<![CDATA[ Creative Bloq ]]>

<![CDATA[ Creative Bloq ]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/accessories Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000 en <![CDATA[ The Evercade Nexus is the retro antidote to modern gaming's anti-physical and expensive dead-end future ]]> It can be a depressing time for gaming right now, with RAMageddon causing hardware price hikes across the board and the hobby becoming ever more out of our control, whether it's an online game whose publisher deciding to turn the servers off or Sony's controversial decision to kill off physical discs. No wonder more people are pining for a simpler time with retro gaming.

That brings me to a new piece of hardware I got to check out at Gamescom 2026 that's actually worth getting excited about. The Evercade Nexus is the latest in a line of retrogaming consoles from UK company Blaze Entertainment.

Rather than the kind of retro handhelds stuffed with emulators that leaves the grey area of how you obtain the games to run on them up to the owner, the Evercade has its own ecosystem of physical cartridges with a nice curved design so that when you slot them in they feel integrated with the handheld's dimensions.

More importantly, these are all officially licensed games, some which run on emulation but also some that are custom-built for the hardware, and that so far already consists of more than 80 cartridges (the majority of them are compilations) spanning gaming history from console to arcade to home computers. The Nexus is almost guaranteed to earn a place in our pick of the best handheld retro gaming consoles.

US preorders

UK preoders

While originally focusing on 8-bit and 16-bit games, the Evercade's collection and hardware has been undergoing its own accelerated version of gaming console history, which brings us to the Evercade Nexus, a handheld that feels made for the early 3D gaming era, as evidence of its twin analogue sticks, while it also comes packaged with a cartridge that includes two all-timer 3D platformers from the N64 era, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

Although I have sometimes been sceptical of retro handhelds that have 16:9 displays when surely most games that are being emulated were 4:3, the two Banjo games aren't emulations but a native port based on Microsoft's release for Rare Replay, as evidence from Microsoft's name on the game's title screen. That means it's making use of a widescreen image as well as modern inputs like being able to use the right stick to look with the camera.

Evercade Nexus — (Image credit: Alan Wen)

Naturally, that makes the Nexus's larger 5.89-inch 840x512 screen a beautiful size for those N64 3D graphics, a considerable upgrade over the 4.3-inch 800×480 of its predecessor, the Evercade EXP. Sure, you might argue it could have gone one better by having an OLED screen, but Blaze is also keen on keeping it at its affordable price point of £169.99 / $199.99 while still having a perfectly bright IFS screen.

Alongside having modest but functional memory, it ensures this handheld isn't going to be a casualty in the unpredictable market of component shortages driving up the cost of other modern consoles.

If you're into your classic vertical shooters, such as those from the Toaplan collection, then you can also flip the Nexus on its side and play in Tate mode at the push of a button with the intended view. While Tate mode was actually introduced on the EXP, it's better implemented here without the need to include extra buttons, and also why the twin sticks as a symmetrical layout.

There is however another exclusive feature to the Nexus at launch called EverSync, which is a bit like the console's version of the Switch 2's local GameShare, allowing you to play multiplayer games with another Nexus owner but where only the host has to own the game.

To be honest, this felt a little patchy to test during my appointment, which is not what you want to happen when testing a competitive fighting game like Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Although those who do want to play multiplayer games are better investing in the Evercade Vs home console, which connects to the TV, this still sounds like an interesting option for handheld multiplayer.

While keeping things retro, the Nexus nonetheless has some modern features too, such as support for wireless headphones and WiFI 6, though that's only meant to receiving console updates. RGB lighting on the other hand does seem like a half-hearted attempt to appeal to modern gamers who like their RGB, although my curmudgeonly brain finds too much of a gimmick and garish eyesore.

Still, it's only for lighting up the Nexus logo on the bottom, is pretty easy to access from the settings, and yes, you can just turn it off too.

Yet while having two Banjo games bundled is a strong start, and The Doom Collection is also launching the same date as the Nexus, I'm also scratching my head at what other 3D releases Blaze can realistically obtain licences for. After all, a console is only as good as the software it has, and while you can play any existing Evercade cartridges on this new system and get a better experience, what else is to come?

In the absence of a Super Mario 64, does that mean just more releases from the Rare Replay collection or might we get some more obscure deep cuts that we had forgotten about from the 32-bit and 64-bit era?

But as more hardware – PC and retro – continue on unsustainable trajectories to the point where we're at the madness of four-figure handhelds, the Evercade Nexus feels like a defiant balm that transports us back to simpler time where gaming is still literally, and existentially, in your hands.

The Evercade Nexus launches on 30 October for £169.99 / $199.99 with the Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack included.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/the-evercade-nexus-is-the-retro-antidote-to-modern-gamings-anti-physical-and-expensive-dead-end-future Low798wpBzcuQUsCJLRiNg Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ The Blood of Dawnwalker (PS5) review: a smart vampire RPG that doesn't quite sink its teeth into the fantasy ]]>

Details

Blood of the Dawnwalker art — (Image credit: Rebel Wolves / Bandai Namco)

Publisher Bandia Namco

Developer Rebel Wolves

Release date 3 September

Format PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, PC

Platform Unreal Engine 5

There’s clearly half a pint of The Witcher 3 DNA in The Blood of Dawnwalker, and I mean that both as a compliment and as a bit of a problem, because Rebel Wolves has made a big, handsome, sprawling medieval fantasy RPG full of muddy hamlets, ruined towers, castles, forests, caves and snowy mountain passes, all populated by people having a generally miserable time in the 14th century, but it never quite manages to escape the feeling that I’ve been here before.

That’s especially true of Vale Sangora, the Carpathian region in which Dawnwalker takes place, where the Black Death, war and social collapse have given a clique of vampires the opportunity to take control. At the centre of it all is Coen, a young man transformed into a Dawnwalker, human by day and vampire by night, who finds himself trying to save his family from Brencis, the vampire lord who has taken control of his homeland. It’s a terrific setup, particularly because the game makes time itself one of its central mechanics, giving you 30 days and nights to pursue your main objective while accepting that you simply won't be able to see or do everything along the way.

And yet, after spending time with Dawnwalker, I’m left with the frustrating feeling that Rebel Wolves has made a game containing several really clever ideas, then surrounded them with a lot of fairly ordinary open-world RPG stuff – side-quests that go nowhere, loot that rarely excites, character levelling that doesn’t demand attention, and a world that feels busy and empty all at once.

Vampires in a medieval set video game — The world is large and detailed, making good use of Unreal Engine 5, but it can also feel very familiar. (Image credit: Bandai Namco / Rebel Wolves)

Blood of the Dawnwalker's time to reflect

The time mechanic is a good example. I softened on it after my first few hours where I felt hemmed in, because there is something genuinely interesting about being forced to make decisions rather than wandering around indefinitely hoovering up every question mark on the map. Time advances when you undertake certain key activities, and the game continues beyond the 30-day period rather than suddenly throwing you back to the title screen and offering New Game+, so it’s really an interesting pressure system rather than a hard game-over deadline.

The problem is what you’re giving up and the feeling that there’s a better, different game somewhere in here if only I’d made some different choices, and such is life. There’s a constant little FOMO anxiety hanging over Dawnwalker, because I know that helping someone, investigating something or simply spending time preparing Coen for what’s coming can push that clock forward, and yet when I take the gamble and go exploring, quite a lot of what I find isn’t especially compelling or even fun. Side missions and smaller activities can often boil down to clearing a camp, wandering through a cave, killing some soldiers, hunting a bear or two or monsters and picking up whatever loot has been left behind, and when the reward is another chest of largely forgettable equipment and crafting tat, I’m left wondering why I spent Coen’s precious time doing it.

It makes the game's open-world design feel at odds with itself. Other open-world RPGs encourage you to wander, to poke your nose into abandoned buildings, climb a hill because something caught your eye in the distance, investigate a strange symbol or clear out a bandit camp simply because it happens to be there. Dawnwalker does all of that, then occasionally looks at its watch and tuts because perhaps you really shouldn’t be wasting Coen’s time meandering around a nice-looking woodland stone circle in the off chance something fun may happen.

When Dawnwalker actually gives you a reason to investigate something, it can be brilliant. I didn't expect this game to become a sort of procedural medieval crime solver, but some of my favourite moments have involved examining crime scenes and piecing together evidence, whether I’m trying to understand the origins of the vampiric curse, working out how to undermine Brencis or simply helping some poor soul who has been swallowed up by the increasingly horrible state of the valley.

You use Coen’s Focus ability to examine the world, inspect clues and reconstruct what might have happened, and these investigations tap into something the more conventional quests rarely achieve: curiosity. I’m not just going somewhere because a marker tells me to kill eight vampires or destroy yet another leech farm (one of a series of missions to enrage Brencis’ court of vampires and weaken his hold on the region, one of many Assassin's Creed-like ideas in Dawnwalker), I’m looking at what happened, trying to understand why and wondering whether I’ve actually got the right person.

That feeds into Dawnwalker’s greatest strength, its sense that your decisions actually matter. Not every choice is a grand, flashing dialogue option where you decide whether Coen is a saint or an absolute brute – and you can simply give in to his vampire nature and feed on people mid-conversation. Sometimes it’s a comment, a small action, something you choose to investigate or ignore, and the consequences can ripple out later. Even after finishing a conversation or mission, I’ve often had that nagging feeling that I haven't quite finished with it and something I’ve done is really going to come back to haunt me later, and that’s a real skill to achieve in a sprawling RPG.

One particular vampire murder investigation really hammered this home. I helped a bloodsucker I thought was in trouble, got involved in the case, came away feeling like I’d done the right thing and moved on, only to discover a piece of evidence once I’d made my choices, that made me wonder whether my new friend was the innocent party I’d taken him for – only time will tell.

Dawnwalker's room to grow

That’s where Dawnwalker starts feeling like the RPG Rebel Wolves clearly wants to make, one where the world is reacting to you rather than simply waiting for you to complete its shopping list of tick-sheet missions and side-quests. It’s also where the game’s Witcher influence becomes less of an issue, because when Dawnwalker follows its own strange ideas, it gets considerably more interesting.

The vampire side of the story can be theatrical and wonderfully strange, with some sequences abandoning the familiar medieval fantasy aesthetic for something far more stylised, including ancient temples where Egyptian statues suddenly come to life and a dream world coated in a theatrical red backdrop. These moments feel like the game flexing a little, throwing its vampire mythology, traditional folklore grounding and supernatural history into a world that initially looks like another muddy European RPG, and suddenly there’s something here I haven’t quite seen before.

I wanted more of this too, because visually, Dawnwalker is very good at building a convincing medieval world. Unreal Engine 5 gives Rebel Wolves plenty of muscle to fill Vale Sangora with dense forests, believable settlements, imposing castles and snowy landscapes, and there’s a pleasing sense of place to it all. But there’s also a familiarity to the design, the kind of fantasy medieval environment where you can almost predict what you’ll find around the next corner.

Then the vampire mythology muscles into it, ancient cultures and supernatural architecture appear, and Dawnwalker’s world begins to show a personality of its own. The main story is good at selling the idea of lurching around the world as a bloodsucker. There are moments where the vampire path becomes bolder, where the imagery shifts and the supernatural starts to dominate the medieval setting, and these are some of the strongest sequences in the game. They suggest a much stranger RPG lurking underneath the more familiar open-world. It just doesn't happen often enough, and the bulk of the game, visually and stylistically, is very safe.

The same is true of Coen himself, because being a vampire sounds considerably more exciting on paper than it actually feels in my hands. By day Coen is witchcraft-imbued human, by night he becomes a vampire, and the game gives you different tools and abilities depending on which side of his nature you’re embracing. You can switch between swordplay and vampiric abilities, different armour loadouts, use Witchcraft, exploit supernatural movement and, at night, make use of abilities such as Shadowstep and other vampiric traversal options to reach places and approach situations differently.

