The PlayStation VR2 delivers one of the best virtual reality experiences you can find—if you can stomach the $599 cost (on top of an already expensive console). That was the crux of our review a few weeks ago. But our impressions of the headset were also limited by the games we were able to preview. Since then, Sony has officially launched PS VR2 support for Gran Turismo 7, and Capcom has done the same for Resident Evil Village. Both are exclusive showpieces for the PlayStation VR2 (RE Village also has an unofficial PC VR mod), and exemplify everything Sony got right with this new hardware.

Now, I'm not much of a racing sim player, I'd much rather be zooming around Forza Horizon's open worlds, or revisiting the glory days of Ridge Racer Type 4 and Burnout Paradise. But with PS VR2 support, Gran Turismo 7 feels like a completely different game. In VR, you're right in the driver's seat — you can almost feel Polyphony Digital's obsessive attention to detail. The game also feels more exhilarating, as it delivers a far greater sense of speed (a consequence of having your entire field of vision consumed by the world of GT7).

PlayStation

I've always appreciated the Gran Turismo games from afar, but there was a stiffness to the actual racing experience that kept me away. GT7 doesn't fully fix that flaw, but it's less pronounced in virtual reality. The combination of the Dual Sense controller and the PS VR2's built-in haptics delivered a genuinely realistic driving experience, I could feel bumps in the road in my hands and occasional feedback from hitting walls or bumping into opponents. (I never said I was a great virtual driver.) I'm sure Gran Turismo obsessives would take away even more from the virtual reality experience, especially if they're using a decent steering wheel controller.

The more time I spent in GT7 VR, the more I appreciated the little details in the game, similar to my time with Flight Simulator VR. Instead of changing camera angles or hitting a button to scope out the competition, you simply look at your side and rear view mirrors. When you're changing gears, your in-game avatar correctly shifts between the steering wheel and shifter. I occasionally had to avert my eyes from the sun while rounding a corner, a testament to the bright 4K OLED display in the PSVR2.

At one point, I was blasting down a straightaway as the sun peeked through clouds behind me, its brightness perfectly reflected in my rear view mirrors. It cast realistic shadows throughout the world, and it was so bright I couldn't properly use that mirror – just like real life! While the game doesn't look perfect in VR — there are some noticeably low-res elements in some tracks, like guardrails, signage and audiences — it's good enough to make you feel like you're actually behind a turbo-charged monster.

There's no visible ray tracing while you're playing in virtual reality, but you still get an eye-full of that realistic lighting during replays, which are projected on the PS VR2's simulated 2D screen. You can also get an up-close look at the cars in your garage, which use ray tracing to deliver achingly perfect reflections and shadows. It's the closest you'll get without stepping into a luxury car dealer.

When it comes to Resident Evil Village, I expected Capcom to deliver a worthwhile VR experience after seeing what it did with RE7, one of the best titles on the original PS VR. Well, the company didn't disappoint. Thanks to the increased horsepower of the PlayStation 5, and the higher fidelity of the PS VR2, Resident Evil Village is transformed into a living nightmare in virtual reality. There should be a warning for people already skittish of survival horror games: Play at your own peril.

Just like with Gran Turismo 7, virtual reality lets you appreciate the work that went into Resident Evil Village in entirely new ways. Walking through the game's creepy Eastern European village is even more chilling when it fills your field of view. You can always look away from a 2D screen, in VR you're forced to confront the horrors in front of you. (Sometimes closing your eyes isn't enough, not when you can hear the werewolf-like creatures skittering around the cottage you're hiding in.)

Since it's a first-person game, Resident Evil Village acquits itself well to VR. Exploration is smooth and not nausea-inducing, thankfully. And fighting off the game's various baddies is all the more thrilling when you're realistically aiming guns and other weapons. And yes, Lady Dimitrescu, the tall vampire woman who launched a thousand memes on the internet, is indeed very tall and imposing in VR.

I didn't have time to play through all of Resident Evil Village in virtual reality, but my first few hours with the game left a striking impression. Perhaps the future of virtual reality depends more on games like this, which can be enjoyed both as traditional 2D titles and with immersive headsets. We looked to Half Life Alyx to prove flagship VR games were possible. But what if we just need to think about bringing VR into more flagship games?

The more time I spent with the PS VR2, the more frustrated I became with the state of the virtual reality industry. Everything I said in my review remains true: VR feels stagnant, and another expensive headset isn't going to fix that. Maybe it's okay if VR gaming never truly becomes mainstream, just like how not everyone plays racing games with steering wheels, or people can enjoy fighting games without expensive arcade sticks. Perhaps VR can just be another accessory — albeit one that takes a significant amount of development resources to support.

Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village both prove that the PlayStation VR2 is a gateway to truly immersive virtual reality gaming. But a part of me still dreams for PC compatibility. While it's understandable why Sony may want to lock down its hardware, it's sort of like forcing a lion to live in a small zoo. The PS VR2 can't truly roar until it taps into the wild world of PC VR, which offers more experimental games and far faster graphical hardware than the PS5. If Sony ever wants to return to its innovator roots, it needs to take more chances.

