Valve raised the price of the 512GB Steam Deck OLED to $789 this May, a number that makes anyone want to close the browser tab out of spite. Blame the AI boom, which has data centers swallowing memory chips faster than factories can make them, leaving handhelds to fight over the scraps. Now look at the phone in your hand. It runs native console ports like Resident Evil, streams entire Xbox and PlayStation libraries, and emulates most of the consoles a millennial grew up with. All it lacks is a pair of real thumbsticks and triggers, which is a far cheaper problem to solve.
Hong Kong-based abxylute solves that problem with the M5 and M6, two sliding controllers that magnetically snap to the back of your phone. Closed, they sit behind it like a chunky case. Slide the phone up and a full gamepad appears underneath, Xperia Play style, with sticks, triggers, and rumble. The M5 is the slim one, plugging in over USB-C with zero pairing and pass-through charging. The M6 goes wireless over Bluetooth, adding clickable capacitive sticks, Hall Effect triggers, gyro aiming, and a 10-hour battery. Both retail under $90, roughly one-ninth of a Steam Deck these days, and for anyone whose gaming happens on commutes and couches, that math is hard to argue with.
Designer: abxylute
Click Here to Buy Now: $65 $84.99 (24% off) Hurry! Only limited units available.
Sliding rails nearly went extinct when touchscreen slabs replaced slider phones, and so did most of the factories that made them. abxylute eventually tracked down a manufacturer that once built rails for Nokia and Sony, then asked it to do something those phones never needed. A slider from 2010 only had to carry a lightweight screen half, while the M5 and M6 have to hold a phone and case weighing up to around 10.6 ounces (300g). The resulting bidirectional damped rail glides smoothly both ways, with magnets snapping it into the fully open and closed positions. That makes for a calmer motion than the spring-loaded slide on the OhSnap MCON, which fires the phone open at a button press.
The phone attaches through an adjustable magnetic mount rated at 4,098 gf, roughly 9 pounds of pull and comfortably above the 2,500 to 3,500 gf abxylute quotes for Apple’s MagSafe. Both mounts clear camera bumps up to 0.28 inches (7mm), and the plate shifts to suit different phone sizes. Supported phones include the iPhone 18 series, Galaxy S26, Pixel 11, OnePlus 15, and Xiaomi 17, with a magnetic adhesive ring in the box for anything lacking MagSafe. Thick cases will sap some of that grip, so slimmer cases make the safer pairing. Lightning iPhones sit out the M5 entirely, since that model needs a USB-C port to work.
The M5 began life as a DIY build by Jinjiang, an independent maker who handled the 3D modeling, PCB design, and programming himself before abxylute partnered with him to engineer it for mass production. Its connection is wired USB-C, which means no Bluetooth pairing, no battery to charge, and pass-through charging so your phone can top up mid-session. The sticks are low-profile carbon-film sliders modeled on the PSP, PSP Go, and Nintendo 3DS, recessed nearly flat to keep the controller slim. Because sliders can’t click, abxylute added dedicated LS and RS buttons that double as programmable macro keys. Micro-switch triggers with short travel and a crisp click round out the inputs.
Those choices produce a controller that weighs about 6 ounces (170g) and measures 0.91 inches (23mm) thick with the mount, thinning to 0.45 inches (11.5mm) at the grip area. It spans 5.9 inches (149.5mm) wide, about the width of a large phone, so it slips into a jacket pocket easily. I appreciate a product that commits this fully to one idea, and the M5 commits to portability. Slider sticks offer less throw than full-size ones, so they favor retro titles and platformers over twitchy shooters. A limited M5 Founder’s Edition, capped at 1,000 units, comes in translucent retro green with a customizable two-letter badge replacing the abxylute logo.
The M6 took nearly three years to develop, long enough to earn the internal nickname “little Nezha,” and most of that effort went into the controls. Its capacitive sticks, developed with component maker K-Silver, tilt 20 degrees against the roughly 23 degrees of a full-size controller stick, and they click for L3 and R3. abxylute also built them to resist magnetic interference, a smart call given the strong magnet array sliding a few millimeters above them. Instead of sinking the sticks into deep wells, a stepped surface around each one frees up room for your thumbs. Stick output switches between circular and square modes, handy for racing games and emulators.
Hall Effect linear triggers with 0.22 inches (5.5mm) of travel handle racing games, and a Fast Trigger Mode shortens actuation for shooters. A face-mounted Z button takes remaps and multi-button macros, so a fighting game special move or a jump-and-shoot combo fits under one thumb. There’s also a 6-axis gyroscope for motion aiming, and Bluetooth 5.3 backed by a 500mAh battery rated for up to 10 hours. The lighting is diffused, bouncing off the controller’s surface instead of shining at your eyes, and its color changes with each mode. All this comes in at 6.7 ounces (191g) and 1.02 inches (26mm) thick, a modest premium over the M5.