There are genuine differences here, and Coen’s nightlife can open up rooftops and routes that aren’t available to human Coen, and the vampire life gives you a different way of seeing the world, one where human life feels considerably cheaper and Coen can move through the environment with a more brutal, cavalier attitude.

But mechanically the two halves don't feel different enough, and too often it feels like playing normal Coen, only on a roof. Human and vampire Coen largely control in the same way too, with similar rhythms and similar expectations, and even when I’m unleashing vampiric powers it doesn't always feel like I’ve transformed into something fundamentally different or monstrous. There are fun abilities in there, including blood-based attacks and supernatural powers – I can always watch enemies' blood boil and pop – and the idea of switching between two versions of the same character is strong, but the game doesn't always sell the vampire fantasy artistically or mechanically.

That feels like a missed opportunity, because the vampire Coen should be the thing that makes Dawnwalker impossible to confuse with another medieval RPG. Instead, some of the biggest differences are practical. Vampire Coen can move differently, reach places and approach certain problems from a new angle, but there isn't always the dramatic change in tone or visual language I was hoping for outside of the main story beats. The game knows that he is a vampire, characters tell you they're scared of you, but sometimes I wanted it to feel like I was one; a powerful, flamboyant creature of the night instead of a guy who can lurk on rooftops.

But unfortunately, the combat doesn't quite provide the same sense of invention. Dawnwalker uses directional combat, allowing Coen to attack and block from four directions, with the left stick used to determine where you defend and the right stick controlling sword strikes. Special abilities, magic and vampire can be launched on the D-pad. It works, certainly, and there are moments when getting a parry right feels satisfying, particularly against tougher enemies and oddly enough against groups of enemies where fights ebb and flow in a more dynamic way.

Combat can feel blunt

The bigger issue is that combat rarely feels genuinely challenging or inventive. Enemies tend to settle into familiar patterns, and once you’ve understood what the game wants you to do, encounters can become more about executing the routine than improvising within it. Against one or two enemies, it can feel slow and lacks a real sense of danger – you’re never on edge, feeling you’re one hit or block from victory or defeat.

There are flashes of fun, especially when Coen starts mixing his supernatural abilities into the fight. Witchcraft gives the human side some entertaining tricks, while vampire abilities can become considerably more vicious, with attacks that boil blood or finish off enemies in suitably nasty fashion.

But, again, I wanted more, and it's odd how the sword feels more satisfying than the vampire claws, which is a slightly awkward conclusion for a game whose big selling point is that its hero is a vampire. The skill structure splits upgrades between Witchcraft, Swordsman and Vampire abilities, but in practice I rarely felt like I was building a particular kind of Coen. I accumulated so many upgrade points that specialisation became largely irrelevant, and eventually I upgraded things because I had the points rather than because I had made a meaningful strategic decision about the character I wanted to play.

The inventory has a similar problem. At one point I found myself carrying a large collection of junk, including defacto wooden spoons every 'realistic' RPG features, and while I understand the appeal of having a world filled with things that can be picked up, there’s a point where I start wondering why I’m still collecting cutlery while supposedly racing to save my family from a vampire lord.

It contributes to that undercooked feeling that runs through Dawnwalker. The systems are there, the world is full of things to collect, the skill trees are full of upgrades, and there are weapons, abilities, resources, and crafting ingredients, but not all of these systems feel like they have enough reason to exist and you won't really pay all them any attention because you simply don't need to.

Which brings me back to the time mechanic, because this is meaningful, and I love what Rebel Wolves is trying to do with it, even if I’m still not convinced it always works. The point is to make the world feel finite and pressures you into deciding what matters. You can't help everyone, investigate everything and clear every cave, and that’s a ‘big idea’ response to one of the pressing problems with modern open-world RPGs, where the main story might be threatening the end of civilisation while your protagonist spends 45 hours picking mushrooms, trying our new hairstyles and attempting to fix the marriage of random characters they just met.

But Dawnwalker doesn't always give me enough compelling alternatives to make its choices painful. If the thing I’m giving up is a fascinating investigation, a brilliantly written character story or a bizarre vampire mystery, then yes, make me sweat over the clock. If it’s another bandit camp containing a chest full of equipment I’ll never use, I’m less bothered. That’s the contradiction at the heart of Dawnwalker – it can make me feel like I'm missing out, it can force me to follow the story paths, but if I do gamble and play outside lines there's more often not a lot to surprise.

Is The Blood of Dawnwalker worth playing?

Rebel Wolves has created a world with a convincing sense of history, populated it with characters whose stories can surprise, and built a narrative system where seemingly insignificant decisions can come back to bite you later in unexpected ways. Coen's struggle between his humanity and his vampiric nature is a strong foundation, and when the game allows that conflict to shape the world rather than simply alter his move set, it can be genuinely compelling, but it could have been taken so much further.

There are all the ingredients here for something genuinely distinctive, whether it's the time mechanic, day-night-character arc, detective gameplay or world-affecting decisions; I just wish Rebel Wolves had trusted its strangest ideas a little more. Because when Dawnwalker is being weird, reactive and unpredictable, it’s a much more exciting game than the one where I’m clearing another cave and wondering whether that wooden spoon is finally going to become useful.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/the-blood-of-dawnwalker-review-a-smart-vampire-rpg-that-doesnt-quite-sink-its-teeth-into-the-fantasy E8qSMhUPMsvhsth6Ha2rKC Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:30:00 +0000 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:56:56 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is a glorious return to the series' 2D roots with a more modern 2.5D aesthetic ]]> It's been too long since the last Castlevania game, even longer if you're pining for one adhering to its 2D tradition, which was 2008's Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for the DS. Ironically, there have been many pretenders in that time, with countless indie games that can be categorised in the Metroidvania genre, of which the most influential is arguably 1997's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

But with the series 40th anniversary this year, Konami is finally giving one of the OGs a timely revival. It's picked the perfect studio for the job too, given that Evil Empire has helped make expansions to Dead Cells, one of the best modern Metroidvanias, including the acclaimed Return to Castlevania expansion.

Unlike Dead Cells however, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse isn't a pixel art game, a controversial choice for old-school fans, but instead embraces a more modern approach. While not going for the hand-drawn style of Hollow Knight, it's also not a typical 2.5D game that uses 3D visuals for cinematics before fixing you to side-scrolling gameplay.

From its painterly Gothic backgrounds depicting 1499 Paris engulfed in flames to 2D portrait illustrations for characters, it mostly wants to evoke the feel of a 2D animation.

The acclaimed Netflix animated series, itself by the artwork from Symphony of the Night, is more than just an inspiration then, especially as Belmont's Curse also includes some lo-fi animation for its cinematic cutscenes. It's even a kind of continuation of that show's timeline, which had adapted the story for Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, albeit set 23 years later with an older Trevor Belmont.

Indeed, you don't actually play as this now aging vampire hunter but rather his daughter Rose, the last in the line of this legendary vampire-hunting family.

This new blood has a refreshing agility to her just from the way her long blue cape and long blonde ponytail animate while she runs to her ability to slide under obstacles and wall-jump from the off. Even the series' trademark whip, the Vampire Killer, is put to new use here, prioritised more as a tool for grappling and swinging around environments.

In any case, there's plenty more weapons for dispatching monsters, from a swift dagger to punching gauntlets, though I'm still wondering whether there will be an axe with its iconic throwing arc.

Alongside weapons are Arcanas, ranged magic attacks such as my starting fire spell, which cost the magic meter, though it seems this can easily refill just from defeating enemies. But rather than just having an arcana, you can also improve it over time just by using it often in specific challenges. That you also earn XP by just defeating enemies regularly also means you're making progress every time without the punishing systems of a Soulslike.

More intriguing is how to unlock more Arcanas, as these actually come from bosses, who upon defeat are sealed into tarot cards. It's the Mega Man approach to absorbing the power from a powerful enemy, yet Belmont's Curse doesn't leave it at that.

For a start, those tarot designs look exquisite in their own right, where you initially only have it partially complete, but you may have clues as to who that tarot represents. But in the way these arcanas can be upgraded, you can also learn more about those you have sealed.

Take The Fallen, the first boss I encounter, a cursed beast who wouldn't look out of place in Bloodborne. While I was pleased to unlock his arcana, a holy cross that controls like a boomerang, which he had been using on me during a few challenging attempts, it turns out you'll still have chances to converse with those sealed away, perhaps learning of the tragedy of how they came to be cursed, in turn humanising the monsters you must defeat.

In other words, despite a game being developed by a studio called Evil Empire, there's more depth to this world than just good and evil. You would hope for that too when considering that one of the bosses you fight also happens to be Joan of Arc, and I can't imagine French people would look kindly on having their beloved Maid of Orléans vilified without some justified rationale.

Even though Castlevania: Belmont's Curse arrives at a time when the genre it helped spawn couldn't be more saturated, let alone also launching in one of the busiest times in the gaming calendar, after an hour with it at Gamescom, I'm already itching to dive further into the streets of Paris and face more mythical foes. Rose feels like a fresh face with the agile moveset that ditches the older games' cursed stun lock, and with a smoother sense of progression, it may also hopefully be welcoming for players burned out from Hollow Knight's punishment. That all sounds less a curse and more a blessing.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse releases for Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Xeries X/S, and PC on 15 October.

Inspired? See our picks of the best game development software and the best laptops for game development.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/castlevania-belmonts-curse-is-a-glorious-return-to-the-series-2d-roots-with-a-more-modern-2-5d-aesthetic wnQvNNJtEyDbPRCth7BZBo Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Designers, do you recognise this old-school equipment? ]]> Design apparatus has changed vastly over the last decades, moving from a physical toolkit to apps in a graphic design laptop. If you're a young designer, you might not recognise a lot of the implements that used to sit atop a designer's desk – which is exactly what is being discussed over on Reddit right now.

In a thread titled "Let's see who the old people are!", user Boudyro has kicked things off by posting a picture of a design tool, prompting others to share their own memories and pictures of more tactile times. "No using the internet to figure it out you whippersnappers!" the OP says.

Let's see who the old people are!
from r/graphic_design

The discussion continued with designers name checking and sharing images of tools from the Proportional Gauge Wheel to the Schaedler Precision Ruler. You can see some examples below (head over to the Reddit thread to read more).

Comment
from r/graphic_design

Redditors also shared stories about the mishaps that would happen when working with the tools – including the risks of spray adhesive and using a press.

"I almost lost the end of my right middle finger in an AB Dick press," one designer shares. "Wasn't paying attention, in it went and stopped the press. It did heal but boy does it sting when I hit it on something."

So let's see – can you identify the kit shared in the thread, and do you remember how to use the tools? Let us know in the comments.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/graphic-design/designers-do-you-recognise-this-old-school-equipment 2BKxcRozrCUCkHFQG8eRhX Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:30:00 +0000 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:39:31 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis's Unreal Engine reimagining looks breathtaking but I'm concerned by some modern design creep ]]> It's been 30 years since Lara Croft made her debut in Tomb Raider, becoming one of the first modern gaming icons, whose popularity has endured. While she's set to get a new TV series played by Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner, what fans really want to mark this milestone anniversary is a new game.

The good news is that we're getting not one but two games, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, expected in 2028, and coming considerably sooner, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a remake of the original 1996 game, with Alix Wilton Regan portraying the titular explorer in both.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis screenshot — (Image credit: Crystal Dynamics / Flying Wild Hog / Amazon Game Studios )

Given this is actually that game's second remake, following 2007's Tomb Raider: Anniversary, while there was also a recent remaster that let you freely toggle between the low-poly PS1 graphics to updated visuals, it might not sound as exciting a propsect. But after watching a live demo at Gamescom 2026, I can appreciate how Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog are taking the power of Unreal Engine 5 to reimagine Lara's original globetrotting adventure like never before.