Somehow, it's Friday again (I'm pretty sure someone added an extra Monday to this week) and Friday means it's time for our weekly roundup of the best tech deals we could find. Apple discounts were the most abundant, with sales on the second-gen Apple Pencil, Apple Watch 8 and Apple Watch Ultra, iPad mini, and the MagSafe power bank. All have dropped down to or near their all-time lows. If you're an Android user and considering the latest flagship from Samsung, you may want to check out Amazon's gift card bundle with Galaxy S23 smartphones. Anyone who could use a little help keeping their floors clean might want to take a look at iRobot's Roomba 694. It's our pick for the most affordable ways to enter the robo-vac market and it back down to its lowest price. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

iRobot Roomba 694

We've tested quite a few robot vacuums over the years and our current favorite budget pick is iRobot's Roomba 694. This week, it dropped back to its all-time low price of $179, which is $95 off and a great price for a solidly performing vac that will do a good job of keeping your floors clean without much effort on your part. It's part of a wider sale on Roombas both at Amazon and on iRobot's site, with discounts of up to 35 percent. Also part of the sale is the best premium robot vacuum we've tested, the self-emptying Roomba s9+. Usually $999, the sale knocks $200 off, making it a little more affordable. We also tried and liked the Roomba Combo j7+ which combines mop and vacuum functions. The sale brings that one down to $849, which isn't cheap, but considerably better than its $1,099 list price.

Samsung S23 Ultra and Amazon gift card

Amazon is offering a $100 gift card for those who buy an unlocked Galaxy S23, S23+ or S23 Ultra on their site. It's not the $140 discount we saw last week, but $100 might make a difference to someone who's still on the fence about picking up one of Samsung's latest flagships. We gave the S23 Ultra a review score of 89 and liked the bright display, powerful performance from the custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that makes everything smooth and speedy. The massive 200MP sensor camera Samsung added was the big news upon the phone's debut, though it takes some tinkering to get the most out of those extra pixels. The battery lasted an impressive 19 hours and 26 minutes and it's got a great build. One caveat we mention is the high price tag. But perhaps Amazon's gift card offer will ease up on that drawback a little. 

Eargo 7 Micro Hearing Aid

If you're looking for FDA-approved, self-fitting hearing aids that are pretty close to invisible, you may like this deal on the new Eargo 7 hearing aid. They're on sale for $360 off the usual price, bringing the $2,950 devices down to $2,590. When we wrote about Eargo last year, we said the brand acts "more like a technology company instead of a stuffy medical-device provider" and that's partly due to its annual release cycle — like you get with Samsung or Apple — that continually improves upon the technology with each new version of a product. This week, our editor James Trew checked out the latest release from Eargo and called the Eargo 7 the best model to date.

Apart from a few set-up snags within the app and the fact that the case deep sleeps when it needs a charge (even if the hearing aids are full), the experience with the devices was smooth sailing. These are CIC or in-canal hearing aids, which tend to be fairly unobvious when you wear them and they're even rated to handle sweat from workouts or minor splashes in the shower. Trew likes how they adequately amplify sound but don't emphasize sharp noises like keys. The battery lasts all day and the customer service is pretty great — important for a medical device that you buy direct from a company, instead of going through an audiologist.

Apple M2 Mac mini

This week, Apple's new M2 Mac mini dropped to its lowest price since its debut earlier this year with the entry level models for $50 off the list price. B&H Photo is applying the discount to the 256GB mini M2 and the 512GB mini M2, both with 8GB of RAM, bringing the tiny but mighty computers down to $549 and $749, respectively. If you'd rather pick them up from Amazon, both the 256GB model and the larger 512GB configuration are $50 off there too. The Mac minis with the M2 Pro chip aren't seeing the same discount, though Amazon is listing those $10 below Apple's suggested price.

The new Mac mini packs Apple's new M2 chip, which you'll also find in iPad Pros and the latest MacBook Pros. Both discounted models have eight CPU cores, 10 graphics cores, 8GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage. As for ports, you get two Thunderbolt 4 UCB-C ports, an HDMI port with 4K output at 240Hz and 8K at 60Hz, two USB-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a gigabit Ethernet port.

Apple iPad Mini

The iPad mini is super portable, and now it's a little more affordable with a 20 percent discount on the 64GB model. That brings it down to $400 instead of its usual $499 and matches the lowest price the diminutive slab has ever gone for. If you want the higher capacity 256GB model, that's getting a 15 percent discount, bringing it down to $550, which is also $99 off. The deals apply to the gray, starlight and purple colors, though it looks like pink is only available on the 64GB configuration. We gave the mini an 89 in our review, noting that it received a significant redesign over its predecessors, adding iPad Air-style features like a Liquid Retina all-screen design, USB-C charging, a Touch-ID button and support for the new Apple Pencil. 

Apple Watch Series 8

We think the Apple Watch Series 8 is the best overall smartwatch and right now you can snag the 41mm Product Red version for just $329, which is $70 off the usual price. If you don't mind the color red, you're set. If the hue's not your speed, keep in mind that the bands are swappable, though they're not particularly cheap and the case will remain red. It's still a great watch with excellent health and fitness features, including EKG tests and crash detection. It also has solid GPS tracking and great integration with iPhone apps. Yes, it's only for those who carry iPhones. If you're an Android user, we recommend Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5. The Bluetooth 40mm model is still on sale from last week, down to $220 instead of its usual $280, which is an all-time low for the wearable.  

Apple Watch Ultra

Apple's burliest smartwatch dropped to $749 a couple weeks ago, and now the Apple Watch Ultra is $50 off once again at Amazon. We gave it an 85 on our review, praising the bright screen, extra long, three-day battery life and the impressive array of health tracking, fitness and GPS functions. Even with a $50 discount, it's not a cheap watch, and probably best suited to die-hard adventurers and athletes. 