Both controllers share a physical mode switch that flips between NS, XInput, and PS layouts, covering Switch emulators, Android and cloud gaming, and iPhone titles respectively. Each gets dual Z-axis linear vibration motors with four intensity levels, plus a Turbo function paired to the M button. The free abxy Game App doubles as a launcher for emulators and cloud services, and it handles remapping, dead zones, macros, lighting, and vibration. Virtual touch mapping lets you assign on-screen controls to physical buttons for games that never bothered with controller support. Detachable magnetic grips, held by magnets plus a mechanical shear lock, add full-size handles for longer sessions, though they aren’t listed among the box contents.
Kickstarter pricing currently sits at $65 for the M5 and $69 for the M6, against retail prices of $84.99 and $89.99, both well under the $169.99 Backbone Pro. A bundle with one of each costs $119, down from $174.98. The M6 is estimated to ship in November 2026 and the M5 in December 2026, with worldwide delivery. The M5 box adds a USB-C cable to the controller, adhesive ring, and manual that both models share. Valve wants $789 for a handheld. abxylute wants $69 to upgrade the one you already own.
Click Here to Buy Now: $65 $84.99 (24% off) Hurry! Only limited units available.
The post Abxylute’s $65 smartphone gamepad packs Hall Effect triggers, clickable sticks, and gyro aiming first appeared on Yanko Design.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that AMD FSR 4.1 would be implemented on current Xbox devices, which will happen sooner than you'd think, according to our sources.
Well, that time has come for Xbox handhelds, as Reddit user "Sjknight413" has discovered that beta drivers for AMD FSR 4.1 have rolled out and are ready to download on Xbox Ally, Xbox Ally X, and Xbox Ally X20.
The FSR4 preview driver for the Xbox Ally X is now available to downloadfrom r/XboxAlly
For those unaware, AMD FSR 4.1 is an upscaling technology designed to boost the graphical details of a game's image higher than its native resolution would allow. It accomplishes this by rendering games at a lower resolution, then using machine learning to generate sharper images.
This technique would allow the console to not spend as much on rendering a game's resolution and use the leftover overhead to boost its framerate performance.
Our sources informed us last time that Xbox handhelds receive this update first, with the Xbox Series X|S to follow suit in the following weeks, so we'll keep an eye out and inform you when it arrives.
In the meantime, be sure to look forward to Jez Corden's personal testing of the AMD FSR 4.1 on Xbox Ally X, and see if its resolution and performance boost can match up to the Steam Deck's impressive usage of FSR 4, without the latter's complicated setup for it via GitHub.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
Putting a large screen on a gaming handheld is easy compared with making the whole thing comfortable to hold. AYN’s Odin 3 Portal approaches that problem with a 7-inch OLED up front and sculpted grips behind it. Now available for preorder, the Android handheld combines a broad, glass-covered face with physical controls that give your fingers somewhere other than the screen to go.
That front surface stretches across the display and surrounding control areas, giving the device a flatter, more unified appearance than a screen dropped into a chunky frame. Black keeps the boundary between panel and housing less conspicuous, while White and Cold Grey emphasize it. The latter’s purple buttons add retro flavor without turning the machine into a tribute to another console.
Designer: AYN
Turn it over, and the shape becomes less concerned with looking flat. Rounded bulges give your palms somewhere to settle, while textured shoulder buttons meet your index fingers above. The full-size Hall-effect sticks have ridged edges, and a dome D-pad sits below the left stick. These details aim to improve control, though actual comfort will depend on your hands and how you play.
The screen is a 1920×1080 OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate, giving supported games room to show smoother motion without asking you to peer at a tiny display. That doesn’t mean every game will run at 120 frames per second, of course, nor should you always crank it up. It depends on the game, settings, and your remaining battery.
Behind that screen is Qualcomm’s Dragonwing Q8 processor, paired with Android 15 and active cooling. A broad rear grille gives the internal fan room to draw air, making ventilation part of the exterior rather than hiding it completely. That’s worth remembering when you settle in with the handheld against a cushion, since the cooling system still needs an unobstructed path to breathe.
Power comes from a 9,000mAh battery, with support for 60W charging when you need to plug back in. Actual playtime will depend on the game and screen settings, so that capacity doesn’t translate into a guaranteed afternoon away from an outlet. At about 15.9 ounces, the handheld puts weight behind that screen, especially when a quick session somehow becomes an entire evening.
Storage starts at 128GB with 12GB of RAM, while the top model offers 1TB and 16GB of RAM. There’s also a microSD slot, so choosing less built-in storage doesn’t close off future expansion. AYN specifies that no games come preinstalled, however. You’re buying the hardware for your own library and setup, not a ready-made collection of nostalgic favorites waiting behind the power button.
Launch pricing starts at $399, with the 1TB version reaching $669 and shipping expected to begin in early November 2026. The pricier configuration doesn’t buy a different screen or processor, just more memory and storage than the base model. That leaves a practical choice between keeping a larger library installed and keeping the price down, particularly when a memory card remains an option.
The post AYN Odin 3 Portal Handheld Pairs a Flat Glass Front With Sculpted Grips first appeared on Yanko Design.
I fell in love with Call of Duty way back in 2009, when my friend group pushed me to make the jump from Halo 3 to Modern Warfare 2. While initially I was concerned I couldn't get a handle on certain mechanics, like learning weapon types beyond the simplified "AR" and "BR" I had grown accustomed to in Halo, I ended up really getting my footing in Modern Warfare 2 after a couple of months. It was the start of a fixation with Call of Duty that only 2016's Infinite Warfare could put at risk. I still quote several lines from MW2 (2009) to this day, even.
