Season one is hosted by chef and entrepreneur José Andrés, who has a genuine passion for filmmaking and animation. He has voiced characters in Disney’s Firebuds and Netflix’s Green Eggs & Ham, and has collaborated with Marvel and DC on comics. The series goes behind the scenes with designers, makers, artists, filmmakers, and innovators to show the creativity, determination, and technology behind their work, and it presents Autodesk as a technology partner that enables it.

Episode one, The Making of The Cat in the Hat, features Carloni and fellow writer-director Erica Rivinoja, animator Marek Kochout, central supervisor Jessica Killiam, VFX supervisor Matt Waters and production designer Aidan Sugano.

A big film on a tight schedule

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation completed its first full-length feature in two years, an accelerated timeline for an animated production of this scale. Teams worked across Los Angeles, multiple cities in India, Montreal and London.

The filmmakers developed stylistically distinct environments: the real world, the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss and three further worlds tied to the film’s characters. The story also expands on the book, exploring what happens after it ends and where the Cat goes after leaving the house.

Rivinoja says: “The exciting thing about animation is that it can do so much more than other types of filmmaking.”

Autodesk Maya, long an industry-standard tool for 3D animation, served as the film's creative hub, used for everything from modelling environments to animating expressive character performances. Autodesk says its flexibility gave artists room to explore different visual styles and push creative boundaries.

For Kochout, Maya is the way into the characters. “It’s essential,” he says. “I have no other way of touching these characters other than through Maya. It’s my porthole into the marionette. This is my tool.”

Keeping a global production in sync

Autodesk Flow Production Tracking managed the entire production. “We use Flow Production Tracking to track the entire movie, so you can find a variety of different things in here,” says Killiam. “We have our assets, all of the characters, the environments, the props.”

RV in Flow Production Tracking let teams review assets across cities and iterate on multiple versions. PIX, now part of Autodesk Flow Capture, helped teams share clips across departments and with external reviewers, supporting collaboration throughout production.

Bill Hader stars as the Cat, alongside Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson, Xochitl Gomez, Giancarlo Esposito, and America Ferrera. Directed by Rivinoja and Carloni, it follows the Cat on his toughest assignment yet for the I.I.I.I. (Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC): cheering up siblings Gabby and Sebastian, who are struggling after a move to a new town. Creative Bloq has previously looked at the vibrant animation style in the film’s trailer.

The film arrives in cinemas and IMAX across North America on 6 November 2026, and internationally from 4 November. Episode one of Made to Make is now available on YouTube with more behind the scenes documentaries planned in the series.

If you're new to 3D printing, Creality's compact Sparkx i7 Color Combo reduced by 13% to $349 is a great place to start thanks to its easy setup and affordable price. For pros looking to step up to larger print sizes or batch production, the K2 Plus Combo, which we rate as the best large-format machine in our guide to the best 3D printers, is reduced by $300 from $1,099 to $799.

There's also up to 25% off filament when you buy in bulk. There's still time to make the most of the deal until the end of the month, but hurry if you want to print your own Halloween decorations.

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From chocolate and sweet treats to cosy blankets and fuzzy socks, there's no right way to curate your own spooky surprise box. But just in case you're looking for inspiration, I've pulled together some of the best Halloween goodies to make your DIY boo basket extra special.

It’s weird to watch, no question. And I had to ask the team’s more in-the-know Gen Z members if it’s ‘okay’ and not some weird, lewd corner of the internet I’d rather not give oxygen to (I’m uncomfortable with the more common ‘Milfoid’ term surrounding some of this; it feels a bit Incel-y). I was told 'all of the internet is weird, so here we are. But there are some interesting design insights and AI uses here, not least how Foyege’s shorts, in particular, get Hogwarts right; the character design is instantly familiar, but there’s also that slightly uncanny thing about seeing a generated face move and talk.

A fan art AI trend that's weird and revealing

People are watching, and many have become actively engaged and want to know what happens next. Fans have spent years drawing, writing about, and arguing over Draco. He’s arrogant, privileged and spiteful, then gradually turns out to be far more complicated than the school bully we first meet. By flipping his gender and changing his relationship with Harry, the character gets a whole new playground to work in (and yes, I'm sure there are parts of this fan fiction I'd rather not find), and fans are already on X debating why it does and doesn't work.

But ultimately, videos like those by Foyege represent a new, professionalised aspect of fan fiction. This works because nobody needs the backstory explained. Blond hair, green and silver, a face that’s permanently unimpressed: job done. With fan fiction, the creator can skip the introductions, go straight to the interesting stuff, and pull familiar ideas in new directions. And the enemies-to-lovers trope? It works because familiar insults become flirting, hostility hides affection, and two people who’d rather 'Depulso' each other than share a room end up at the centre of a love story.

What AI adds is performance, and that’s both an odd thing to write and a very 2026 reality. A writer can describe a moment and an artist can draw it, but a voiced, animated scene brings timing and expression. Even a short clip can feel like a scene from a parallel-universe film, and Foyege’s movies drew me in with clever edits, camera movement, subtle details, and even a K-Pop-like power ballad to tie it all together, hitting every emotional hook and hanging dramatic ending Netflix has spent a decade mastering.

AI has it's problems

I’m not about to declare that the future of cinema has arrived with AI because a slick shot tells us nothing about whether the story works, how much human direction went into it, or how many hours were spent fixing glitches by hammering prompts into a keyboard. Hitting ‘generate’ doesn’t make you a filmmaker, and even those behind the emerging tech, like Autodesk's VP of M&E Strategy, Maurice Patel, have told me "it's terrible at directed content". Quality animation remains the preserve of studios like Laika, which excel at real human-made art, and Wildwood shows that in every frame.

But writing it all off because AI was involved feels lazy, too. Someone still has to decide what the story is, which moments earn screen time and how the characters should act. Someone has to work out what makes this Draco still Draco, what’s changed, and why anyone would come back for episode two. That’s where the creativity lives.

And yes, the thorny questions remain: copyright, training data, and using characters from a world other people built. Loving Harry Potter doesn’t make every use of it ethically straightforward, and one popular fan video doesn’t mean everyone has made peace with AI-generated work.

Even so, some audiences clearly will engage with AI-assisted storytelling if it gives them something they actually want to watch. What I like most is that there isn’t one definitive 'Miss Malfoy'. The 'Malfoid' thing is a shared idea, and every artist and creator puts their own spin on it. People draw their own Draconia, write their own stories, or try their hand at animation, and one fan’s version becomes the jumping-off point for the next.

That’s closer to a participatory fandom than a standard film release, and AI speeds some of that up by opening production to more people; while the reality is that one in a hundred ideas are good, there’s something engaging about watching all the failures until one video or idea lands. But someone with an idea can now take it further than they could before. Generative AI brings its own questions and trade-offs, and its origins in scraping artists' work casts a dark cloud it will never escape, but it also offers a new way to experiment.

This weird fan-fiction 'Miss Malfoy' trend doesn’t mean AI has cracked creativity, and it’s certainly no argument for replacing the artists who built the worlds we love, as a human wrote Harry Potter, and more humans developed it into films and games. It shows that people bring their own ideas and attachments to whatever tools they pick up. AI can make a character who looks the part, but can it make us care what happens to her? That’s still up to a human.

Watch the Foyege videos for yourself.

In these instances you'll need one of the best 3D scanners. We've reviewed many 3D scanners from a variety of different brands, including Revopoint, 3DMakerPro, and more recently, Creality. In fact, I recently tested the Creality Sermoon P1 but was put off by the price.

I was therefore eager to get my hands on the slightly more basic Sermoon P1S, which retails for less than half the price and yet has a very similar set of features and specs. I wanted to see if it was sufficiently up to the task for creative professionals and serious hobbyists so no-one is paying more than they have to for the scanner they need.

Performance

One of the best things about the Sermoon P1S is that it is 100% untethered. That means you can complete the full scanning workflow without needing a PC. I found this ideal at times when I didn't have access to a laptop or if I just wanted a light and portable setup. It's very similar, in this regard, to the Revopoint Miraco Plus, although Revopoint's offering has an adjustable display that can be flipped 180 degrees. This offers a more versatile untethered experience.

One of my biggest concerns with portable scanners is their onboard battery performance. There's no use owning this type of scanner if it runs out of battery when you're halfway through a scan. The P1S takes a single 33500mAh battery, which provides several hours of continuous use. The scanner ships with two of these batteries for a useful hot-swappable experience.

Despite all the required hardware being on-device, the Sermoon P1S is surprisingly nippy, from navigating around the interface to carrying out scans. Onboard you'll find a Qualcomm 8-core 3.36GHz CPU, an Adreno 740 GPU, and a generous 16GB RAM. All of this, in my experience, delivered a smooth, reliable workflow.