Apple Pencil (2nd generation)

The second generation Apple Pencil had returned to the all-time low it hit during the shopping holidays at the end of last year. Usually $129, a 31 percent discount brings the stylus down to just $89. It's one of our favorite accessories for iPads and comes with a number of improvements over the first generation, including wireless charging that magnetically attaches to your compatible iPad. The second-gen Pencil only works with newer versions of iPad Air, iPad mini, or iPad Pro — the standard iPad still supports the first-gen stylus. If that's the iPad you have, you can grab the first-gen Pencil from Amazon for a $20 discount today. 

Apple MagSafe Battery Pack

Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack is currently 20 percent off at Amazon, bringing the charge-anywhere power bank down to $79. That's not the lowest it's ever gone, but it's only $8 higher that its all-time low of $71. The power bank is small and compact, firmly attaching to the back of your iPhone (model 12 and newer) as long as your case isn't too thick. In our tests, it delivered a 43 percent charge to an iPhone 14 Plus — you'll get a smaller or larger charge depending on the model and size of your phone. While it didn't win as the best MagSafe charger, it is well designed and remarkably compact. Our top pick for a MagSafe battery pack, Spigen's ArcHybrid goes for $60, but right now Amazon is offering a coupon for 35 percent off. Just check the box on the product page to apply the discount. 

If you want to wirelessly charge your iPhone at your desk or bedside table, you may want the wired, Apple-made MagSafe charger. It's on sale for $31 or 21 percent off.   

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One of the Game Boy Advance's better-known games is officially playable on a modern console. Nintendo has announced that Metroid Fusion will be available to Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers on March 9th. The 2D exploration title hasn't changed in the past two decades, but that might not be a bad thing — it represented the culmination of the original Metroid formula before the arrival of Metroid Dread in 2021.

Metroid Fusion added some twists to the plot and mechanics when it arrived in 2002. You have to fight shapeshifting parasites that include clones of Samus Aran — you're not just battling another wave of Metroids. The game also has a more linear, story-driven experience than past titles (there's even a Navigation Room to tell you where to go), and new abilities to climb ladders and grab ledges made you more nimble.

An Expansion Pack membership costs $50 per year. It's not necessarily worth the investment just for Fusion, but the addition makes the Game Boy selection more compelling. That's on top of perks like classic Nintendo 64 releases, Genesis games and Switch game add-ons. You're effectively paying for a nostalgia trip alongside Online's base multiplayer, cloud saves and NES/SNES catalog.

The International Olympics Committee has laid out more details for the upcoming Olympic Esports Series, which will take place in Singapore in June. The lineup features facsimiles of real-world competitive events rather than what many people may think of as traditional esports, such as real-time strategy titles, fighting games and first-person shooters.

The initial batch of nine games connect to disciplines overseen by international sports federations. They include Just Dance and online chess from Chess.com. Some titles that have appeared at previous IOC-sanctioned events are returning, including Gran Turismo and Zwift, which requires participants to physically pedal on a stationary bike. Archery, baseball, sailing, taekwondo and tennis games round out the list. Qualifiers for the various titles, which include mobile games like Tennis Clash, start today.

"The Olympic Movement brings people together in peaceful competition," David Lappartient, chair of the IOC Esports Liaison Group, said. "The Olympic Esports Series 2023 is a continuation of that, with the ambition of creating more spaces to play for both players and fans of elite competition."

The Esports Series follows on from the Olympic Virtual Series, which took place in 2021 in the lead up to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. That esports event featured baseball, cycling (on Zwift), rowing, sailing and motorsport. The IOC says the series drew in more than 250,000 participants from 100 countries.

Although the organization is still just warming up to the idea of bringing esports into the Olympic Games proper, the series is part of the IOC's efforts to engage with younger people and perhaps provide a gateway for them into sport. A strategic plan (PDF) approved by the IOC in 2021 includes a recommendation to "encourage the development of virtual sports and further engage with video gaming communities." Part of this involves an effort to "strengthen the roles and responsibilities of [international federations] in establishing virtual and simulated forms of sports as a discipline within their regulations and strategies."

“The idea first is really to make the bridge between the sports and the gaming space," Vincent Perieira, the IOC's head of virtual sport and gaming, told the Evening Standard. “We’re not making [an] opposition between sports and gaming. The point is really... how we can encourage people to do both to keep a good balance.”

On one hand, it makes some sense to ground the Esports Series in virtual versions of traditional sporting disciplines. The basic rules of virtual cycling, chess and tennis should be generally easy for participants and viewers to understand.

However, the IOC may be missing a trick by opting not to feature the likes of League of Legends, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, StarCraft II, Minecraft, Fortnite or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Those games (and many others) have significant built-in audiences that may not especially care about the Olympics otherwise. Perhaps one day we'll see Stardew Valley,Tetris and GeoGuessr as medaled events at the Olympic Games, but not anytime soon.

In recent years, we’ve seen an influx of self-proclaimed “cozy games,” video games explicitly designed to invoke good vibes. Being cozy, however, isn’t the same as being good. To help those who could use some help winding down, we’ve rounded up a selection of games that purposefully deemphasize fail states, violence, overwhelming grinds, intense competition and other aggressive urges, but aren’t overly cute for the sake of it or so stripped-down that they’re boring.

