Below, Heather talks us through three examples of his work.

Harvest Moon

“I painted the ‘moon’ in soft colours to balance the warm details. The glossy original painting and the more matte, textured acrylic that I added created a lovely effect of texture and light that cannot be captured in print.”

To Isengard

“I couldn’t resist adding in a portrait of the popular meme of a twiggy tree running to Isengard! I love that he’s so tiny yet leading the way – much like the hobbits were eager to help their friends in battle.”

As You Wish

“I chose to paint this tender moment from The Princess Bride before they kissed, because when I watched this epic film as a kid, I always had the same disgusted thought: ‘they’re kissing again!’

You can see more of Heather's work on her website.

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If you are exploring your options, take a look at our guide to the best monitors with a webcam.

Key specifications

Design and build

• Excellent FlexStand ergonomics
• Clever cable‑management system

The EV3450XC follows EIZO’s minimalist FlexScan design language. The bezels are slim, the lines are clean, and the cabinet is available in black or white with matching stands and cables. The FlexStand is one of the best ergonomic stands available, and offers smooth height, tilt, and swivel adjustments that make the heavy 12.1 kg unit feel surprisingly easy to position (once you've managed to lift it onto your desk, that is).

The cable‑tidy system on the rear, with a removable snap-on panel concealing the ports, is a standout feature. It keeps the monitor looking clean even when you are using it as a full docking hub. Build quality is strong overall, although there is more plastic on show than you might expect from a premium Eizo display. The webcam and microphone are integrated discreetly into the bezel, maintaining the clean aesthetic.

Design score: 4/5

Features

• USB‑C docking with 94W power delivery
• Built‑in webcam and microphone with Windows Hello

This is EIZO’s first monitor with an integrated webcam and microphone, and the implementation is thoughtful. The 5‑megapixel camera delivers a clear image and supports Windows Hello for quick, secure logins. The microphone uses noise‑cancellation and echo‑cancellation to keep your voice clear during calls, and the stereo speakers are neatly hidden in the bezel.

Connectivity is where the EV3450XC excels. USB‑C handles video, audio, data, and power delivery up to 94 watts, which means most laptops can run from a single cable. The built‑in LAN port is ideal for laptops without an Ethernet port, and the USB hub provides enough ports for everyday peripherals. Picture‑by‑Picture lets you run two systems side‑by‑side, and Screen InStyle software adds useful desktop‑organisation tools.

Features score: 4.5/5

Performance

• Reliable IPS colour with useful presets
• Comfortable curve for productivity

The 34.1‑inch IPS panel offers a wide, comfortable workspace with a gentle curve that suits productivity and general creative work. The UWQHD resolution keeps text sharp and gives you plenty of room to arrange multiple windows. Brightness is rated at 300 nits, and using my colorimeter, I measured it at 296 nits, which is close enough to call it an accurate claim. This brightness, in an era of OLEDs everywhere, feels adequate rather than impressive. Colour performance is reliable, and the preset profiles are genuinely helpful for creative tasks.

The curve is subtle enough for photo and design work, although you will still notice some distortion at the edges when working on precise layouts. The OSD is excellent, with clear menus and intuitive navigation. Eizo's eye‑care features, including Auto EcoView and Paper Mode, make long sessions more comfortable (especially the latter when I have been reading long texts).

Performance score: 4/5

Who's it for?

• Hybrid workers who want a single‑cable ultrawide workstation

The Eizo FlexScan EV3450XC is perfect for users who want a monitor that simplifies their desk setup while offering strong ergonomics, reliable colour, and integrated communication tools. It is not a reference‑grade creative display, but it is an outstanding productivity monitor with enough colour accuracy for everyday creative tasks.

Buy it if:

• You want a single‑cable USB‑C workstation
• You need a built‑in webcam and mic for hybrid work
• You value ergonomics and long‑term reliability

Don't buy it if:

• You need high brightness for a bright studio
• You want top‑tier webcam quality
• You prefer a flatter screen for precise design work

But many people have started to realise that more digital time isn't necessarily good for us. More people are trying to limit their time on social media or commit to digital detoxes. If you don't want to disconnect completely but want less temptation of getting sucked into doomscrolling, the best phone to opt for in 2026 might not be one of the best camera phones but a dumb phone that handles all the basics while letting you forget that it's there.

Happily most dumb phones are also a lot cheaper than Apple's $1,999 new foldable too. Here are six choice picks.

The SolidSafe Gansta Pixel 4-Port USB-C GaN Laptop Charger costs $89.99 at Amazon, delivers 140W of power and measures just 16 inches square. It even comes with UK, EU and Australia/Argentina adapters so you're ready to roll if you're travelling abroad (see our pick of the best power banks for more options).

After the success of Metroid Dread, many players were hoping Nintendo and MercurySteam would continue the 2D storyline. This new mainline entry looks like it should deliver the goods – while adding a shocking new mechanic.

The Metroid Ravenous trailer (above) is giving Metroid Dread 2 energy, leading many to see it a direct continuation of the same design philosophy but created for the improved capabilities of the Switch 2.,

The big surprise is Samus's new "feeding" mechanic. She can seemingly consume enemies using her awakened Metroid abilities, further developing the Metroid DNA storyline established in Metroid Fusion and expanded at the end of Metroid Dread. It's a strange, dark and more horror-esque mechanic that I don't think anyone could have predicted.

The darker tone is apparent in the trailer's atmosphere too. With the "eat or be eaten" theme, it's intense, and one of the boldest directions the series has taken.

While fans are generally fascinated, not all of the reactions are positive. Some worry that the game may double down on the very demanding combat and precision boss fights seen in late-game sections of Metroid Dread.

There is also curiosity around how exactly the devouring mechanic will work in gameplay and whether it risks making Samus feel less like a traditional Metroid protagonist and more like a power-fantasy action character. There's some apprehension that balancing a "siphon gauge" or needing to constantly feed on enemies could disrupt the classic exploration flow.

Others are surprised by the more vocal (and furious) Samus. I wonder if the intention here is to give her a stronger, more consistent voice to pave the way for a film if The Legend of Zelda movie does well next year.

Metroid Ravenous will be released for the Switch 2 on 28 January, 2027. You can preorder the game from the Nintendo Store.

In reality, it should be on the radar of anyone who has an interest in Japanese RPGs (JRPGs), and especially the long-running and genre-defining Final Fantasy series. At the recent Gamescom show, Revelation was playable for the first time and after about 50 minutes with it (which seemed to pass in a flash) it left me feeling that it easily passes muster when compared to the most recent and high-tech JRPGs – not bad for a reimagined version of a 1997 game.

Familiar but enhanced visuals

Aesthetically, Final Fantasy VII Revelation is easy to describe: it shares an art-style with the two previous games in the remade trilogy, as well as most recent iterations of the main Final Fantasy franchise. Namely colourful-looking 3D characters with a hint of anime-inspiration traversing lush-looking countryside environments and more industrial cities.