In terms of scanning, the P1S predictably delivered similar results to the P1. In both blue laser and NIR modes the scanner was able to recognise the shiny gourd object I was attempting to scan although at times it became confused and began creating duplicated meshes. This is an issue I experienced with the P1, although a little trial and error should always be expected in scanning workflows. Better results can be achieved if you hardwire the scanner to a PC because then you'll achieve more frames per second.

The P1S provides 256 GB of storage, which proved more than sufficient to carry out a number of scans before having to transfer data onto a PC. When you need to perform a data transfer, you can utilise either Wi-Fi 7 or the included USB-C cable.

Fusion and meshing can also be carried out on the device, and I was able to do this relatively quickly and easily. It is worth keeping in mind, though, that it's only a 6-inch display, so some of the features can be a little fiddly at times. This was particularly noticeable when attempting to repair small issues with the generated mesh. The bottom line is that I was able to capture and create a DCC-ready mesh onboard the scanner.

Price & competition

Released on 22nd September 2026, the Creality Sermoon P1S costs £2,199 / $2,229, although at the time of writing, the scanner was discounted down to £1,999 / $2,099. It's far from cheap, although when compared to the Creality Sermoon P1 at £3,099 / $3,299, it could be considered a steal. The spec differences are also negligible and insignificant for most users, so the P1S is best for most people wanting a Creality 3D scanner.

Looking at alternative brands, one of the best 3D scanners with comparable specs is the Revopoint Miraco Plus, which costs just £1,726 / $1,979. Or if you need something much smaller, simpler, and cheaper, then the 4.5 star Revopoint Inspire 3D Scanner is well worth a look.

Key specs

Design

The design of the Sermoon P1S is identical to the Creality Sermoon P1, and so the very positive experience I had with the P1 is translated across to the P1S. This begins with the 6-inch high-definition display that is big enough to clearly see scanning progress, bright enough to be used outdoors, and responsive enough to be used with ease.

To the left and right-hand sides you'll find solid rubber grips that make it easy to move effortlessly around objects. It's a tad heavier than I would like, but given the scanning, display, and battery technology packed in, Creality has done a remarkable job.

As was the case with the P1, one of the best features of the P1S is the two hot-swappable 3300 mAh batteries. Being able to charge one while you use the other ensures uninterrupted scanning, which is essential on long jobs.

At the bottom of the unit is a 1/4-inch mount for tripod scanning workflows, although there's not even a basic tabletop tripod included in the pack. For the price, I would have expected to receive a few additional accessories like this.

Who's it for?

The Sermoon P1S is for 3D scanning professionals who need the highest level of versatility to facilitate their varied scanning habits. With the P1S, users can take advantage of laser technology for capturing complex parts while also utilising the benefits of infrared technology to accurately scan objects in bright lighting conditions. Covering both of these workflows would have traditionally required two separate types of scanners, so bringing them into one device saves users time and money.

Buy it if...

• You need a versatile scanner that's capable of delivering both hybrid blue laser and NIR workflows
• You find yourself regularly scanning objects where tethering to a computer is difficult
• You're comfortable compromising on the onboard memory and infrared camera system

Don't buy it if...

• You need a basic entry-level scanner for home use
• You are happy tethering to a computer for visual progress output
• You only occasionally dabble in 3D scanning

Set in the fictional metropolis of Vice City, inspired by the neon-bathed streets of Miami, the clever campaign expertly blends the worlds of reality and fiction. Demonstrating how something as simple as a billboard ad can be a tool for major marketing immersion, the campaign is a masterclass in OOH advertising.

Heavily documented by content creator Joel Franco, the Miami GTA campaign featured a major takeover of the city, beginning on the sands of Miami Beach. Branded 'VI' umbrellas were spotted along the shoreline before a GTA-bannered plane and a branded blimp (yes, those still exist) took to the skies for a grand promotion.

Later, the neighbourhood of Wynwood was taken over by GTA ads – but not as you'd expect. Digital billboards for Weazel News, The Vault nightclub and fictional car brand Pfister appeared, bringing the in-game world into reality as an immersive treat for fans. Just authentic enough to appear real at a glance, these cheeky ads are a perfect parody that captures GTA's signature tongue-in-cheek attitude, with suggestive copy like "always come early" and "suddenly you're big enough".

For more gaming news, check out why GTA's graphics might be too good or take a look at GTA 6's giant Paris advert that caused a stir.

Some argue that minimalist redesigns can strip a logo of its character, and we've seen the complaint everywhere from the great Cracker Barrel outrage to the new Harry Potter logos.

The new Sunlife logo is unlikely to end the debate. It might be one of the most dramatically simplified logo redesigns yet. The Canadian financial services company has eliminated the space from its name and all detail from its mark.

Sunlife, now one word, says its new logo is intended to bring its identity in line with the evolution of its business. While the design had barely changed in 25 years, the company has expanded from life insurance into services in health, asset management and other types of insurance.

There's also a new tagline, 'Making life brighter'. This is intended to connect to Sunlife's purpose of "helping clients build lifetime financial security and lead healthier lives".

"Together, the changes create a more modern, distinctive and consistent expression of Sunlife around the world," the company says.

"A great brand isn't defined by a logo. It's defined by the experiences it creates," said Linda Dougherty, Executive Vice-President, Chief Client and Strategy Officer, Sunlife. "Making life brighter captures what we want every Sunlife experience to deliver for Clients: greater clarity, confidence and connection. Our new identity gives us a powerful, consistent way to bring that commitment to life around the world."

The modernised, simplified logo, was "optimised for a digital world", the company says.

The old design was very much giving the corporate vibe of an insurance company from 25 years ago. The new symbol keeps the sun, or a weather forecast-like ultra simplification of it, and keeps the colour, while stripping out the fat. The wordmark, meanwhile, continues to use a serif font, but it feels slimmer, lighter and more contemporary.

The simplicity of the mark has sparked some bemused responses on social media, from people who think it's taken minimalism too far. "Is this satire," one person asks on X.

We have seen comparable designs to the yellow disc coming in other colours. Sunlife's compatriots the Green Party of Canada rebranded last year as the green dot emoji with the logic that it would help to have an easily shareable logo for social campaigns. There's also USA Today with its blue disc logo.

I think that with the serif wordmark, the overall design looks distinctive and a lot less dated. The combination of Sunlife into one word reads much better, and makes more sense now the company's no longer primarily a life insurance provider – the 'life' no longer makes you immediately think of death, which is probably a good thing for most brands.

Lego designer Björn Ramant's massive model of the movie's feline spirit-animal courier is on display at Lego World 2026 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and it's making quite an impression. If you can't get there, at least take a moment to appreciate the captivating timelapse video showing the making of the sculpture, in which Björn resembles a human 3D printer.

If you want a much smaller model of your own, Amazon has the Lego Derpy and Sussie reduced by 20% from $69.99 to $56 right now.

Björn is a self-employed Lego designer based in Belgium. Previously a software architect, he competed in the Lego Masters building competition in 2020 and then started a business designing Lego figures under the name The Pieces Fit.

He says the massive Lego Derpy Tiger took around 2.5 months to create. That includes the time spent sketching the design and selecting and assembling the pieces. The sculpture's almost half his own height, and it's so heavy that the designer used four metal poles as scaffolds to support it.

Now he'll have to add Sussie.

For more KPop Demon Hunters magic, check out the KPop Demon Hunters comic.

Although DaVinci doesn't have the recurring subscription cost that comes with most software these days, you still get industry leading updates every year, including the recent addition of powerful AI tools. Meanwhile, raw image editing makes DaVinci Resolve Studio also now an alternative to Lightroom for photographers.

For context, the last time there was a DaVinci Resolve discount was during Black Friday 2024, nearly two years ago.

For other options, see our guide to the best video editing software. We also have a guide to the best laptops for video editing and the best monitors for video editing.

Powerful pro video editing software at a great price

I've been using DaVinci Resolve Studio for around three years, and I'm very happy with the investment. It's one of the most complete video-editing apps around, gets regular updates with new features, and it has no recurring cost.

The software is made by the Australian company Blackmagic Design, which whose main line of business is making high-end cinema cameras for the film industry. The software in its current form has been around for over 15 years. We last wrote a full DaVinci Resolve review in 2025 and gave it five stars out of five.

It's now moved on to its 21st annual release. Additions include the Photo Page, bringing node-based colour grading tools to still photography workflows.