Stardew Valley

Apart from being one of our favorite couch co-op games, the farming life sim Stardew Valley is also notable for its relaxing qualities. It’s a game that’s willing to meet you at your pace: If you want to putter around your farm, casually chat up townsfolk, brew beer or fish for a few hours, you can. (On the flipside, if you want to turn your land into a model of ruthless efficiency as soon as possible, the experience will be more overwhelming, and the story will have a darker undercurrent.) It all starts a bit slow, but there’s no external force rushing you, and the game’s trajectory of progress always points upward. It’s an alternate little life, one that gives you the choice to take it easy.

Buy for: Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC
Length: 90 hours

Tetris Effect

Tetris Effect is, in essence, a prettier version of the falling-block puzzle game that has compelled the globe since the mid-’80s. Its spacey pop soundtrack and themed boards have an ethereal, almost spiritual quality, one that fits neatly with the trance-like condition Tetris can induce. (This helps explain where the title comes from.)

To be clear, Tetris is not the most relaxing game in the abstract. The way it makes you scramble to fix your past decisions is part of its magic, and several modes in Tetris Effect specifically thrive on stress. Others, however, are explicitly designed to tap into the game’s zen aspects. “Chill Marathon,” for one, simply resets your score upon failure instead of giving you a game over. And since Tetris itself comes as second-nature to an unusually large amount of people, we’ll make an exception for it here. It can be difficult, but even in failure, Tetris Effect induces a mind-freeing state like few games can.

Buy for: Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC, Meta Quest

Dorfromantik

Dorfromantik is a puzzle game in which you lay down tiles to create an idyllic countryside. The tiles come in distinct types: forests, fields, rivers, railroads, little houses and so on. The idea is to chain similar pieces together, and the game will give you little “quests” to connect a certain number of matching tiles to grow your overall stack. Since you can only see a few tiles at once, exactly what your landscape looks like differs from game to game.

The need to keep gaining tiles creates a contingent sort of pressure, but even still, Dorfromantik is a game that encourages slowness. There’s no time limit, and no way to even really “win.” You’re led to consider each piece, look at the land and see how it all fits. When the tiles run out, you’ve usually created a beautiful little scene. And if you just want to build a landscape without any restrictions, there’s a separate mode for that.

Buy for: Switch, PC

A Short Hike

A Short Hike is a lovely little adventure game that is completely in tune with itself. You play as Claire, a young bird in a world of anthropomorphic animals, who is staying in a small yet bustling provincial park. Something is weighing on her, and she needs to make a phone call, but the only place with cellular reception is the top of the mountain at the park’s center. Your only real objective in the two-hour game is to get her there.

There is a conventional core to A Short Hike that involves doing light fetch quests for other park-goers and collecting golden feathers to climb higher and double-jump more. But most of these tasks are straightforward, and it quickly becomes apparent that you can (literally) soar around most of the park as you please, taking in the sights and interacting with the other park visitors as they go about their lives. Apart from simply feeling nice, this freedom ties beautifully into the game’s themes: That mountain is calling, but you don’t have to climb it right away. When you do, the world will still be there for you to explore.

Buy for: Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC
Length: 2 hours

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is an adorable puzzle-platformer from Nintendo that has you navigate a series of contained, diorama-like levels, each with a gold star at its end. It’s technically a spin-off of the Super Mario games, but here, you can’t jump. Instead, you need to explore the game’s densely-packed spaces from new angles, shifting the camera to find hidden pathways and bonus treasures.

The whole thing is neither overlong nor super difficult, but it is determined, in that delightful Nintendo way, to constantly hit you with new ideas, each as playful and meticulous as the last. While it doesn’t reach the creative heights of the best Mario games — some of which were developed by the same team — it is similarly amiable and more easygoing.

Buy for: Switch
Length: 11 hours

Desert Golfing

Desert Golfing is exactly what its title says and nothing more. There is a ball, a hole, and some procedurally generated desert land in between. That’s it. No par, no club selection, no music, no items, no pause menu, no restarts, not even a physical avatar. Only dragging a cursor back to determine the next shot’s angle and power, and an attempt to get A to B. Once you do, a new hole appears, and you go on, infinitely. (The game technically has an “ending,” but may God have mercy on anyone who plays long enough to see it.)

Desert Golfing reads as overly simple on paper, and sure, it makes sense as a sneaky critique of time-sucking, player-debasing mobile games. Actually playing it, though, borders on meditative. The game’s radical minimalism makes everything and nothing matter all at once. There’s a shot counter at the top, but it’s functionally meaningless, merely signifying how long you’ve played. You may spend 60 shots on one hole, but there’s no invisible eye judging you. Instead, you’re allowed to focus entirely on the simple pleasure of arcing a ball through the air, seeing it kick up sand and eventually making it plonk in the hole. It’s about the act of play more than the rules of a game: golfing, not golf. And when something new does pop up — a well of water, a setting sun, a cactus — it feels momentous.

Buy for: PC, iOS, Android

The Ramp

Much like Desert Golfing, The Ramp is a successful experiment in minimalism. It’s a skateboarding game, but its approach is a far cry from the Tony Hawk series. It doesn’t burden you with high scores, skill points, objectives, camera adjustments or a HUD, and it respects you enough to unlock all of its courses and characters after a brief tutorial.

