One clip of it answering "what's it like to be alive?" racked up a huge 274,000 views on X recently, with overwhelmingly positive responses.

The company's pitch is that "every AI invented so far lives behind glass" – stuck in a browser tab, forgotten within a week, while Lamp has "an alive body". It has a camera-equipped head on five position-feedback servos, a microphone array, and stereo speakers – and it's designed to move with deliberate hesitation: a pause before it looks up, a startle when something crosses its field of view, a slow settle afterwards.

Autonomous says most of its development time went into that motion alone, because it's what convinces people they're looking at a creature rather than a device.

Lamp uses its physical skills to track, well, you. It can remind you to hydrate, tell you off for slouching, remind you to take breaks and even offer to play calming music if you look tired. Oh, and it can talk to other robots.

As well as ambient surveillance, Lamp is also meant to be useful in a fairly ordinary way. It can check your inbox, book meetings in Google Calendar, publish to WordPress, and read out new GitHub issues while you keep typing. A "skill store" with more than 70 add-ons lets owners extend what it does by tapping an option or just telling it what they want.

You can stop Lamp from watching you and mute it if you need to, which helps with the slightly dystopian feel of having a surveillance object on your desk. Whether or not that part bothers you, the design is impressive, especially the motion and the build of the lamp itself.

Lamp starts at $499 (bulk pricing drops as low as $464 per unit at 30+), comes in four colours, and ships fully assembled from 24 September 2026, with a one-year warranty and 30-day returns.

As with the Autonomous Intern 2, which just landed on my doorstep, I'll withhold real judgement until I've tried it myself.

Successive iPhone Pro models have been rumoured to be getting a variable aperture lens, and the iPhone 18 Pro is, apparently, set to be the model that finally gets it. And for both photographers and our best iPhone for photography list, this could be huge news.

Camera upgrades tend to just mean more megapixels, but a variable aperture camera lens would allow the lens to physically adjust the amount of light entering the sensor, offering greater creative control over depth of field. Whether the effect will be dramatic on a smartphone-sized sensor remains to be seen, but it could bring the iPhone one step closer to DSLR quality.

This, along with the rumoured upgrade to the battery, could make this a more meaningful iPhone update than the similar design might suggest. The iPhone 18 Pro Max is rumoured to be getting a whopping 5,500 mAh battery, which, again, could be great news for photographers using the device as one of their main cameras.

While the folding iPhone Ultra is likely to hog the headlines this month, that model is rumoured not to be getting a third camera lens. This, and those variable aperture rumours, suggest the iPhone 18 Pro could remain the ultimate model for photographers in 2026.

We don't have long to wait to find out what's in store, or what it'll all cost. This year's RAM shortages have sent shockwaves through the tech industry, with everybody – including Apple – raising prices.

I remember when I was first introduced to a fidget toy, and I have to admit that I was a little nonplussed. Here was an adult man proudly brandishing a toy in the office. I mean, had he no shame?! Then he showed me exactly what it was for, and gave me a go. And I got it. It's a pocket portable thing that can be incredibly satisfying to use. End of story.

So that's why I've had a look at the best looking fidget toys around. I don't think they've quite got the visual impact that some of the best looking keyboards have. Though some of them, especially the squishy toys, look good enough to eat (please don't).

Below, he talks us through three examples of his work. Emiliano uses software like Maxon's ZBrush (see our guides to the best 3D modelling software and the best laptops for 3D modelling).

Hulk

“I’m motivated by creating dynamic poses and conveying a strong personality when it comes to sculpting. It’s a fun challenge to remain faithful to the original character design.”

Venom

“Organic sculpting is my greatest strength. It allows me to emphasise the anatomy, fine surface detail, and texture.”

Spider-Man

“Digital sculpting allows me to achieve exceptional levels of detail while preparing collectible statues for physical production. Different materials enhance the sense of realism and quality.”

You can see more of Emiliano'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.