17 years after my first foray into Call of Duty's Modern Warfare subseries, my attachment to the franchise has only grown. For quite a while, I considered the 2019 reboot of the Modern Warfare franchise among my favorite games of all time. After completing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, however, I think that list has been shaken up — and I can finally tell you why.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is divided up between three different modes: a single-player campaign, the revival of the PvPvE experience in DMZ, and classic multiplayer.
Modern Warfare 4 was piecemealed out over the last week, with players who had preordered gaining access to the Campaign one week in advance, followed by an early access period for DMZ lasting a few days before the launch of MW4 multiplayer (which the team ended up releasing a few hours earlier than originally planned, as well).
Because of the staggered launch window, I went ahead and wrote a longer review explaining why I felt the campaign for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a cinematic masterpiece, as well as an individual article discussing my first impressions of the DMZ. But I'd also like to reflect on those modes as part of the full launch, too.
I'm reiterating that headline because I don't think I can say it enough to stress how incredibly well done the campaign for MW4 truly is. In the very beginning, MW4 introduces a new squad — Sierra-1, a collaborative group of young soldiers consisting of South Korean conscripts and American Marines.
The narrative team from Infinity Ward really showed their chops with the opening sequence, as the American soldiers introduce the ROK members of Sierra-1 to Wu-Tang's rap classic, C.R.E.A.M. The team banter and poke at one another before side-questing into a convenience store to purchase junk food and stomach medicine for some light hazing of the squad's newbie.
The sequence feels like a video game's cold open and more like an expertly shot film, with care and attention to detail oozing from every neon light, every brightly colored and meticulously packed item on the corner store's shelves, all the way to the silly expression on the American corporal's face when you lie and tell him that a specific food item is, well — fish soaked in piss.
Modern Warfare 4 is a war game, though, not a shopping simulator, so of course things have to go awry for our charming young squad when they find themselves thrust into the front lines of urban warfare in downtown Seoul after North Koreans invade under the cover of night.
Fighting through this battle with this inexperienced squadron adds more risk to the invasion of North Korea, and as they are forced to retreat, we learn that the story here is not being told in a linear fashion. Instead, we're pushed back to 5 days before NK's attack on Seoul.
It's through these time jumps that Infinity Ward's narrative team weaves a complicated tale of brotherhood and comradery between squad mates, the weight of grief when a squadmate is lost in battle, and the consequences of how that grief is dealt with. Sierra-1's story intertwines with MW staple, Task Force 141, which has been severely affected by the loss of Johnny "Soap" MacTavish (at the end of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023).)
While the young squad of Sierra-1 grapples with loss in one way, TF141's leader, Captain John Price, has gone the revenge route. Now rogue after having killed American General Shepherd, Price finds himself at the mercy of his former enemy, El Sin Nombre (Valeria Garza.)
Every element of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign will have you pulled in, waiting with bated breath to see what happens next. For a franchise that has historically been considered a vapid first-person shooter without any sort of deep-rooted story to tell, Modern Warfare 4 pulls out all the stops and effectively proves anything uttered by detractors as wrong.
MW4 juxtaposes the actions of its younger, inexperienced squad against those of the battle-hardened TF141. Both bands of brothers tackle grief and motivations for continuing on in the face of a heavy loss, doing so in ways that affect the other squad without their even knowing it.
These parallels also appear in the campaign's other subplot, which highlights the brutality of the invading North Korean regime and its hunt against defectors. We get yet a third angle to study the issue of blind loyalty and defecting from the safety of what one knows because it is inarguably just the right thing to do.
The MW4 campaign is a gut-wrenching story that serves as the finale for the Modern Warfare reboot. While we see several known characters' storylines come to an end in one way or another, there are still some characters for the subseries that are left in the wind who do not have neat little ties to their loose ends.
Modern Warfare 4's "third mode" is a return of the MW2 (2022)'s PvPvE experience, DMZ. Set in a demilitarized zone in Hajin, on the border of the Korean peninsula and Russia, players can infiltrate the region and carry out missions to check off objectives for several missions that expand upon the post-credits world of Modern Warfare 4.
DMZ differs from the single-player campaign in that it takes on the form of an extraction shooter, with players able to take an operator from one of the game's story characters and put that operator through their paces in the DMZ, completing story missions and dynamic ops to level up and loot for better gear.
Because the Modern Warfare campaign wraps up most characters for the subseries, we're given a varied roster of operators, many of which have previously served as multiplayer Operators for Modern Warfare titles past.
Hajin is visually stunning. The open-world map is mostly controlled server-side, so Infinity Ward has been able to introduce new mechanics like dynamic weather to the mode. All players on a server will see the way weather and other factors affect Hajin collectively, so you can't blame the weather for your untimely demise in the DMZ.
In an interview with Infinity Ward's multiplayer team, I was once told that the battles that go down in multiplayer should be looked at as if they're happening a block or two over from the events that happen in the campaign.