While it takes a moment to get the hang of its controls, The Ramp excels at conveying the joy of motion and momentum in vert skating, from launching at speed, to that brief moment of weightlessness in the sky, to the rush of gravity pulling you back down. There’s a handful of tricks to pull off, some chill music to help set the tone, and no real penalty for biffing it.

The Ramp doesn’t have much “depth” by conventional gaming standards; its developer describes it as a “digital toy,” which sounds about right. But what it does, it does well, and it’s uncompromising in its focus.

Buy for: Switch, PC

Euro Truck Simulator 2

Euro Truck Simulator 2 lets you drive a bunch of big trucks across a condensed version of Europe, delivering cargo and eventually growing your own trucking business. It’s a simulator, not a GTA game, so you’re expected to follow traffic laws, refuel your vehicle and complete your deliveries on time with as little damage as possible.

It doesn’t have the gentlest learning curve, and its management elements aren’t as interesting as the actual trucking. But Euro Truck Simulator2’s pleasures are similar to those of real-life driving: cruising down a long road, tapping your thumb to the radio, checking out the scenery, going where the route takes you. You’ll get there when you get there. As an aside: All of this is most fun with a wheel, but one isn’t required.

Buy for: PC
Length: 117 hours

Wide Ocean Big Jacket

There’s been no shortage of easy-to-play “walking simulators” in recent years, but Wide Ocean Big Jacket stands out among them for telling a particularly warm short story. It’s crudely animated and maybe an hour long, but it develops more identifiable and human characters in that time than most big-budget games do in 30 hours.

The story follows the camping trip of a young couple, Brad and Cloanne, their 13-year-old niece Mord and her friend Ben, and the subsequent lessons they learn about love and each other. It has the air of an indie comedy: a little quirky, funny but not mean-spirited, honest but not long-winded, and moving when it’s time to bring the story home. Its world isn’t ending, and there’s no combat. It’s a game about these characters in this specific moment, and it’s presented like a series of memories, something its bold colors amplify.

The game’s approach to interactivity plays a big role in selling all of this. Instead of merely controlling a specific character, you’re often in charge of the camera, a sort of director role that brings you closer to each scene but distances you, the player, from the action (or what qualifies as action in this case).

Buy for: Switch, PC
Length: 1 hour

Hidden Folks

Hidden Folks is like a digital take on those Where’s Waldo? puzzle books you might’ve had as a kid. It presents you with a series of living scenes, each brimming with detail and micro-narratives. You get a set of things to uncover, and once you find enough, you can move to the next stage. The monochrome art is hand-drawn, and all the sound effects derive from people’s voices. It’s cute, intimate and often funny.

Trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack may get frustrating if you’re in the wrong headspace, but this is a game that demands you slow down and be patient. There’s no rush; nobody on the screen is going anywhere.

Buy for: Switch, PC, iOS, Android
Length: 6 hours

PowerWash Simulator

You know those oddly satisfying YouTube videos of people deep-cleaning rugs, driveways, old electronics and the like? PowerWash Simulator is the video game version of those. You take on a range of power washing jobs around the town of “Muckingham,” slowly but steadily erasing the grime from various objects in each gig. There’s no time limit or score to meet, and each dirty thing has a corresponding progress bar to complete.

There’s more meat to PowerWash Simulator than you might expect: You can earn money to spend on upgraded power washing equipment, and there’s a narrative mode that goes places, literally and metaphorically. It probably doesn’t need to do quite as much as it does, but PowerWash Simulator’s pleasures are layered: the immediate satisfaction of making dirty things pristine, and the larger one of systematically “working” toward a job well done.

Buy for: Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC
Length: 43 hours

Unpacking

Unpacking is a stripped-down puzzler about unpacking boxes. You methodically work your way through each collection of knick-knacks, placing them around different rooms in a sequence of homes. The game is nearly wordless, but it manages to tell a story almost entirely through its isometric environments: The boxes you unpack all belong to the same character, and each move takes place in a different year of their life. This, combined with the pixelated visuals, gives the game a vaguely wistful tone.

Unpacking is still a puzzle game, so it’ll make items glow red until you put them in a “correct” location. This feels like a misstep: If I want to leave my bookbag off to the side of my bed and just be done with things, why can’t I? Isn’t moving messy? Still, even if Unpacking is a bit too gamified, there’s a quiet catharsis to its fantasy of putting everything in its right place. If nothing else, it’s far less stressful than moving in real life.

Buy for: Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC
Length: 4 hours

Please, Touch the Artwork

Please, Touch the Artwork is a set of three earnest puzzle games, each inspired by abstract art. The specifics of the games differ: One has you mechanically recreate Mondrian-style paintings, another turns Broadway Boogie Woogie into a little love story, and the third reframes New York City as a metaphor for adjusting to life in, well, a big new city. Only the first can get particularly difficult, but the game tells you right upfront that it’s made to be a low-stress experience, with no timers, and hints and redo buttons there if you need them.

What intrigues about Please, Touch the Artwork isn’t what it says about De Stijl and abstract art (as if such works could ever be “solved”). Rather, it’s what it conveys about the experience of taking in art itself, and how close it brings you to the lone developer (Thomas Waterzooi) behind the game. The whole project has an intensely personal feel, like peering into someone’s brain and seeing how this kind of art speaks to them. Some may see that as unbearably pretentious, but even on a mechanical level, Please, Touch the Artwork is welcoming, bold and sincere.

