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Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Tuesday, March 4 (game #1135).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1136) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1136) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.

Quordle today (game #1136) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1136) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1136) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• P

• T

• M

• R

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1136) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1136, are…

• PLEAD
• TWANG
• MAJOR
• RISKY

I smelled a rare (Q,X,Z, J) letter today but gambled on the wrong one, guessing RAZOR ahead of MAJOR.

Until this point I had been going pretty well, landing PLEAD and TWANG when there were other possibilities.

My error took me closer to the edge than I would have liked, but I’m just happy to get my winning streak back after Monday’s flop.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1136) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1136, are…

• GOLEM
• BEING
• LIBEL
• FEMUR

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1135, Tuesday 4 March: FLOWN, ETUDE, TOPAZ, JOKER
• Quordle #1134, Monday 3 March: FRILL, KAYAK, REBAR, WORDY
• Quordle #1133, Sunday 2 March: TUNIC, GLOSS, DEBUG, LARGE
• Quordle #1132, Saturday 1 March: DENSE, BONEY, KITTY, SMEAR
• Quordle #1131, Friday 28 February: PASTA, RAZOR, PLUMB, DROOL
• Quordle #1130, Thursday 27 February: THIEF, CHAIR, ETHER, GRIME
• Quordle #1129, Wednesday 26 February: LOVER, SPIED, VAPOR, METER
• Quordle #1128, Tuesday 25 February: TWIST, TWEAK, MEANT, CLEAR
• Quordle #1127, Monday 24 February: LEASH, LEVER, TOTEM, CREME
• Quordle #1126, Sunday 23 February: RABID, RELIC, SCRAM, BASIS
• Quordle #1125, Saturday 22 February: ETHER, SONIC, VAUNT, ROUSE
• Quordle #1124, Friday 21 February: STIFF, PRIZE, SCOWL, DONUT
• Quordle #1123, Thursday 20 February: HASTY, DRAPE, FICUS, CRAZE
• Quordle #1122, Wednesday 19 February: ABATE, TROVE, VENUE, DRAPE
• Quordle #1121, Tuesday 18 February: TAMER, SCRUB, BRICK, DRIFT
• Quordle #1120, Monday 17 February: SADLY, WAFER, LITHE, IDIOM
• Quordle #1119, Sunday 16 February: GHOUL, AFIRE, COVEN, FIERY
• Quordle #1118, Saturday 15 February: CREEP, CONDO, GRILL, FANCY
• Quordle #1117, Friday 14 February: MEDIA, ELUDE, THUMB, WIDOW
• Quordle #1116, Thursday 13 February: SCALP, DWELL, AMPLE, TRUNK

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, March 4 (game #366).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #367) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Ahoy!

NYT Strands today (game #367) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• BOAT
• STORE
• WOLF
• TEAR
• TROT
• LICE

NYT Strands today (game #367) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Famous vessels

NYT Strands today (game #367) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 4th row

Last side: top, 4th column

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #367) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #367, are…

• BEAGLE
• BOUNTY
• TITANIC
• VICTORY
• MAYFLOWER
• SPANGRAM: HISTORIC SHIPS

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 1 hint

At 13 letters, today’s Spangram was a giant snake that took up a sizable chunk of the puzzle – and, wonderfully, it took the form of a ship, nodding to the answer of HISTORIC SHIPS. This is a lovely idea, but sadly one that would work in only a few Strands puzzles; if the NYT can assemble Spangrams that look like GLUTEN FREE or ENDEARMENTS it is a lot smarter than I am.

It probably says a lot about my lack of historical nautical knowledge that even though the only space I had left at the end was for MAYFLOWER, I still attempted to spell out a ship called Wolfyamre, before seeing the obvious.

Of all the ships listed only one remains intact today – the BEAGLE, on which Charles Darwin sailed, was broken up; the BOUNTY was burned by mutineers; the TITANIC hit an iceberg; and the timber from the MAYFLOWER was used to build a farmhouse.