You can see that philosophy very clearly in Modern Warfare 4's 12 launch maps, each of which features very noticeable elements from the campaign that are arranged in a way that makes them feel like they could have been nearby, but not quite the same.
Multiplayer's maps offer an impressive variety of biomes, from a small, tight bus yard to the dilapidated remains of an old coal mining operation. It would be easy to expect Infinity Ward to let the visuals for multiplayer lapse — after all, who would even notice if the paint cans spill when hit or that bullets impact surrounding set pieces?
But the team wasn't content to just let these maps exist. Instead, the multiplayer maps of MW4 are beautiful sets ripe for destruction that offer adequate flanking opportunities and enhance the sustainability of using non-meta weapons, even on small maps, through the power of good design and reasonable player movement.
Infinity Ward did not just stop with multiplayer's classic map structure, though. Modern Warfare 4 introduces a new concept for how to play multiplayer with the new dynamic map, Kill Block.
Kill Block rotates the available set pieces for the map and selects three to piece together to create one unique gameplay experience from mere pieces. Despite being pulled from a multitude of different styles from Modern Warfare's past and present, Kill Block still manages to be a cohesive (and addictive) new feature for MW4.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is a first-person shooter with intense action at its core. Everything about the game is meant to make you feel like you're a war hero, fighting the good fight, across all of its modes. However, there are some notable differences in how each mode gets you to that point (or keeps it dangling in front of you like a carrot.)
"We get dirty, and the world stays clean" is a recurring mantra throughout the Modern Warfare subseries. The idea is that Task Force 141 may sometimes make decisions or act in ways that might seem questionable or otherwise dirty, but it's okay when the end will inevitably justify the means.
So then it should come as no surprise that Captain Price, who is clearly built to be a brawler, gets his hands dirty in the literal sense by carrying out some of his revenge plot.
Most sequences with Sierra-1 feature classic linear COD set pieces that put you in the heart of battle. But some of Capt. Price's appearances lean into his ability to take down friends and foes in some good old-fashioned fisticuffs, pushing the player into using LT and RT to block, counter, and attack.
Infinity Ward also breaks up the long linear sequences by introducing classical mechanics like rappelling down a skyscraper with night vision goggles, clearing stairwells and rooms where enemies are waiting to take you out under the cover of darkness.
One mission, "Stranded", deviates from the standard gameplay funnel by introducing a semi-open world with three objectives that players can interact with in any order they choose. In addition to the three main objectives, there are multiple secrets littered around, including yellow storage crates with loot and keypad puzzles to unlock for bonus gear.
When Infinity Ward first introduced the concept of the DMZ in 2022, I was intrigued. I was originally a fan of The Division's Dark Zone concept, and really fell for the extraction mode DLC "Survival". But few games had managed to recapture the excitement of that PvPvE experience that won me over in the Dark Zone.
When the DMZ Beta dropped, I actually spent quite a lot of time with my friends exploring but ultimately ignored the mode sometime before it began to receive new content updates like Building 21.
The things that I felt were lacking and failed to keep me engaged in the DMZ beta for the long term seem to have been addressed with MW4's Beta. Players select their operator, which can be leveled up by earning XP completing story missions and Dynamic Ops, or free roaming to take out lieutenants and other players.
Unlocking Trait Perks lets you spec out a skill tree for your operator, but should they succumb to an untimely demise without extracting their gear and loot, the operator becomes MIA. MIA operators require in-game currency to recover.
This system has proved to add a significant amount of tension to the DMZ, which also offers players a heightened sense of discomfort by introducing NPC characters that behave much more like players than any we have ever seen before. These NPCs drive recklessly, attempt to run players over or take off-road shortcuts, flank squads, and otherwise offer a formidable foe to the DMZ.
It's a challenging new mode, and the community seems to be at odds over whether PvP or PvE elements should reign supreme, but as it stands at launch, DMZ's a tense and exciting experience with friends that has managed to make loss and success both feel more gratifying than its predecessor.
Despite having reviewed every single Call of Duty that has launched in the last 5 years, I still find myself pointing out with each one just how much the development team has had to find a balance between half of a player base that longs for a nostalgic past and half of a player base that craves something new for multiplayer.
Modern Warfare 4 is no different, but I do think there's a chance that Infinity Ward has found a way to walk that line with precision. Launching into Modern Warfare 4's multiplayer when it went live, I immediately felt at home. Despite new menus that allow players to attach custom class loadouts to one specific operator, the system feels familiar and comfortable.
Many of the menus for Multiplayer have gone back to a vertical layout, making them more manageable and a welcome change of pace from the last few years of seemingly endless horizontal options.
Like how DMZ had a glow-up based on player feedback, so has Multiplayer. Many of the game's ills from its open beta earlier this fall seem to have been addressed. UAV spam, for example, led to the developers increasing the cost of all killstreaks by one to help lessen their frequency.
There is still some room for improvement, however. The Time-to-Kill speed was adjusted based on player feedback during the beta, but the open beta period only offered a core playlist. That means players who preferred Hardcore modes were unable to experience exactly what Hardcore had to offer before its launch.