Buy for: Switch, PC, iOS, Android
Length: 4 hours

Zen Bound 2

Like most games on this list, Zen Bound 2 has a simple premise: You get a rope and a series of 3D sculptures, and your goal is to wrap the rope around each sculpture until it’s covered completely, coating it with paint in the process. The sculptures themselves can be more difficult than they first seem, however, with many hidden gaps and sharp angles.

Playing Zen Bound 2 demands slow contemplation, almost like meditating on the object you’re binding. This, in turn, may lead you to reflect on the physical nuances of the things you tie yourself to in real life. But even if that sounds pompous, just know that Zen Bound 2 offers a thoughtful way to zone out.

Buy for: Switch, PC
Length: 8 hours

Tecno, a relatively unknown mobile brand on our side of the world, surprised us with a pop-out portrait lens on its Phantom X2 Pro flagship phone back in December. For its MWC event today, the Chinese company brought us the Phantom V Fold, which happens to be the first horizontally-folding phone to be powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 9000+ processor (hello, Oppo Find N2 Flip!), rather than something from Qualcomm. This usually means a lower entry barrier, which is always a good thing.

Like Honor's Magic VS and Xiaomi's Mix Fold 2, the Phantom V Fold has opted for a body that's wider than Samsung's counterparts — just not as wide as Oppo's. Tecno's "virtually crease-free" foldable screen comes in at 7.85 inches with a 2,296 x 2,000 resolution, and on the other side, you're greeted by a 6.42-inch 2,550 x 1,080 sub-screen. Both AMOLED panels feature a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. As far as durability goes, the claim here is that "the device is capable of 200,000 folds," which matches that of Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 4, though that's just half of what the Chinese competition has achieved lately.

Richard Lai/Engadget

The Phantom V Fold comes with a complete set of cameras, too. On the rear side, there's a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto camera (2x optical zoom) and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera. These are surrounded by an eco-friendly back cover — in black or white — composed of recycled plastics. Then you get two punch-hole selfie cameras: a 16-megapixel one on the foldable screen, and a 32-megapixel version on the outer screen. The latter is fine for video calls on that smaller screen, but you'd probably want to unfold the phone and use the main camera instead for better selfies.

Tecno didn't cheap out on the battery here, either. The Phantom V Fold packs a 5,000mAh battery with 45W fast charge. This reaches 40-percent charge in 15 minutes, or 100-percent charge in 55 minutes. That's a tad slower than the Chinese competition, but it still beats the Galaxy Z Fold 4 — assuming you don't mind missing out on wireless charging.

Richard Lai/Engadget

On the software side, the Phantom V Fold runs on Tecno's HiOS 13 Fold based on Android 13. The company claimed that it's customized the folding experience on its device for the top 1,000 most downloaded apps globally, and 90 percent of which have also been optimized for split-screen and multi-window modes.

So how much more affordable is the Phantom V Fold? Well, not bad. The base model with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage costs $1,099, whereas the 512GB variant is asking for $1,222. These are very competitive when compared to Samsung and even Honor outside of China, though prices will vary across countries — namely India, in this case, followed by various African and Latin American countries where Tecno is usually active in.

Despite what companies would like you to believe, you don’t need to get a new phone every year or two. So while Samsung’s 2023 lineup of its Galaxy S flagship phones may seem underwhelming when compared to the last generation, it’s not a bad thing that these devices offer little reason to upgrade. It’s just that after having said the same thing about the 2022 models, as well as competing phones from Apple and Google, it feels hard to be excited about non-folding smartphones anymore.

Like most of the competition, Samsung has focused on tweaking the S23 series’ camera and software features, alongside small adjustments to display and design. We’ve also got the typical processor upgrade and promised battery life improvements, which are objectively good things on paper, but in reality don’t impact your daily use that much.

We’ve already reviewed the S23 Ultra which, thanks to a large screen, onboard S-Pen and 200-megapixel camera, is aggressively targeted at power users. For everyone else looking to get a new Android phone, there’s the S23+ or the S23. Samsung hasn’t made the smallest model available to review yet, so we’re focusing on the Plus model here. If you’re considering Samsung’s middle child, it’s probably only worth it if you’re currently using something at least three years old or if you’re outside the US.

Design

One of the most noticeable changes between the S23+ and its predecessor is this year’s cleaned up appearance. The two phones are basically the same, save for the shiny camera housing on the back of the older model, wrapping around the top left corner. Samsung introduced this “contour cut” housing on the S21, and I grew to like the aesthetic, especially on the lavender and pink versions.

Looking at the S22+ and S23+ side by side, I’m ambivalent – they’re both inoffensive. Whether you prefer the cleaner look depends on your personal taste. Functionally, nothing is too different between the two designs — the S23+ wobbles slightly less, but that was never a huge deal on the S22. I liked the lavender color of our review unit, as well as the green version I saw at Samsung’s hands-on event, but the cream and black options bore me.

In terms of physical dimensions, the differences between the two generations are negligible. They’re practically the same weight, width and length and exactly the same thickness. The S23+ is slimmer and lighter than the Pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 14 Plus, though those two have larger displays.

Display and audio

Speaking of, one area that Samsung did somewhat improve on the S23+ is its screen. Yes, it’s mostly the same as before, with the same size, same FHD+ resolution and an up to 120Hz refresh rate. By now you probably have heard reviewers like myself extol the virtues of screens with high refresh rates and how great they are for scrolling your Instagram or Reddit feeds. The S23+ is no exception.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

But it’s now capable of hitting up to 1,750 nits when outdoors compared to 1,200 nits before, meaning it should be easier to read in sunlight. There haven’t been many sunny days recently, so it’s been hard to put this to the test. But, the S23+ still offers a vibrant, colorful screen as is typical for Samsung’s mobile products. 