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21 also adds IntelliSearch, which finds visual content using content analysis, transcripts, and metadata, and AI-driven tools like Speech Generator, CineFocus, which creates synthetic depth for defocus, bokeh, and focal point adjustments, Face Age Transformer, Face Reshaper, which adjusts facial proportions after detection and tracking, Blemish Removal and Motion DeBlur, which renders media to reduce motion-blur softness without altering the source.

On the Fusion Page, there are around 70 new motion graphic effects and tools via the Krokodove integration. DaVinci Resolve 21.1 added an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for AI assistant integration.

The software's node-based colour grading and effects workflows present a bit of a learning curve compared to more basic video editing apps, but the beauty of DaVinci is that you can go as deep as you want. You'l never learn everything that the app can do, but you can be certain that if there's any effect that you want to create, you'll be able to do it, and you'll be able to find a tutorial online showing you how.

Just note that colour grading and effects work in DaVinci Resolve can be demanding in terms of computing power. Blackmagic cites 16GB RAM and 4GB of VRAM as minimum requirements, but you might want significantly more than that if you're editing long videos or using advanced tools.

Blackmagic is also running discounts on hardware, including editing panels.

It’s a brand-new kind of machine for Cricut, better known for its cutters, like the Maker 5 (for more, read our best Cricut machines guide). Until now, making stickers meant pairing a Cricut cutting machine with a separate inkjet printer, then burnishing laminate sheets by hand. The StickerPix rolls printing, laminating and precision cutting into one compact box, and that’s its biggest selling point.

There are two models, and it’s worth knowing the difference before you spend any money. The StickerPix Print ($169.99 / £159.99 with its Essential Bundle) prints and laminates onto 4 x 6 in pre-cut sticker sheets. This beginner model uses only pre-made templates, so you're limited to what Cricut offers. The Print + Cut ($299.99 / £249.99 with its Essential Bundle) takes 4 x 7 in (about 10 x 18cm) sheets and cuts around your own designs, so you can use any shape you like and create your own stickers and designs.

Bundles also vary, so it's worth shopping around, but as a rule, Cricut's official StickerPix Print + Cut bundles are a good choice, as they include Cut Ink Cartridges, Sticker Sheets, and Photo Paper. The Print cartridge is rated for 54 prints, and the Print + Cut for 36. Both also handle 4 x 6 in photo paper, so you can switch between photos and stickers on the same machine. If circles and squares will do, the Print option saves you £90. If you want custom shapes and to create more personal stickers and photo prints, go with Print + Cut, which I tested.

StickerPix + Cut is super easy to use

Unboxing and setup are painless. Inside you’ll find the machine, two plug adaptors, an ink cartridge, 18 sheets of photo paper and 18 sheets of sticker paper, all neatly packed. The StickerPix + Cut measures 8 x 11.3 x 4.1 inches, and the loading tray is roughly the same size (see my photos for a laptop-sized comparison). It’s light, and the tray slots into the top when you’re done, so it tucks away easily on a shelf. The StickerPix + Cut comes in a swish dark blueish grey (the StickerPix machine is a softer two-tone shade of blue and light blue, almost the reverse of the Joy 2).

The instruction manual is genuinely helpful, with a clear diagram of the components and simple steps for fitting the cartridge and tray. Software setup is just as easy: head to Cricut for instructions, choose your machine and follow the prompts. The first time you pick stickers or photos, a short tutorial shows you how to remove the tray and load the paper. When you connect for the first time, the firmware updates automatically, and once it says registration is complete, you’re ready to go.

Everything runs through Cricut’s Design Space software, which connects to the machine over Bluetooth. It’s easy to find your way around, and the home screen gives you three ways in: start a new project, pick a category (stickers, labels, photo prints, or cards and invitations), or begin from a template. That last option is a highlight: thousands of pre-designed templates are available, and you can upload your own images and text or start from a blank canvas.

The AI tools are the fun part, particularly if, like me, you're not an artist (I'm a sewer and quilter) but want to create fun family gifts. Cricut says Design Space has a library of more than 1.8 million sticker images, and the stylised options are cute. You can choose a look, such as spray paint, oil painting, comic book, or crayon drawing, upload a photo, and tell the AI what to add. I uploaded my niece's photo, asked it to create her as a witch for Halloween, and it did. I asked for an additional cat, and it added the animal and produced a selection of sticker-ready images to choose from. Keep in mind that the full library and Cricut AI require a paid Cricut Access subscription, though the bundle includes a trial voucher.

A professional all-in-one printer

The StickerPix + Cut uses dye-sublimation, laying down each colour in turn and applying a protective laminate in the same pass. Cricut quotes 300dpi, and the finished prints resist water, scratches and fading. My stickers came out bright and crisp, on paper with a pleasant weight.

Photo prints are the real surprise for me. I printed off some photos from my phone and was surprised how accurate the colours are, how sharp the detail is, and how they look like they came from a proper photo lab. A print takes just one to two minutes, with no fiddling or adjustments; just load the paper shiny side up, click the tray into place, press connect and go.

The same ease carries over to the machine’s other jobs, and I had great fun creating things in an afternoon. Labels print on sticker paper, and plenty of ready-made designs make personalising your Christmas gifts a breeze; for example, I made a set of present tags to stick on the family gifts. Cards and invitations are just as quick and handy if you run a small business and want branded thank-you cards. I now have a nice insert to package with every quilt I make for customers on Cotswolds Creations, with a photo of their quilt and a bespoke message from me

The cutter really shines on stickers. It kiss-cuts custom shapes around your design and leaves the backing intact, so you simply peel each sticker off the sheet. That also means it can’t cut through the backing, and there’s no white ink either, as the printing is dye-sub with a clear protective layer.

If you already own a Cricut, you might wonder whether you need this. The StickerPix + Cut does in one go what normally takes a cutter, an inkjet printer and hand-applied laminate, and it takes up far less desk space. But it isn’t a replacement for a cutting machine. It only cuts its own sticker sheets, so if you want to work with vinyl, cardstock or fabric, you’ll still need a Maker or an Explore. It's worth noting the cost, as StickerPix + Cut is $100 / £100 more than the latest Explore 5, and the Maker 5 is only $50 / £50 more, and both do more.

The difference? The StickerPix + Cut creates professional photo prints and stickers without needing anything extra (so technically you'd need to add the cost of a good inkjet printer to your Maker 5 setup). It's also faster, easier, and less hassle, with results that are as good as, if not better than, the others.

Likewise, if you just want quick prints of your phone photos, a simple dedicated photo printer will do. The StickerPix + Cut earns its price if you also want laminated stickers, labels, and cards, plus Design Space’s templates and editing tools to make them. It suits crafters, journalers, parents, and anyone selling at markets who wants quality, professional, branded labels and cards without a bulk order or going through the hassle of finding and ordering supplies.

So what's the catch?

The main catch is that the StickerPix + Cut is fussy about what you feed it. It only works with Cricut’s own paper, and the cartridge and sheets are model-specific, so you can’t mix and match between the Print and the Print + Cut, which, in its own quirk, makes the more expensive model a better option, as it'll cost less in the long run if you want to upgrade.

I’d love to see Cricut add foil or metallic sheets, which would give crafters a lot more to play with, and although the stickers are water-resistant, they aren’t dishwasher-safe, so don’t push your luck with your favourite mug.

The locked-in materials are the real catch. The starter bundle gives you only 18 sheets each of sticker and photo paper, which won’t last long. Refill cartridges then cost between £24.99 and £47.99, and how many stickers you get from one depends on how well you pack each sheet. Work out your cost per print before you commit.

But with all that said, it's a common setup for modern printers. Ultimately, I didn't really know what to expect from StickerPix + Cut as it's a little outside my sewing and quilting workflow, but after spending time with it, I've already found uses for its cards and sticker designs to accompany my finished products and help market my brand. I've also made far too many fun stickers for my nieces and had a great time creating, and that's really all you need to know.

Square Enix has been on a mission for some time now to breathe new life into its much-revered back catalogue of seminal Japanese RPGs (JRPGs), most notably with its epic three-part modern reimagining of Final Fantasy VII, and its development of what it calls HD-2D graphics technology, applied so far to various Dragon Quest games, as well as the Octopath Traveler franchise.

Over the decades (the first instalment was released as far back as 1987), Final Fantasy has become a labyrinthine franchise with fifteen main iterations and a head-spinning number of spin-offs. In that context, Final Fantasy Resonance looks like an anomaly; nominally, it is based on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, a retro-style 2015 instalment that, unprecedentedly, was released for iOS and Android.

But as soon as I started playing Resonance, it felt like more than another mere cul-de-sac among Final Fantasy’s ever-expanding streets. Much of its significance comes from being the first time Square Enix has applied its HD-2D technology (underpinned by Unreal Engine 5) to Final Fantasy, opening up all manner of possibilities for revisiting a mouth-watering back catalogue.