As an avid hardcore fan, I find that there's definitely still wiggle room for some minor weapon balance passes in the mode, but those sorts of quality-of-life improvements are typically made throughout the game's post-launch lifetime. It wouldn't even surprise me if the TTK for Hardcore wasn't already addressed even before this review goes live.
Few games make it to the 4th entry in a subseries that has been rebooted from a franchise that has been running annually for more than 20 years. But here Infinity Ward sits with Modern Warfare 4. A game that blends the story of a nostalgic brotherhood coping with immeasurable losses with a fledgling brotherhood that is just forming under the burden of war and tragedy.
The nostalgia of the Call of Duty franchise oddly mirrors that of Task Force 141 in some ways. Similarly, the bright-eyed potential of Sierra-1 mirrors that of an Infinity Ward under new studio leadership and grappling with the loss of influential members of the team that are memorialized in the post-credits In Memorial screens.
And yet, from the heartbreak and nostalgia and changing of the guard, there's room for something new. Something exciting that reinvigorates a community that refused to give up on CoD. Modern Warfare 4 may be the final chapter for Task Force 141, but it's just the beginning of this new era of Infinity Ward.
So, do I think you should buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4? I think you'd be crazy not to, truthfully. For anybody who has ever played Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 4 is the love letter that reminds us of what was special about the franchise in the first place and gives us hope for what it can be going forward.
Buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 now to experience a brand-new, thrilling campaign, reworked multiplayer, and a new DMZ experience for yourself.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 looks set to be the best Call of Duty this decade thus far, but I'd give this marketing stunt a 0/10.
Ads are annoying at the best of times. If you're reading Windows Central without an adblocker (thanks!), you're probably getting bombarded in all directions by ads right now (sorry. But also, no, us lowly writers have no control over that). But hey, they keep the lights on, and Windows Central is free without paywalls at least, right?
You know what isn't free? Your shiny Xbox Series X|S console. That wasn't free. You know what else isn't free? Xbox Game Pass, nor is Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Nor is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, in fact. And today, even if you already purchased the game, Xbox is making sure that your console has a very yellow theme this morning — whether you like it or not.
I get that Call of Duty is incredibly important to Xbox's bottom line these days, and funds from the franchise are effectively propping up a variety of other bets Xbox is making right now. I get that last year's "disappointing" Call of Duty pulled down Xbox's financials overall, heaping on additional pressure for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 to deliver.
Reviews suggest that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 absolutely has delivered, by the way, with what fans and critics have been calling the best campaign maybe in a decade. It even has the top spot in sales on both Xbox and PlayStation as of writing, beating out GTA 6 itself (for now).
Does it really really need to take over my entire Xbox dashboard, though?
Today, Xbox fans woke up and noticed that Call of Duty not only has the entire spread of those loathed advertising tiles across the bottom of the dash, but also usurps your custom background. I went over to the Personalization settings and no, changing the background doesn't fix it.
You can actually disable this, however, (thanks Donkeyz) using the following steps.
Xbox's ads have long been a source of irritation. Sometimes they can be useful, helping discover new games (rarely, I might add), or deals and in-game events you might've missed. This, though? It's too much, IMO.
At least when Xbox was doing those full-screen pop-ups on boot, you could peruse and then dismiss at your leisure. It's not a big deal ultimately, you're not really on the dashboard for any length of time if you're just passing through to get to a game ... but it initially struck me as another annoying hint we don't actually own the shit we buy.
There seems to be a wider theme at play here. Yes it's just a temporary picture that will probably be gone by the end of the day, and yes you can disable it (for now ...) but it continues a trend of companies like Microsoft reminding us that we don't actually own or control the stuff we buy from them. Windows 11 itself has been blasted for the abundance of "recommended content" it comes with out of the box, and most don't know how to turn some of it off, or that they even can.
PlayStation has triggered a huge backlash over the summer by ending support for physical discs, with figures testifying in court that purchasing games grants you a license only — something many of us already knew, but they're increasingly testing the definition of this in recent years.
RELATED: How to turn off Windows 11 tracking and ads
Digital rights and even physical rights have been increasingly called into question in recent years. Whether it's companies like John Deere fighting against farmers' rights to repair their tractors, companies like BMW or Tesla charging a subscription to turn on features that already exists in your cars. What about companies like Apple intentionally making their laptops impossible to fix without specialist tools (offered by them only)? Companies are really really fighting against your right to actually own the things you buy from them.
Which comes back to the Xbox dashboard. Yes it's just a background today, no big deal right? But what happens tomorrow? Will Microsoft starting putting dashboard customization in as a premium feature? Microsoft is already charging playtime by the hour in Xbox Cloud Gaming ... is that the future of "ownership"? OpenAI's Sam Altman has been fully mask off with hopes that compute in general will be a rented accommodation in the future.
The Xbox Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 dashboard take over is irritating and inconvenient, and an pretty shameless reminder that Xbox can hijack your console whenever it feels like it, even if you paid the full recent $799 price tag ...