There was a clear progression in visuals between Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, and that continues with Revelation. While its environments are mostly the same as those seen in Rebirth, they are also a tiny bit more detailed, crisper and colourful.

Plus Revelation adds some new locales: most notably Wutai, the mythical republic over the sea from Midgar, from whence team-member Yuffie hails. At the end of my Gamescom play-through, I was able to wander around Wutai’s Capital City briefly and found a charming new environment, with plenty of verticality.

Capital City is situated in a picturesque bowl surrounded by rocky mountains, and features a mediaeval Japanese village style of architecture, with large pagoda-style buildings with pitched roofs and blossoming cherry trees everywhere. Along with cats, which the game encouraged me to photograph.

Revelation seemed to have ramped up the sense of being a safari-style tourist, as it also encouraged wildlife photography elsewhere. And it provided plenty of environments which were a joy to traverse. Visually, it conforms to the classic modern JRPG style, but is as fine-looking as any of its peers.

Traversing the skies

And in Revelation, it’s easy to get to any of those lovely environments, since it’s the first instalment of the trilogy to be truly open-world. This time around, you get to traverse the game-world in an airship called the High Wind (a fairly steampunk-style contraption, a visual genre which has featured in many past Final Fantasy games).

The Gamescom play-through started at the beginning of Chapter 4, marking the first time Revelation’s party encountered the High Wind. Accordingly, it offered a tutorial in how to pilot it, which I ignored, not wanting to waste time. Anyway, it was simple to operate, chugging around serenely above the clouds, with the game-worlds different areas clearly labelled.

I headed to the Grasslands, an area seen early on in Rebirth, keen to investigate how it had changed between the two games. Once I had positioned the High Wind satisfactorily, a simple button-press took me to its side where I jumped off to parachute to ground level, discovering I could glide around precisely before deploying my chute. Cutely, pressing R1 just before landing spawned a chocobo for me to ride.

FITS: outfits with benefits

A bit of random traversal provided some random creatures to battle, allowing me to assess Revelation’s battle-system. Rebirth added one layer to Remake’s battle-system in the form of Synergy, allowing two party members to combine to land powerful attacks, and Revelation adds another layer in the form of what the game calls FITS.

FITS are simply new outfits, but they add new abilities and attributes while battling, and essentially constitute a means of bringing new character classes to the game’s battle-party members. There are four FITS outfits: Warrior, Knight, Black Mage and Summoner.

Warrior is attack-focused and Knight defence-focused (so Knights-equipped party members will receive defence buffs and draw fire from the rest of the party). Black Mage is magic-focused, whereas Summoner allows suitably equipped characters to summon helpful creatures much earlier in battles than would previously have been the case.

In battle, the FITS system lets you pick from a whole new menu of FITS attacks, along with the abilities, spells and synergy attacks that could be triggered in Rebirth. I tried a few and they were helpfully powerful, and were accompanied by some really flashy visual effects.

But in truth, I didn’t have enough time to explore the full depths of the FITS system, deciding which outfit could best be assigned to which party member, and which worked best in which battle situation. Clearly, one of the joys of Revelation will derive from working out how best to benefit from FITS.

Finding one of the Synergy Upgrade machines at the chocobo farm in the Grasslands, I was able to determine that the FITS system is intertwined with the Synergy one: I could choose FITS upgrades which applied when particular characters were operating synergistically. That added a layer of complexity to a system which is already a tad opaque. But Synergy and FITS upgrades, at least, can be respecced easily enough.

Plenty to do

Exploration of maps already explored in Rebirth yielded plenty of new activities, side-quests and areas of interest. At one point I uncovered a parachute-landing target which promised rewards if I landed on it from the High Wind. Returning to the High Wind at any point was a breeze – a simple matter of a couple of button-presses.

The new side-quests, according to Square Enix, have a new twist, in that some of them will play out differently according to which party member you choose to undergo them. There are two new party members in Revelation: Cid, a familiar character from the franchise, who captains the High Wind, and Vincent Valentine, a vampiric type.

I also found a handy new piece of kit in the form of a grapple-gun which whizzed me to designated grapple-posts. It came in particularly handy in Wutai’s Capital City, which is more or less built on the side of a cliff. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to investigate a new area called Rocket City, but shots of it – naturally featuring rockets – suggested a pretty industrial urban environment.

Nor, at a fairly early period in the game, did I encounter any of the Weapons, giant beasts that operate as guardians of the planet, which were seen in Rebirth but in Revelation operate as bosses which the battle-party will have to take on.

The biggest instalment yet?

I vastly enjoyed my short time in Revelation. Unsurprisingly, it had plenty about it which was familiar, but it took an already beautiful game-world, made it look even better, and added a whole new cornucopia of things to do in a world which had truly opened up for the first time (from the High Wind, I could have proceeded to Wutai for the next chunk of the main storyline, or could roam around the rest of the world to my heart’s content).

Its open-world nature surely means that Revelation will be the longest slice of the remade Final Fantasy VII trilogy – so it will be a very long game indeed, particularly for the sort of players who feel compelled to complete everything. It will surely be a must-buy for anyone who wants to discover the sort of heights that modern JRPGs are capable of hitting.

Final Fantasy VII Revelation will be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S Nintendo Switch and PC on 8 April 2027.

Yes, the iPhone Duo has finally been unveiled. And the first surprise was the name. Long rumoured to be called the iPhone Ultra or iPhone Fold, Apple has opted to emphasise the, well, duality of the thing. The company isn't pushing the foldable as a single, 'ultra' iPhone. It's marketing it as a two-in-one.

The question is, what two existing products does the iPhone Fold represent? The obvious answer would be two iPhones – it's called the iPhone Duo after all, and the whopping starting price of $2000 is around that of two iPhones. But Apple's own marketing suggests that the company sees the Duo as a combination of two very specific products.

We've been somewhat taken aback by Apple's recent foray into zany TikTok content. The brand's fun, irreverent videos have felt somewhat out of character for the brand, and none more so than the latest, captioned, 'The making of iPhone Duo'. The video depicts an iPhone Air and iPad mini enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner. Yes, the suggestion seems to be that the two products enjoyed their dinner so much that they ended up conceiving the iPhone Duo. Okay, then.

As you might expect, Apple's suggestion that two of its products are, er, romantically involved, has been met with raised eyebrows. "I’d never thought Apple would make an advert like this," one user comments, while another adds, "Wait that means... Ohhh iPhone you dirty dawwwwggggggg."

But the irreverent ad also serves to confirm that Apple sees the iPhone Duo as a combination of the iPhone Air and iPad mini. Which something of a dilemma for creatives. Does the Duo manage to serve the needs of those who use both devices? Sure, the 7.6-inch inner display is close to that of the iPad mini's 8.3 inches. But there are immediate trade-offs. For one thing, the iPhone Duo will only support the Apple Pencil with USB-C, as apposed to the Pro. For another, it's possible to get an iPhone plus iPad mini for under £1500. Is it worth an extra $500 for the convenience of having both as a single product?