Today's drawing tablet deals

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As acclaimed as the co-op games of Hazelight, the studio behind Split Fiction, It Takes Two and A Way Out, have been, I'd never been that compelled to play them myself. I'd tell myself it's mostly because their characters sound too insufferable to spend a 10-15 hour story with.

But more realistically in these days of busy schedules and conflicting priorities, I lacked a gaming partner to play them with. Fortunately, this time I had some willing and able partners for sci-fi adventure Orbitals, which I've been excited to play from the moment it was first revealed.

The debut from Tokyo-based developer Shapefarm, Orbitals faithfully reproduces the aesthetic of an anime from the 80s with its expressive and eccentric character designs that's taken a leaf from the late great Akira Toriyama or the exquisite hand-animated craft of a Studio Ghibli production.

Sure, lots of modern games may sport an anime style, but none have committed to its craft so closely, from ensuring characters are animated at 24 FPS to the way all the environments including the lighting seem to be completely hand-painted, paying no mind to the modern tools of Unreal Engine 5. Even the catchy song and accompanying montage when you start up the game feels like the start of an anime episode.

That consistency is important too because the game's cutscenes have been produced by Japanese animation company Studio Massket, whose animators clearly understood the assignment of replicating traditional hand-drawn practices. Then when it cuts between cinematic and gameplay, the transition is so seamless since the assets look practically identical, with the difference being that you can freely rotate the camera in the latter.

Adding to the authenticity is the option to play the game with Japanese audio (I've always been subs over dubs, though given Shapefarm is a very international team and there's actually multiple language options available, you could also argue there isn't a language option that is more authentic than the other).

It's frankly mind-boggling that Orbitals continues to look like an anime no matter what angle you're looking at your characters or the scenery. And you'll often be seeing a scene in two different angles since this ispredominantly a split-screen co-op game, with Maki always on the left side of the screen, while Omura is on the right.

They make for a delightful and always cheerful pair to be around, more so as you can make them emote or you'll often come across a little alien creature to pet, but they also seem perfectly fine respawning after falling into a deep space void or being incinerated to a crisp (there's a whole important plot point to this right at the beginning that explains how our twin protagonists are seemingly immortal).

I suppose that kind of cheerful optimism is an important mindset to have when playing Orbitals as your enjoyment will likely depend on who you're playing with. I should probably mention that my play sessions involved local splitscreen with my partner, and also online with my niece, neither of them as experienced with gamers as me though they certainly enjoy them enough to humour me.

For the latter, even though Orbitals comes with a friend pass that allows another player to play online for free provided the host owns the game, it also supports GameChat locally and online. Making use of the latter via GameChat, I found it worked very smoothly with no noticeable lag, which is especially important in a game where close coordination matters.

Perhaps as this is a Switch 2 exclusive, Shapefarm is conscious that the game may be played by a wider demographic, which is also why some of its asymmetrical gameplay takes a simpler approach compared to some of the wilder ideas from Hazelight's games.

For instance, it's got a recurring core where your duo will alternate between three kinds of three gadgets that share aim-and-shoot mechanics, albeit with different functions: the liquid launcher for dowsing flames or spinning water wheels; the beam cannon fires lasers for melting or blasting through certain obstacles; the scrap hook pulls, yanks or opens things.

Not that there aren't occasional bespoke gadgets too, such as something that gives one of the players the equivalent of a ground pound, while the ship - where one player is the pilot and the other is the gunner - also unlocks some cool upgrades during the story, each time getting its own OTT fanfare resembling a cheesy infomercial.

As much as I love the commitment to the anime style, the story sadly didn't hold my attention as much outside of the cinematics. This is arguably also because when playing online the audio balance was more weighted on chat, meaning the game audio was quieter, while any Japanese dialogue happening alongside gameplay would go over my head since I was focusing on communicating with my partner on how to get through the next puzzling predicament over following the subtitles.

Yet even though some moments did test my patience and coordination, perhaps proving that I'm more of a solo player, it's hard not to break into a smile in Maki and Omu's charming and ever-cheery presence.