The level I get to see is from Ancient Greece, a perfect graphical showcase, which game director Raul Siqueira describes as "very iconic and beloved. It blends the grandeur of an ancient civilisation, with untamed subterranean wilderness. Between the towering pillars, the god ray lights that come from the ceilings into the caverns. There's a lot in the environment that is breathtaking."

Yet even as Unreal Engine 5 means being able to create more realistic environments compared to the simpler boxy designs of the original game, Legacy of Atlantis isn't seeking to make more expansive levels for the sake of it, as Siqueira says the team's intent is to honour the original game while still being able to surprise new and modern players.

"Everything that has been considered has been looked through the lenses of, does this make sense in the original game, rather than putting something cool that's completely unrelated. Respecting the original has always been kind of a North Star."

An early example when exploring these Greek catacombs comes from an encounter with bats, an enemy from the original game. But whereas you would just tackle one, they move around and attack as an unpredictable swarm. So while Lara takes out her trademark dual pistols to shoot at them, you also have to mash the melee button to bat them away (no pun intended).

This level is also famous for its room with the falling swords of Damocles. They're reimagined in more dramatic fashion with a few cutscenes and QTEs to emphasis how large and deadly these ancient objects are as they fall from above and would have no problem impaling our heroine (fortunately, or unfortunately, if you're the sadistic type, the demo of this sequence was played through without any fatal errors).

But as well as walking over pressure plates to trigger these falling swords, a nice touch in this remake is that a more observant player can also shoot them down first if they're in range.

Of course, modern games also have a recurring problem where more realistic and detailed environments can cause readability issues. Often, the solution is a very artificial 'detective' vision, and it seems Legacy of Atlantis has something similar, as Lara can equip a scanner, which will highlight interactable objects as well as provide lore for her to muse on. Siqueira does however describe the scanner as an "opt-in" item, implying it won't be essential for solving puzzles.

But I also had concerns during another combat sequence when Lara is facing a hostile leopard. Evidently, realistic visuals doesn't necessarily mean the gameplay aims to be realistic as well, as Lara has superhuman acrobatics closer to the original game than her more grounded depiction in the modern Survivor trilogy, while she can also dive-roll and cartwheel around to dodge attacks, though these are all faithful to what she can do in the original game. Still, I couldn't get over watching her facing off against the spongiest leopard alive.

While Siqueira jokes that this wild cat had just developed a very thick skin after all this time in Ancient Greece, he adds that the team did choose to emphasise fun over realism in combat. I'm however more wary that it's also a means to make players engage with the game's other modern trappings, including skill trees and a crafting system.

Nonetheless, he does assure me that players who just want to stick to a classic experience would still be possible, though it sounds like it would require further tinkering with accessibility and difficulty settings if you want a more classic style of gameplay where it doesn't feel like you're having to grind through a light RPG that so many modern games are designed to be like.

Despite these concerns aside, Legacy of Atlantis feels like it's going to be a faithful reimagining of a gaming classic, using the power of Unreal 5 to bring a greater grandeur to these ancient, mysterious and deadly locations than ever, while still feeling familiar to the original game's blueprint.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis launches on 12 February 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC.

In the meantime, check out the behind-the-scenes videos on the making of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/tomb-raider-legacy-of-atlantiss-unreal-engine-reimagining-of-the-iconic-classic-looks-breathtaking-but-im-a-bit-concerned-by-some-modern-design-creep XrhFdHHShUv5FJrPy9ujq3 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:33:10 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Move over, Cosmic Orange – iPhone 18 colours just leaked online ]]> The new iPhone 18 colours may have just been confirmed online, thanks to a new X post from serial leaker Sonny Dickson, which was shared in response to a MacRumours report. Following last year’s standout Cosmic Orange was always going to be a high bar, but if this latest photo is any indication, Apple is pivoting in a completely different direction.

The post shows three SIM trays rendered in Silver, Sky Blue, and a rich Dark Cherry. While an earlier tease from Dickson hinted at a classic black option, that unit may have just been an early dummy model (as he suggested to someone questioning in the thread). We'll find out for sure whether these shades are for real when Apple officially reveals the lineup on September 9.

pic.twitter.com/9KJjoiPMbhSeptember 2, 2026

Reactions are mixed online, with some disappointed by the muted tones and others manifesting a black model. Others suggest that there are more important considerations than the colour of the phone – especially as most people will be using a case. But as some of the premium iPhone cases show off parts of the phone with clear sections, the actual phone design can still matter if you want it to.

The real question is, though: will the iPhone 18 be subject to the same scratch issues as the 17? We wait with bated breath.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/product-design/move-over-cosmic-orange-iphone-18-colours-just-leaked-online Gn3PXsNBy7H54jFVZuK3oB Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:27:28 +0000 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:39:55 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Damn! No sooner had I bought this clever e-ink digital frame, it gets a 25% discount! ]]> I love art, and I think e-ink art frames are the future! I've been cutting out, printing and buying pieces of art, putting them in frames, and sticking them on walls for 20 years now, and a good quality e-ink art frame is a perfect addition to my hobby.

And even though they're not perfect, they are head and shoulders better than the LCD digital frame alternatives. Especially when they look like paper instead of distracting you with their LCD glowing light, have battery lives of up to two years, and blend in with all your other art. Oh, and especially when they're 24% off, as with the SwitchBot AI Art Frame.

I actually own the 13-inch e-ink art frame, and think it's great – that's why I added it to my list of the best e-ink art frames currently on sale.

There's currently 24% off all three sized SwitchBot AI Art Frames, which is pretty great all things considered – unless you literally just bought one before the discount was applied! I think the 13-inch model will be the most popular View Deal

What's so good about e-ink picture frames?

Photos of the SwitchBot AI e-ink picture frame. — Future

The SwitchBot AI Art Frame bridges digital display tech and physical home decor by using a colour e-ink Spectra 6 panel. Available in 7.3-, 13.3-, and 31.5-inches, the frame boasts around 65,000 colours on a glare-free matte surface, with integrated AI tools to generate original artwork or remix personal photos into painted styles (though that will cost you more, and I don't really think it's worth it). Because colour e-paper draws power only when updating the screen, its rechargeable battery lasts up to two years, enabling completely cord-free wall mounting. That's a massive win when you want a clean, realistic art frame on your wall.

In context, the SwitchBot's strengths are ambient integration and power efficiency. It avoids dangling power cables and harsh light pollution, blending into a room way more convincingly than backlit LCD alternatives.

However – and it's a big however – e-ink frames in general are still less than ideal for crisp family photographs due to their slightly muted colours, heavy dithering, and a sluggish 15- to 30-second image refresh (though that last one is nit-picking).

Prices also scale steeply for larger sizes, and heavy use of the built-in AI tools requires a monthly subscription... still, I think they are well worth the price, especially when on discount.

Check out today's best deals on the SwitchBot AI picture frame in your region...

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/damn-no-sooner-had-i-bought-this-clever-e-ink-digital-frame-it-gets-a-25-percent-discount XQwVMX3m5z3yeTEYaBLsrR Wed, 02 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ This 3D artist uses Unreal Engine 5 and Blender to achieve incredible detail in heroic character designs ]]> Andres Zambrano is a US-based 3D artist working in ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, Unreal Engine 5 and Blender. He's inspired by heroic figures with a dignified and elegant look, and he believes it's important to achieve a hand-crafted high level of detail on his characters, often with intense, dramatic lighting.

Below, Andres showcases three examples of his work, including his takes on characters from the Bloodborne game by From Software. If you're inspired, check out our guides to the best 3D modelling software and the best laptops for 3D modelling.

Bloodborne Hunter

3D character art showing a heroic fantasy figure with a high level of detail — (Image credit: Andres Zambrano)

“One of my earliest works where I focused on realistically depicting different materials. The main focus here was on the cloth and showing the damage from constant fighting.”

Fantasy Adventurer

“This piece was a way to practice designing my own character using the design language learned from previous characters. This one is a real-time character for Unreal.”

Lady Maria – Bloodborne

“A custom, slightly redesigned version of Lady Maria from Bloodborne. Here I wanted to emphasise more movement and a dramatic angle compared to my previous models.”

You can see more of Andres's work on his ArtStation profile.

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

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]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/3d-art/this-3d-artist-uses-unreal-engine-5-and-blender-to-achieve-incredible-detail-in-heroic-character-designs AdzyG8Sv34jqxhHJpXZ6Y6 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ The best TourBox editing consoles: Legit shortcuts to creativity ]]> For those who want to supercharge their editing and design workflow, using a traditional mouse just won't cut it. Even upgrading to the best PC mouse, with their additional wheels and buttons, will only get you so far. For ultimate shortcuts, speed hacks, and editing control, you need a dedicated creative editing console.

These types of consoles are produced by a range of brands, including Logitech, XP-Pen, and Contour, but probably the most prolific is TourBox, which sells not just one but four different devices aimed at different types of users. We've spent time with all four and rated the TourBox Elite Plus best overall and the TourBox NEO best for value.

So, if you own a drawing tablet, or either one of the best laptops for video editing or a 3D modelling laptop, you'll find our guide useful for deciding which is the right console for your specific needs. Whatever your field, one of these TourBox consoles are guaranteed to speed up your workflow.

The best TourBox console overall

01. TourBox Elite Plus

Works on all platforms including iPadOS and Android

Dimensions: 11.5 x 10 x 4.5 cm | Weight: 376g (without batteries) | Connection: Bluetooth, Wired | Compatible software: Windows, macOS, iPadOS, Android

10-second review: The Elite Plus provides a knob, dial, scroll wheel, and buttons to deliver an extensive set of functions. Features haptic touch feedback and can be connected to a number of devices, including computers, iPads, and Android tablets.

Design and performance: The Elite Plus is larger than the Lite and similarly sized to the Elite and NEO alternatives. It's also available in Ice Translucent and Artic finishes, which make it possible to see some of the internal workings. The number of button combos is over 150, with the ability to assign over 400 functions to each preset. The console is easy to set up, a joy to use, and engineered to near perfection. I particularly love the haptic touch feedback provided via the wide-band vibration motor. The haptic strength is also adjustable for users who like to take control of their experience. If you're looking for a console that supports iPadOS or Android, then the Elite Plus is your only TourBox option.

Price: At £297 / $297, the Elite Plus is the most expensive in the full lineup of TourBox consoles, although it's often discounted by as much as £30 / $30. It is one of the most expensive consoles of this type on the market, coming in higher than the MX Creative Console and the Contour Shuttle PRO v2.

The best TourBox console for value

02. TourBox NEO

Relatively basic design but with a lot of the functionality of more expensive models

Dimensions: 11.6 x 10.1 x 4.4 cm | Weight: 370g (without batteries) | Connection: Wired | Compatible software: Windows, macOS

10-second review: The TourBox NEO offers almost everything the Elite and Elite Plus do but without any additional thrills. If you can work with a wired console, don't use a tablet, and can forgo haptic feedback, then the NEO is a very capable controller indeed.

Design and performance: The NEO offers a relatively basic design, but under the hood it's still capable of seriously boosting your productivity. With 150 button combos and over 400 assignable functions, the console is able to embrace even the most complex creative workflows. As is the case with all TourBox consoles, the NEO is compatible with a wide range of software packages, including Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop, Lightroom, Affinity Designer, and more. The overall design aesthetic is relatively basic but more refined than the Lite, and even though it's workstation compatible only (no tablets), it'll prove a worthy companion for most creatives.

Price: Despite the TourBox Lite being £74 / $74 cheaper than the £169 / $169 price tag of the TourBox NEO, the NEO actually offers superb value for money. The most noticeable difference is the skin-friendly material, which, if you're planning on using the console on a daily basis, will make a significant difference. It also has a lot more button combos and assignable functions.

The best TourBox console for beginners

03. TourBox Lite

Basic and no thrills but still guaranteed to enhance any creative workflow

Dimensions: 11.1 x 10.6 x 3.9 cm | Weight: 329g (without batteries) | Connection: Wired | Compatible software: Windows, macOS

10-second review: The TourBox Lite is a stripped-back, basic version of the other three more expensive TourBox alternatives. The plastic case is nothing to write home about, and there are a reduced number of button combos and assignable functions.