Of course, we'll have to wait until we've got our hands on the iPhone Duo to offer our definitive take on whether it's up to scratch as either an iPhone, or an iPad. But one thing's for sure – it's definitely complicated things for creatives.

To show off the Duo's functional, ergonomic design, Apple has tried its best to convince us the phone will easily fit in one hand when unfolded. This would be somewhat believable if the marketing pictures didn't feature unnaturally long E.T-Esque fingers. My question is, did they think we wouldn't notice? We wouldn't have this issue with dumbphones, just saying.

As new CEO John Ternus sung the praises of the Duo at yesterday's 'Surprise and Shine' event, an image of a strange, alien-fingered hand loomed above him. It was almost unassuming enough that it could've gone unnoticed, but naturally some eagle-eyed viewers called Apple's bluff, claiming it was a botched Photoshop job.

"Apple: 'The phone fits perfectly. Please update your fingers,'" one X user teased. "Oh, you mean your fingers *aren’t* comically long and ten times the size of your entire body?!?! Freaks!" another joked, while another suggested, "maybe they used a long-fingered person."

Whether or not Apple used a hand model well-endowed in the digits department is beyond the point – the average-sized hand will likely struggle to cradle the Duo in its vertical form... and that's okay. Apple trying to gaslight us into thinking the Duo is more ergonomic than it actually is? That's less okay. True, it makes a slick marketing pic, but I can't help but feel a little deceived.

For more Apple news, check out why some are worried that the iPhone Duo could present a brand-new health risk, or take a look at our review of the rival Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra.

The newly named WH-1000XM4C (did you miss the added 'C'?) offers customers more of what they loved in the older model, says Sony, but offering more and doing better. And all for a competitive $300 ($50 cheaper than the original).

However, with a battery life that gives us three hours less than the 2020 model, and this year's Sony 1000X The Collexion, and last year's WH-1000XM6 crowding the market (not to mention my list of the best ANC headphones), the WH-1000XM4C seems like an odd addition.

Until, that is, you get into the weeds...

XM4C: Why you might hate it

When I've tested the WH-1000XM range, I've always been struck by how uncomfortable they get over long listening sessions, especially when compared to competitors such as the Bose QC Ultra and Sennheiser Momentum ranges. As the XM4C is a rework of the XM4, with the same chassis and ear cup cushion depth, I'm not holding out much hope for its comfort. I hope I'm wrong.

Ultimately, that's all guesswork. What's more certain is that Sony has stated the XM4C will offer three hours less battery life than last year's WH-1000XM6 and the 2020 XM4 model. That's 27 instead of 30 hours of ANC-enabled use. I'm sure there are very good reasons for this, but from a purely marketing point of view, it's a massive fail, especially when you've got this year's Sennheiser Momentum 5 boasting a massive 57 hours of use with ANC.

However, further context helps paint more detail into this picture. The WH-1000XM4C is priced at $300, compared to the XM6 at $450 and the Momentum 5's $400.

When looked at through the prism of price, the XM4C appears to be Sony's best value headphone to date, and that's pretty exciting.

XM4C: Why you might love it

I thought the ANC of the XM4 was excellent, and the XM4C is apparently bringing a slightly improved noise cancellation, so I'm happy there. Yes, the XM6 will still offer the superior noise cancelling, but $150 better? That's a hard sell.

Where the reduced battery life of the XM4C is a fail, I think the proposed approach to tuning and the new EQ of the XM4C could be two solid wins.

First of all, the XM4C comes with 10-band EQ, a massive upgrade from the 5-band of the original XM4. It's the same EQ feature set as the XM6, and I'm mightily impressed by that.

Second, we're promised "updated sound tuning to match latest music trends", which I'm tentatively excited about. It's a bit of a meme in the audiophile space, but Sony's commercial headphones are known for their bloated sub- and mid-bass that tramples all over the lower midrange detail of music, making everything sound stuffy and boomy. To compensate for all that bass, they whack up the treble frequency and hey presto, you've got a classic V-shape sound signature that's about as subtle as a slap in the face.

If the marketing and early first impressions of the XM4C are to be believed, Sony has taken a different approach to the XM4C's tuning, reducing the mid-bass bloat to allow more midrange detail to come through. However, there are reports that they've increased the treble a touch, which seems like a bold choice! Either way, I think something fundamental needed to change with the WH-1000XM line, and I'm excited to hear it's happening, especially in the new value set.

Either way, with a 10-band EQ, hopefully there's enough room to personalise the XM4C's sound, and that might just be enough for me to strongly recommend the new $300 XM4C.

Below, Dan talks us through four examples of his work, from a study for The Iliad to a character design for his own poker deck.

Achilles

“This illustration was one that I made during my study of the Iliad, even though Achilles isn’t my favourite character from the epic. It’s a quick artwork that I did in one attempt using watercolours and a couple of green pencils.”

King of Clubs

“Someone has to reign the Club’s suit, so bless the King! Made with watercolours and ink pen, this is part of my poker deck. I used a circuit-cutting machine to make a stencil so I could sponge on the gold emblem with straight edges and circles.”

Unknown Water Anomaly

“This is what you never want to face in the ocean! Where are all the lost ships that people cannot find? Well, I’ve drawn an answer using acrylic paint and watercolour paper.”

Triplets

“These guys (or is it one guy?) are a card design from one of my monster card deck collections. I used acrylic and watercolour paper, as well as a dry sponge, in order to add texture to the background.”

You can see more of Dan's work on his website.

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Think about it: the few games that even acknowledge the existence of sex, say RPGs like Mass Effect or The Witcher 3, where you can work hard to develop relationships with other characters in the game, treat the actual act coyly (although at least in the case of Geralt in The Witcher 3, they mine some comedy from it). Maybe GTA VI will contain some spicy moments dotted in between the violence, but don’t hold your breath.

But a game is about to arrive which does acknowledge sex, and specifically sadomasochism. Frankly, it could hardly do otherwise, because that game is Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, based on the classic Hellraiser films, which chronicle the misdeeds of the Cenobites, a ghoulish extra-dimensional quasi-cult of sado-masochists unable to distinguish between pleasure and pain.

That blind-spot is sex

So respect is due to Saber Interactive, then, for its determination to make something which reproduces the Hellraiser movie franchise in game-form as faithfully as possible. Especially given that one of the features of this current age in which we all live is an unexpected prudishness – despite the rise of OnlyFans and the gruesome protagonists of the manosphere. Every month seems to bring a new report of how Gen Z is having less sex than any previous generation, although in truth, it may just be more reluctant to admit how much sex it is actually having.

But when Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is released on October 8, it will undoubtedly create a stir, simply for not being coy about sadomasochistic sex. I’ve now played it twice, at this year’s and 2025’s Gamescom shows, and can confirm that it does a really fine job of recreating the Hellraiser universe. In the Gamescom 2025 demo, in particular, which showed the game's beginning, S&M was to the fore. It started with a bravura cutscene in which protagonist Aidan had distinctly non-standard sex with his girlfriend Sunny, who then got sucked into the sinister labyrinthine underworld occupied by Pinhead and the Cenobites. Cue Aidan’s overriding quest to rescue Sunny from the Cenobite labyrinth, armed with his mystical dimension-spanning puzzlebox.