An evolution of HD-2D

By now, at least for fans of retro-JRPGs, the visual language HD-2D brings should be pretty familiar: characters in HD-2D games remain 2D and pixelated, but now traverse 3D backgrounds, invariably rendered in bold, lush colour palettes. That basic blueprint applies to Final Fantasy Resonance, but the game also goes noticeably further than existing HD-2D games visually.

For example, it plays much more with perspectives. While there are still plenty of moments when the overall view tends toward the isometric, at other times (such as when wandering around the game’s many towns), the camera moves toward the ground and uses visual effects like depth of field. Plus, there are plenty of cutscenes, some of which use conventional 2D characters on 3D backgrounds, while others (such as special attacks in battle) enter full-blown anime-style visual territory, often mixing 2D and 3D rendering cleverly.

The overall effect always has a retro edge, yet it still feels strikingly modern: I'd say it marks a moment when Square Enix has pushed HD-2D beyond what I’ve seen before, which bodes very well for the future.

A homage to Final Fantasies I to VI

Final Fantasy Resonance Producer Keisuke Nakashima explicitly says that one of Resonance’s raisons d'être was to preserve “The charm of the classic Final Fantasy titles from I through VI” while creating “An experience that modern players can enjoy comfortably.” Roughly translated, that means it has a determinedly turn-based battle system, but also plenty of save points (where I could heal my characters in tents), and I could fast-travel around the map and, in the latter stages, even navigate the game world by airship.

Resonance is positively stuffed with classic Final Fantasy tropes, with airships, Chocobos, Moogles, and crystals featuring heavily. Story-wise, it starts a tad slowly (I found the early dialogue somewhat stilted) but gradually unfurls into something suitably convoluted, with a welter of twists and sideways turns, and even, at one point, a magical excursion into one character's psyche.

The two main protagonists, Rain and Laswell, start as the top Royal knights of the kingdom of Grandshelt; sent to investigate a disturbance at the shrine of the Earth Crystal, which apparently guards Grandshelt, they encounter a mysterious, super-powerful armoured being (one of a group of baddies known as the Sworn Six), who overpowers them with ease and destroys the crystal. Luckily, a young yet powerful girl called Fina magically appears to save them from death, and the trio embark on a quest to save the remaining crystals, dotted around the game world’s other kingdoms, from destruction by the Sworn Six.

Sophisticated, tactical turn-based battles

A growing cast of characters with varied skills soon joins them, from which four can be selected as a battle party. Resonance may be turn-based, but it’s up against titles like Metaphor: Refantazio and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which aim to prove that turn-based battle systems are no less effective than real-time ones.

Resonance’s battle system prioritises staggering enemies: once I reduced them to a dazed state by identifying and exploiting their elemental weaknesses, I could pile on the damage. Staggering all enemies, or the last remaining one, triggers a Sweeping Stagger, which in turn accelerates characters’ ability to launch devastating Limit Bursts and so-called Resonance attacks.

The game's battle system includes a clever device called Visions, which prove handy in combat and make the game’s Final Fantasy nostalgia even more explicit. Visions are ghostly versions of Final Fantasy protagonists, including Cloud Strife, Noctis, the Onion Knight from Dissidia, Cecil from IV, Bartz from V, and Terra from VI. In all, there are 26 of them to find.

Visions are liberated from crystals in caves, and I could equip each of my battle-characters with one, adding the Vision’s abilities and spells to the character’s own. I was rewarded for swapping Visions around, giving my battle-characters improved attributes, perks, and abilities I could equip permanently. Essentially, they let me upgrade characters to my liking. They also let me trigger Resonances, powerful Limit Burst-style attacks with different effects and elemental affinities.

Fina could also summon Espers, elemental creatures (one of which brought defensive perks) that stick around for three turns; they proved particularly handy in boss battles. Towards the end of Resonance, a sequence of consecutive boss-battles tested my intimate knowledge of the battle system, and its impressive tactical versatility, to the limit. The battle system has a lot of moving parts, but it isn’t as complex as it sounds, and it's very satisfying once mastered.

No mere retro exercise

On the surface, Final Fantasy Resonance seems like an exercise in nostalgia, but it's much more than that. Sure, it evokes the feel of those early Final Fantasy games, but its turn-based battle system feels sophisticated, and its production values easily hold their own in the modern gaming landscape.

It feels like a proper, full-blown Final Fantasy game, reinforced by the fact that it takes over 50 hours to complete. Sure, its attempt to create a sort of everyman Final Fantasy story begins slowly, but it redeems itself in the end. It creates a good impression as a harbinger of HD-2D versions of the original Final Fantasy games, but more than that, it stands up very impressively on its own. Let’s hope it's successful enough to spawn a sequel, and thereby a whole new strand of Final Fantasy games.

If you haven't already pre-ordered your iPhone Duo, you have a long wait ahead of you. Delivery dates have slipped into 2027, suggesting demand for the thing is through the roof. Which, considering the starting price tag of $2000, is kind of incredible. If so many people are willing to drop that much money on a device that isn't even in stores yet, it must represent something new.

Which, by the way, foldable aren't. Brands like Samsung and Huawei have been making them for years. But Apple is doing its Apple thing and putting out its own take on a maturing product category. While often successful (the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, nor the Apple Watch the first smartwatch), it hasn't always worked of late. Vision Pro, Apple's attempt at a VR headset, is one of the company's highest-profile flops of recent years.

Everybody blamed the failure of Vision Pro on the price. $3K turned out to be too hard to stomach for most. But the early success of the iPhone Duo is throwing a spanner into the works for that narrative. $2K is arguably a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a phone. But this time, people are going for it. Even Apple is calling the demand "extraordinary".

It's curious that while dramatically new products like Vision Pro have failed to cut through in recent years, so have more minor redesigns of the iPhone itself. The iPhone Air, which shares some DNA with the iPhone Duo thanks to its lightweight titanium frame, failed to capture the public's imagination last year.

But with the iPhone Duo, Apple seems to have finally discovered the sweet spot. Different enough to get people excited, but same enough to make them take a risk with their cash. It's an iPhone. But it's one that unfolds into an iPad. Same but different. Maybe that's what the people wanted all along?

A masterpiece of digital artwork, the new Clayface poster design is both terrifying and oddly beautiful with its intricate design. Perfectly blending comic-style artwork with classic horror, it's certainly set high expectations for the upcoming film.

Created by illustrator Estevan Silveira, the design creates a visceral horror thanks to its skin-crawlingly detailed design. Featuring the hunched form of Clayface clutching at his head, the poster evokes a palpable pain, intensified by his slowly melting body and the glint of his singular eye. His sickly yellow-and-green-toned skin pops against the deep, grungy reds of the background, channelling retro creature feature vibes.

"Loving these grotesque arty posters," a fan on X praised, while another added "Hands down my favorite one". Over on Reddit, the design received similar praise, with one fan writing "Love the body horror vibes of this whole thing," while another agreed, "In an era of floating head slop, it's nice to see some creative and good looking posters," another added.

For more DC news, check out the Clayface poster that gets creepier the more you look at it, or take a look at the salty fan reactions to the androgynous new Batgirl design.

This magical resource shapes not only the local industry but also the culture and daily lives of its people. I wanted the architecture to reflect the relationship between technology and faith, while using the starry sky as the visual core of the scene.

Small props and workshop tools were added to enrich the world and make it feel lived in. Every element reflects the logic of the world (if you need to build your own art setup, see our guides to the best drawing tablets or the best laptops for drawing).

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

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As a Gen Z growing up in the digital age of Instagram and influencers, I'm no stranger to photo editing software, but for some reason, this innocent enquiry from Google stopped me in my tracks. Yes, we live in a filtered online world, but when did it leak into my workday? And more importantly, should I have to touch up my appearance for a meeting?

While I'm partial to a bit of social media brainrot, I've been wise to steer clear of overly filtered influencers for my self-preservation. I learned very quickly that the online world can blur reality and fiction, leading to a good ol' bit of body dysmorphia if I'm not careful.

With this in mind, I no longer edit my Instagram posts – not as some grand middle finger to FaceTune, but simply because I don't feel the need to anymore. This is what I look like... take it or leave it. But in this moment of morning flu-riddled weakness, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be nicer to look a bit more fresh?

Soon I was plunged down the rabbit hole of Google Meet's various appearance filters, from 'dewy fresh' to 'dramatic eye'. Each looks ridiculous on my sallow-skinned, sickness-ridden face – the beauty filter equivalent of a white-painted landlord special.

Each filter is designed in the style of a makeup aesthetic, likely an attempt to make female-presenting folks feel the need to be 'presentable', even when WFH. I note there are no masculine-leaning beauty filters – no 'rugged stubble' or 'handsome glow' to enhance their looks.