Design and performance: At a weight of 329 g and size of 11.1 x 10.6 x 3.9 cm, the TourBox Lite is the lightest and most compact of all TourBox consoles. In the hand it feels noticeably cheaper, and there's less inherent grip due to the smooth plastic material. The result of all this is that it doesn't sit quite as confidently and solidly on the desk. The most noticeable omission on this controller is that there's no dial which can make precise scrolling and scrubbing a little difficult. The Lite will still free you up from repetitive operations so you can focus on the creative task at hand, but it won't leave you with that premium feeling that the Plus and Elite models do.

Price: The TourBox Lite retails at £94.99 / $94.99, and there are rarely any discounts to make it even more affordable. The price is very similar to the Contour Shuttle PRO v2 and significantly more affordable than the MX Creative Console.

The best TourBox console for workstations

04. TourBox Elite

An affordable premium console for workstation only users

Dimensions: 11.6 x 10.1 x 4.4 cm | Weight: 376g (without batteries) | Connection: Bluetooth, Wired | Compatible software: Windows, macOS

10-second review: The TourBox Elite is a powerful editing controller that offers both wired and wireless options. It is simple to set up, has a solid build quality, and boasts haptic feedback for a superior user experience. The only downsides are that it takes a while to set up personalised presets and there is no battery life indicator.

Design and performance: With a sleek, modern design and an abundance of buttons, the TourBox Elite offers a well-thought-out design that fits perfectly within your hand. The plastic console is sufficiently weighty and features rubber feet to ensure it remains in a single location on your desk. For creatives who work on multiple machines, the Elite is capable of connecting via Bluetooth to two devices simultaneously. Aside from Bluetooth connectivity, the other thing that sets the Elite apart from the two more affordable options in the TourBox range is haptic feedback, which our reviewer said gave it a "more premium feel". We also loved the high level of customisation options and how easy the software and hardware are to use.

Price: The TourBox Elite offers everything the TourBox Elite Plus does but without iPadOS and Android compatibility. So, if your workflow doesn't rely on a tablet, then at £268 / $268, the Elite is the more affordable option.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/videography/the-best-tourbox-editing-consoles-weve-tested-them-and-selected-the-best oCcrSsUf6vfQsNctGyw9tX Wed, 02 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Making your own Backrooms in free 3D software is surprisingly easy ]]> Backrooms was one of the biggest breakthrough movies of the year. With a budget of $10 million, it's gone on to be A24's most successful movie earning over $360 million. Not bad for a project that began as a series of short videos made in the free animation software Blender.

Inspired by the internet legend, director Kane Parsons famously started creating Backrooms videos back in 2022. He was just 16 at that time and learning how to use Blender as he went. You can still watch his original Backrooms films on YouTube.

But just how easy it is to make your own Backrooms in Blender today? Pretty easy, reckons the expert who produced the handy Backrooms tutorial video below. He's outlined a detailed guide to how to create the iconic yellow liminal space.

In the 80-minute tutorial above, Andrew Price AKA Blender Guru shows that making Backrooms in Blender is (relatively) straightforward since it doesn't require modeling or UV unwrapping. Indeed, 90% of the work is achieved with only six nodes.

His step-by-step Backrooms tutorial shows how those endless yellow walls can be built with maths, while the paths are built with textures and the cutouts with cubes. Projection mapping is used to apply textures.

For added polish, lights can be controlled with a slider and RGB curves can be used to apply colour grading. Andrew also uses Blender 5's new film grain to achieve that analogue found-footage look, although he notes that it's best to avoid baking this in if you plan to go on to edit in DaVinci Resolve or any of of the best video editing software.

The Poliigon Blender add-on can be used to make quicker work of adding the yellow wallpaper and carpeted floor more quickly.

The tutorial also runs through importing emission maps, segmenting materials in Geometry Nodes, first renders with Cycles and how to make the corridors longer – more like how they appear in the movie. Andrew also looks at creating random wall cutouts and light panel randomness, linking a shader value to Geometry Nodes and compositing.

If you find your system struggling at any stage of the process, see our guides to the best laptops for animation and the best laptops for video editing. For more inspiration, see our own collection of Blender tutorials.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/making-your-own-backrooms-in-free-3d-software-is-surprisingly-easy 4hoVYM3ThVQHS96fyhXPh4 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 07:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ The new Disney World logo design is actually kind of genius ]]> When Disney revealed the logo for its 50th anniversary back in 2019, the response was mixed. It wasn't clear whether the company had deliberately included what looked like a pair of Mickey Mouse ears in the design – but this time, there can be no mistaking the visual pun.

The '55' logo has started appearing on images advertising merch for the Florida destination. And not only is it a delightfully retro reference to the original 'globe' icon from the resort's opening in 1971, but it also features a much more satisfying take on those giant mouse ears.

Disney World logo

The design harks back to the original 1971 Disney World logo (Image credit: Disney)

Yes, in case it isn't blindingly obvious, the rounded bottoms of the two '5's sit like ears atop the retro globe. It's a super simple yet effective design, and it's already winning over Disney fans.

Disney World 50th anniversary logo

It's been much more warmly received than the 50th anniversary logo (Image credit: Walt Disney World)

"Massive improvement over the 50th wow," one X user comments, while another adds, "Absolutely fire logo!'. Another sums up, "How is everything they've released about the 55th so far leaps and bounds better than the 50th?"

Walt Disney World’s 55th Anniversary logo is here, celebrating 55 magical years and honoring the resort’s original icon. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/HnHSUMz9B4August 26, 2026

The logo hasn't been officially announced by Disney, but judging by the early response, it's set to be a winner.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/logos-icons/the-new-disney-world-logo-design-is-actually-kind-of-genius 3HQyffmWFczCJu6h535otX Wed, 02 Sep 2026 07:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ How to draw Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty the easy way ]]> Sanrio is the company behind some of the most iconic Japanese character designs around, from Hello Kitty to Pompompurin and Cinnamoroll. Sony's so envious that it's now trying to take a leap into the market with its Nemu the Night Owl Bear.

If you're interested in creating your own character, or you want to make Hello Kitty fan art, learning how to draw Sanrio characters is the place to start. It can be a fun and relatively simple style to practise because Sanrio's characters often make use of some clear and distinctive anatomy shapes and drawing techniques.

In the video below, our own resident expert Phoebe shows how to draw a Sanrio character, or a character in the style of Sanrio, step by step, from the initial sketch to colouring. To follow along, you'll want some of the best pens for artists and the best markers.

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A photo posted by

Phoebe shows that you can draw a Sanrio character style quite quickly if you follow a few tips. Aim for a simple shape and facial anatomy, rounded arms, a thick outline and, of course, a bow.

For more on the basics of drawing, see our how to draw tutorials series. You might also want to check out the best drawing books.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/art/character-design/how-to-draw-sanrio-characters-like-hello-kitty-the-easy-way g9TVLPkTx2L8PXJk6HCC2Q Wed, 02 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ This city's controversial logo redesign has hit a bum note ]]> From Visalia, California, to Florence, Alabama, many a city authority has suffered the wrath of residents over an unpopular logo redesign. Ultimately, it seems that no piece of graphic design is as sure to get people riled up as an identity for a town or city – particularly after the cost of the rebrand gets out.

Bloomington in Indiana is the latest to discover that, and it's easy to see why the proposed new logo is hitting such a bum note. Once you see the unfortunate resemblance, you can't unsee it.

City of Bloomington logo design before and after

The existing City of Bloomington logo (left) and the new design (right) (Image credit: City of Bloomington)

The City of Bloomington's existing brand identity revolves around a geometric design that resembles a snowflake or floral pattern. Adopted way back in 1986, it was inspired by a combination of a peony and a trout lily, traditional quilt patterns used by regional folk artists in 19th century and the shape of the city''s Downtown Square (which is presumably square).

The new rebrand intends to replace this representation of local tradition with a giant 'B'. The broader brand system includes logos for different city services and departments.

Other logos in the City of Bloomington's new branding systemCity of Bloomington

The logo in useCity of Bloomington

While the new logo might be easier to scale, some residents aren't happy that their square has been replaced with a derriere.

Dave Askins, the editor of local news site B Square Bulletin, puts its bluntly in his op-ed dedicated to the new design. "Proposed new Bloomington logo looks like a butt," reads the headline.

Editor’s note: Proposed new Bloomington logo looks like a butt
from r/bloomington

While the writer praises the attractive colour palette and contemporary sans-serif type and recognises that the "giant geometric 'B' is simple enough to work on a website, a truck, a T-shirt or a sign" while also surviving shrinking to the size of an app icon, he sees the butt resemblance as a gas-tly and insurmountable design oversight.

"The two enormous rounded lobes, pinched together at the center, do not just allow that interpretation. They practically invite it. Add a little puff of air at the point where the two cheeks meet and the logo is transformed into an illustration of Kurt Vonnegut’s famous line: 'We are here on Earth to fart around'.

"Rotate the logo 90 degrees clockwise, and it cannot be denied: It’s the image of someone using the common technique of lifting one butt cheek to quietly release a fart."

City of Bloomington logo design

The proposed new City of Bloomington logo design (Image credit: City of Bloomington logo design)

Dave suggests that any proposed new logo be shown to a focus group of teenagers or elderly men for a quick cheek check, which isn't a bad idea considering some of the design fails we've seen over the years.

Of course, the other bummer with Bloomington's new design compared to the previous identity is the lack of any kind of local significance or personality. A giant 'B' could represent any place, brand or corporation whose name begins with said letter. Dave has points out that existing designs for an app, a law firm and an online boat marketplace all look similar to the proposed logo.

B logos — The B team: the logos of Brilliant Law Firm / Boatseekr.com / Boolo (Image credit: Brilliant Law Firm / Boatseekr.com / Boolo)

"A good city logo does not have to contain the courthouse dome, a limestone block, a bicycle, a tree or any other literal Bloomington symbol. In fact, trying to incorporate any of those iconic references would almost certainly be a mistake. But if the design is going to be abstract, the abstraction still needs enough personality to become unmistakably ours," he argues.

The logo is due to be presented at the City of Bloomington Council's next regular meeting tomorrow (2 September). Some of those attending will presumably want to air their opinions.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/logos-icons/this-us-citys-drastic-logo-redesign-has-hit-a-bum-note w2UuVooPdVHYEPinu8C6oN Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:33:10 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ The best e-ink art frames are starting to deliver on the early promise of the technology ]]> As a life-long fan of fine art and photography, I've always had issues with LCD art frames that emit light. The featured art can look uncanny and can draw your eye in a room for all the wrong reasons – not because of your favourite art, but because it's a massive, distracting glowing display.

E-Ink digital art frames solve this issue. They bring paper-like aesthetics, glare-free viewing, and months of wireless battery life to your walls. Instead of acting like a frame TV, modern colour e-paper uses ambient room light to replicate printed canvas or newsprint.

However, E-Ink comes with tradeoffs: colour saturation is muted and photos rely on dithering, giving detailed personal portraits a slightly grainy texture. They excel far better at displaying bold digital art, illustrations, and classic paintings.

That aside, if you want a glare-free, wire-free art display, the four high-resolution options below are the very best on sale right now.

The highest pixel density

The Reflection e-ink art frame. — Reflection

01. Reflection Frame

Delivers the highest pixel density on the market.

Price: $199 - $249 | Size: 10-inches | Pixel density: 200 PPI (1600 x 1200) | Display panel: E Ink Spectra 6 | Screen surface: Matte, anti-reflective

At 10-inches with a 1600x1200 resolution, the Reflection Frame delivers an industry-leading 200 PPI, making it the sharpest option on this list by a wide margin. It's also the most budget-friendly frame here. The dense pixel arrangement smooths out fine line art and illustrations really well, and it operates wire-free with an internal rechargeable battery, connecting to a companion mobile app for straightforward image uploads. This offers sharpness at an accessible entry price point, and it's easily the best overall option right now.