After an initial sequence in said labyrinth, Aidan found himself in an earthly club heavily populated with Cenobites, often tied up and with flayed skin pulled back to expose their innards – body horror has, of course, featured in many of the darker survival-horror video games, but never with such an overt sadomasochistic undercurrent.

Disturbingly slick gameplay

Aesthetically, Hellraiser: Revival stayed true to the film's art style, but with a modern visual clarity. It had two distinct areas: the real world and the Cenobite labyrinth, the latter stony grey, full of traps, often reconfiguring itself, and very much the stuff of nightmares. Above ground, the environments were lush and detailed, emulating the sort of fetishistic clubs that you would imagine only the world’s elite know how to find.

The game’s depiction of such environments, along with Aidan’s apartment, was colourful and believable, but even outside of the labyrinth, it was unafraid to move into dream-sequence territory. In the 2026 demo I played, I at one point found myself in a very creepy ruined house, in which I had to perform various interactions in order to get it to reconfigure itself so I could escape.

One aspect which added, if anything, to the pervasive sense of dread was the slickness of the gameplay. In the 2025 Gamescom demo, it firmly occupied survival-horror territory, demonstrating a decent, precise stealth engine and requiring judicious crafting to earn small amounts of ammo, as well as making as many environmental kills as possible.

In the 2026 Gamescom demo, from a later stage in the game, I had a variety of weapons (although dead enemies still had to be looted for ammo) and could use the puzzlebox to, for example, draw flames from handy braziers and fire them at enemies. The puzzlebox, with its telekinetic properties, also proved useful in the labyrinth, allowing me to rotate segments of the walls to create a safe path when my progress was initially blocked by rotating blades embedded in the walls.

From what I saw, I have no doubt that Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival does a fantastic job of recreating the Hellraiser universe as a game – as it should, since Clive Barker himself was heavily involved in its development. Saber Interactive’s Chief Creative Officer Tim Willitts told me: “He’s helped us – he knows the game, he’s approved concept art, and he’s approved the story.”

It’s undoubtedly a labour of love, but Saber Interactive deserves extra kudos for throwing the highest production values imaginable at Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival. As well for making what Willitts acknowledges is: “Mature content; it’s entertainment made for adults.” When it comes out in October, you may find that the tabloidy end of the media tries to manufacture some sort of outrage. But when the rest of us play it, we may end up questioning why sex remains so coyly treated in video games.

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC in 8 October.

While the Harry Potter movies released between 2001 and 2011 were made by Warner Bros, and upcoming series is the work of HBO. That means new everything, from the cast to the sets and, yes, even the logo designs. The new symbols for the Hogwarts houses of Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff look very different to those used in the movies. But are they really a glow down?

The movies' take on the Hogwarts house symbols took inspiration from classical family crests, complete with healm, shield and mantle. The HBO Hogwarts designs are simpler and more readable, with larger mascots placed on medieval-looking circles with less fussy ornamentation.

For some readers, modern corporate minimalism has entered the magical realm of Hogwarts. Some called the new designs "basic", "uninspiring" and even "AI-like".

"This franchise has way to big of a following to be cutting corners for cost," one reader complains.

Others picked apart the consistency of the new design language.

"I don't like that the scroll shape goes in a different direction for each animal, and Slytherin looks like a little upside down mushroom on the left bottom 'scroll'," one person wrote. "Us artists like details and none of these details are uniform, the HufflePuff circle is even a different color!"

There were also suggestions that the problem isn't the design per se but HBO's insistence on "remaking something that doesn't need remaking".

But others argue that the new designs are actually more historically accurate to Hogwarts’ founding era.

"According to lore, Hogwarts was founded around 990 AD – the late Anglo-Saxon period in Britain," one reader wrote by email. "Classical heraldry (featuring heater shields, knightly helmets, and elaborate mantling like those in the films) did not exist in the 10th century; it only emerged across Western Europe in the 12th to 14th centuries. In 990 AD, institutional emblems were preserved on round wax seals, carved wooden boss rings, or circular metal brooches."

"While the film crests represented a late-medieval or early-modern interpretation of heraldry, HBO's circular roundels offer a style that feels far more grounded in the Anglo-Saxon origins of Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Helga Hufflepuff. Beyond correcting Ravenclaw’s eagle mascot, the simplified circular framing reflects the exact medium a 10th-century founder would have actually used."

That's a great point, but it also raises a question. Would the Hogwarts houses not have rebranded at least once in over 1,000 years of history?

Another reader has a possible explanation for the longevity of their brand assets: "They are also magic, so they could very well have been charmed to not age and be the very ones used since the founding of the school."

I think that's a nice new contribution to Potter lore.

Now here's the trailer for the series.

Few games remain ingrained in the memory, but the ones that do tend to have some strange hook that refuses to disappear, and for me, Apidya' has always been one of those games because, even after all these years, I can still picture that robotic wasp flying through the undergrowth, shooting insects, fish and all manner of wiggly things crawling out of a decaying rat carcass.

It's an image that stuck, partly because the Amiga was very good at producing this sort of thing in the early '90s (read our retro game console guide), when a developer could take a familiar shoot-'em-up template and dress it up in imaginative new ways, and partly because Apidya' really is quite odd when you step back and look at it. Underneath all that insect life, though, this is a straightforward Gradius-inspired shooter, with waves of enemies coming at you, power-up options running along the bottom of the screen and a steadily expanding arsenal of power shots, split lasers, drones and more being tapped into when you need them.

That basic design still works, and playing Apidya' Special on Switch 2 (it's releasing on Switch), I found myself enjoying the shooting more than I expected, because the remaster offers several ways to take the edge off without ruining the feel. You can extend your lives, continue from where you died and, most usefully, choose to keep your power-ups after losing a life, which means you don't get that familiar old-school shooter experience of making one stupid mistake and then having to fight your way back from practically nothing.

Apidya' Special is pure '90s weirdness

Those new play options make a big impact, because Apidya' still has plenty of those cruel 1990s game design ideas designed to catch you out, including a sewer pipe stage that flips the screen and your controls. It's a weird design decision that feels completely of its time, likely because the Amiga could flip and push pixels around, so the original developer, Kaiko, did it without really thinking about whether it should; ultimately, it adds to what made Apidya memorable in the first place.

The remaster even adds in some new ideas, such as Night Mode and randomised new enemy waves – there's new co-op too – all adding to the sense that this is a release that understands the original's personality.

The pixel art is a big part of that sense of identity, and Apidya' Special gets the remastering job right because it doesn’t overcook the new designs; in fact, it's remade them from the original 1992 Amiga assets and built on a proprietary engine, not Unity or Unreal, including unreleased assets intended for a cancelled 1990s console port. Those original Amiga graphics still hold up, while the updated pixel art gives everything more definition and clarity; the insect designs remain strange, the environments retain that grubby organic quality, and, importantly, the new pixel art, if you flip to modern visuals, doesn't bury the original ideas under layers of effects and unnecessary detail. You can tweak things with CRT shaders, bloom, and authentic scanline simulation too, so there's plenty for retro game fans.