Meanwhile, when it comes to audio, the Galaxy S23+ is as good as any flagship smartphone. That is to say it offers clear vocals and ample volume, but is slightly lacking in bass. Voices of The Weeknd, SZA and Rihanna all sounded clear in the songs that I listened to, though the instruments in the latter's cover of Love On The Brain sounded a little messy.

Cameras

The triple rear camera system on the S23+ is the same as before. That is to say, its main 50-megapixel sensor is accompanied by a 10MP telephoto and a 12MP ultrawide. Up front, though, the S23+ has a new 12MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and 80-degree field of view.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

As a professional pixel peeper (™), I could make out just the slightest difference in sharpness between selfies taken with the S22+ and S23+, specifically in the highlighted strands of my hair. There was some distortion in the pictures taken with the older phone, whereas the same lines were tack sharp on the 12MP version. Overall, though, barring some general color temperature variations, it was hard to tell the two images apart.

Compared to the Pixel 7 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro, the S23+ has a slight advantage in retaining detail, thanks to its dual-pixel autofocus as well. I shot some selfies with a friend as we were cackling maniacally one night, and Samsung’s flagship was the only one that retained the gorgeous greens, purples and blues in her hair, while capturing every individual strand of her eyelashes. You could even see the texture of the pigmentation in her purple eyeshadow.

The Pixel’s 10.8MP front camera managed to capture the hues in her hair too, but its picture simply wasn’t as detailed or clear. Meanwhile, the iPhone’s 12MP photo barely showed any of the colors in my friend’s tresses.

Though they remain unchanged, the S23+’s rear cameras are still pretty capable. In most situations with adequate light, they deliver pictures that are similar in quality to the Pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro. My shots of the New York cityscape one overcast day all showed slightly different coloring. The S23+ had the deepest, brightest blue, while the Pixel was the most neutral. Samsung’s 3x telephoto lens let me get the closest to faraway buildings and still get crisp pics, though Google’s algorithms still made for clean results.

In low light, however, the Pixel consistently outdid the S23+, with better exposure and retention of clarity in my numerous shots of mouth-watering food. Whether it’s a shiny fried shrimp or a plate of tantalizing scallops, the Pixel delivered more even highlights than the S23+. Google’s portrait mode also consistently kept subjects in focus, although every now and then the S23+ would produce a photo with surprisingly accurate outlines of my subjects.

While it’s not at the same level as Google’s or Apple’s flagship cameras, the S23+ isn’t lagging far behind and offers some versatility for those looking to take shots from a distance.

Performance and battery life

This year marks the first time Samsung is using a Snapdragon processor in all variants of the Galaxy S series, regardless of where they’re bought. That means if you were relegated to using a version with Samsung’s own Exynos chip in the past, getting an S23 would be a bigger upgrade for you than someone in the US. Exynos models have been criticized for performance and battery life drawbacks compared to their Snapdragon counterparts, so trading your S22 in for an S23 would make more sense in Europe or Asia than in the US.

The S23 series is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, which is a customized version of Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line mobile processor. It has slightly higher clock speeds than the regular edition, so if this is the only deciding factor for you when choosing between a Galaxy and, say, a OnePlus, then know that this difference is extremely slight.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

In daily use, the S23+ felt as zippy as any of the new phones I’ve tested lately. Whether I’m dragging and dropping my face between apps, learning Japanese on “Hey Japan,” mindlessly scrolling on Instagram or trying to get into Genshin: Impact, the S23+ never hiccuped. I generally expect pretty smooth performance out of new phones like this, so I can’t say I’m especially impressed, and it’s probably more realistic to evaluate performance after a few months with the phone.

I can, however, talk about how impressive the battery life has been. In general the S23+ has matched the Pixel 7 Pro that I also carried around while testing their cameras, and both devices stuck around for longer than two days without a charge. Granted, I wasn’t heavily using either during that time, mostly whipping them out to take photos and videos throughout the day.

On our video rundown battery test, the S23+ clocked a whopping 25 hours, which beats pretty much every phone we tested in 2022, as well as the Galaxy S23 Ultra and OnePlus 11.

Wrap-up

It might feel like nitpicking, but with so few meaningful changes, the S23+ doesn’t feel like it’s worth upgrading to if you’re using an S22 or S21. That is, at least, if you’re in the US. Those who are living with an Exynos version of an older Galaxy flagship will likely find a greater improvement in performance and battery life, making it a more worthy upgrade.

But just because the S23+ isn’t chock full of surprises and updates doesn’t mean it’s not a good phone. It still ranks up there as one of the best Android phones around. Samsung has consistently delivered capable phones with thoughtful software and features in the last few years and with the S23+, it continues to be a serious contender for those looking for an excellent Android phone.

Realme, a sister brand of Oppo, is finally bringing its 240W SuperVOOC fast charging tech to the international market by way of a familiar-looking device. Freshly announced at MWC, the Realme GT3 is identical to the Chinese GT Neo5 model, meaning it benefits from the same rapid charging speeds: a quick 80-second connection with the custom 12A cable will replenish the 4,600mAh battery to 20 percent, and a 9.5-minute session will get it fully charged.