Best value

The SwitchBot AI Art frame. — (Image credit: SwitchBot AI Art)

02. SwitchBot AI Art Frame

This is the cheapest option, but still has great specs

Price/size: $349 (13.3-inches) | Pixel density: 150 PPI (1600 x 1200) | Display panel: E Ink Spectra 6 | Screen surface: Matte (anti-reflective)

Excellent for trad art

Long battery life

Looks amazing in natural light

Up-close are big pixels

The app needs work

The SwitchBot AI Art Frame acts as a major market disruptor by bringing premium full-colour e-ink Spectra 6 tech down to an accessible $349 price. By undercutting rival 13.3-inch displays by $150, you get the exact same 150 PPI pixel density without compromising on panel quality. I've got one, and it looks fantastic, especially when sunlight hits the display. Up close, you still get the usual big pixel look that you'd expect from these specs.

Its anti-glare matte surface gives a paper-like aesthetic, keeping annoying lamp and window reflections at bay. Battery performance is remarkable, stretching up to two full years on a single charge when set to weekly image updates. Smart home enthusiasts will appreciate its compatibility with Alexa, Google Home, and Home Assistant for custom routines.

However, there are some trade-offs. The official companion app heavily promotes an optional $3.99 monthly subscription for generating AI artwork, though uploading your own image library remains completely free. Onboard storage is surprisingly constrained, holding just ten local images at a time for offline cycling. And as with all colour e-paper screens, colour dithering means graphic illustrations, digital art, and typography render with far greater brilliance than shadowy or complex personal photographs.

True gallery-poster scale

InkPoster review; a black art frame on a wall — Future

03. InkPoster Tela Series

This is engineered specifically to drive massive 3K and 4K e-paper canvases.

Price/size: $2,400 (28.5-inches) / $4,200 (40.5-inches) | Pixel density: 132 PPI (2160 x 3060 / 3060 x 4320) | Display panel: E Ink Spectra 6 + IGZO Backplane | Screen surface: Matte, anti-reflective

E-Ink display is ideal an an art frame

No cables, battery lasts months

Elegant frame design

Horribly expensive

Sitting at the high-end of the price spectrum, the InkPoster Tela series commands a premium far above consumer-grade frames. Available in 28.5-inch (2160x3060) and 40.5-inch (3060x4320) configurations at 132 PPI, it's basically built to replace massive wall posters, and aimed at businesses with big budgets, not the average consumer.

Powered by e-ink Spectra 6 and a Sharp IGZO backplane, it offers up to a full year of battery life on a single charge. Unsurprisingly, its defining feature is its sheer scale, transforming digital paintings into full-sized, glare-free poster art without high-power wiring, making it an unmatched luxury statement piece.

Versatile IKEA frame-fitting

The Bloomin8 e-ink frame. — (Image credit: Bloomin8)

04. Bloomin8

Great for full offline control via Home Assistant and local APIs.

Price/size: $499 (13.3-inches); $2,399 (28.5-inches) | Pixel density: 150 PPI (1600 x 1200) | Display panel: E Ink Spectra 6 | Screen surface: Matte, anti-reflective

Priced at a mid-range $499, the Bloomin8 features a 13.3-inch canvas running at 1600x1200 resolution (150 PPI). While its pixel specs match the Aura Ink (below), the Bloomin8 sets itself apart with physical and software versatility.

Its bare hardware footprint is designed to drop directly into standard off-the-shelf picture frames, including IKEA’s RÖDALM series, which I think is a real win for the majority of people (everyone shops at Ikea, right?!) Software-wise, it shuns mandatory cloud servers, offering local REST API support, Home Assistant integration, and direct USB-C loading.

This is the best choice for privacy-minded buyers or smart-home enthusiasts who want custom physical framing and offline control.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/art/digital-art/the-best-e-ink-art-frames-finally-deliver-on-the-early-promise-of-the-technology-at-a-price DrPqxVp55NRQxraE3vjrYD Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000 Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:22:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past's lush new location and remaster improvements have me excited to be Geralt again ]]> Although it's amassed countless of accolades since its release in 2015, frequently cited as many people's game of the decade if not all time, I've never quite loved The Witcher 3, even though I do admire a lot of its rich worldbuilding, narrative, and how CD Projekt Red has just continued improving it with update after update, as well as chucking in many extras for free that other publishers would happily charge you for the privilege.

But with hype for The Witcher 4, not even due until 2028 at the earliest, there's still time for me to get Witcher-pilled, and its upcoming expansion Songs of the Past may just be the one to do it.

The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past — (Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

During Gamescom 2026, I got to sit through a live demo of the expansion being played by a CDPR developer, and it was certainly in the most impressive conditions as it was a build running on a PC with the latest RTX 50 series GPU, and it was in a theatre with a big screen that would catch any blemishes. Frankly, if I knew nothing about the game and someone had told me it's from a game first released over a decade ago, I wouldn't have believed it.

This however isn't an expansion for the base game but rather an expansion for its remaster, announced during Gamescom Opening Night Live, and due for release 29 September, meaning even more of a graphical overhaul compared to the 'next-gen' update it already received back in 2022 (like that update, this remaster is also free for any players who already own the game).

More impressive is Songs of the Past's setting in a new region called Letten, which puts its best feet forward to stun you with its idyllic green pastures, inspired by both Polish and English countrysides, which Geralt also happens to be a few away from its gorgeous serene lake that you can take a boat out on.

Normally, you'd think of The Witcher universe as a grimdark one, with lots of murky greys while Geralt can barely go anywhere without catching the ire of people who either fear or loathe his kind but still require his professional monster-killing skills.

With Letten however, it seems the studio purposely wanted to create a place isolated from all the troubles plaguing the rest of The Continent, allowing you to bask in its natural beauty, with the story itself also occurring just as a festival has taken place, which explains why our witcher is introduced wearing a cosy traditional outfit after a night of making merry with the locals.

Letten also happens to be the home of Geralt's best friend Dandelion, whose current whereabouts is unknown, though once you turn up to his family house, the grand architecture is enough to remind you of the bard's aristocratic origins, as you meet the grand matriarch Astrid and Dandelion's cousins Lilla, the strained family tensions communicated not just through dialogue but subtle facial expressions and body language.

Of course, this isn't just a walk-and-talk expansion, as the demo skips to evening when Geralt is back in his witcher garb, and accompanied by Lilla, to investigate Letten's forest in search of the 'garden of thorns' where hostile threats await. It's a good time to showcase the other major improvements from the remaster.

Fundamentally, the one gripe I've always had about The Witcher 3 is its combat system, which was often hampered by inconsistent and long-winded animations, so there's a lot that this remaster seeks to finally correct.

As we're shown the menu screen, the remaster and expansion actually has a proper skill tree that makes it easier to tailor your playstyle. Besides new combat animations and VFX for signs, there's even new finishers that make fighting feel that bit more satisfying.

For that, I also got to get a look at the chain, a new weapon in Geralt's arsenal that would have been impossible to realise with the original game's clunky combat system. But with this new tool, it's a cool way for crowd control like pulling enemies in closer to you. In one particularly standout moment, Geralt yanks on a new humanoid monster called a Swarmion, and follows up with the swing of his sword in his other hand that takes its head clean off.

While Songs of the Past will no doubt sing on the highest spec PC, I'm personally most excited to experience it on the Switch 2 - you may be surprised that of the screenshots shown here, many of these are actually from the Switch 2 version. Better yet, for those who did buy the 'impossible' and compromised Switch 1 port originally, you're also eligible for the free remaster upgrade as other platforms.

Whichever platform you decided to play it on though, it's good to know that Geralt will be getting the encore he deserves.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past releases in 2027 for PC, PS5. Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2, with The Witcher 3 Remastered coming to the same platforms 29 September.

In the meantime, join the debate over the surprisingly controversial new CD Projekt Red logo.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/the-witcher-3-songs-of-the-pasts-lush-new-location-and-remaster-improvements-have-me-excited-to-be-geralt-again UTrrj6ozzFg8wt6co67BfH Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:50:01 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ “Ideas for my art come from different places. In this case, I was inspired by an iron maiden paired with a goblin who takes great zeal in his work” ]]> Based in the Philippines, Satoshi Kamanaka is an illustrator who loves fantasy art and the Golden Age of illustration. “My work brings the two together. I mix fantastical subject matter with the designs and compositions of Golden Age illustrators,” he tells us.

Below, he presents three examples of his work as part of our series of features on digital artists. Much of his work is made in Clip Studio Paint. If you need to build your own art setup, see our guides to the best drawing tablets or the best laptops for drawing.

Iron Goblin

Digital fantasy art — (Image credit: Satoshi Kamanaka)

“Ideas for my art come from different places. In this case, I was inspired by an iron maiden paired with a goblin who takes great zeal in his work.”

Hydra

“In this illustration, the focus was to create a dynamic feeling of a hero battling with a hydra, all while creating a flow and pattern with the shapes.”

Tree Giant

“For this piece, I wanted to depict a giant that brought forests to life. I kept some of the initial drawing/ line elements to create a somewhat nostalgic, illustrative quality.”

You can see more of Satoshi's work on his ArtStation profile.

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

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/art/digital-art/ideas-for-my-art-come-from-different-places-in-this-case-i-was-inspired-by-an-iron-maiden-paired-with-a-goblin-who-takes-great-zeal-in-his-work yqtKcX2wLshXfTvq3qoqJh Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ A viral creative challenge just gifted Parker pens the perfect anti-AI billboard advert ]]> With everyone so fed up with AI-generated flyers, some designers think it's time we rediscovered the incredible creative potential of pens. And a viral challenge has come up with some ingenious ways to advertise the humble stationery item in this AI Age.

What began as one LinkedIn user's spec ad idea for the Parker Pen Company shared sparked a competition with hundreds of entries and prizes provided by the brand itself. It's a rare story that makes you feel glad for social media again, while also throwing up some great ideas about how creative advertising can help a brand remain relevant in changing times.

An ability to sell the attributes of a pen was once a classic interview scenario. Anyone subjected to that ordeal in 2026 might face a more difficult test than ever, on the face of it. Keyboards and touchscreens had already replace pens for many people. The emergence of AI chatbots that can combine, condense and rewrite large texts could be seen as a final blow.

But some creatives believe the pen is mightier than the probabilistic large language model generating statistically optimised token sequences that simulate dialogue.

The freelance Copywriter and Creative Strategist Kushagra Oberoi last week published an "anti-AI campaign ad idea for Parker pens" on LinkedIn. He mocked up a billboard ad idea that combined a photo of a Parker pen with the copy "An idea generation tool that doesn't deprive the planet of water".

The post picked up thousands of likes and other creatives began suggesting tweaks to the copy. That led One Minute Briefs and Andrew Tindall, chief growth officer at System 1, to put out an open call for more ideas.

Creatives were invited to respond to the simple brief of "create billboard-style posters to #SellMeThisPen". Ten would be chosen to put through System 1's ad testing model to gauge which one would be most likely to engage consumers.

The Parker ad challenge soon took on a life of its own. Some 350 ideas poured in. The Parker Pen Company took note and its owner Newell Brands came on board to offer gifts for the winners.

Parker became the accidental beneficiary of a very creative organic and spontaneous viral campaign. Like the real anti-AI Polaroid adverts we saw earlier in the year, the proposed billboards almost all tap into the widespread public concerns and distrust around AI, rebranding the humble pen as a tool that promotes the expression of authentic human thought.

Andrew pointed out that new research published in the Journal of Marketing Analytics has found that 8 out of 10 people don’t believe brands when they explain why they used AI – they think businesses did it because it was easier or cheaper.

"The finding is brutal. No matter what was claimed, people still assumed the same thing: the company used AI because it helped the company. Not the consumer or society," he notes.