That remaster restraint shows as the game moves away from its early nature-themed stages of grass and rivers and introduces more mechanical designs that feel lifted from R-Type, because retro remasters often keep adding detail until the original's clarity vanishes. Apidya' Special avoids that, keeping the sprites readable and letting the designs do the work, which is especially welcome in the later stages when things become increasingly busy.

But for all the personality in the art and setting, the actual structure of Apidya' rarely strays too far from Konami's Gradius template. You learn enemy patterns, choose when to take a power-up, try to keep your weapon setup intact for the big moments, and while Apidya' throws in enough strange micro-world insect-y ideas to keep things interesting, it never really feels as though it's trying to reinvent the genre.

That isn't necessarily a criticism, because the shooting remains solid and there's a pleasant rhythm to working through the stages, but it does mean the game lives or dies on how much you enjoy that old-school formula, and for me the answer is still mostly yes. The controls feel good, the pace works, and there's enough variation in the weapon system to make the power-ups feel tactical.

Boss encounters are equally nicely pitched, and feel more creative and weird than the usual shooters of the era – whether it’s the massive pike, laser-firing oyster or maggot-infested dead rat, they are odd, even if how you battle them is fairly rudimentary – sit screen-left and shoot. Don’t expect any complex memory tests or staged surprises; what you see is what you get.

That '90s pacing and skill test can mean bosses and some in-stage surprises lead to wild difficulty spikes, where out of the blue the game’s wave design and screen-flipping punish you abruptly. This is where Apidya' Special reveals its age, and it can be disarming to play games from the 90s like this, because they really didn’t hold back. It’s also a reason why the game is fairly short – just five stages that loop (with secret stages too) – because the imbalance means there’s hell to pay, and stages and bosses can be hard going (but you do have the game options to make life easier).

Still, I think that's why this remaster works, because Apidya' Special doesn't need to convince me that Apidya was secretly one of the great lost shooters of the Amiga era. It wasn't – hello SWIV, Disposable Hero, Battle Squadron, Silkworm, Turrican 2 – and pretending otherwise would probably miss the point. It's a very good ‘90s shoot-'em-up, heavily indebted to Konami, with some solid mechanics and a handful of ideas that haven't aged quite as well, but wrapped around all of that is this wonderfully peculiar world that still feels unlike anything else.

There are plenty of technically better shooters from this period, plenty with more demanding bosses and deeper systems, but I don't remember those games in such the same way as the Gradius-clone where you controlled a wasp and battled a praying mantis. Apidya' has always had that going for it, and Apidya' Special understands that its best move is to preserve the weirdness and not mess with the formula – the appeal was always in that bizarre combination of familiar Konami shooting and insect-infested design, and after spending time with it again, I'm glad it's not been tidied up too much.

But AI image generators have been getting progressively better at replicating photorealism, and it's not always so easy to tell that an image is fake, leading to fears about how easily AI can be to spread lies online.

Take the image in the post on X below. There are lots of things wrong with the image. But can you spot them?

At first glance the image above looks like a photo of a mundane everyday scene at a courier officer, which appears to be handling shipment of a 50in TV. There's even a bit of motion blur on one of the person's hands.

"Can you figure out why this picture is not real without using a detector?" was the challenge laid down by AI researcher Henk van Ess. Take a moment to see how many clues you can spot.

Those commenting have noticed many anomalies in the image. Firstly, the TV's measurements. AI image generators might now be able to handle text, but it seems they're not too hot doing conversions between metric and imperial because 50 inches are not the same as 144cm.

Moreover, judging by its relative size compared to the floor tiles and the person in the image, the box wouldn't be large enough to hold a 50in TV (and less a 144cm one). The person also appears to have a third leg, and there are some strange shadows under their left hand.

Looking more closely, there are some perspective errors too. There's something pretty funky going on with the of tiling on the floor in the background. And on the box itself, the edges of the AirPlay/Home labels don’t follow the same vanishing point as the cardboard they’re supposedly printed on – another sign of AI image generation (or some bad Photoshop).

Someone also finds it suspect that this kind of box would be printed with spot colour and CMYK. It's even more suspicious that there's no brand logo on the image of the TV.

And speaking of logos, graphic design nerds like me will also notice that the 'X' of FedEx should be touching the 'E' to form the famous hidden arrow in the logo.

Henk, the original poster, wrote the people-research chapter of the Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting and teaches workshops on verification and AI-assisted research. He also created the Image Whisperer tool, which is designed to help identify AI images.

In an apparent disregard for intellectual property rules (and previous complaints from Japan over unauthorised use of Nintendo IPs like Mario), it even used the Pac-Man, Xbox and Sega logos to promote the games. Alas, less than a week later, one title has been removed, leaving only four of the original five. It seems that the Tetris Company's complaint have carried weight.

When the White House launched Arcade.gov last Wednesday, some people wondered if it was intentionally trying to get sued. Sure enough, The Tetris Company published a statement on its account on X the very next day. It clarified that it was not involved in the creation of the 'Build the Wall' game, and added: "P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously".

Build the Wall was basically Tetris but with a xenophobic back story and some pretty shoddy programming. “Protect the border from the coming horde" the tagline wrote. But the game didn't work properly.

The games that remain on the site include 'Rio Run', a grim reimagining of Snakes where border czar Tom Homan leads a line of illegal immigrants in orange jumpsuits, and Duck Hunt-like 'Trump Savings Tycoon', whose description says "Fill your Kids' Trump Accounts".

Despite the 'America first' rhetoric, the White House social media team seems to have a bit of an obsession with Japanese video game and anime characters. Previous examples include using the Pokémon theme on footage of ICE raids. But its disregard for intellectual property is likely to be worrying American companies too due to its AI-driven free for all.

While big game developers like Nintendo have a reputation for being litigious, most have adopted a surprisingly cowardly silence so far, perhaps worried about getting dragged into debates around politics. Tetris appears to have shown that a company can take a stance and make the message hit home.

I'm talking about the new UGREEN Master Home Agent, which is a local intelligence device that combines local computing, storage, and AI control all in one chunky unit. It's powered by the impressive NVIDIA Jetson Thor robotics platform and will act as a hub for smart home control by responding to natural language.

But what exactly does a Home Agent do? As someone relatively unfamiliar with this territory, I like to think of it as a super-powered Alexa. Essentially, an AI assistant you can communicate with using voice commands and delegate tasks to, like opening the (smart) curtains and controlling devices such as security cameras, smart speakers and digital photo frames.

The pricey $20K Master Agent was met with baffled laughter in the audience when unveiled at the company's showcase, but thankfully, there are two other iterations of UGREEN's Home Agent with slightly more realistic price brackets.

