

The Guardian's Keza MacDonald is similarly impressed, scoring the game five stars and describing the remake as "a dream come true". Her review makes an interesting observation about the new art direction, comparing Hyrule to detailed theatre scenery and Link to a handmade doll, with his equipment looking like exaggerated props. It's a more stylised approach than simply chasing photorealism, and one that suits the fairytale quality of the original.

Not everyone is entirely convinced with Ocarina of Time

Reviewers are highlighting the lack of Master Quest is a notable omission for returning players wanting a tougher adventure, while the more generous clues and quality-of-life improvements have softened some of the original's challenge.

GamesRadar+ also flags the absence of Master Quest and the single-save-file restriction as drawbacks. Game Informer, meanwhile, feels the remake could have been a little more adventurous in how it reinterprets the original.

These aren't deal-breakers, but they're worth considering if you've spent years exploring Hyrule and know the N64 version inside out.

A new generation gets to discover Hyrule

For anyone who grew up with the original Nintendo 64, this remake is clearly wrapped in an enormous amount of nostalgia. But Ocarina of Time is more than a fond memory for those of us who played it back in 1998. It helped establish the language of 3D adventure games, from lock-on combat to sprawling interconnected dungeons, and its influence still runs through modern game design.

Nintendo has had to do a lot of work to bring the adventure up to date, but it hasn't had to fix what made it special in the first place. The world design, the sense of discovery, and that slightly odd fairy-tale atmosphere are all still there, only now with the visual detail and fluidity the original hardware could never manage.

And Nintendo is very good at this too, with the recent Star Fox remake also proving popular on Switch 2, and the many Metroid and Mario updates and remasters proving a reason to buy Nintendo Online.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on 5 November.

Canva's just revealed another side of the story: the tech companies driving the change aren't immune to its impact. The Australian design software giant has announced the biggest restructuring in its 12 years of history, with plans to eliminate or relocate more than 1,200 jobs. That's almost a quarter of its global workforce, and it will include staff who helped to build the platform.

Canva aims to “collapse layers” in its organisation and bring “more teams together in person”. It's handling the layoffs in the classiest way possible, promising six months of salary and 12 months of healthcare to those affected, alongside career support, a fund for those who want to start their own business – and it's letting people keep their MacBooks.

But the layoffs highlight an inescapable contradiction. Even those responsible for the ubiquity of AI image generation are suffering from its expansion. Rather than a push for growth and innovation, Adobe and Canva's rollout of AI tools feels more their own desperate fight for survival, and it's a fight they might not be able to win.

"Success in our first chapter doesn’t guarantee success in the next," Canva CEO Melanie Perkins writes in an update to staff. "This has been our hardest year yet, and as we shared earlier this year, our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade."

There's been talk of an “SaaS-pocalypse” as AI becomes advanced enough to make specialised software redundant. We've already seen the release of an open-source vibe-coded Adobe alternative, and it works to an extent. Generating your own software is only going to get easier, as is asking an AI bot to generate design assets directly.

Despite its heavy investment in AI, Adobe's stock price has fallen by around 25% in the past year and over 60% in the past five years. It's not clear that even AI leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic, the makers of ChatGPT and Claude, can become profitable as Chinese rivals emerge delivering similar technology at a cheaper price.

Some creatives opposed to AI might feel a twinge of satisfaction at seeing a prominent proponent floundering. But Canva has also been a positive force, even if you don't use it's AI tools. As well as its premium platform, it has one of the best free Adobe alternatives in its free Affinity app, providing much-needed competition.

Creatives using the app might have cause to worry about how long it will be offered as a loss leader. Canva's shown a strong commitment to it so far, recently adding new raw editing tools and an iPad app. But its recent decision to pull the previously free Remove.bg into its paid suite shows that the structure and availability of creative software is constantly in flux as developers try to work out how to respond to competition from AI.

WoW: Forever, the new version of the iconic MMORPG, released today, takes players back to the original Azeroth, with reworked environments, lighting and atmosphere. It won’t get a full visual overhaul or take on the look of the recent expansions. Blizzard wants it to feel like coming home to a place that’s more alive. That's a tricky task, given that World of Warcraft is one of the defining video game art styles many look to and love.