Am I paranoid? Maybe ... but maybe you're not paranoid ENOUGH! ... maybe.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
A blue king sticks straight out from a checkerboard cylinder, looking remarkably composed for a piece that should be falling onto the table. That sideways stance explains Turner, a rotating magnetic chess concept by Joffey, faster than a technical diagram could. The immediate problem is gravity: a vertical playing surface needs a way to keep its pieces attached. Magnets provide the proposed answer, letting the familiar chessboard curl upright without leaving its army in a heap.
Created for Day 04 of #productober, under the prompt “magnetic,” Turner explores what happens when a board loops back into itself. It’s a concept rather than a finished product, and I like that its ambition is playful rather than pretending chess needs fixing. The appeal is seeing a familiar game become an object you might want to leave out, even between matches.
Designer: Joffey
The supplied images show a blue-and-white grid wrapped around a tall cylinder, capped by dark blue circular ends and supported by a flared pedestal. The base gives it the presence of a small tabletop sculpture. From some angles, it resembles an unusually elaborate trophy. From others, the pieces projecting around its circumference make it look like a tiny planet populated entirely by royalty and horses.
The color does a lot of work here. Deep blue replaces the expected black, giving the set a softer domestic character without sacrificing the contrast with white. I’d happily take that over another aggressively futuristic chess redesign. The pieces retain recognizable silhouettes, so the unfamiliar board has familiar companions. You can still pick out a knight or a king without learning a whole new visual language.
Magnetism also earns its place in the design. Remove it, and the central idea stops working. The pieces are intended to cling to the curved surface while the board rotates, bringing different areas into view. That makes turning the board part of the interaction. Instead of simply surveying a flat field, players would need to reveal portions of the position as they go.
That’s also where my enthusiasm meets a practical reservation. A flat chessboard lets both players inspect the entire position at once. Turner’s cylinder necessarily conceals part of the grid from any single viewpoint. Rotation offers a way to look around it, but remembering what’s on the far side could become another demand on your attention. I can imagine enjoying that extra spatial puzzle. I can also imagine wanting my ordinary board back during a particularly complicated game.
The looping surface raises another question: what happens at the point where opposite edges meet? Joffey’s description suggests a changed way of playing, but the supplied material doesn’t establish a complete rule set. It would be a stretch to assign new movement rules to the pieces. Still, the possibility is intriguing. Joining edges could have consequences beyond appearance if the designer chooses to make that continuity part of play.
I appreciate that Turner doesn’t disguise every familiar feature in pursuit of novelty. The pedestal, restrained palette, and recognizable pieces give your eye enough to understand before the curved grid complicates things. Even the pieces set beside the base in the images help establish scale and context, although no dimensions are provided. You understand that this belongs on a table, within reach, rather than behind glass.
For a developed version, I’d care as much about the feel of removing a pawn as the appearance of the cylinder. Magnetic attachment would need to resist slipping while allowing deliberate moves without an awkward tug. The rotation would need similar care: easy enough to use, controlled enough not to become a distraction. Those are unresolved details, but they’re also where an appealing rendering could become a satisfying physical object.
Turner makes me curious enough to want a game, provided someone explains the rules first. Its appeal lies in having to look around a chessboard that usually gives you everything at once. That could be an entertaining complication, even if it never replaces the flat board in the closet.
The post Chess Without a Flat Board: Turner’s Rotating Tower Concept first appeared on Yanko Design.
Xbox is ramping up to its 25th Anniversary celebrations on November 15th, but it’s looking even further ahead to the holidays. Hallmark has just dropped a brand new Christmas tree decoration honoring the holy grail of retro hardware: the original Halo Special Edition Xbox console.
It just went live on Amazon for $27.99, and if it's anything like the rest of the anniversary drops, it's going to sell out notoriously fast.
A teeny tiny Xbox to sit on your tree, 3.5 x 1.25 x 3.5 inches to be exact. Just don't wear the batteries out showing it off to your guests.
Hallmark has made some awesome Xbox and gaming-related baubles before, including the original black console and this adorable mini Master Chief, but this one is the best I've seen so far because it's the transparent console everyone is reminiscing about right now (and unlike the Series X25 you can actually buy it.)
Even better, it plays the console startup sound and music from "Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix" from Halo 2.
Deck the halls, OG XBOX style 💚Add the XBOX Halo Special Edition Console Hallmark Keepsake ornament to your tree: https://t.co/sKaABnZ0RD https://t.co/0vK4QjvSTiOctober 22, 2026
Shockingly, it actually includes the batteries too and doesn't make you buy them separately (I hate it when that happens). I love Hallmark's decorations, and would love to make a whole gaming-themed tree, (Xbox ROG Ally at the top maybe, but at $27.99 a pop I may have to rethink my ambitions (or buy them on sale in January)
If you're hunting for more nostalgic merch, you can find a bunch of other collectible items to grab over on our full Xbox 25th Anniversary item roundup.
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Yesterday marked the end of an era as EA closed down BioWare, the legendary studio behind classic RPGs like Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, and Jade Empire, to name a few.
In the wake of this tragedy, something miraculous yet sad happened. In a Mass Effect subreddit post, an EA employee with the username "rasengo727" mentioned that "There was a trailer ready for Mass Effect 5 that I saw a few months ago, so I’m puzzled as to how “early” they were."