And yes, I realise I'm being dramatic (illness tends to do that to me), but Google Meet's silly filters point to a looming issue that worries me. At what point do we start to lose a sense of what we look like? Will future board meetings be full of flawlessly filtered execs? Will beauty become the new predominant form of professionalism?

I do not want to lose the privilege of joining a work call looking slightly haggard. Turning up in my natural form is not just a matter of convenience, but the assurance that I can be taken seriously in my career without the performance of beauty. While the suggestion to "Touch up your appearance?" is an option now, I fear one day it could be a mandatory professional demand.

If you want to read it before Netflix's movie reaches cinemas in February, publisher HarperCollins has a treat for you. It's re-publishing the entire Narnia series with cover art inspired by the film: and the special editions are more interesting to look at that the usual movie tie ins.

The seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia have sold more than 120 million copies worldwide and have been adapted into more than 60 different languages to date. There's long been a debate about the best order to read them: the Magician's Nephew first, or before The Last Battle to reflect the order of publication?

Either way, there's a new Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew Movie Tie-in Paperback going on sale November 10, 2026. But more interesting visually is the Deluxe Collector’s Edition with a shimmery foil jacket, foil-stamped case, digital printed edges and endpapers and vibrant cover illustration.

Unlike many movie tie-in, this edition eschews photography from the film and shows its connection in a different way: the artwork is by Vance Kovacs, who was the concept artist for the film.

Vance's previous work has ranged from Dungeons & Dragons to movies like The Lion King and Jungle Book and Black Panther to games like God of War. His Magician's Nephew cover depicts Aslan singing Narnia into existence, with vibrant streams of light, stars, and colors bursting upward from the lion's mouth.

Five emblems suspended within the rays of light feature key elements from the story: Fledge, the winged horse, Aslan's Profile, the apple of life, the lamppost and a bell-hammer representing the world of Charn.

On sale November 17, 2026, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Sam's Club and Target have their own exclusive editions with different edge designs, with Target's showing the lamppost that marks the spot where Narnia was born.

There's also a Chronicles of Narnia 7-Book Movie Tie-in Paperback Box Set and Hardcover Box Set all with "movie aesthetic" covers illustrated by Vance Kovacs (above).

Still, a designer has managed to get massive attention on social media this week for a single striking calling card: a highly polished film shot in 8K with a full crew and Barbieland sound stage. The scale of the production has some other designers wondering if making a movie trailer is what it takes to find work these days, but the video's real takeaway is in the content more than the format.

Darshita Patankar is a visual designer and illustrator based in Bengaluru. After what she describes as "a year full of anxiety" amid frustration around the impact of AI, she decided to pitch herself to potential clients in a different way. Instead of persevering with a traditional portfolio site and social posts of previous work, she enlisted her brother Vikrant to produce a sleek four-minute film showcasing her skills and personality, and they really pulled out the stops

"Everyone says design is dead and AI killed it. But the real parasite was hiding in plain sight," is Darshita's hook at the start of Design is Dead. She goes on to discuss her early introduction to design via MS Paint, how that curiosity still influences her work today, the importance of storytelling and specific projects, including how she created a typeface and her visual design work on the Codebusters game.

She also presents an argument for the importance of design itself, not as a mere output but as something that should be at the core of the decision-making process for any brand.

Within less than a day, the video had received nearly 3 million views on X and thousands of likes and comments on Instagram and LinkedIn. It's also generating a debate about the lengths graphic designers need to go to promote themselves in 2026.

Will clients expect every designer to make a 'Hollywood-level' video pitch? No, but Darshita has demonstrated how any designer can make an impression; not necessarily through the same format but through the authenticity of the presentation. The production values on Design is Dead are impressive, but what stands out most is the designer's personality, creativity, and the memorability of the pitch, which is what will really attract clients.

The film shows how, at a time when everyone's worried about AI's impact on the industry, designers can stand out by showcasing storytelling and craft in surprising ways, and most of all by being themselves. You might not have a film crew, but you might find another way of showing the world who you are, whether it's with physical flyers on lampposts, engaging social media content or sending out nudes.

Key specifications

Design, build and display

• Only Thunderbolt input
• Excellent build quality

The Studio Display XDR is a major step up from Apple's standard 27-inch monitor, also called the Studio Display but missing those three key letters at the end. Retaining the same sleek, silvery aluminum build and slim black bezels it looks identical. Round the back, it features two USB-C ports and two powered Thunderbolt 5 ports, one of which is the video input. It also comes as standard with Apple's height- and tilt-adjustable stand, which was an optional upgrade to the non-XDR display, though a VESA-mount option is also available for (surprisingly) less money. Inside, it’s powered by the A19 Pro chip from the iPhone 17 Pro to handle built-in processing, and there's a cooling fan that seems to run all the time the screen is switched on. It’s not particularly loud, and will dissolve into the usual office background noise, but it’s noticeable in moments of silence.

The key upgrades lie within the panel itself. Moving from standard LEDs to a mini-LED backlight, with 2,304 local dimming zones, this version of the Studio Display offers more precise lighting, deeper blacks and brighter highlights. The XDR also adopts Apple’s ProMotion, delivering adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz for fluid scrolling and cursor movement as well as for high-framerate video and even games. The panel dynamically adjusts its framerate to match media playback, or it can be locked to a specific frequency if that’s what you need.

Connectivity is straightforward: you won’t find HDMI or DisplayPort, but it works with most M-series Macs through Thunderbolt, though driving the display at 5K and the full 120Hz requires an M4 chip or newer (M5 if you’re using an iPad Pro), and the MacBook Neo can drive it at 4K resolution rather than 5K. The Thunderbolt 5 ports support daisy-chaining multiple monitors if you really feel like splashing out on a matching pair. Limited functionality is available on PCs, though you can find adjusting the brightness challenging and it’s not really what the screen was made for, and unlike most monitors with an HDMI at the back, games consoles need not apply.

Design score: 4/5

Features and performance

• Center Stage camera
• Incredible brightness in HDR

The Apple Studio Display XDR is a really exceptional screen, boasting remarkable brightness levels of up to 1,000 nits for standard content and a peak of 2,000 nits when displaying HDR material. Full-screen brightness displaying SDR content was around 500 nits, but the XDR is capable of much more than this if you feed it HDR.

It’s factory calibrated for high colour precision across both the P3 and Adobe RGB gamuts, though our tests show only 83% of Adobe RGB and 91% of P3 using the XDR-P3 preset. You can get this up to 94% of Adobe RGB and 97% of P3 using the XDR-P3 + Adobe preset, but you may need to do a little manual tuning to get any higher. The display adjusts itself for ambient lighting conditions, and it’s noticeable how upon changing the display preset it starts off cool and dim before warming and brightening (Apple’s True Tone technology, which dynamically adjusts colour temperature to minimise eye strain, at work). In our testing lab it always seemed to be just a little too dim, requiring the automatic brightness setting to be switched off, but this may be a matter of personal taste.

Thanks to the pre-calibration, the screen offers an impressive setup for photo and video editing right out of the box. For more specialised workflows – such as video production, colour grading or even medical imaging – Apple enables custom calibrations and provides a comprehensive suite of preset colour reference modes to match industry standards.

Both True Tone and the automatic brightness controls can be quickly toggled off whenever critical colour accuracy is required. An adaptive refresh rate reaching up to 120Hz ensures ultra-smooth scrolling, precise cursor tracking and fluid animation that’s actually rather reminiscent of modern smartphones. The display tailors its frequency to match video playback, or it can be manually locked to a specific framerate if fixed timing is essential.

Feature score: 4/5

Price

With its tilt- and height-adjustable stand, as reviewed here, the Apple Studio Display XDR starts at £2,999 or $3,299, with a nano-texture glass upgrade the only option. You can save some money by choosing the VESA mount adapter instead of the stand, but there's no getting away from the fact this is an expensive screen, with BenQ’s PD2732U 4K 27-incher about a third of the cost. The brightness and Mac-centric features, as well as the 5K resolution, are what makes this screen desirable.

Value score: 3/5

Who is it for?

• Mac users

There's little point in picking up the XDR if you don’t have a recent Mac that can make use of its features. And even then, you’ll have to weigh that fearsome brightness and Centre Stage camera against the savings you’d make from getting just about any other screen.

Buy it if...

• Brightness and colour are king
• You use a Mac every day
• You can swallow the cost

Don't buy it if...