“We believe WoW Classic’s art style is timeless,” says Matt Heyman, lead environment artist at Blizzard Entertainment. “Which is why our focus was not on changing the game art but on small ways we could push specifically things like the environmental effects. Such as the way rivers now flow in Elwynn Forest, or the way the fog rolls in the Duskwood at night. Or the way the moonlight breaks through the leaves in the Ashenvale. It’s the same original Azeroth that players fell in love with all those years ago, with just a few small but powerful effects and updates to make it more immersive than ever.”

The fine balance of WoW: Forever

World of Warcraft: Forever is designed as a permanent home alongside modern and Classic WoW. It returns players to the original continents and the level 1-60 journey while adding new stories and experiences, and Blizzard says it will keep expanding this version of Azeroth over time.

For this unique release, the team needed to build something new without disturbing the memories players already hold. The work covers around 40 existing zones, new locations such as Zephras Isle, home of the new Skyborne race, and changes to familiar places including Dalaran.

“We asked ourselves, ‘What does it mean to evolve a timeless world?’” says Heyman. “We wanted to take that original ‘Vanilla’ version of Azeroth and combine it with the version that lives in our heads. Where our experiences, nostalgia and imagination all shape the ways we remember it.”

Each zone has its own colour palette, mood and atmosphere. “We often talk about the world as the main character of World of Warcraft, but I like to imagine it as a cast of characters,” he says.

Reanimating memories in World of Warcraft

Duskwood shows the problem well. Players remember a gloomy forest full of spiders, wolves, undead and skeletons, with the Night Watch patrolling Darkshire by torchlight. “However, while it’s an awesome and iconic zone, it’s probably not as dark and creepy as people remember,” says Heyman.

For WoW: Forever, the team is leaning into the remembered version, with moonlight cutting through the branches around Darkshire and fog drifting through the graveyards.

New tools can tempt artists to change things just because they can, so Blizzard has set a guiding rule. “Changing a world that players have cherished for such a long time has risks. We approach it carefully and responsibly,” Heyman explains. “We developed a central artistic principle that everything must be authentic. That’s both authentic to our world but, most importantly, authentic to the memories we have of Azeroth when the journey began in WoW.”

He points to Durotar, the arid, vibrant homeland of the Orcs. A cool blue atmosphere would look natural and realistic there, he says, but it wouldn’t be authentic. “The correct approach is to go in with purpose and to lean in and push the fantasy that the region already has.”

Giving Azeroth more atmosphere

Most of the changes sit in the rendering technology, according to lead software engineer Jason Scott, who describes work on fog, lighting and water. Fog has been part of WoW’s look since the beginning, creating depth and gloomy vistas. Blizzard has replaced the original distant fog with volumetric technology, which gives artists much more control.

“We can control fog like we never have before,” says Scott. “Now we can increase the sense of creepiness in Dustwallow Marsh, and we can see the effect of wind in a zone. The texture of dust as it sweeps across plains.” It also extends sightlines across the map, which adds to the sense of scale.

Lighting has changed too. Until now, the sun and moons didn’t cast light into the world, a gap that would have been obvious once volumetric fog went in. Light now shines through the fog in a process called scattering, with the size and shape of the rays set by whatever blocks it, whether trees, mountains or other terrain.

“Now in WoW: Forever, when the sun comes up at dawn, there are streams of light that now cascade down the mountains, and we created similar rays for the moons as well,” says Scott.

To make that work, the team had to be sure the world properly blocked light and that the sun and moons lined up with the illumination on the ground. “There are still creative and artistic choices that we make, but it altogether makes the world feel much more alive,” he adds.

How Blizzard is making water feel like water

Rivers used to move simply, without resembling a river. For Forever, Scott says, the team studied how water moves, how wind and waves affect its surface, and how light interacts with its colour, transparency, and reflections. Rivers now follow their course, bend around rocks and produce foam where they hit them. Artists have full control over the effects, so different kinds of water can be tuned to look the way the team wants.

The models and textures remain the foundation of Warcraft’s look, even though the style has shifted with each expansion. Heyman says Forever is deliberately holding on to the character of the original assets.

“There’s an edge and grittiness to the way those assets look, and it just feels like Warcraft,” he says. “It’s a little bit of old, and a little bit of new. It’s maintaining that timeless iconic look matched with new rendering updates that breathe life into the world.”

World of Warcraft: Forever is available from today on Mac and PC (Pacific Time).