The eventual winner of the competition condensed the original concept into one simple word cleverly presented. The anti-AI stance isn't spelled out so explicitly, but it's implied.

Think, the copy reads, which could be a description of a pen's function as a device that aids contemplation as well as a plea to anyone about to open up ChatGPT to generate their next brand asset or event flyer.

A post shared by One Minute Briefs (@oneminutebriefs)
A photo posted by

We'll have to see if Parker pulls out a pen to sign off on an official campaign. Some brands have started to come out and overtly criticise AI in their marketing, from Polaroid to Cadbury's Make AI Mediocre Again and KitKat's exhortation for us to be ruder to AI.

It could be perfect timing given the current trend of small businesses declaring on Instagram their intention to use pen and paper instead of AI to communicate.

A post shared by GOAT (@goatnantwich)
A photo posted by

Sold? See our picks of the best pens for artists and the world's most beautiful pens.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/advertising/this-viral-creative-challenge-rebrands-pens-for-the-ai-age EG6SWJvk3qc4HNBoH8LzgC Tue, 01 Sep 2026 07:00:54 +0000 Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:50:01 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ See how this 3D artist uses Blender to make scenes that look hand painted ]]> This 3D artist's work looks hand painted, but that painterly look is actually created entirely procedurally in Blender, the free 3D modelling software. The key is in the use of noise and EEVEE shader that the artist is offering to other artists (for more inspiration, see our collection of Blender tutorials, and see what's new in Blender 5.2 LTS).

As she explains in the tutorial above, the artist Alyssa begins her work with a 2D sketch and then uses Blender to bring it into 3D. She uses her EVEE shader to create a dreamy painterly look.

She published the shader on ko-fi.com, allowing artists to pay what they like and ad it to their Asset Library. There's also a demo scene where you can see it in use. Alyssa just asks that other artists tag her in projects so she can see how it's being used.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/see-how-this-3d-artist-uses-blender-to-make-scenes-that-look-hand-painted b8YWVgY2LSipfnR3gu4Yie Tue, 01 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ A new online archive tries to predict Microsoft's next confusing rebrand ]]> You might have noticed that Microsoft has a funny habit of rebranding its products in ways that seems purposefully designed to confuse its users. Microsoft Office became Microsoft 365 (Office) and then became Microsoft Copilot 365, complete with almost the same logo as the company's AI chatbot.

If only there were a way to keep track of what each product is and what we're supposed to be calling them. Well, someone's on it. They've created a "Microsoft Rebrand Registry" conscientiously listing the many brand permutations implemented over the years – and it even tries to predict the next changes.

Multiple Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award recipient Loryan Strant created the Rebrand Registry partly for a laugh and partly to provide a genuinely useful resource for users. His previously projects include Let Me Correct That For You, which lists the full names of Microsoft products with their varying approaches to capitalisation style, from PowerPoint to Copilot.

The new registry lists 72 surviving Microsoft products and the 158 names they’ve had to date. Eight products that have gone through three name changes, including Azure AI Search and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app

There's also an analysis section providing insights into the product areas with the longest and shortest-lived brand names and some predictions on which Microsoft products are most likely to get a new name soon. This is based on the amount of time the current name has been used and the frequency with which the tech giant changes names in the same family.

Loryan suggests there's an “elevated” likelihood that the Azure App Service, Azure SQL Database, Azure DevOps and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service will all come in for rebrands some time soon.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/design/branding/a-new-online-archive-tries-to-predict-microsofts-next-confusing-rebrand DUrWMyMHjZxdbnCtM7v355 Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ This tiny "life-saving" charger takes the guesswork out of juicing up – and right now it's 26% off ]]> Laptop chargers don't tend to be the sleekest-looking pieces of tech, but the Sharge Pixel 140W 3-Port GaN Charger does its best to change that. It's tiny, has a slightly retro futurist, slightly Apple-like design, and right now there's 26% off on Amazon, reducing i to $69.98, a record low price.

As well as its providing plenty of power in a tiny package, the Pixel has the advantage of a dot-matrix display that shows the charging information in real time. It’s a detail that looks attractive in the way it's executed but also serves a useful function, taking the guesswork out of charging your laptop, phone or other device by showing the current power draw on each port (for other options, see our guide to the best power banks).

Pixel 140w 3-Port GAN Laptop Charger: was $94 now $69.88
The Sharge Pixel is a GaN (gallium nitride) charger, offering greater efficiency than tradition silicon options. Despite its tiny size, it provides up to 140W USB-C Power Delivery, making it suitable for even a demanding laptop like a MacBook Pro. It also has three ports, so you can charge multiple devices at once.

There are plenty of cheaper options out there, but they tend to be either underpowered or big and ugly. The Pixel is elegantly compact and light, has a surprisingly useful display.

One review based on a verified purchase via Amazon describes it as a "life saver on the road" that can charge a 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max in around an hour.View Deal

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/accessories/this-tiny-life-saving-charger-takes-the-guesswork-out-of-juicing-up-and-right-now-its-26-percent-off dWYGkncsHRJFbQfhQ4ZLwk Mon, 31 Aug 2026 23:23:41 +0000 Mon, 31 Aug 2026 23:28:01 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Is Nvidia’s DLSS 5 an AI slop machine or a game-changing technology that will take us closer to artists' original vision? ]]> Nvidia's DLSS 5 hasn't yet been released, but last week a leaked unfinished iteration of the new neural rendering technology surfaced online via an early-access PC build of NBA 2K27. Modders quickly got to work testing it in games like Control, Cyberpunk 2077 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and most weren't exactly impressed by what they saw.

Young characters suddenly looked aged and haggard because of extra detail and texture. Cloud from Final Fantasy VII becomes Scarlett Johansson in a Mötley Crüe wig. And the cost for such dubious graphical enhancements is a massive performance drop with tests throwing up frame rate reductions of up to 40–50%.

It's "objectively horrendous", one gamer argues. But some think there are cases where the tech could offer a genuine upgrade.

I saw a lot of people saying the DLSS 5 Cloud image is fakeIt's not fake I went to the same area and got similar screenshots. It even gave Cloud lipstick pic.twitter.com/XRojD5nBS2August 31, 2026

The Last of Us Part 2 comparisonBefore & After DLSS 5 pic.twitter.com/wT85CRNcW2August 28, 2026

DLSS 5の導入に成功したぞぉ🥳🎉RTX4000番台でも使えるようにしてくれた方々に感謝します！めちゃくちゃ変わるね！元はそこまで崩さず、よりリアルになった感じ？#DLSS5 pic.twitter.com/XCKlHUB4AlAugust 30, 2026

Saw a video of someone using DLSS5 in KH3 and this shit actually upsets me 😭 at times the settings they use don't make the game lose *all* its style but no matter what it completely drains it of color and just looks worse than the actual game. I hate this stuff so much pic.twitter.com/H0FIQVYIHMAugust 30, 2026

Silent Hill 2 with DLSS 5 VS original graphics.(Save screen, Angela's intro cutscene, first monster appearance)Clips by @ TestThisGame on YouTube!#silenthill #silenthill2 pic.twitter.com/x6lMZwpdP5August 29, 2026

DLSS 5 is running in older games now, so naturally I had to see just how badly it could butcher my beloved Dark Souls III. 💀 pic.twitter.com/iJ5CleKhaLAugust 30, 2026

NVIDIA gotta cancel DLSS 5 while they still can bro just tried it with Halo and what is this shit 😭Actual nightmare fuel like we don't need this pic.twitter.com/W9UD2HtNNhAugust 30, 2026

Me ha salido esta prueba de DLSS5 en TLOU. Ya no es solo que todo se vea igual y la iluminación no cuadre, es que te pilla a una niña de 12 años y la hace ver como si llevara 15 años cotizados. pic.twitter.com/eQ5v7udeklAugust 30, 2026

Nvidia's DLSS 5 AI controversy

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 own early demo immediately sparked controversy by giving Grace from Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem a glamour makeover.

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

One ResetEra user called it "one of the most unsettling things I've ever laid my eyes on in gaming".

But, characters aside, other modders have found a lot to like in DLSS 5, particularly in the realism of environments, reflections and foliage in games like Ubisoft's Avatar.

Call DLSS 5 slop all you want, but for environments, this shit is cool as hell. Makes for a great screenshot tool. pic.twitter.com/Wm66sTcECkAugust 29, 2026

Unbelievable… this is Avatar with DLSS 5.People really said it only works on faces.Meanwhile it’s upgrading every frame! Lighting, foliage, materials, reflections, and the entire scene.It can even make a Ubisoft game look good 💀 pic.twitter.com/RxEYTH68POAugust 28, 2026

DLSS 5 is the biggest leap in gaming tech we have had in years pic.twitter.com/vp97cPSAYRAugust 29, 2026

But the biggest debate is that around artist intent. One of the biggest criticisms of DLSS 5 has been the argument that Nvidia's tech is intervening between the artist and the player, changing what the artist intended.

But some developers disagree with that view. Writing on X, Daniel Vávra of Warhorse Studios, developer of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, argues that the tech doesn't alter the geometry of the models or the appearance of characters, and that, moreover, it can actually take a game closer to artists' visions by helping to overcome issues caused by the game engine's limited lighting system.

"It makes ambient occlusion look like it’s on steroids," Daniel wrties. "You have no idea how terribly—and I mean really, really—annoyed I was that in KCD2 we couldn’t render shadows from hats, hoods, and helmets on characters’ heads, or even shadows from small details on character models (buckles, laces, pouches). DLSS5 does this, and it does it absolutely brilliantly!. On top of that, it improves the rendering of shadows in hair, so they finally have the right density and darkness."

After all the controversy about NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 being a terrible AI slop, I played around a bit with the leaked DLSS5 version in KCD2. First off—what was leaked isn’t even remotely what NVIDIA originally presented. It doesn’t alter the geometry of the models or the appearance of… pic.twitter.com/agrmq5heDCAugust 30, 2026

Some people have literally gone crazy.On the left is a head messed up by the game engine’s very limited lighting system, which can’t properly render shadows, skin texture, and the detail of normal maps. On the right is THE SAME MODEL WITHOUT ANY GEOMETRY CHANGES, which looks… pic.twitter.com/8ZxVpYCRghAugust 30, 2026

Unreal Engine expert Unreal Sensair agrees after testing DLSS 5 on an animation made in Epic Games' engine.

"There is zero generative AI. This is the exact use of AI that people have wanted, as a tool where artists maintain full art direction," he writes. "Neural rendering makes creating amazing art with real 3D models easier and more accessible. All 3D artists should be excited".

Here is DLSS5 working on an animation I made in Unreal. It uses the existing geometry, animation, textures and lighting to render. It doesn't make stuff up out of thin air. There is zero generative AI. This is the exact use of AI that people have wanted. As a tool where artists… https://t.co/AeVU9tXALf pic.twitter.com/ccrBMVD9JcAugust 31, 2026

We also have to remember that this is an unfinished technology being tested in games that weren't built around it. Nvidia hasn't said when DLSS 5 will be officially released. It's also assumed that support will be limited to the current RTX 50 series of GPUs (see our guide to the best graphics cards).

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/is-nvidias-dlss-5-an-ai-slop-machine-or-a-game-changing-technology-that-will-take-us-closer-to-artists-original-vision wHt7SLoBLLE7Qg9DwwUkC7 Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0000 Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:34:29 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Beat the memory crisis with 24% off one of the best portable SSDs ]]> There was a time when you would almost never have to pay full whack for a portable SSD. The eye-watering list prices were treated as almost a fiction because there would be discounts of up to 50% off almost every other week.

Alas, the tech giants' furor for AI has ramped up global demand for both RAM and long-term data storage. With major players like Samsung, SanDisk and Crucial focusing on supplying the data centre market, consumer prices have gone through the roof. List prices are higher, and there are fewer discounts.