• You’d prefer a 32-incher - or larger
• An HDMI port is important
• As is your wallet

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The heart of Stupid Never Dies is as old as dirt, with a twist: Davy, a zombie, wants to bring a dead girl back to life because he's fallen in love with her. There's a slight snag in this plan, beyond the whole being-dead business: Julia, the girl in question, has never actually met him, so she's not really his girlfriend. Davy doesn't see it that way, naturally, and off he goes into a demon-infested underworld to defeat ‘KOM’ and collect the tech he’s been convinced he needs to defrost her, presumably without much thought for what happens when she wakes up and discovers her devoted ‘boyfriend’ is a complete stranger, and undead.

It's a peculiar setup, and the more you think about it, the more uncomfortable it gets. Back in the human world, Davy picks his nose while his adopted mentor ‘Dr Frank’ explains the plot, rolls around on a Zumba and generally behaves like a man/boy who's never had a sensible thought in his entire undead life. He's a shambling, slow-witted mess, barely interested in anything beyond his own romantic fantasy; then you send him down into the dungeons, and he turns into this zippy, aggressively cartoonish brawler designed around ridiculous transformations – a Mereman that can surf on enemies – and the idea that there’s zero defence and all offence, because ‘stupid never dies’.

A riot of colour and ideas

The art direction, made in Unreal Engine 5, is fizzy, chaotic fun, a surgical mash-up of anime, punk, graphic design, pop art, manga and even some stop motion animation and scrapbooking for good measure, that feels like somebody's put Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Persona 5 in a blender with a bunch of '90s zines and then decided the result needed more colour and a bit of punk’s irreverent attitude. Every menu, character animation, and little flourish seems to have something going on, and I kept finding myself smiling at the sheer cheek of it all. No doubt, Stupid Never Dies will be challenging Romeo Is a Dead Man for the year's most inventive visual design.

The human world, Davy’s mall, has a stark, almost photographic realism, with graphic design and physical details that make it feel solid and lived in, while the demon realm is painterly and splashy, full of loose details and exaggerated shapes. As Davy descends, he runs and brawls through scattered memories of human history, a bit of Norse ice and wind here, a spot of Roman volcanic tragedy there, though these are less sprawling worlds to get lost in than a series of very gamey narrow locations, backdrops as gauntlets to fight your way through.

And then the visual effects kick in. Defeat an enemy and ribbons of rainbow ink explode around Davy and splash across the scenery, while Davy Burst, his temporary powered-up state, arrives with electric-guitar flourishes and multicoloured lighting, as if somebody's cranked the volume up on the entire screen to 11. My favourite touch is the doodled googly eyes and daft little smiles stickered onto enemies, a lovely bit of Spider-Verse-style design that made me smile the first time I noticed it.

There's a lot to look at, and the game knows it. Sometimes it's almost needy in the way it demands your attention, but I was happy to give it, because even when the underlying action starts to feel familiar, the art direction keeps finding little ways to make the next few minutes entertaining.

Bite first, ask questions later

It needs to, too, because beneath all that multimedia animation and graphic-design flair is a very Japanese action RPG that wants you to grind, grind, grind.

The basic loop is simple: head into a dungeon, batter monsters, collect their cores to steal their abilities, gather materials, and return to the Shopping Mall hub to improve Davy before going back in. A trip might take five to ten minutes, and each one gets you a little closer to becoming powerful enough to take on the next boss and, eventually, get Julia out of the freezer. It's a lightly Persona-ish rhythm, with a much quicker turnaround since dungeon reruns and levelling up can be immediate, except your day job here is punching monsters in the face and goofing off on a robot vacuum cleaner.

The clever stuff starts with the Bite system. Davy can consume enemy cores to recover health or access different monster forms, known as Styles, each changing how you fight. You can't bring everything to every run, so choosing what to bring takes some thought. The Cyclops helps when a horde closes in, the Werewolf is handy when you need to move quickly and get into enemies, and the flying Harpy is a good choice against bosses that turn the floor into a dangerous mess, such as a dragon I encountered early on. You can experiment with 11 Styles, and they aren't just cosmetic changes to Davy's appearance; each has its own ranking (Common, Rare, etc.) and different special abilities that develop, like the Cyclops, who can swing a baseball bat and eventually throw spinning clubs.

Some Styles seem underwhelming at first, like the Vampire, which I thought would be a hoot but has specials that layer; he zips in all directions, bites enemies, and then releases a zombie bat for each bite, until you realise what they can do over time, such as making use of dark energy pools to explore hidden areas. It's worth experimenting rather than settling on the biggest monster with the biggest fists, although the game doesn't always make those choices obvious.

Then there's Body Hack, which lets you replace Davy's body parts with Overtech equipment to improve his stats and bolt on new abilities. Missile pods, spinning blades, spiked balls, directional dashes – all kinds of sharp weaponry can be attached to your undead frame, and some of the most useful upgrades aren't even about dealing more damage. Better healing, more item drops and a faster Davy Burst charge can make a much bigger difference to a run than another flashy attack or rocket salvo.

The way these systems overlap is what makes the game interesting, because the core combat is fairly simple and limited to light and heavy attacks and special abilities. There’s no typical dodge, block, or parry as such. Stupid Parry lets Davy charge into incoming attacks and reduce the damage he takes, then refill it by eating enemies’ Cores, which only expose themselves when attacking. So it’s all front-footed, and everything feeds into everything. But don’t expect Devil May Cry-style combos, even though some of the game’s team, Eiichiro Sasaki and Hiroyuki Kobayashi, worked on DMC.

Instead, the hook comes from working out which Styles suit the dungeon ahead, which body parts make sense for your preferred approach, and which abilities are worth keeping around, all while hitting fast attacks and connecting kills (there’s a DMC-like ‘style metre’ that rates your performance and increases things like item drops). It can take a while to get your head around, and you'll grind before the best body parts and deeper buffs start opening up, but there's more going on than the daft art style initially suggests.

Attack and grind, repeat

The idea is that Davy is a zombie, and zombies don't know when they're beaten and technically can’t die, so why should he care about defending himself? Instead of backing away from trouble, you're encouraged to keep attacking, take an odd hit, bite an enemy to recover some damage, and get right back into the fight. Some powerful Heat Attacks, when an enemy glows gold, can be countered with Stupid Impact if you time your Stupid Parry correctly to stun the enemy, while building up enough momentum lets you trigger Davy Burst and turn the whole screen into a colourful, electric-guitar-fuelled mess.

It's a fun idea, and when it works – when you’re Stupid Parrying for damage, breaking down a core, and linking kills – the combat has a tight rhythm, with one action feeding into another and the different systems starting to make sense together. But it can feel a little light where you'd expect more dexterity and combo depth, and the lack of a lock-on makes it frustratingly easy to swing at empty air – particularly on narrow paths above lava or icy drops, and especially when you're trying to punch flying creatures because judging 3D space can be tricky.

The trouble is that Stupid Never Dies can hit the same plateau as plenty of JRPGs: you reach a boss who's just a bit too powerful, head back into the dungeons to gather materials and improve Davy, then try again and discover you probably need to do it all over. The body-part upgrades can get stuck offering the same selection, so you've to grind enough runs to unlock something better, and although each trip is fairly short, the locations start to blur together when you keep visiting them to get stronger.

There's a reason for all this, of course. You're building Davy up over time, collecting resources and improving your chances with every run, and the game wants you to feel the difference between the pathetic zombie you started with and the increasingly Frankensteined monster you've turned him into. But it also feels like a way to stretch a relatively small game, one with a lot of visual personality and a handful of clever systems that don't always have enough new places or encounters to show them off.

The grind can be alleviated by the cast of weirdos you chat to between runs – Acelino's a chihuahua-were-dog who develops the body augmentations, Bessie's a zombie who creates new abilities from fast food, and Goyle is, well… a gargoyle who’s in charge of performance data but can’t remember anything are memorable – and the game has that JRPG quality of just offering enough new conversations, snippets of lore and funny asides to make post-dungeon downtime just a bit worthwhile.

I didn't stop enjoying myself, though, partly because I wanted to see what other daft combination of body parts and monster powers I could put together, and partly because I wanted to see what happened to Davy and his impossible romance. After dungeon runs, you can watch unlocked messages and videos on Julie’s tablet (creepy?) and vicariously get to know her through her life. A strange little tragedy lurks beneath all the silliness, and the game gets more mileage out of its deluded protagonist than you might expect from a story about a zombie trying to thaw out a girl who doesn't know he's alive, dead, or anything else.

Stupid Never Dies is an odd action RPG with enough personality to overcome any of its limitations. The art direction never ceases to impress, turning even the most routine dungeon encounters into little bursts of punk-rock graphic design, and I love how Davy's nice-come-creepy romantic obsession sits alongside all that colour and chaos. The combat isn’t light; it’s just not Devil May Cry, and once you understand how the systems dovetail and feed into one another, and if you’re happy to grind (and grind and grind) for your life, you’ll find a quirky little rockstar in here.