You can buy Orbitals at Amazon and Nintendo

The trailer bombards us with combat scenes from the movie and enough of Chun-Li to appease fans. But as well as being able to sit back and watch the silliness (below), we can also play along and try to keep up with the action by performing famous special attacks like hadoukens and shoryukens (also see our pick of the best retro game consoles).

As well as the traditional trailer above, Legendary has posted a YouTube Playable. You can't influence the action, but you can imagine you're performing the combos that appear on screen by following the instructions to complete the corresponding combinations of joystick swivels and button presses on a virtual arcade machine. Retro on-screen graphics tell you whether you scored a hit or failed to execute the combo in time.

The playable trailer reflects a shift in digital advertising, with brands seeking interaction rather than exposure alone. Movie trailers have remained largely unchanged for decades. Whether in cinemas, on television, or on YouTube, the audience's role has been passive, but this is a clear example of how advertising is evolving from something audiences watch into something they do and share.

By inviting viewers to perform Street Fighter combos while the trailer unfolds, the campaign makes engagement part of the marketing. Instead of views, participation becomes the most valuable metric. Someone who spends three or four minutes actively playing a trailer is far more engaged than someone who watches 30 seconds and scrolls away.

By giving players a final score, the trailer also creates reasons to replay and to share the experience with others. It's a win for YouTube too since the YouTube Playable format keeps users on the platform rather than sending them elsewhere.

For reaching the gen Z and alpha audiences, advertising has become not just about telling a story but inviting the viewer to be part of it. Street Fighter's a perfect movie to test the idea given that it was inspired by an interactive experience. It's very silly, but itf it's deemed a success, we may look back at it as one of the first widely visible examples of the playable trailer as a mainstream marketing format.

It's interesting to imagine how other trailers could become experiences. Imagine campaigns where horror movies challenge viewers to survive a short interactive scenario, detective films hide clues across trailers and social media and sci-fi films offer short interactive worlds to explore, building on the idea of Pixar's clever Hoppers live stream.

The Street Fighter movie will be released on 16 October.

If you’re exploring your options, check out our guide to the best monitors for photo editing.

Key specifications

Design and build

• Bulky, utilitarian design with thick bezels
• Excellent stand adjustability and practical hood

The CG2700X is unapologetically functional. Its design leans heavily toward the old‑school aesthetic Eizo has stuck with for years: thick bezels, a chunky chassis, and a lot of visible plastic. For a monitor at this price, it’s not exactly exciting to look at.

But practicality wins out. The stand is superb, offering height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments with smooth movement. The bundled hood attaches magnetically and does a great job of reducing glare. Around the back, the punched‑metal ventilation design keeps the panel cool without relying on noisy fans.

It’s not pretty, but it’s built for serious work first and foremost.

Design score: 3/5

Features

• Built‑in mechanical self‑calibration sensor
• Versatile connectivity including USB‑C with 94W PD

The Eizo ColorEdge CG2700X is packed with creator‑focused features. The most impressive, for me, is the built‑in calibration sensor, which physically swings down from the top bezel to measure and adjust the display. Watching it in action is genuinely cool, and more importantly, it delivers excellent results. Combined with Eizo's ColorNavigator 7 software, you can schedule automatic recalibrations and maintain perfect accuracy without having to bring in third‑party tools.

Connectivity is another strong point. USB‑C handles video, data, and up to 94W of power delivery, meaning you can run a MacBook Pro or high‑end laptop from a single cable. The built‑in LAN port is ideal for studio workflows, especially when using ColorNavigator Network for remote colour management.

Preset colour modes are easy to access, and the OSD is far more intuitive than most monitors; a small but meaningful quality‑of‑life win.