Fortunately, occasional portable SSD deals still comes up, and they're worth grabbing when they do. That's definitely the case with Amazon's current discount of 24% off the Samsung T7 1TB, reduced from $287.99 to $219.99.

These are today's highlights in the US and UK, both of them on SSDs that we've tested and highly rate.

Shop Portable SSD deals at Amazon

T9 1TB: was $287.99 now $219.99
I've been using this compact 2,000MB/s SSD for over two years and I'm still happy with the speed for transferring large batches of 4K video and for editing directly from the drive itself. With its solid, compact built, it's still not showing its age and should have many years left in it yet.

The deal price is still around twice what I paid for this drive back in 2024, but sadly this is actually a good deal for 2026, and there are no signs that SSD prices are going to come down again any time soon.

UK deal: ~~£238.99~~ £188.39 at Amazon UK View Deal

X10 Pro (2TB): was £289.99 now £204.99
Readers in the UK have the option of another great deal for larger capacity. Crucial's latest pro-level compact marvel offers similar speeds to the T7 at 2100MB/s read and 2000MB/s write, and you can currently get 2TB for not very much more than the 1TB T7 as part of the Amazon Tech Week sale.

Also see our full Crucial X10 review.View Deal

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/beat-the-memory-crisis-with-24-percent-off-on-one-of-the-best-rated-portable-ssds 92AGwTbbpQ5ZJxTFA4QV85 Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ Onimusha: Way of the Sword (PS5) review – Capcom’s samurai comeback gets the swordplay right ]]>

Details

A main holds a sword and wears a gold gauntlet — (Image credit: Capcom)

Publisher Capcom

Developer Capcom

Release date 4 September

Format PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Platform RE Engine

Content warning: this article discusses graphic violence, disturbing imagery, and mature themes in an 18+ game.

I’ve been waiting a long time for Onimusha to come back, and Way of the Sword does a pretty good job of reminding me why I loved the series in the first place, because when you’re actually fighting something this is one of the most satisfying sword-fighting games I’ve played in years, a gloriously brutal mix of timing, counters, dodges and supernatural weaponry that makes even a corridor, castle keep and Kyto back alley full of disposable Genma feel like an opportunity to show off.

Way of the Sword takes the familiar ingredients of the original games – the Issen counters, Oni Gauntlet, soul absorption and the comically horrific Genma – and rebuilds them around Miyamoto Musashi, dropping the wandering swordsman into an Edo-period Kyoto being consumed by Malice and then throwing the whole thing through the visual trickery of the RE Engine. It’s a very Capcom way of bringing an old series back, retaining the things that made Onimusha distinctive while giving the combat enough modern flexibility that it never feels like I’m playing a remake.

screens from a fantasy samurai game — Sword fights are always bloody, with the ability to slice enemies half. (Image credit: Capcom)

Peeling back Onimusha's combat

Combat is where Way of the Sword really gets going, because underneath the straightforward business of hitting things with a sword is a surprisingly deep system of timing, positioning, stamina management and supernatural attacks, with parries, counters and dodges all feeding into the returning Issen system where you strike an enemy at precisely the right instant, just before their attack lands, and turn their own momentum into a very nasty death.

It’s one of those mechanics that feels impossibly precise when you first see it and then, after a few hours, becomes second nature. Get the timing right, and Musashi slips inside an attack and cuts through an enemy with clinical efficiency; miss it, and you’re reminded that these things are quite capable of ripping you apart instead; even the general fodder found between boss encounters can do serious damage if you switch off and fumble the timing.

There are layers underneath the core combat system, with enemy stance and stamina giving you ways to throw them off balance with battering attacks or combos, cause damage with Issen counters and Issen Break finishers, while objects in the world can be used as makeshift weapons – a door is a handy shield. The Oni Gauntlet enables Musashi to absorb the different coloured souls left behind by defeated Genma. Yellow souls restore health, red souls are used for upgrading weapons and abilities, and blue souls feed the Oni Armaments, the supernatural weapons that give Musashi some particularly nasty ways of dealing with tougher enemies. Later you get an Oni Awakening transformation ability that runs on purple orbs, and in this form a new balance emerges, as Issen Counters keep the form in play so every attack comes down to high risk-and-reward timing.

It sounds like a lot when you write it down, but in action it’s remarkably instinctive, and before long I’m looking at an armoured Genma and thinking about counters, seeing a faster ninja-like shrouded Genma coming at me and instinctively preparing to dodge, while the basic fodder gets the full Musashi treatment as I simply get on the front foot and start hacking and slashing, deftly moving between the enemies like the a practiced swords-slinger.

The Oni Armaments are particularly useful because they give the combat a bit of variety beyond sword against sword, and some enemies are designed around them, including one enormous creature whose armour needs to be stripped away before you can really start doing damage, turning the encounter into something resembling a supernatural can-opener as Musashi works through its defences with the dual Oni hammers. Other Oni specials offer screen-filling sweeps of slashes from a 'naginata'', a piercing lightning-infused spear and an Issen-enabled katana just for harvesting purple orbs.

The animation sells it all beautifully. Musashi twirls enemy swords away, blocks attacks one-handed over his shoulder, ducks under enormous swings, pirouettes away from grapples and slices through Genma according to the path of his blade, with Capcom’s Dynamic Dismemberment system making the results particularly gruesome because you can genuinely see the difference between a slash across the torso and one that catches an enemy cleanly through the middle, halving them as they spill to the ground in pieces.

Even after 20 hours, I was still seeing little animation details I hadn’t noticed before, a counter where Musashi twists an enemy around and throws him into his mates, the way he changes his stance when dealing with a different type of Genma, the tiny movements between attacks that make him feel like a brash swordsman filled with bravado. It’s wonderfully showy without getting in the way of the fighting, and that balance is harder to achieve than it looks – and have no fear, you can cancel mid-animation to keep things flowing nicely.

It helps that Musashi himself is such a good fit for all this, because he’s not the solemn, endlessly noble samurai I might have expected when Capcom announced the game. Instead, he’s a swaggering, occasionally sulky wandering swordsman who just wants to prove himself, live his life and generally be left alone, only to find himself lumbered with an Oni Gauntlet and a city full of demonic monsters.

Capcom based Musashi’s face on late legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, and there’s something suitably old-school about his presence, but it’s the animation and performance that make him work, particularly in those quieter scenes where he looks less like a heroic statue and more like a bloke who has suddenly realised he’s got another day’s worth of supernatural nonsense to deal with, kicking puddles of blood nonchalantly after an epic battle with a Genma boss.

He swaggers, sulks and chews through scenes, and the character gradually becomes less selfish as the story pushes him towards accepting what the Oni Gauntlet means and what’s happening to Kyoto, so there’s a genuine arc underneath all the sword swinging without Capcom needing to make him suddenly serious and miserable for the sake of it. The villains get a similar amount of personality, particularly Sasaki Ganryu, Musashi’s unhinged rival who spends much of his time laughing manically, while the various Genma bosses are given enough personality and theatricality that fights rarely feel like simply working your way through another oversized health bar.

Recurring mini-bosses such as Byakue, a hulking samurai covered in paper talismans, are as detailed as the mains, like Ganryu's accomplice, the snake-necked Dokyo, who fight together at first, but Dokyo's solo battle strips the game back from sword duals to bullet hell dodges, showing Capcom has a way of keeping things fresh even when you're battling the same cast at intervals.

The finale, a brooding confrontation with Yoshitsune, is particularly good, with the villain stalking Musashi around the arena, circling him and throwing out taunts, spinning and bragging, before launching into beautifully elegant attacks, and there’s a real sense of the two characters performing for each other as much as they’re trying to kill one another. It’s pure samurai cinema, and it’s all too easy to simply watch in awe, because somehow you need to counter everything he throws your way.

Way of the Sword's Kyoto explored

The other thing Capcom absolutely nails is Kyoto itself, because Way of the Sword is a gorgeous game and then, almost immediately, it makes that beauty deeply unpleasant.

Malice has infected the city with this stone-and-coral growth made from distorted faces, bodies and limbs, spreading across buildings and landscapes until the familiar architecture of historical Kyoto starts to look as if something has been growing underneath it all along. Temples, castles and bamboo forests are given this lovely mixture of warm firelight and deep shadow, while ruined buildings sit beneath moonlight with bodies scattered around them, and the RE Engine does a great job of making everything feel tangible, particularly once the Malice starts consuming it.

One sequence takes Musashi down into an abandoned underground research facility and turns the whole thing into Japanese horror crossed with horrible shadow-puppet theatre, with people and animals stitched together as the snake-necked Shuten-dōji moans and screams behind Fusuma screens stained red with blood.

It’s one of those areas where I’m spending as much time looking around as I am worrying about what’s coming next, because Capcom has clearly had a lot of fun imagining what happens when a historical Japanese setting gets infected by something this grotesque.

The Oni Refuge is another good example, a strange maze of broken temples and floating rocks where the normal rules of the world have gone slightly wrong, and there are some light environmental challenges involving moving objects around to find a route through. I kept expecting these areas to become more ambitious, because the game has clearly got the visual design for it, but the environmental interaction never really develops into anything substantial.

Which brings me to the bit that stopped Way of the Sword from being the game I wanted it to be. The combat is brilliant, and the world-building is fantastic, but outside of those two things, Way of the Sword can feel surprisingly light, with the main story anchoring things, but the activities around it tend to fall into the same handful of categories.

You can help the people of Kyoto and uncover their stories, hunt for treasures, find lost puppies and take on archery challenges, and while these give you reasons to revisit areas and collect more souls and materials for upgrading Musashi, they aren’t particularly challenging or involved. The structure becomes quite predictable: a new story chapter opens, I sweep through the new activities, collect the loot, upgrade my gear and then get back to the story, before the same thing happens again in the next chapter.

There’s a lot of running through areas I’ve already visited, circling Kyoto’s streets and fighting the same Genma in the same places, and even the enemy variety begins to show its limits because some of the mini-bosses return in areas and some of the main bosses need to be fought more than once without really developing their attacks or design – except perhaps the pair of Ifuu and Burai, you fight these ‘dudes’ individually and then eventually together as a pair, and it changes how they feel to fight, so it’s a shame this approach wasn’t developed across all repeated encounters.

The original Onimusha games had little Resident Evil-style puzzles that forced you to stop swinging your sword and think for a second, work out what an object was for or figure out how to get somewhere, and I kept waiting for Way of the Sword to bring some of that back. Instead, the game gives me glimpses of it and then moves on. The Oni Refuge is the obvious tease, because it looks like the sort of place where Capcom could have gone with environmental puzzles, but the challenges remain fairly light, and there’s never a point where I’m genuinely scratching my head over how to unlock a route (shoot the block, always shoot the block). It leaves the game feeling a little narrower than the world deserves, particularly because Capcom has created such a fantastic playground and then mostly asks me to run around it killing Genma.

Onimusha's story delivers

The main story itself is engaging enough and has that familiar Capcom rhythm, moving between character drama, big cinematic encounters and increasingly horrible supernatural set pieces, and Musashi’s journey from reluctant wanderer to someone more willing to take responsibility for what’s happening around him gives the campaign a decent emotional spine.

It’s getting to those moments that can feel like a slog. You’ll face the same core enemies repeatedly, revisit some mini-bosses and, in some cases, fight major bosses multiple times, so while the combat remains good enough to make another encounter enjoyable, the structure starts to feel more like the game is trying to stretch its 20-hour run than finding another reason to keep me interested.

Once the story is finished you can continue playing, or jump into New Game+ and take on Carnage difficulty while unlocking new costumes, which has a bit of that familiar Capcom replayability to it, but it doesn’t fundamentally alter the experience, so if you’ve already spent 20 hours doing the story, the prospect of doing essentially the same thing again is going to depend on how much you enjoyed mastering the combat.