The HA100 model is priced at $1,799, whereas the HA100 Pro is slightly more advanced with a price tag of $5,999. This still seems like an extortionate amount of money for a company claiming to be accessible for everyday consumers, but I guess this is an extraordinary product aimed at premium households needing beefy security.

Other products announced by UGREEN at its showcase event in Berlin included 3 security cameras: the SynCare Indoor Cam ID500 Pro, the SynCare PoE Cam OD600 Pro, and the SynCare Battery Cam OD800 Pro. New additions to the ecosystem also included a UGREEN Gallery E-Paper Smart Frame, plus a Smart Speaker for "Uliya" (try asking a small child to pronounce this correctly).

The other standout product was UGREEN's new MagFlow Pro Magnetic Power Bank with liquid cooling, making it the world's first Qi2 power bank with this technology. Take a look at my video below to catch all of the UGREEN highlights from IFA 2026.

Video: Highlights from IFA with UGREEN

The main selling point of UGREEN's latest tech, and a big spotlight at IFA this year, has been on local AI technology. This prioritises user privacy and requires no internet or cloud-based software to operate, meaning your data, files, and media are stored and safeguarded securely, for your eyes only.

While I think UGREEN's new local AI agent hubs are exciting, I'd say this launch gives the impression that advanced privacy and security at this level is a luxury, as opposed to an accessible necessity for everyday consumers. In any case, the home agent era has arrived and will certainly appeal to a minority.

While there are no strict rules for creating the best movie posters, Diggers' stylised compositions and quirky typography have already earned the film some serious praise – until the latest poster dropped. If you're prone to perfectionism, I'd look away now.

The poster in question features a collage-style image of the near-unrecognisable Cruise against a coloured background. His strange, wide-legged stance and the poster's mix of warm colours and monochrome give it an unconventional retro appeal that shines in its boldness. So what's the issue? Take a look at Cruise's right leg and notice the colour blocking compared to the other side. That's right, folks, we have some asymmetrical sinning going on.

Naturally, it didn't go unnoticed by critics who sounded off on X. "All love but this not being green is pissing me tf off," one X user shared, gesturing to the colour blunder. "I didn't even notice it, and now I'm wondering how I'll sleep tonight... thanks, I guess," one disturbed commenter replied, while another added, "That tiny orange patch is doing an unreasonable amount of emotional damage."

I want to give the benefit of the doubt and say the stylistic decision was a conscious one, and not simply a bodged design. Given the rustic, asymmetric nature of the film's logo, the poster's imperfect design could reflect that. "You're not paying attention to the gesture of the pose, the nuance of spirit. You're too graphic design coded. You need to be more nature coded," one X user countered. "Your idea ruins the balance and the feeling of motion of the background. Let the pros do the job," another wrote.

For more poster design news, check out the Enola Holmes 3 poster that was accused of being AI slop thanks to its countless flaws or take a look at why horror movie poster design has a problem.

Personally, I think the new The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake looks gorgeous, but it also looks very different from the N64 original, with rebuilt environments, much more detailed materials, modern lighting, a free camera and redesigned character models. Naturally, that’s how things should be for a Switch 2 remake of a classic retro game. During this week’s Nintendo Direct reveal, Nintendo producer Eiji Aonuma called it a “faithful interpretation using modern technologies”.

The big reaction from fans who’ve been longing for the return of Ocarina of Time? It looks like an Unreal Engine fan project. That's not necessarily an insult, either, although quite a few people are definitely using it as one.

On Reddit, one fan wrote: “Honestly, I’m not a big fan of how it looks. It looks like a fan project made in Unreal Engine 5 to me,” reads one reaction to the new trailer.

Another fan immediately pushed back, arguing: “We've seen OoT fan remakes in UE5. None of them looked close to this good.”

Ocarina of Time a UE5 fan remake?

I think that’s a better way to look at the comparison. Nobody seriously thinks Nintendo just took somebody's Unreal project and shipped it; the comparison is really about modern game engines: realistic materials, volumetric lighting, soft shadows, detailed vegetation, and all the other bits of rendering wizardry we've got used to seeing in high-end Unreal demos.

Ocarina of Time is absolutely loaded with that stuff now, and while that gives it a new lease of life, it can massage out some of the original’s quirks and personality, or at least, that’s how some fans feel. The problem, for some fans, is what happens when that modern rendering wraps around those very familiar Nintendo character designs.

Young Link in particular has become the focal point of the complaints, with one Reddit reaction saying: “Link looks like one of those creepy dolls. The environment looks great, but the faces are just not working for me.”

You can see why the face is causing so much discussion. Nintendo hasn't turned Link into some completely new interpretation of the character; it appears to have retained the proportions and familiar shapes of the N64 version while giving him dramatically more realistic skin, hair, eyes and lighting. It’s a modern update that can work beautifully in one shot and then look strangely uncanny in the next.

There's a similar complaint about the game's characters more generally, with one fan saying the overall style is working for them but that the faces feel “almost mask-like”.

The other reaction to Ocarina of Time's remake

But here's the other half of the story, and it's a pretty important one because there are plenty of Zelda fans who absolutely love what Nintendo is doing, and after seeing more and more of the remake, I’m sitting comfortably in the ‘I love it’ camp.

One of the most popular reactions to the remake says on the forum: “It is exactly what I predicted, exactly what I wanted, and is the best-case scenario for this remake. Absolutely glorious. Immediate preorder.”

That's a completely different reading of the same footage revealed at the Direct. For these fans, Nintendo hasn't lost the plot at all, and instead there’s a feeling the developer has finally been able to realise the kind of realistic fantasy world Ocarina of Time was attempting to create back in 1998, only this time without the N64 having to render it all through a few blurry textures and a heroic amount of fog.

That's why the environments are getting so much praise, and for me this has been the real star of the remake – beautiful, detailed, pastel-hued grassy fantasy. One current discussion on Reddit describes the remake as “technically incredible”, specifically praising its vegetation, materials and shader work, while still questioning some of the lighting and character rendering.

There’s a good argument here too, as Ocarina of Time wasn't Wind Waker, and it wasn't trying to be a cel-shaded, stylised cartoon, and it wasn't built around deliberately exaggerated character proportions in the same way some later Zelda games were. Nintendo was trying to make Hyrule feel like a convincing 3D fantasy world; it just happened to do that on hardware that couldn’t totally match the ambition. The remake is attempting to make the original vision a reality.

There's also a funny generational thing happening here. Fans who grew up with Ocarina of Time often remember wanting Zelda to look more realistic, more cinematic and more technically impressive, while younger players have grown up with Nintendo's much more stylised approach and aren't necessarily convinced that realism automatically makes Zelda look better.

Which means Nintendo has somehow managed to create a remake that gives one group of fans exactly what they always wanted while giving another group something that feels slightly off. But that's a good place for an Ocarina of Time remake to be, because the environments look spectacular, the original visual ambition is much easier to see, and Nintendo has clearly put an enormous amount of work into rebuilding Hyrule rather than simply giving the N64 game a lick of high-resolution paint.