Some carriers are claiming earlier arrivals Verizon was stating a 5 November delivery at the time of writing, but its website seems to be struggling. Xfinity states 13 November and AT&T early December . Those aren't guarantees, but they could be the best chance right now of getting a Duo before the end of the year.

• Preorder iPhone Duo at Apple
• Preorder iPhone Duo at Verizon
• Preorder iPhone Duo at Xfinity
• Preorder iPhone Duo at AT&T
• Preorder iPhone Duo at T-Mobile

Was the iPhone Duo sellout a 'mistake'?

The Apple website continues to state a 25 January delivery expectation for the iPhone Duo at the time of writing. That compares to a three to four-week wait for the iPhone X in 2017.

Three months is a long time for a phone. Part of the hype around the annual product cycles is the newness of each release. According to Apple's estimate, customers who order now will be getting their devices just eight months before we might see the iPhone Duo 2 announced if the company sticks to the same schedule. Gougers are already taking advantage, with iPhone Duos appearing on Ebay over $4,000.

There's been a lot of debate about whether the quick depletion of availability is a sign of massive success or poor preparation. Apple blames "extraordinary" demand, promoting the idea that initial stock flew much more quickly than it had anticipated.

But the company's not disclosed production numbers or allocation figures, so it's hard to say whether there was genuinely unprecedented demand or merely scarcity, planned or otherwise.

Bloomberg's Apple expert Mark Gurman said it was a "major mistake" for the company to launch the $1,999 foldable when it did. In his Power On newsletter, yesterday, he suggests the launch was rushed so sales would be included in first quarter financial results despite the manufacturing pipeline not being able to produce enough handsets to meet demand. Apple also pressed ahead with a global launch across more than 70 countries after previously considering restricting initial sales to the United States and China.

But the decision might not be such a big mistake. It's true that there are some angry complaints on social media from people disappointed at having to wait, but Apple's also benefiting from the massive hype that the scarcity creates, generating more headlines about the Duo and potentially encouraging more people to place orders before the delivery date gets pushed back even further.

A staggered roll out also makes a lot of sense for a product for which it was hard to estimate demand in the first place. Apple is relatively late to a foldable phone space where Samsung and Google have an established presence, and the Duo comes at a time when the global chip shortage has pushed costs upwards. Apple also released the iPhone 18 Pro just a month ago, another expensive phone that. While not revolutionary in its form factor, it has a much better camera than the Duo.

The wait may not be as long what Apple is currently citing. It says it's working to fulfill orders as quickly as possible, and, it has sometimes moved orders forward in the past when production improves or other customers cancel purchases. With the iPhone X, cited waiting times of five to six weeks were generally reduced to fewer than three.

As noted above, carriers and authorised retailers may get the device sooner too, with some citing delivery dates in November and December.

Those hoping to beat the queue by going to an Apple Store in person on Friday might be in for disappointment. According to MacRumors, some employees have been urged to discourage customers from visiting if they don't have preorder reservations because inventory is likely to be limited. Apple’s online store suggests checking again on 24 October for pickup availability.

With the HomeView releasing next month, you might think Apple already has enough on its plate, but it's just announced what will be its third launch event in two months. 'Pro and tell' will take place on 28 October, and the biggest rumour is that the highlight will be an OLED touchscreen MacBook. Will 2026 be the year that Apple caught up on everything?

Google’s latest attempt at making laptops (though it’s not actually building them, and the example we have here is from Acer) extends to a new OS that’s part Chrome and part Android, even running Android apps, but they’re super high-end with OLEDs and the latest Intel chips.

What this means for creative users is that the mobile versions of things like Photoshop and Lightroom run in resizable windows with mouse support. While they’re not completely like the desktop apps, and video editing is a notable weakness, the Googlebook has become the best way to run them. Whether that makes one a worthwhile purchase is up to you – they will certainly be contenders for our best laptops for students guide.

Key specifications

Design, build and display

• Well built
• 2-in-1 design

The Googlebook looks like every other laptop, just as Chromebooks did. Acer’s model has the word ‘Googlebook’ below the keyboard, so you don’t go in expecting Windows, an Acer logo on the back of the lid, all very understated, with the Glowbar at the top right of the lid. This is one of the Googlebook’s new features, a close cousin of the Hilight LED on the back of the Google Pixel 11 Pro smartphones. It’s a visual way to get quick feedback about what your Googlebook is doing, a bar of rainbow LEDs that tells you about battery charge and pulses blue and purple when you’re talking to Gemini.

The Googlebook is very much built with Google’s chatbot in mind. There's no key on the keyboard to invoke it directly, like Windows’ Copilot key (though there is a Google key, it brings up the equivalent of the Start menu) so you use a key combo or, even better, say ‘OK Google’. There are other AI functions too, such as Magic Pointer, which opens the AI’s visual search capabilities when you wiggle the mouse pointer, allowing you to click on something to ask about it.

The dark blue finish of the Acer Googlebook is very professional-looking, and it has one more trick up its sleeve: this is a 2-in-1 design, the screen folding back to produce a pseudo-tablet that you can daub at with either your fingertip or a stylus. The OS adapts to the positioning automatically, and being Android-based it’s a touch-friendly environment from the start, with the OLED touchscreen and the way you only have to click on icons once to open them.

Design score: 4/5

Features and performance

• Decent battery life
• Limited software offering

Setting up a Googlebook is easy, and if you’re an Android phone user you’ll be able to log in with the same account, unlock it with the same PIN (there’s a fingerprint reader too) and even transfer over your apps. The OS acts a lot like ChromeOS, though Android apps are more prominent, and there's a new menu on the taskbar that allows you to access the apps on a paired Android smartphone, the app executing on the phone’s processor but streaming over a network connection and appearing in a window on the laptop screen, with mouse support, and this works fairly well though some apps with ads can look a little strange when they’re stretched out of their preferred aspect ratio, and others, such as Amazon Music, display a ‘rotate screen’ message. Some apps in the Play Store, such as CapCut Pad, are starting to have a ‘compatible with desktop’ flash on their listing page, indicating they’ll work well on the laptop.

With a third-gen Intel Core Ultra processor inside, and Snapdragon models available too, we should expect decent performance from the Googlebooks. Using the mobile version of Geekbench 7 gives a score we can compare across platforms, with the Google Tensor G5 of a Pixel 10 Pro phone scoring 2011 for single-core tasks and 5858 for multicore, the M5 in an iPad Pro scoring 3598 and 16614, and the Googlebook scoring 2498 and 11061.

In the Jetstream 2 Javascript and Web Assembly benchmark from Browserbench, which tests a machine’s ability with web apps, the Googlebook manages 404.246. This compares to the Pixel 10 Pro’s 231.237 and the iPad Pro’s 431.947. The Apple device is clearly ahead in raw processing grunt, but costs more even before you add a keyboard case to your order. It's also not all that far ahead when it comes to web apps, which are likely to be a common use case for the Googlebook.

Creative software on Android can be hit and miss, with the mobile versions of Photoshop and Lightroom usable but much simpler than their full Windows or MacOS cousins. Video editing apps tend to be aimed at social media use, particularly with portrait video in mind, and while there's an iPad version of Affinity coming later this year, that app doesn’t support Android.

Battery life, as we’ve come to expect from the third-gen Core Ultras, is excellent, with the laptop able to keep going for a day and a half - 12 hours - before it needs a recharge.

Feature score: 3/5

Price

If you’ve become used to the idea of Chromebooks being budget computers, then the price of the Googlebook - starting at £999 or $899 - might come as a shock. And they’ve launched into a very competitive market, with Windows 11 spreading out to cover Snapdragon chips as well as the upcoming Nvidia RTX Spark releases, and Apple striding ahead with its M5 and M6 lines, as well as the iPhone chip that powers the excellent MacBook Neo, which is cheaper than the Googlebook in its lowest-cost incarnation.

Value score: 2/5

Who is it for?

• Android workers

Without extreme cheapness to recommend it, you’ll have to like web apps or Android to buy a first-gen Googlebook. With the power of Google and the hardware manufacturers (HP, Lenovo and ASUS are also making them) behind it the platform is bound to take off, it just needs a better app selection.

Buy it if...

• You want a lightweight laptop that lasts all day
• You’re happy with Android apps
• You’re deep into the Google ecosystem

Don't buy it if...