Features score: 5/5

Performance

• Exceptional colour accuracy and uniformity
• HDR support with PQ and HLG

This is where the Eizo ColorEdge CG2700X earns its reputation. Colour performance is genuinely top-class. Colours are rich, accurate, and consistent across the entire panel thanks to EIZO’s digital uniformity equalizer (DUE) software working its magic from the inside. The wide gamut coverage (98% DCI‑P3, 99% Adobe RGB) makes it ideal for cinema‑grade colour work, photography, and high‑end post‑production.

HDR support is strong, with both PQ and HLG curves and a peak brightness of 500 nits. In my measurements, I got 498 nits, which is close enough to call it a margin of error. It’s not a replacement for a dedicated HDR reference monitor, but it’s more than capable for HDR editing and grading.

The only real limitation is refresh rate, which maxes out at 60Hz. This is not a gaming monitor, nor is it ideal for game development workflows that rely on high‑refresh previews. But for colour‑critical work, it’s simply exceptional.

Performance score: 5/5

Who's it for?

• Professional editors, photographers, colourists, and studios needing uncompromising accuracy

The CG2700X is built for professionals who rely on colour precision. Its price and design make it overkill for casual users, but for serious creative work, it’s a tool that pays for itself.

Buy it if:

• You need industry‑standard colour accuracy
• You work in photography, video editing, VFX, or colour grading
• You want reliable self‑calibration and studio‑grade consistency

Don't buy it if:

• You want a gaming‑friendly refresh rate
• You prefer sleek, modern monitor aesthetics
• You don’t need professional‑level colour performance

For context, the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air with 16GB of unified memory and 1TB SSD storage will set you back $1,729, even with the current $70 discount. The Lenovo Slim 7i Aura Edition gets you the same amount of memory and storage, plus an OLED touchscreen, for $680 less!

This laptop is closely related to the Yoga Slim Aura Edition that we tested last year, but it has an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor instead of the Snapdragon X. That should eliminate any concerns about compatibility with everyday creative programs.

If you can make do with ChromeOS, I'd also consider this fantastic Chromebook deal at Best Buy for an even cheaper back-to-school laptop. But if you want Windows for access to fully fledged desktop software, this is one of the best offers I've seen as the Labour Day sales kick off.

For comparison, you can check other MacBook prices below.

This price is for the well-specced 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD configuration that we tested for our recent Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 review. Our writer was impressed by the sleek and slim bag-friendly 2-in-1 design, but most of all by the surprising speed and power that it offers for a ChromeOS laptop.

We've reviewed dozens of Chromebooks, and finally we have one that performs for students in creative fields as well as for general productivity and entertainment. It's cheaper than many Windows or Apple devices and has the advantage of doubling as a tablet thanks to the sturdy hinge and touchscreen.

If you do need to run software that doesn't run on ChromeOS, see our guide to the best student laptops overall.

Today's best back-to-school Chromebook deal

Is a Chromebook right for a school laptop?

We think the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 is a great choice as a school laptop since it's light and portable but robust and powerful enough to handle some creative work like photo editing and 2D design as well as general essay writing and browsing. The 2-in-1 touchscreen format makes it a versatile device that can be used as a tablet for reading, sketching or note taking.

Just bear in mind that ChromeOS is designed largely around cloud-based computing and that the desktop versions of many popular design programs are available only for Windows and Mac. While the range of Androids apps available is large and continues to grow, a Chromebook is ideal if you plan to work a lot online, for example, using the Google suite of apps and online versions of Adobe's software.

You can see more Chromebook deals below.

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

• Preorder Evercade Nexus at Best Buy
• Preorder Evercade Nexus at Amazon

UK preoders

• Preorder Evercade Nexus at Amazon – save 3%
• Preorder Evercade Nexus at Very

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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...

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

“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.

Today's drawing tablet deals

See our guide to the best drawing tablets for more options.

Creative Bloq is now easier to access than ever before with our on-the-go app, which brings you all the content you know and love from our website, but in a super-streamlined design.
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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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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?"

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

"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.

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

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 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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

“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.

Today's best drawing tablet deals

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

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