To cope with the extra heat from the higher charging power, the GT3's battery is covered with a massive vapor chamber liquid cooling system, and this is complemented with various safety sensors plus a fireproof design. The battery will apparently maintain at least 80-percent health after 1,600 charging cycles (at 240W) — doubling that of the industry standard.

Realme

Realme threw in a small C-shaped RGB lighting ring — dubbed "Pulse Interface System" — sandwiched between an NFC ring and a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 icon on the back (yep, no love for the newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 here). These are all housed inside a translucent window next to the camera module, with the customizable light ring indicating the battery level, incoming calls, notifications and camera countdown. See? RGB isn't just for showing off.

As with the GT Neo5, the GT3 packs a 50-megapixel main camera (featuring a Sony IMX890 sensor and optical stabilization), an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. Flip to the other side, you'll find a 6.74-inch 2,772 x 1,240 AMOLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, an under-display fingerprint reader and a 16-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera. The infrared remote blaster at the top is here to stay, and likewise with the Dolby Atmos stereo speakers.

Realme

The Realme GT3's charging speed may not match Xiaomi's five-minute record claim from earlier today, but at least it is already available in the market. Starting at $649, this Android 13 device comes in four flavors, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage being the base model, and maxing out with 16GB RAM plus 1TB of storage for the special variant. You'll be able to pick one up across Europe and Asia soon.

Almost four years after it was announced, Pokémon Sleep is finally on the way. During today's Pokémon Presents event, it emerged that the game will arrive sometime this summer. It was originally supposed to debut in 2020.

Pokémon Sleep is a mobile game from Pokémon: Magikarp Jump developer Select Button that can track your sleep. It features Snorlax (of course) and Professor Neroli, a Pokémon sleep researcher. The idea is that you leave your phone next to you when you go to bed.

The app will analyze your sleep and categorize it into one of three types: dozing, snoozing and slumbering. Pokémon that tend to sleep in a similar fashion will gather around Snorlax. The more you play, the more likely you are to unlock rare sleep styles for various Pokémon. Droopy-eared Pikachu in particular looks extremely cute.

The Pokémon Company also provided an update on Pokémon Go Plus +, a physical device that connects to both Pokémon Sleep and Pokémon Go. For the former, you press the button when you go to bed and again when you wake up to track your sleep data, presumably instead of needing to have your phone next to you. There's a built-in alarm, as well as a Pikachu voice that can sing lullabies.

While you're out and about, you can use the disc-shaped Pokémon Go Plus + to automatically spin PokéStops and throw Poké Balls in Pokémon Go without even having to press the button on the device. Eventually, there will be a way to use your sleep data in Pokémon Go too.

Pokémon Go Plus + follows the original Pokémon Go Plus, which emerged in 2016, and the Poké Ball Plus. It will be available on July 14th and it costs $55, almost the same as a new mainline Pokémon game on Switch. When you link it to Pokémon Go, you'll be able to find an adorable version of Snorlax wearing a nightcap when you're out hunting Pokémon.

TCL is back at Mobile World Congress this year with a bunch of budget-friendly new gear to show off. Among other things, the company has developed a new version of its color paper-like screen technology, which it's calling NXTPAPER 2.0.

Compared with the previous version, TCL says NXTPAPER 2.0 delivers 150 percent more brightness with up to 500 nits, making it easier to use outdoors during the day (the anti-glare tech should help too). The company claims that, due to hardware-level filtering, the technology exceeds TÜV-certified levels of blue light reduction. TCL says the tech can help protect your eye health while maintaining color accuracy and avoiding screen yellowing. The screen's color temperature will adjust automatically based on the time and environment as well.

You'll soon be able to check out NXTPAPER 2.0 on a new tablet. The NXTPAPER 11 has an 11-inch, 2K display and TCL says there's a feature called AI Visual Boost that makes colors "bolder and more lifelike." The Android 13 tablet runs on an octa-core processor. It has 8MP cameras on the front and rear, four speakers, dual mics and an 8,000mAh battery. The tablet, which weighs just over a pound (462g), starts at $249 and it will initially be available in Europe in May.

Also new is the TCL TAB 11, another 11-inch tablet, albeit with a 2K NXTVISION display. It otherwise has similar specs as the NXTPAPER 11. The TAB 11 will be available in May and it starts at $179. Versions with LTE start at $209.

TCL

On the phone front, TCL has a few new models for the US market: the 40 XE 5G, 40 X 5G and a 40 XL with 4G connectivity. The $169 40 XE 5G is the lowest-cost 5G TCL phone to date, the company said. It has a 6.56-inch HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling. The rear camera array features a 13MP main camera and 2MP depth and macro sensors. On the front, there's an 8MP lens. The phone has a 2.2GHz octo-core processor and 4GB of RAM. There's just 64GB of storage, but you can add another 1TB via microSD.

The 40 XE 5G will be available in June, just like the 40 X 5G, which has similar specs, but a more advanced 50MP main camera. That model starts at $199. The 4G-only 40 XL, meanwhile, has a 6.75" HD+ display, dual speakers and a 50MP main camera. There's an octa-core processor and base storage of 128GB. You can pick that Android 13 phone up in May for $149.

Along with the phones and tablets, TCL has a fresh set of earphones. It says the MOVEAUDIO Neo earbuds have 25dB of bass-boosted sound, four EQ modes, dual-mic call noise cancellation and active noise cancellation. They're available now for $50.