• The apps you want aren’t on Android
• Adobe’s web apps don’t cut it
• You’re not a Google account user

Also consider

I've got two CMF Speaker S models on my desk, one black and one reddish-orange, and when they arrived, I was pretty sure I'd be keeping the black one. Black goes with everything, doesn't it? But the more I see that orange milk carton sitting there, the more I like it, and now I'm not so sure. It's a silly thing to get hung up on with a Bluetooth speaker, perhaps, but that's part of the appeal of CMF's little box of tricks; it makes you care about what is essentially a small plastic box that plays music.

CMF is Nothing's more affordable sibling brand, and it has a knack for making everyday tech look a bit different. Previously, I've been impressed with CMF Headphone Pro, a budget version of the excellent Nothing Headphone (1) Pro. The Speaker S is a pint-sized milk carton with a square body, tapered shoulders, and a pinched top, and it looks fantastic. The larger Speaker M looks more like a two-pint milk carton but retains the same approach, with an extra speaker.

The shape also serves a purpose, which is always nice to see: the top doubles as a handle (it has a slight soft give), and the little circular hole lets you hang it from a hook in your room, clip it to a bag, or dangle it inside a tent when you're off camping. At 334g, it won't weigh you down, and with IP68 dust and water resistance, you don't have to fuss over it as much as some of your other gadgets.

Then there's the front button, a chunky cross-shaped toggle that could easily have been a boring round switch, but isn't. It turns smoothly for volume and presses in with a soft, satisfying clump, and I keep finding myself fiddling with it. There's thought behind how it works, not just how it looks, too: a single press plays or pauses, a double press skips forward, a triple press goes back a track, and a long press toggles Ultra Bass. It's the kind of physical control I enjoyed on Nothing's headphones, where standard buttons are swapped for toggles and paddles and do enough that you don't have to keep reaching for your phone. Same here with Speaker S.

How does Speaker S sound?

All very nice, but a speaker has to play music, and I was genuinely surprised when I first pressed play. I ran through tracks from The Postal Service, The Jayhawks, and Failure, and the sound coming out of this tiny milk carton had much more weight than I expected. The music has decent body, the bass has some punch, and it doesn't immediately fall apart into the thin, tinny sound you get from cheap little Bluetooth speakers. Given the size, I found myself turning it up and wondering how CMF had managed to squeeze quite so much sound out of it.

The hardware is fairly straightforward: a single 45mm full-range driver, two passive radiators, and 10W RMS output, but the radiators add some extra oomph to the low end. The Nothing X app also offers EQ tweaks, including presets for more bass, treble, and voice, so you can fiddle if the default sound isn't quite right for you.

I'm not going to pretend this is a miniature hi-fi system, and anyone who spends their weekends arguing about speaker placement and the finer points of instrumental separation will find things to pick at. But for music while I'm working, listening around the house or sticking something on while cooking, the Speaker S sounds really good for the money.

Take it outside, though, and things change a bit. The sound can spread out and lose some of that focus, becoming more diffuse than it does indoors. It's not terrible, and I don't expect much more from something this small, but it's worth knowing if you're planning to use it as the soundtrack to a garden party or a weekend at a festival. Personally, I'd take that trade-off for something I can sling in a bag without thinking about it, rather than lugging around some hefty Bose monster that takes up half the space I've got for everything else.

With that said, Nothing / CMF has a workaround. You can connect multiple speakers (including the larger CMF Speaker L using Auracast Party Mode to spread music around a space, or pair two Speaker S models in Stereo Mode. I tried two together in Stereo Mode and Wide Soundstage Mode, and the result was much more spacious than I expected from a pair of these little things. The Postal Service's bleepy 'Such Great Heights' felt like it was bouncing around the room. The sound filled the space with a rounder, more spread-out feel, and it made a real difference compared with listening to a single unit on its own. So that's the caveat: Speaker S sound is full and wraparound if you buy two or more.

I'm sure anyone who takes their speakers seriously will have a field day moving them around, trying different positions and working out how to get the best sound from a pair. There's something appealing about placing two small speakers where they work best, rather than relying on one big box to do everything.

And at $59 / £49 each, you don't really need to spend a fortune to try it. Two will set you back $118 / £98, still a reasonable price for a stereo setup, while Party Mode gives you another option if you want to spread the sound outdoors and hook up even more speakers. I'd definitely opt for at least two Speaker S, see how you get on, and add more later if you fancy it (or if you're huge Pink Floyd fan and what the full experience).

Make it your own (literally)

The boxy, compact design makes it easy to use multiple speakers, hooked and hung around the room. And it means I keep coming back to the design because it's what makes the Speaker S stand out. Plenty of small Bluetooth speakers do a decent job, but most are black cylinders or little fabric-covered bricks, and you forget what they look like about five minutes after you buy one. CMF Speaker S doesn't want to be forgotten, and like other Nothing devices, it wants to start a conversation.

And you can mess around with it too, which is even better. The front panels and knobs can be swapped out, so you can change the colour scheme, and Nothing has released official design files for 3D printing your own parts. If you've got a printer, you can try making something that suits your desk, your room, or whatever odd colour combination you've decided you need this week. (For example, my black and orange Speaker S also have different shaped buttons.) I'd love to see what people come up with, especially if they push the milk-carton idea in stranger directions.

The rest of the spec is pretty good for the price, too. Nothing claims up to 18 hours of battery life, and you get Bluetooth 6.0, NFC pairing, USB-C audio and the ability to connect two devices at once. Battery life depends on how loudly you play music and how you use it, of course, but it's enough to make it useful beyond sitting on a shelf looking pretty.

Should you buy the CMF Speaker S?

For $59 / £49, I reckon CMF is onto something. The Speaker S looks great, sounds better than its size suggests and has enough practical touches to make it a genuinely useful little speaker, whether you're listening at your desk, taking it away for the weekend or hanging it up in the garden. It won't satisfy anyone looking for huge bass or the last word in audio detail, and the sound loses a little focus outdoors, but those are reasonable compromises for something this small and affordable.

What I like is that the design hasn't been left at the level of a novelty. The handle and hanging hole make sense, the cross-shaped control is a joy to use, and the removable panels and 3D-printable parts give you a reason to keep playing with it long after you've unboxed it. Add a second speaker, and you get a surprisingly good little stereo setup, too.

I started out thinking the black model was the one for me, but that orange one is winning me over by the day; and, since it sounds best as a pair, I don't really feel forced to decide. It sounds daft to say a Bluetooth speaker has a bit of personality, but this one does, and at $59 / £49 I can forgive it for not sounding like a much bigger, much more expensive speaker. Speaker S is a fun little thing that also plays music well and can be expanded to play music really well, which is pretty unique and very Nothing by design.

Go to any second-hand bookshop, and you'll find an array of raunchy romance novels all with the same book cover design – a female protagonist in the throes of intimate ecstasy, with a strapping hunk by her side. Only this time, he's made of Wicker.

The unconventional film poster features lead actress Olivia Colman draped in the arms of her sentient wicker basket lover. From her enraptured expression to Skarsgård's protective embrace, the design wouldn't look out of place among a lineup of old-school romantasy book covers (so long as you don't notice he's made of wood...)

While the design is clearly a pastiche of these stereotypically schlocky novels, the poster itself is oddly beautiful. With rich jewel tones and elegant portraiture, the design has a timeless feel, only enhanced by its intricate gold script typography.

"Dressing a wicker husband movie up like a paperback romance is elite packaging" one fan on X wrote. "Homage to the 80's-90's bodice ripper mass market paperback covers. Loveee ittt!!!!" another praised, while the best comment by far was the simple sentiment, calling the design "Fifty Shades of Hay".

For more Wicker news, check out IKEA's cheeky homage to the film or take a look at Alexander Skarsgård's wood(en suit).

This sequel picks up directly where the original Boltgun left off. This time you can play as Ultramarine Sternguard Veteran Malum Caedo or the swifter, flame-wielding Sister of Battle Nyra Veyrath, fighting through a branching campaign that stretches from the towering heights of a hive city to the dense mangrove swamps of a jungle world. Expect new weapons, new locations and new foes, including the bloodthirsty Bloodletters and their daemonic Juggernauts.

For artists, the real draw is how it all looks. Boltgun 2 is a 'boomer shooter', but its sprites are far from hand-placed relics of the 1990s. Characters begin life as 3D models, are captured from eight camera directions, and are then converted into sprite sheets packed with normal, ambient occlusion and emission data, before being projected onto billboarded planes in the game world.

It's a clever balancing act: crisp, chunky pixels on the surface, modern rendering underneath, and the sprawling detail of the Warhammer 40,000 universe squeezed into silhouettes that read instantly at speed. I spoke to Chambers about how the team pulled it off, and where retro game art limitations end and modern polish begins.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is out now for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S (with a Nintendo Switch 2 version still to come).

Consoles to play Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 on: