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Marvel Rivals’ hero gallery UI used to look a lot cooler—but also a lot harder to use

I’m a comic book nut, but I stay away from Marvel Rivals to keep my blood pressure in check. I do love the radical, supremely over-the-top character designs that NetEase landed on for Marvel’s coterie of costumed heroes, though. You might be surprised to learn that the game used to be even more stylized—so much so that finding a hero before a match was borderline obnoxious.

In the debut for a new web series about the game’s visual identity, Art Vision, a former take on the hero gallery UI was briefly shown off, with some exceptional concept art and a radial menu that displayed each hero in a wheel. Take a look below:

An early draft of Marvel Rivals' hero gallery UI. — (Image credit: NetEase)

It’s got some exceptional 2D art, but the design definitely reads like a placeholder. The Hulk hero description has the energy of a Wikipedia entry, dryly clarifying that he’s a “fictional superhero.” Spinning this menu back and forth in search of any particular character seem like it’d be cumbersome, to say the least. Sure looks slick, though.

Art director Dino explained in the video that the game’s UI aesthetics are meant to be “modern and adaptable while also being simple and clear … incorporating comic, structural, and geometric sensibilities.” They might have gone a mite too far with this particular design, as the final game has a more traditional grid for its hero gallery. But the radial “arc” did make it to the pre-battle hero select menu.

Dino goes on to say that the hero select interface “presents an artistic immersive experience” which I suppose is true, though it’s kind of a pain in the ass to drag it to and fro so I can find and lock in a healer as quickly as possible. There’s a reason we don’t use rotary phones anymore, right? The concept shown off is even more dynamic and eye-catching, but a great example of how something boring and functional is usually preferable to a beautiful hassle.

It’s nice to get a look at the iteration process for such a popular game; the journalist in me lives to hear game developers pontificate about this and that, even if this video doesn’t show off a ton that players haven’t seen before. Marvel Rivals has come a long way since it was nearly cancelled, so hopefully we’ll hear more about the road getting there in the future.

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One of classic Doom’s most brutal challenge runs is finally conquered after thirteen years of mega-scale demon slaughter

Few names can terrify classic Doom fans more than Okuplok, an obscure mapper who’s only surfaced a few times on the Doomworld forums, usually to release something painful before slinking off into the shadows. They’re best known for unleashing one of the most nightmarish levels in the history of Doom upon the world: The humble-sounding ‘untitled2’, better known to the community as the ‘Okuplok Slaughter Map’, is one of the most gruelling combat challenges in Doom history—a colossal series of arena battles against ungodly 23,211 demons where even the tiniest mistake spells instant death.

The map has always been beatable. With sufficient quicksaves, or the slow-motion inhuman precision of a tool-assisted speedrun, it was always theoretically possible to ascend this mountain of demon corpses. But to do it without dying? Without saves? And without leaving a single monster alive? That’s the real challenge. And for thirteen years, players have thrown themselves into this meat-grinder, aiming to be the first to record themselves clearing it under the community’s standard UV-Max challenge rules.

Doom’s Hardest Map – Okuplok Strategy Guide – YouTube Doom's Hardest Map - Okuplok Strategy Guide - YouTube

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In a gruelling six hour struggle on Easter Sunday, pro Doomer ‘Coincident’ finally did it, and I watched it happen live. Check out the recording of the record-breaking run here, but before you dive into that, check out the video below for a brief introduction of the hell that is to come, and why even surviving the first few seconds of this map is a challenge that only a rare hero can handle.

Coincident has been fighting tooth and nail against Okuplok’s creation for some time now. Two years ago, he managed a one-life run on Doom’s lowest difficulty. This evens the odds somewhat, halving the damage done to the player and doubling the contents of every ammo pick-up but leaving enemy placements otherwise unchanged. Even with those advantages, it’s a challenge very few could overcome, especially as the sheer volume of oncoming fire means that even with twice the health and ammo, you can still die in a blink of an eye.

Unsatisfied with that partial victory, Coincident set out to surgically dissect the level, developing new strategies to make a true Ultra Violence difficulty run possible. He even went so far as to publish a whole series of videos picking apart its individual encounters and devising the most survivable approaches to get through it. A useful aid, but without patience and precision, it still won’t get you very far.

Due to the highly random and unpredictable nature of Doom’s combat (including some enemies capable of doing absurd damage with a single hit if the game’s under-the-hood damage dice decide you deserve to suffer), any successful run is going to be a mixture of endurance, precision and luck, and you can hear the stress and tension in Coincident’s voice as he ventures deeper and deeper into the map. All that tension comes unraveled and replaced by adrenaline-drenched catharsis as he brings down the final artillery emplacement of Arch-vile snipers in the final arena. It was six hours of the highest-level Doom gameplay ever recorded, and a feat that will be remembered in the community for years.

So, Nightmare mode next, right?

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Today’s Wordle answer for Monday, April 21

All the help you need to make Monday’s Wordle a breeze is ready and waiting just below. Whether you want to warm up with our general tips, sort out a jumble of yellow letters with our clue for the April 21 (1402) game, or jump straight to today’s answer, we’ve got it all.

Two green letters and one handy yellow in my first row? On a Monday? Brilliant. I could have perhaps done without every guess after that being slightly wrong in a strange and interesting way for far too long, but I suppose they just balanced out my fantastic start. Make sure you take a look at today’s clue if you want to avoid a similar fate.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Monday, April 21

Think of a word for an overwhelming rush of something in a short space of time. A string or unexpected flurry of bad events.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

No, there is not a double letter in today’s puzzle.

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day

A good starting word can be the difference between victory and defeat with the daily puzzle, but once you’ve got the basics, it’s much easier to nail down those Wordle wins. And as there’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day, here are a few tips to help set you on the right path:

A good opening guess should contain a mix of unique consonants and vowels.
Narrow down the pool of letters quickly with a tactical second guess.
Watch out for letters appearing more than once in the answer.

There’s no racing against the clock with Wordle so you don’t need to rush for the answer. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword can be a good tactic; that way, you can come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Stepping away for a while might mean the difference between a win and a line of grey squares.

Today’s Wordle answer

Wordle answer

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Get off to a flying start. The answer to the April 21 (1402) Wordle is SPATE.

Previous Wordle answers

The last 10 Wordle answers

Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated.

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

April 20: PATCH
April 19: INBOX
April 18: DIRGE
April 17: STOOD
April 16: MORAL
April 15: ASHEN
April 14: CREST
April 13: LAUGH
April 12: NURSE
April 11: ARROW

Learn more about Wordle

Today's Wordle being played on a phone

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and you’ll need to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them to keep up your winning streak.

You should start with a strong word like ARISE, or any other word that contains a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. You’ll also want to avoid starting words with repeating letters, as you’re wasting the chance to potentially eliminate or confirm an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which ones you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second guess should compliment the starting word, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. With a bit of luck, you should have some coloured squares to work with and set you on the right path.

After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used you can scroll to the relevant section above.

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

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Gloomhaven: Second Edition on hold due to Trump tariffs causing a ‘ripple effect’ on the board game industry, says publisher: ‘Our products are no longer retail viable’

Cephalofair Games, and other board game publishers like it, are in dire straits thanks to Trump administration trade tariffs, which could have a catastrophic impact on the entire board game industry.

In an interview with CNN last week, Cephalofair Games COO Price Johnson shared some bad news about the second edition of the hit dungeon crawler board game Gloomhaven, which is now on hold due to the tariffs.

Johnson explained that tariffs have dramatically increased Cephalofair Games’s costs, stating, “We’ve essentially been told to cease our US sales indefinitely, at least until things settle and we have confidence again in the market.”

Unfortunately, this means there’s no telling when Gloomhaven: Second Edition, or any other Cephalofair Games products, will make it to the United States. It isn’t helping that the state of tariffs seems to be in a constant state of flux.

As Johnson explained, “The story keeps changing, so we can’t plan around that. Right now I couldn’t tell you what our pricing in the United States would need to be to make our products viable because it changes every other day.”

A spread of Gloomhaven board game pieces in front of a smoky background

(Image credit: Cephalofair Games)

Moving Gloomhaven printing and manufacturing to the US would not be simple. The reality is that the US simply does not have the same level of manufacturing infrastructure that China has. It would take years for the US to expand its manufacturing capacity, and that’s time that Cephalofair Games, and countless other small and medium-sized businesses, don’t have.

Price Johnson explained that his company has searched for domestic options, but can’t find anything in the US that could meet their needs. For instance, Johnson said even if he just wanted to print a hardcover book in the US, “My cost goes to three or four times [what it would cost in China] before I even have that product in hand.”

Cephalofair Games isn’t the only publisher facing this issue. It’s impacting the entire board game publishing industry, which means other upcoming games could get stuck in limbo like Gloomhaven: Second Edition.

Johnson laid out the dire state of the industry, commenting, “We have entire industries, like the board game publishing industry, that [have] been brought to a complete stand-still. I’m in a group of about 60 publishers, all of whom are having to cease production. We’re all collaborating to find creative options, domestic options. We’re vetting them, and there’s no solutions right now.”

As if an indefinite pause on games wasn’t bad enough, tariffs could have a ripple effect on independent game stores all over the country.

“Our products are no longer retail viable,” said Johnson, “so all the brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop shops of which we work with, over 600 mom-and-pop independently-owned toy stores, comic book stores, game stores, they’re not getting our product. Their shelves are gonna be empty. They’re all facing foreclosures, bankruptcies.”

These stores are often beloved local hubs for gaming groups, where fans of TCGs, RPGs, and board games can meet up and discover new games. We lose a vital pillar of the gaming community when those stores have to close down.

So, Gloomhaven: Second Edition going into the deep freeze isn’t just bad news for fans of the game—it’s a canary in the coal mine for the drastic impact tariffs could have on the gaming industry.

As a fan of board games and TTRPGs, I can only hope publishers like Cephalofair Games can find a way to survive the tariff turmoil because it would be sad to see this industry crumble in the US.

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Devolver’s financials show Cult of the Lamb is its best seller, earning more than $90 million with DLC a significant factor: ‘Gamers are spending more time on known IPs’

Over on Bluesky, industry analyst mauronl shared some info from Devolver Digital’s 2024 wrap-up for investors, including lifetime revenue figures for 10 of its games. Sitting at number one, with over $US90 million earned, is the folk-horror Happy Tree Friends dungeon-crawler Cult of the Lamb. Number two, with over $US80 million in lifetime revenue, is Astroneer.

These may be surprising figures coming from the house that Hotline Miami built (it’s number seven, with >$30M in revenue), and the label that published all those Serious Sam games (that series is at number four, >$45M), but the explanation comes in the analysis at the top of the page. “Trend: Gamers are spending more time on known IPs as opposed to new IPs”.

But, I hear you ask, surely Cult of the Lamb is a new IP? In 2022 it was. Since then it’s had multiple DLCs, both free and paid, and if you sort Steam’s list of Devolver DLC by top sellers, four of Cult of the Lamb’s DLCs are the top four. (Road to Elysium for The Talos Principle 2 rounds out the top five.) Successful DLC isn’t just successful because of how many copies it sells, as it can bring in a new wave of players who hear about it and pick up the original—something Astroneer also benefited from with its Glitchwalkers expansion, reviving interest in the exploration-crafting game five years after its original launch.

The trend Devolver identifies isn’t just that people really like post-launch support. The other entries in that top 10 include plenty of multi-game series, like Stronghold, Serious Sam, and Shadow Warrior, suggesting that players are videogame players are in another phase of returning for sequels. Expect to see plenty of those from Devolver in the year ahead, along with all the other things an enfranchised fanbase loves—like ports, spin-offs, and definitive edition rereleases.

Another slide from the presentation highlights that Enter the Gungeon and the surprisingly successful VR game Gorn are both getting sequels, and Astroneer a spin-off called Starseeker. It’s probably too early to declare originality dead, however, given that Devolver just released an oddball survival-horror RPG and has announced a May release date for the game where you look like a thumb and have gone to Hell to arrest Satan.

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Once promising developer Tequila Works is auctioning off the rights to its games, including 4 still in development

Last year, Spanish game studio Tequila Works announced it was insolvent, and closing, even after prior staff cuts and the cancellation of an unannounced project.

This month a page appeared on the European auction site Escrapalia that lists the various intangible assets of Tequila Works—its videogame IPs, in-development titles, and the studio’s brand. The high bids for most of the published game rights, such as Rime and the once-Stadia-exclusive Gylt, are between 10-20,000 euro at press time.

Also included are unfinished games with playable vertical slices: The Ancient Mariner, an open world game, Dungeon Tour, a co-op party game, and Brawler Crawler, a multiplayer brawler with a procedurally generated world. There are also concepts for “4 original Tequila Works projects” that are billed as “ready for production” since their creative, narrative, visual elements, and copyright are all lined up.

It’s an inevitable consequence of the industry, but a middle-tier, independent publisher-developer like this doesn’t always go out in such a direct and public way: In my experience they’re more often acquired by a larger publisher and quietly shuttered years later. Though that scenario isn’t too far off from what happened here—Tequila Works’ majority shareholder was Tencent, as of 2022.

Not surprisingly absent from the auction is Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, which Tequila Works developed for the League of Legends juggernaut’s now-defunct Riot Forge label.

Late last year, Tequila Works general manager Térence Mosca said in a statement that he was “proud” of the Tequila Works team’s accomplishments, but that “prolonged market conditions” meant insolvency was the company’s only choice.

“Since its founding in 2009, Tequila Works’ game-development philosophy has always focused on ‘creating things with gusto’,” said the company’s statement. “We are doing everything we can to provide support and guidance to our teams during this difficult time.”

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I don’t know what I expected: Everybody’s just recreating memes in Baldur’s Gate 3’s new photo mode

Perusing the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit for pro gamer tips this morning (as one does), I was struck by something: It was all photo mode shitposts. The subreddit has gazed upon all Patch 8 has to offer, and summarily declared: “This is r/BaldursGate3, bitch. We clown in this mf. Better take your sensitive ass back to r/BG3builds.”

You’re laughing? Prime OP Shadow Blade combos are getting drowned out by memes, and you’re laughing?

Well, despite the wall-to-wall goofs about a game I take very seriously, I felt a smile on my face while my heart grew three sizes looking at all these posts⁠—I should probably see a cardiologist. This “Reddit” place has some fun jokes sometimes. Here are a few I really dug:

there’s a she wolf in the nautiloid pic.twitter.com/M2jVeJW0arApril 18, 2025

Did you know that you can leave Shadowheart behind on the Nautiloid, but she shows up at your camp later anyway, letting you recruit her still? Anyway, both she and Shakira look like they’re dancing inside someone’s colon in these respective shots. “Mind Flayer chic.”

Making memes with photo mode is awesome from r/BaldursGate3

“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, rough, and irritating. And it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here, everything is soft and smooth.”

I think I’ve actually finished more Baldur’s Gate 3 runs than I’ve stalled out on at this point, for a given value of “finish”—some of those Honour mode characters belong to the ages now.

This is the second tangential reference to the work of American actor-comedian Kevin Hart in today’s article, which, with Borderlands Movie outliers discounted, is about 200% more than PC Gamer’s average annual rate of Kevin Hart mentions. I have no strong feelings either way regarding this fact.

This is also the second instance of the photo mode stylings of X, “The Everything App” user @ishadowheart in today’s article, shout out to them.

Recreated the most iconic butt shot in the history of gaming from r/BaldursGate3

Here we can(‘t because of Reddit spoiler tags) see how user PackagesCoreOverride recreated the iconic shot from Mass Effect 2 where Commander Shepard stands all sassy with his arms folded while the foreground is dominated by the derriere of squadmate Miranda Lawson. I’ve always found this image to be a bit of a lodestar for the Xbox 360 era.

The Lady of Loss from r/BaldursGate3

God damn it.

Now that we’ve gotten all that silliness out of our system, it’s time to get serious and think about builds. Hexblade builds. Booming Blade builds. Swashbuckler builds. It’s a whole new world of buildcrafting possibilities. Stop trying to turn Gale into “Bad Luck Gale” or something. We have Golden Dice to earn and lives to ruin.

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Nintendo confirms the Switch 2 price is staying at $450 in the US despite tariff turmoil, with preorders starting April 24

After putting Switch 2 preorders on hiatus in the US while it assessed the “potential impact” of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariff rollout, Nintendo has confirmed that it will be maintaining the Switch 2’s originally announced $450 price. US preorders will begin on April 24.

“We apologize for the retail pre-order delay, and hope this reduces some of the uncertainty our customers may be experiencing,” Nintendo said in its announcement. “We thank our customers for their patience, and we share their excitement to experience Nintendo Switch 2 starting June 5, 2025.”

Nintendo’s Switch 2 preorder pause followed the reveal of the Trump administration’s April 3 tariff deluge, leading to speculation that the tariffs targeting countries with major electronics manufacturing industries like China, Vietnam, and Taiwan could drive Nintendo to increase the Switch 2 MSRP shortly after its reveal.

As with concerns over potential pricing increases on PC gaming and general computer hardware, that uncertainty only increased as the Trump administration announced that most countries would instead only be subject to a general 10% tariff, before repeatedly reversing its messaging on whether semiconductors and electronics are or are not exempt from its tariff program.

Reporting from Bloomberg indicated that Nintendo had apparently anticipated an amount of tariff-related chaos. In February, Nintendo had been building “a stockpile of millions of consoles” from Vietnam, where two-thirds of assembled consoles are now being earmarked for shipments to the US. Any Nintendo consoles assembled in China, meanwhile, would face an import tariff that—at time of writing—has risen to 245%.

While that stockpile might have helped dodge a price hike on the console itself, Nintendo said Switch 2 accessories “will experience price adjustments from those announced on April 2 due to changes in market conditions.” A pair of Joy-Con 2s, for example, will now cost $95. Switch 2 game prices will remain unchanged.

At PC Gamer, we haven’t exactly been overenthused about the Switch 2’s prerelease showing, which—in a post-Steam Deck world—kinda just feels like looking at a worse PC with some colorful exclusives. Still, even if a new handheld gaming PC seems like a better proposition, some of us have to get our Pokémon fix somewhere.

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Star Wars Outlaws DLC A Pirate’s Fortune announced for May 15

Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate’s Fortune | Story Pack #2 Reveal Trailer – YouTube

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We first heard that Ubisoft‘s Star Wars Outlaws would be getting a pirate-themed expansion as the second story pack in the season pass, following the Lando-themed Wild Card DLC. Now, at Star Wars Celebration Japan, a release date has been announced, along with the trailer above.

A Pirate’s Fortune will see Kay Vess working with the pirate Hondo Ohnaka, who you may know from The Clone Wars or the Smuggler’s Run ride in Disneyland Galaxy’s Edge or multiple other appearances across the Star Wars canon over the years. The DLC has the two of you team up in search of the Great Khepi Treasure somewhere in the Khepi system. Apparently it’s in a tomb and there will doubtless be traps and a shocking betrayal at the finale.

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One of our favourite last-gen handheld PCs is getting a Ryzen AI HX 370 upgrade and a native landscape display

Portable PC gaming has to be one of the coolest innovations in the space in recent years. Valve’s own Steam Deck and other similar Switch form factor gaming PCs are becoming huge business, and there’s plenty of competition keeping the space fresh. One such competitor was the AOKZOE A1 Pro, which impressed us with its great battery life, performance, and quiet and cool processing. Well AOKZOE is back, and its new A1X handheld PC is quickly reaching its launch date on Kickstarter.

We first got a sneaky look at the A1 successor at the beginning of the year when AOKZOE teased us with a look at the specs. It doesn’t look to have changed much since this early look. The new A1X still looks a lot like the A1 Pro with the biggest change being that sweet AMD Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 chip. We’ll have to wait to see how real world testing goes, but this boosted chip could give us upwards of 30% in performance over the A1.

The other features spruked are the 8-inch 120 Hz VRR native landscape display (many handheld screens are currently natively portrait) and a 72.7 Wh battery. That screen should provide a much smoother experience than the 60 Hz we saw on the A1, and it being natively landscape should mean that the touch experience is better calibrated in normal use, but will probably require more power to run it. This means we might not see the benefit of that larger battery, as the boost over the A1’s 65 Wh may go entirely to powering the screen and new chip. Even if that’s the case it should make for a nice upgrade, especially as our reviewer was pretty happy with the life on the A1.

The Kickstarter page for the A1X has locked down as it comes up to launch so there’s not a heap more information to go on. We’d love to know more about some of the other specs, especially which clocks AOKZOE have gone with to see how effective that new Ryzen chip will be, but for now we’ll just have to wait.

Pricing is another thing we’re going to have to wait and see about for this new handheld. The AOKZOE A1 Pro is currently sold out at its sale price of $899 USD, and has a MSRP at $1,099. It’s fair to expect the A1X to sit slightly higher than that thanks to its extra specs, but that also unfortunately positions it at a prime price point to suffer Trump’s tech tariffs. Still, with the Kickstarter set to launch soon, hopefully that wait won’t be much longer.

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Marvel Rivals’ hero gallery UI used to look a lot cooler—but also a lot harder to use

One of classic Doom’s most brutal challenge runs is finally conquered after thirteen years of mega-scale demon slaughter

Today’s Wordle answer for Monday, April 21

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Monday, April 21

Gloomhaven: Second Edition on hold due to Trump tariffs causing a ‘ripple effect’ on the board game industry, says publisher: ‘Our products are no longer retail viable’

Devolver’s financials show Cult of the Lamb is its best seller, earning more than $90 million with DLC a significant factor: ‘Gamers are spending more time on known IPs’

Once promising developer Tequila Works is auctioning off the rights to its games, including 4 still in development

I don’t know what I expected: Everybody’s just recreating memes in Baldur’s Gate 3’s new photo mode

Nintendo confirms the Switch 2 price is staying at $450 in the US despite tariff turmoil, with preorders starting April 24

Star Wars Outlaws DLC A Pirate’s Fortune announced for May 15

One of our favourite last-gen handheld PCs is getting a Ryzen AI HX 370 upgrade and a native landscape display

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