Then a day later, after that post was made, a former BioWare employee uploaded said trailer on Reddit for the now-canceled Mass Effect 5, which would've been called "Mass Effect Universe".
In the era of artificial intelligence, questioning the authenticity of trailers like this is the norm. While the Reddit mods can't independently verify the authenticity of this trailer, as they do not want any former developers or BioWare employees to be harmed, our own sources have confirmed for us that this one is, in fact, real.
Mass Effect: Universe Trailerfrom r/masseffect
The trailer shows the protagonist from Mass Effect 5's teaser trailer infiltrating a nightclub to take down some criminals in hiding, all with the cinematic presentation and storytelling of a spy thriller.
It also shows a montage of our protagonist's backstory, his adventures trapezing around the galaxy, romantic endeavors, meeting ancient aliens, and getting into intense firefights where our hero uses Biotic powers.
The trailer then ends with a fight breaking out and confirmation that Liara T'Soni, one of Mass Effect's most beloved characters, would be returning for this game, albeit much older than she was in the original trilogy.
Like everyone else, I'm quite depressed over the closure of BioWare. Mass Effect was one of my favorite game series ever as a teenager. However, with the controversial ending of Mass Effect 3 and the disastrous launch of Mass Effect: Andromeda, the series was never able to recover.
So seeing this trailer makes the studio's end break my heart even more. An epic spy-thriller story calling back to the series' roots while bringing back Liara T'Soni (who was one of my favorite party members) would've been awesome.
Alas, we'll never know for sure now. All we can hope for now is another studio to buy BioWare's iconic franchises away from EA and give them the proper respect they deserved.
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Capcom has officially announced on its website that its CAPCOM ID account service has suffered a major data breach at the hands of a third party. While this breach doesn't affect CAPCOM ID users' ability to play games or access their multiplayer features, it has leaked private information from over 11.7 million accounts.
This private data that's been leaked includes email addresses, IP addresses, account activity, account creation, and login information.
Capcom also states that over 43 Capcom ID users have had their date of birth, gender, country/region, and nicknames leaked. Plus, 193 CAPCOM ID accounts have had their login passwords changed without authorization.
The good news is that the Capcom ID passwords for all affected accounts haven't been leaked and that users' credit card credentials haven't been leaked or changed.
Capcom has already identified and addressed the method used for this data breach to make sure it doesn't happen again and has begun contacting the victims to provide customer support.
In the meantime, Capcom suggests that if you have received any strange emails or messages after this breach, exercise caution and don't click on any URLs or attached files within them.
As a Capcom ID user myself, I'd personally recommend changing your password as well. Even if you haven't been noticeably hacked, I'd still suggest changing it just in case it got leaked but hasn't been reported by Capcom yet (there are always a few that manage to slip detection no matter how good a company's security is).
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So you've seen the title and think I've lost my mind, right? Of course the backpack matters when you're looting in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ. How else do you carry those sweet rewards?
But it's not just about having a backpack; it's about having the right backpack and using it in such a way that it can protect your rarest rewards. One of the biggest thrills and disappointments of an extraction shooter like DMZ is that at any point you could get rinsed by another player and lose everything you worked so hard for.
But you can also protect items in your backpack in case of emergencies such as this. Even if you don't make it out, your precious items can. Here's what you need to know about the backpacks in Modern Warfare 4 DMZ.
When you reach DMZ Level 2 and unlock the 3D Printer, the first good packpack is one of the initial recipes you'll unlock.
While the Small Backpack is the easiest one to craft, you should only consider using it if you're going on an ingredients run. It doesn't hold much, and it lacks the key feature we need for rarer, higher-quality items.
That would be the Secure Slot, and the rare-tier Medium Backpack is the cheapest one to craft that has at least one of these. The Secure Slot is where you want to place the most valuable item you find, because if you go down, that item will still be sent back to your FOB.
As an example, just last night I found another recipe early on in one of my DMZ matches. I put it straight in the secure slot, which was a good thing because as I left the building that I found it in, I was run over by another player. I lost my weapons, I lost my backpack, and I lost my consumables, but the recipe made it out and was unlocked on my 3D Printer.
The only slight downside is that weapons don't have a secure slot. There are backpacks that have weapon slots so you can stash more than just the ones you're carrying in your loadout, but you can't add weapons to secure slots.
But you can put recipes and manuals in them along with all sorts of other rare items to protect them should you fail to exfil.
There are various ways to get backpacks in DMZ, and one of them is just finding them out in the wild while you're playing. Like all the other loot, such as parachutes, you can get lucky and find a better bag. Or take one from a player you downed!
In terms of crafting, there are two recipes you can guarantee you can add to your 3D Printer. The Medium Backpack is unlocked at DMZ Level 2, while the Large Backpack unlocks at DMZ Level 34. At DMZ Level 61 you also unlock the recipe to craft the Medium Weapon Backpack.
The rest require you finding their recipes while playing DMZ, so you'll need to put in some work to find them all.
Scavenger backpacks are good for looting runs, such as stocking up on 3D Printer ingredients. Secure backpacks are good for targeting higher-tier items. There's plenty to choose from, but if you always try and run with at least a Medium Backpack if you find a recipe, you can guarantee it gets out safely.