For me, the answer is quite a lot, because I could happily spend hours just fighting Genma, particularly when everything clicks, and I’m chaining counters, dodges and Issen attacks together while sucking up souls and swapping between Oni abilities. That’s the strange thing about Way of the Sword: the thing I’m doing most often is also the thing I never get bored of doing. I just wish Capcom had put more interesting things around it.

Because when Musashi is fighting, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is fantastic, and when the game is showing me another ruined temple, grotesque Genma creature or beautifully staged boss encounter, it’s often fantastic to look at too, but the connective tissue between those moments can feel like filler, particularly when I’m retracing a familiar street for the fourth time or taking down another group of enemies I’ve already learned how to deal with.

Still, after more than 20 years away, I’m very happy to have Onimusha back. There’s an old-fashioned pleasure to Way of the Sword that I really like, because it doesn’t need to turn Musashi into an open-world samurai simulator or bury the swordplay beneath dozens of progression systems and become a me-too Sekiro. It knows that the fun is in stepping into a room full of Genma, reading the attacks, finding the opening and cutting through them with a sword that feels as good in your hands as anything Capcom has made in recent years. I just wanted Kyoto to give me a little more reason to stay there.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/entertainment/gaming/onimusha-way-of-the-sword-review-sublime-swordplay-spectacular-samurai-horror-and-a-little-too-much-genma-busywork y3zRXKjGzHEbVCwRCvYmMH Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ The best budget laptops for graphic design students ]]> The best budget laptops for graphic design students offer a sensible entry point to the field without the hefty investment in a high-end machine (see our guide to the best laptops for graphic design overall for those). At the most basic level, you need a display you can trust to show accurate colours and internal components that meet the minimum specs of the best graphic design software (we also have a dedicated guide to the best laptops for Photoshop).

We've tested hundreds of laptops over the years, and the four below are our reviewers' current top picks the best laptops for graphic design on a budget. We think these provide the optimum balance of performance, visual fidelity, portability and price for a range of different needs. You can click through to find more details on our experience with each device in our full hands-on reviews.

The best budget laptops for graphic design students

Best budget laptop for graphic design students overall

01. ASUS Zenbook A14

A sleek and light laptop for graphic design on a budget

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X X1-26-100 | Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno (integrated) | RAM: 16GB or 32GB | Screen: 14-inch OLED, 1920 x 1200, 60Hz | Colour coverage: 97% DCI-P3, 100% sRGB, 98% Adobe RGB (measured) | Brightness: 405 nits (measured) | Storage: Up to 1TB SSD | Ports: 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2x USB4 Gen 3 Type-C, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm audio

Thin and light

Colour-accurate OLED screen

Fantastic battery life

Integrated graphics

The ASUS Zenbook A14 is a budget laptop for graphic design that could easily pass as a more premium machine with its sleek looks. At under 1kg, it's one of the lightest 14-inch laptops we've tested, and our real-world video-loop test for battery life gave us an excellent 20 hours and 39 minutes – even more than we got from Apple's latest MacBook Air 13.

This all makes it an excellent laptop for graphic design students commuting to and from college. The lovely OLED display delivers excellent contrast and colour coverage and accuracy for this price point.

It lacks the power of ASUS's higher-end models but can tackle 2D, vector and layout software without problems. We tested a Snapdragon X1 CPU configuration with 16GB of RAM and found it to be on a par with Apple's M1 and M2 chips, able to handle work in Illustrator, InDesign and Affinity as well as Photoshop editing.

The integrated Adreno GPU isn't going to stand up to 3D rendering or GPU-accelerated video work but you can up the RAM to 32GB if you want to handle general video editing or more complex design projects. While the list price starts at £1,099.99, you can often find discounts at online retailers.

Read our full ASUS Zenbook A14 for more details.

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Best budget Apple laptop for graphic design students

02. MacBook Neo (2026)

The most affordable MacBook yet is vibrant option for graphic design students

Very affordable for a Mac

Apple design and efficiency

Light and portable

Only 8GB RAM

Max storage of 512GB could fill up fast

MacBooks remain a perennial favourite among graphic designers. That's partly due to tradition since some graphic design software was initially only available for Mac, but it's also because they just work. Some find Apple's operating system to be less troublesome, while others admire the sleek minimalist design and reliable build quality.

The newest addition to the family is Apple's first attempt at a budget laptop, and we were pleasantly surprised when we reviewed it. The mere 8GB of memory makes it relatively low powered, but we found the A18 Pro chip could efficiently handle most Photoshop and Illustrator work, although large multi-layered Photoshop files and complex Illustrator documents with many linked assets can start to hang a little.

There's no OLED display, and colour coverage spans around 98% of the sRGB gamut, and just 74% of DCI-P3. That compares to 100% of both on our top recommendation above and on Apple's own MacBook Airs. In practical terms, it should be sufficient for students of graphic design, but those working in motion design or video editing may want a better screen (and larger storage option, because a 256GB or 512GB will fill up fast with video files).

At 1.23kg and 1.27cm thick, the Neo is compact and bag-friendly. We measured up to 16 hours of battery life, which is decent but notably shorter than the Asus A14 above. Nevertheless, at just $599/£599, this is a great-value entry point to the Apple ecosystem.

Read our full MacBook Neo review.

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Best budget 2-in-1 laptop for graphic design students

HP Envy x360 review: Features — Rachael Phillips

03. HP Envy x360 14

A versatile touchscreen laptop for graphic design on a budget

CPU: Intel Core i7 1250U (12th Generation) | Graphics: Intel Arc Graphics (integrated) | RAM: 16 GB | Screen: 13.3-inch, WUXGA (1920 x 1200), touch screen IPS or OLED | Colour coverage: 100% sRGB (standard IPS) 100% DCI-P3 (OLED version) | Brightness: 400 nits | Storage: 512GB or 1TB SSD | Ports: 2x USB4 / Thunderbolt 40Gbps, 2x USB-A 10Gbps, headphone, microSD

Versatile 2-in-1 design

OLED touchscreen

Stylus included

No stylus dock

Can feel clunky in tablet mode

The HP Envy x360 is sleek, compact and provides added versatility for graphic design students since it doubles up as a tablet thanks to its 360 degree hinge and touchscreen capabilities. You can turn it into tent mode or even completely flat into a tablet to draw, and the stylus is included.

It's well-built, with a sturdy aluminium chassis, and the hinge feels reliable enough for regular use. Despite this, it weighs just 1.38kg, making it a handy 2-in-1 for commuting or using remotely in your favourite coffee shop.

Tablet mode can feel a little clunky since the keyboard doesn't detach, but it's the nearest we have to the best of both worlds and could save you from having to invest in an iPad or a dedicated drawing tablet if you want a stylus input device.

The HP MPP2.0 tilt pen is responsive and comfortable to work with. It's an active pen so needs charging but this is fairly convenient via USB-C. There's no dock as such for the pen, but there is a magnetic strip you can attach it to, which can also be handy for stowing a pair of AirPods, for example.

The OLED touchscreen FHD display delivers brightness of 400 nits covering 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space – more than the MacBook Neo above. We reviewed an Intel Corei7 1250U, 16GB RAM configuration and found it capable of multitasking and design in Photoshop and InDesign, although there was more lag large Illustrator projects.

Read our full HP Envy x360 review.

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Best budget laptop for graphic design students with a large screen

04. Acer Swift Go 16

A budget laptop with more space for creative work

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 or AMD Ryzen AI | Graphics: Integrated | RAM: 16 GB or 32GB | Screen: 2880 x 1800 IPS or OLED, 60Hz or 120Hz | Colour coverage: 100% sRGB (IPS), 100% DCI-P3 (OLED version) | Brightness: 400 nits | Storage: Up to 2TB SSD | Ports: 2x USB Type-C (Thunderbolt 4 / USB4), 2x USB-A, HDMI 2.1, a headphone jack, microSD card slot

Large OLED touchscreen

Lightweight and portable

Incredible battery life

Flimsy display panel

Poor speakers

A budget laptop for graphic design generally means going for a smaller device. That has the benefit of more portability, but some prefer a larger display for working in multiple panels in software like Photoshop or across multiple windows.

Enter the Acer Swift 16 AI, a 16-incher that's been designed to be as light and portable as six inches of laptop can be. Acer's got it down to just 1.5kg (3.4 lbs). The emphasis on keeping the weight down means it can feel a little bendy with its super-thin plastic and metal chassis, but it's worth that sacrifice if you're commuting with a large machine.

We found the Intel Core Ultra 7 and 16GB RAM configuration could handle 2D design work in Photoshop and Illustrator and light video editing without colour grading or effects. The 3K OLED display provides a wide colour space with 100% DCI-P3 coverage. It's Eyesafe 2.0 certified for limiting potentially harmful blue light too, and there is a Display HDR feature that's True Black 500 certified, making it a very reasonable display for this price point.

Read our full Acer Swift 16 AI review.

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FAQs

What laptop specs do I need for graphic design?

For students of graphic design, we recommend aiming for a modern Intel Core Ultra, AMD Ryzen AI, Qualcomm Snapdragon X, or Apple M-series chip; at least 16GB RAM and a display with at least 1920×1080 resolution covering 100% sRGB (and a high coverage of DCI-P3 if you also do video work). A discrete or high-end integrated GPU helps for 3D and video work but isn't essential for 2D design.

For colour-critical work, look for a Delta E below 2.

How to choose

When choosing a laptop for graphic design on a budget, you need to choose your priorities in terms of power, portability, display size and cost. To keep the cost below around $1,200, you'll often have to sacrifice a dedicated GPU in favour of more affordable integrated graphics.

If you plan to take your laptop to college, the library or a cafe for working, we recommend opting for a lighter 14-inch laptop even though it makes working across multiple panels or windows less comfortable.

How we test

Why you can trust Creative Bloq

✅ We are solely focused on what creatives need
✅ Benchmark tests based on real workflows
✅ We consult actual designers and creative pros
✅ Over 100 laptops tested over 10,000 hours in the last two years

We've tested over 100 laptops over 10,000 hours of use in the last two years. As explained in our how we test laptops for graphic design article, we run extensive benchmark tests and also put laptops through their paces with real-world scenarios by completing test projects in software including Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. We also test colour accuracy and brightness.

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]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/laptops/the-best-budget-laptops-for-graphic-design-students H5efPwDo75xCSPJSaCi5fL Mon, 31 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0000 false false false <![CDATA[ There's £500 off the new Honor Magic V6 foldable phone, and I have no idea why ]]> Even though Samsung has dominated recent news headlines with its recent Z series of phones – including the fancy 5 star Z Fold8 Ultra – Honor has quietly undercut the competition with its flagship foldable phone, the Honor Magic V6.

Coming in at £1,999 on its May release, it has currently got a whopping £500 off for absolutely no other reason than Honor likes to give massive discounts off their most recent phones. I have no other explanation for it! It's currently down from £1,999 to £1,499 over at Honor.

Magic V6 + tech freebies: was £1999.99 now £1499.99
This deal on the foldable Honor Magic V6 has come at a great time for anyone seeking a Samsung Z Fold8 alternative.

You get £500 off and there are further deals to claim with trade-ins. View Deal

Flagship quality at a discount

Various shots of the new foldable cameraphone Honor Magic V6. — Future

When I reviewed the Honor Magic V6 earlier this year, I was really impressed by its super-fast features, especially its camera. I'm not a fan of the mega zoom that Honor are so proud about, but otherwise, you get some really nice snaps, and I love using the expended, fully unfolded phone for taking and looking at photos.

The other notable feature of the V6 is that it comes with a really handy case included. And that case has a stand that will prop up the camera phone, so you can enjoy watching whatever you want while traveling.

I feel that it's a bit pricey at full price, but at £1,499, it's a really compelling product.

]]> https://www.creativebloq.com/tech/phones-tablets/theres-gbp500-off-the-new-honor-magic-v6-foldable-phone-and-i-have-no-idea-why 6FVBQaqwshtuhpXSQPGUiR Mon, 31 Aug 2026 11:26:25 +0000 false false false