Nintendo is getting the balance right

I'm less convinced by some of the faces, particularly Young Link, but that's also the bit I'd expect Nintendo to spend the next few months polishing, tweaking and generally trying to make everybody stop staring at his slightly unsettling eyes.

So no, Zelda fans aren't all saying the remake looks bad. They're all saying it looks different, and that difference has split the audience pretty neatly between people seeing the Ocarina of Time they've always imagined and those seeing a very expensive Unreal Engine demo (they’re wrong).

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launches exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5, 2026.

As well as traditional separates, there are now portable Bluetooth CD players designed for desktop use, and they can be a great, stylish addition to an office or home entertainment setup.

Take the Syitren R300 CD player, which is reduced from $109.99 to $89.99 at Amazon. Available in white or black and brown, it has a retro vibe, yet looks sleek and sophisticated with an aesthetic that leans into the look of some vinyl players. Also supporting mp3, you simply connect it to a speaker or headphones via Bluetooth.

For more options, see our roundup of CD player deals below. If you need something to listen on, see our guide to the best Bluetooth headphones for audiophiles.

Apparently, it'll come in white and dark blue, is loaded with a A20 Pro chip and it will run apps parallel to each other on the main screen. Most key for creatives is that it will reportedly have support for the Apple Pencil stylus – a brilliant decision from Apple.

For those interested in photography, it'll have two 48 MP rear cameras, and then a 12 MP front-facing camera for video calls. Price? From $2,000 to $3,000 (ouch!).

Follow along with all the news today on our Apple event live blog.

And what will it look like?

It was reported yesterday by our neighbour site T3 that accessories brand ESR had published photos of the iPhone Ultra as part of ads on its X feed, joining Spigen and Dbrand in openly showcasing the design. This morning, another brand has done exactly the same thing.

I opened Instagram to find ads from one of my favourite accessories brands, Burga. The images shows some gorgeous cases, complete with the iPhone Ultra. Did the ads team hit "schedule" a day early?

This phone is likely to be a dummy unit, which we have seen online before, but it gives a good sense of what the foldable will look like if you haven't seen it yet. Even better, it shows the ingenuity of the cases Burga has created to fit the folding phone. See the images below.

It's striking to see two separate accessories brands leak in this way, even with plenty of leakers already sharing design snippets in recent weeks, including the colourways for the iPhone 18 range.

Apple may not be happy about brands jumping the gun on their marketing. Cases and covers are typically approved under strict NDAs precisely so they don't reveal hardware before Apple does – but given the dummy units are already out there, this doesn't feel like a huge deal. Either way, for now, the leaks only build the anticipation for what Apple has planned later today.

Thankfully, a new IC travel card mascot is set to take its place – and even better, it's up to the general public to decide who takes the crown. Three adorable little guys are in the running, but given the penguin's 25-year legacy, some fans aren't being so welcoming to the newcomers. Like it or not, mascots are back, and it's time to embrace some fresh faces.

The lineup consists of a squirrel, a rabbit, and what I can only describe as an indistinct, mouselike creature. Each design has its own quirky charm, although I find myself drawn to the doughy innocence of the rabbit, especially in his signature Superman pose.

But the lil' fellas didn't appeal to everyone, particularly fans on Reddit. "What in the Corporate Memphis is this?" one user wrote, sparking a sea of criticism from Penguin purists. "I’m in awe. These are absolutely terrible," one naysayer commented, while another added, "Babe, wake up. New nightmare fuel just dropped."

Does the squirrel sort of remind me of the Scratch logo cat? Yes. Is the mouse-beast's nervous face rubbing off on me and making me slightly anxious? Yes. And why does he have a little guy in his purse? I may never know. But to me, there's something endearing about these strange creatures, and I, for one, believe they all make wonderful successors to the Suica Penguin.

More than an IC card mascot, the Suica Penguin has become a part of Japanese culture, appearing on merchandise and beloved by many. While its retirement will be a cause of grief for many, a brand refresh is well overdue.

It's worth noting that the internet is always pretty resistant to change – you only have to look at the response to Spotify's disco logo or the dreaded Cracker Barrel debacle to see just how bad the criticism can be. If you'd like to have your say, voting is now open on the JR East website.

Due for release in spring 2027 (on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC), Alien Deathstorm bills itself as a horror-FPS, and a sci-fi element could be added to that mix, since it is set in a future in which mankind has colonised other planets. Its action takes place in an off-world colony where things have started to go horribly wrong: an extreme weather event threatens physical damage, and aliens have invaded. The game’s protagonist is an engineer dispatched to fix broken systems while taking out any aliens that hinder those efforts.

Hands-on with Alien Deathstorm

Alien Deathstorm made its first appearance at Gamescom 2026, happily in playable form: I was able to work my way through a 30-minute demo level, providing a tantalising taste of the game. Aesthetically, it may not have been entirely representative, since the level was set in a nuclear power station which had to be brought online. Plus, its action took place at night and in the middle of a raging storm.

This combined to create a great Alien/Aliens-style atmosphere, with a dark, industrial colour palette and underlit areas punctuated by emergency lights – I soon discovered that when under attack by aliens in dark areas, I could throw a flare onto the ground to be able to see them better. Atmospherically, the emphasis was on the game’s horror side, with aliens appearing from darkness providing plenty of jump-scares. Noticeably excellent sound design meant I could often hear them approaching before glimpsing them.

And the weather played into that: in the open air, a constant rainstorm, with accompanying howling wind, ramped up the sense of dread and meant it was a relief to get inside – shades of John Carpenter’s The Thing there, except with snow replaced by a downpour. I soon discovered that Alien Deathstorm even has a move in which I could wipe my character’s helmet-visor – necessary when taking out aliens with melee weapons in front of my face, but also sometimes due to the sheer volume of rainwater accumulating.

So, in the case of Alien Deathstorm, Rebellion has abandoned any form of stylisation (such as, say, Atomfall’s 1950s-style art direction) in favour of realism. While the demo’s nuclear reactor setting was moderately high-tech in places, it felt contemporary rather than futuristic, industrial rather than cyberpunk.

Slick shooting and dangerous aliens

Guided by a remote handler with a Scottish accent (it wouldn’t be a Rebellion game without some British cue, and the game’s foregrounding of the weather could be characterised as another one of those), I started to work my way through the reactor.

It was in pretty bad shape, with some outside walls ripped open to the elements. The first aliens I encountered resembled giant spiders: fast-moving, they came at my face, but I could dispatch them with a single well-timed melee attack. I was equipped with a pistol (with unlimited ammo), an SMG and a shotgun, all of which felt fabulous: the shotgun took eight shells before needing to reload, and the SMG had a satisfyingly high fire rate and pinpoint accuracy.

I had to use a few medical injectors to restore health: while not particularly robust, the aliens were fast, dealt a lot of damage, and moved with a pleasing unpredictability. Before long, I started to encounter an altogether more dangerous class of aliens: large, anthropomorphic, and powerful, with dreadlock-like cranial protrusions that made them slightly reminiscent of the Predator. For those, the shotgun came in handy, especially when the SMG ran out of ammo.