You can also get a new backpack in the FOB from the Vendor in exchange for DMZ Cash, and from Survival Kits. If an item pops up in the Vendor that you don't have a recipe for, it's always a good idea to add to your stash, assuming you have the funds. I've bought a Large Backpack already for 10,000 DMZ Cash.
Recipes and manuals are key items you want to get in DMZ and running a backpack with a Secure Slot is the easiest way to make sure you always get them out safely.
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The gameplay loop in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ is a little different from other modes in the game and even previous extraction modes such as the DMZ beta, Modern Warfare Zombies, and Black Ops 7 Endgame.
You start out with nothing. Well, almost nothing. But the idea is you have to go out and scavenge for better gear, be that through doing missions, defeating world bosses, or even other players.
But there is a way to get high-tier weapons without spending DMZ Cash and without having to run the gauntlet of Hajin's battlegrounds. There is a catch, though. Well, technically two. But essentially it involves weapon blueprints you acquire for Modern Warfare 4, because you can craft them at the Gunsmith.
Once you reach DMZ Level 10 the Gunsmith Station unlocks, which allows you to craft weapons you've found manuals for and extracted successfully. But it also allows you to craft blueprints you own, regardless of whether you have the manual or not.
Better still, the first time you craft one of these blueprints, it's completely free. But the catch is that it's only the first time. So, as an example, if you got the "Beta Forged" Han 86 blueprint from the Modern Warfare 4 beta, you can craft it once for free in DMZ and get a legendary tier weapon to add to your loadout.
To do so, you choose the "Builds" option next to the weapon and select the blueprint you want to craft. After this first time you can still craft them, but there will be a substantial DMZ Cash cost depending on the blueprint.
If you're playing during the earliest days of Modern Warfare 4, another catch is that unless you bought the Vault Edition, you won't have as many blueprints to choose from, and as a result, fewer free weapons to craft. As the game rolls into its post-launch content, you'll be able to add plenty to your stash, including a bunch from just levelling up. But out of the gate, those who paid more have more to choose from.
A quick tip as well to try and protect your higher tier weapons and gear is to make sure you have a backpack with a secure slot on it. Assign the thing you don't want to lose to the secure slot, and if you go down and fail to exfil, this item will at least make it out.
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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV has revealed new footage and details on every single aspect of its gameplay, from its cinematic story mode to thrilling multiplayer modes.
If you've been watching the battle reports for the latest entry in Warhammer 40,000's iconic real-time strategy series and have been waiting for an overview of what it has to offer beyond intense RTS combat, this trailer will have you covered.
It first goes over what we can expect to see from its single-player campaign mode. You will play as one of four factions fighting for control of the planet Krono — Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus, Orks, and Necrons.
The campaign will feature a cinematic storyline for each faction with branching paths depending on your choices across 70 missions and can be played either solo or co-op.
We then get a summary of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV's gameplay loop.
In this game, you build bases to generate units for your army, capture points on the map to generate resources for your forces, and engage your enemies in bloody, fast-paced RTS skirmishes with cinematic kill animations during melee combat.
Each faction has its own unique playstyle, unit roster, and strategies:
Beyond the Campaign, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV will feature a Skirmish mode with four game types where you can test your skills against AI-driven opponents.
There's also a Last Stand game mode where you and two allies must work together to survive 20 waves of enemies, each one more deadly than the last. Defeating each wave will grant EXP, which can be spent to upgrade your forces' abilities for a better chance of survival.
Last Stand will allow you to command five Commander units at launch and will add more in post-launch updates.
Next, the trailer goes over the competitive multiplayer portion of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4. This mode will let players face human or AI opponents in 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 matches across 30 maps and three match types whose rules can be customized to your liking.
Lastly, the trailer highlights the Painter. This is a fan-favorite gameplay feature from previous Dawn of War games that allows you to customize the color schemes (including individual body parts) and cosmetics of your favorite factions so you can show them off in the Skirmish, Multiplayer, and Last Stand modes.
I've been waiting for gameplay footage of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV's campaign for ages, and after watching many multiplayer-focused gameplay deep dives, this trailer did not disappoint.
The mission select screen brings back memories of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War's Dark Crusade expansion, the story looks just as over-the-top as previous games, and the multiple branching paths sound awesome for replay value purposes.
Not to mention it's awesome to see the Painter mode return once more while allowing players to customize each individual part of every unit to their liking (which is great for fans of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game who need help planning out their custom paint jobs for their miniatures).
After watching this trailer, I'm now completely sold on Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV and will play it when it launches on December 3, 2026, on PC.
Do note that if you purchase Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV's Commander Edition, you will gain 3 days of early access starting November 30, 2026.
Take control of the Space Marines, Orks, Necrons, or Adeptus Mechanicus factions and wage a bloody war for domination in epic single-player campaigns or chaotic multiplayer modes in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV.View Deal
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Nvidia's latest RTX driver adds shader stutter improvements. Here's which GPUs and games support the feature and what it means for PC performance.
The post Nvidia’s New Driver Targets Game Stutter — Which RTX GPUs and Games Benefit? appeared first on TechRepublic.
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