Major puzzle-solving and 3D printing

As I moved around the multi-level reactor, skirting locked doors and working out how to reach my destination via alternative routes, I found some useful machines, most notably Item Stations, which let me 3D-print ammo and medical injectors. The rooms were dotted with crates holding useful resources and occasionally blueprints which, via a Workbench, let me customise my weapons, initially adding ammo capacity to the SMG and shotgun. Rebellion explained that it has gone to town with the weapon customisation, to the extent that the automatic rifle, for example, can be turned into something more akin to either a high-capacity LMG or a sniper rifle – letting players equip themselves according to their preferred play-style.

My peregrinations through the nuclear reactor felt first-principles. In one of the first rooms I entered, I accessed a computer which let me download a map of the facility for the first time, and only when I reached an area entitled Core Control was I able to tap into the reactor’s systems and determine what was specifically wrong with it.

A trip through the room containing the reactor core itself triggered a more determined onslaught from both types of aliens, and as I progressed through the level, they would attack in increasing numbers.

Now armed with a clear objective to sort out the reactor’s venting system, which was malfunctioning, I climbed to the top of the facility, where a gas-flare was visible, and into the middle of an extended period of environmental puzzling in which I had to descend to ground level to switch off a particular venting array, before returning to the top to reboot the system (a zip-line allowed me to zoom back up to the roof).

Now, after hammering in two pressure-pins with melee attacks, I could reinitiate the flarestack by turning the valve – a process which would take a certain amount of time and during which, unsurprisingly, I came under attack from a horde of aliens. And that’s where my time on the demo ran out.

A believable but atmospheric horror-FPS

Having merely played through one of Alien Deathstorm’s levels, it’s impossible to discern how representative it may be of the game as a whole, but I can draw certain conclusions. Atmospherically, it emulates classic films like Alien and The Thing. Its believable, near-future setting and use, for example, of virtual 3D printing in place of crafting adds an unusual air of realism to a game that could easily have succumbed to all manner of sci-fi cliches.

Its determination to use a protagonist who demonstrably isn’t superhuman smacks of survival-horror, yet it also has a super-slick first-person shooter engine. And I found myself really getting into character as an engineer: Alien Deathstorm didn’t do much hand-holding, but I enjoyed figuring out its puzzles, which were grounded in common sense and context. In that respect, it was agreeably reminiscent of something like Half-Life, and if it ends up anywhere near as good as Half-Life, while endowed with thoroughly modern production values, it will be very hard to ignore.

Alien Deathstorm releases for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC in 2027.

This was a task that I really enjoyed, but it was made in a short amount of time, like two or three days. When we first started working on Witchspire, our team was three concept artists, and we were focused on environments. Every day we were doing different speed paintings, so it could be one, two or three maximum environments per day.

They are super quick, and it was very hard in the beginning. But with time we learned how to be quicker in the process and more efficient. And my establishing painting is one of the pictures that started resonating with the artists’ vision and the team. So we just decided to keep it, and it felt very satisfying as it was one of the first pieces that I created.

Then, at the end of the process, we have the final render where this is all animated. The VFX is flowing from their bodies, and all of that is coming together. I don’t know how many creatures I’ve counted, but this has happened for, at the very least, 50 creatures who had an initial concept, and then iterations, before we eventually landed on an approved creature design.

It’s been like a pipeline where, as soon as one step is done, as soon as concept artists are happy, you’re moving on to blocking them out and getting them in-engine. As soon as the 3D art is done, you’re rigging that, and then you’re jumping onto animating it. And to work with so many creatures, you definitely have to have a pipeline in place where that handoff goes quickly.

Louis: What I liked about the process that we used in the team was the back and forth between 2D and 3D, regarding, for example, a house and its architecture. It all starts with a sketch that’s not detailed at all, just to have the feeling of it. It then gets implemented into the game, and a 3D artist modernises it, but it still lacks various details. If it feels good with a very minimal approach, the artists are then asked to do a paintover of it.

They’ll take a screenshot of this 3D model and then refine it, either with a line art or painting, to add more details. Potentially, it can go back and forth a lot of times like this, which is super cool.

One of the things that I pushed for was, “Let’s make sure that these feel more like real creatures that you could find in a forest.” The second one was, “Add more detail.” We’re not going for realism, but we want to make sure that they have a certain level of detail where they’re not going to be these flat, simple shapes.

These are wonderful, but that’s not what we wanted to do. And that I’m very proud of, and I’m very thankful for the artists’ work. We’ve done a lot of work building this world, and my hope is that we get to expand that.

I would like to see which parts could continue, be it in another game or other media. We’ve put a lot of groundwork into this, and I think it’s something that truly resonates with people. I hope that we get to see more of it.

One brand nailing the brief is luxury Spanish fashion house Loewe, with its subtly genius new logo sandals. Before I give too much away, take a look for yourself and see if you can spot the logo – I promise once you see it, you won't be able to unsee it.

The crafty design features on Loewe's new Type Fussbett sandal, which evolved from the simple design of an everyday buckle. What has historically been an object of function is transformed into a feature accessory, forming the Loewe name across the shoe. It's a subtle yet clever flourish that proves how quiet luxury has usurped loud branding and garish logos.

Despite the clever design, the sandals seemed to divide fans, with one writing, "I would buy them simply for the creativity in that hardware," while another undecided commenter wrote, "they’re ugly, but the concept is so gaggy that I rounded back to loving them." Another shared a similar sentiment, writing, "Kinda ugly, kinda chic, kinda quirky. Love it," while one fan commented, "Whoever thought of this one needed a cute lil bonus on that check."

For more logo design inspiration, check out how this counter-fashion brand logo cleverly uses negative space or take a look at the best fashion logos.

With an emerald and gold finish, the Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 finally gives us a more exciting look for the latest console. And it makes standard black Switch 2 look even more drab by comparison. Is it worth the slight price hike? Judge for yourself.

• US: preorder console for $519.99 at Nintendo
• US: preorder console for $519.99 at Best Buy
• UK: preorder for £429.99 at Nintendo

As well as the console, there will be a Zelda anniversary edition Switch 2 Pro Controller, available with or without a display stand, and there's also a case with screen protector. All of them feature a golden Triforce emblem as a design centerpiece.

The console has some lovely details, like the gold accents around the thumbsticks and the subtle triangular motifs. The design makes it truly look like a collector-worthy edition.

Dedicated Zelda fans have reacted positively, saying the console feels like a proper tribute to the franchise’s 40th anniversary this year. I personally like it a lot more than the 2023 Zelda Tears of the Kingdom edition of the Switch OLED.

The big question is how much it will cost. The standard Switch 2 retails at $499 in the US following a price hike earlier in the year (thanks, Donald). Some fans fear the special-edition will get a further mark up, but Nintendo hasn't confirmed this. Pre-orders have yet to open, but keep an eye on the Nintendo store.