Meanwhile, HMS VICTORY, which was built in 1758 and took part in the war of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars, survived the ravages of time and is preserved as a museum ship in Portsmouth, England. I visited it on a school trip once. All I can remember is that someone stole my packed lunch and I had to make it through the day on an apple. Hard times.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, 4 March, game #366)

• STRING
• CURL
• RIBBON
• WISP
• FILAMENT
• THREAD
• TENDRIL
• SPANGRAM: STRANDS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

• A reputable Samsung-focused news site has suggested the Galaxy Z Flip 7 could get a decent battery capacity increase
• The Galaxy Z Flip 7 could ship with a 4,300mAh battery, up from 4,000mAh in the Galaxy Z Flip 6
• Samsung has yet to confirm that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is on the way

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 could be getting a welcome upgrade to a crucial bit of hardware over the current-gen Galaxy Z Flip 6, if a new rumor is to be believed.

According to Dutch site GalaxyClub, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 will ship with a 4,300mAh battery, up from the 4,000mAh battery in the Galaxy Z Flip 6.

If this rumor is borne out, that would mark the second 300mAh boost in as many years for Samsung’s most accessible foldable, as the Galaxy Z Flip 5 launched with a 3,700mAh battery back in 2023.

Battery improvements of any kind are especially welcome for folding phones, which can struggle to provide the same longevity as their candy-bar counterparts due to the inherent inefficiency of splitting a battery cell between the two (or more as we start to see tri-folding devices) parts of the phone.

Indeed, our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 review found the phone’s battery to be a rare downside to an otherwise impressively capable handset.

GalaxyClub notes that, due to the way battery capacities are advertised, the rated capacity of the phone will likely be lower, at around 4,174mAh. That’s still an improvement on the Galaxy Z Flip 6, which the report states had a rated capacity of 3,887mAh.

As we previously reported, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is otherwise largely expected to follow the form and function of last year’s model, with recent renders suggesting the two will almost be identical in appearance.

That visual similarity tells us a bit about the phone’s hardware too – we’re still expecting two cameras, a contoured cover display, and an inner screen with a tall aspect ratio, though the displays are tipped to very slightly increase in size.

Still, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 already holds a spot on our lists of the best folding phones and best Samsung phones, so a boost to battery would probably be enough to secure those spots for its follow-up, too.

What do you want to see from the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7? Is a battery increase enough to justify an upgrade? Let us know in the comments below.

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• Apple just upgraded the entry-level iPad, now dubbed the iPad (A16)
• The new A16 chip is up to 50% faster than the previous generation, but doesn't support Apple Intelligence
• It keeps the same price and doubles the starting storage

Alongside unveiling the next-generation iPad Air with the M3 chip, Apple also upgraded the entry-level iPad – but it might not be the upgrade you’ve been expecting. The good news is that it still comes in a few fun colors and keeps the same starting price. Like the iPad Mini (A17 Pro), it’s now iPad (A16), with the processor name in the title.

In the United States, it starts at $349. Instead of 64GB of storage, it comes with 128GB of internal storage for starters. This means you’ll have more space for apps, photos, and files, among other things.

It’s the first product launched by Apple in recent memory that doesn’t support Apple Intelligence. The new iPad is powered by the A16 chip, which should deliver even better performance for the entry-level model with a 5-core CPU, a 4-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine over the previous A14 Bionic chip. However, that chip is not capable of Apple Intelligence, so it is important to keep that in mind and weigh the importance of those features.

(Image credit: Apple)

Still, iPadOS 18 should run just fine here and be fit for gaming, streaming, editing, browsing the web, and FaceTime calls, among other things. Apple says that compared to the previous generation, it’s up to 50% faster and that the “A16 makes the updated iPad up to 6x faster than the best-selling Android tablet.” We just don’t know what Android tablet Apple is comparing to.

Even without Apple Intelligence, the now eleventh-generation iPad with the A16 chip still keeps a USB-C port for charging, a Touch ID sensor in the power button, and support for two key accessories – the Apple Pencil first-generation, Apple Pencil with USB-C and the Magic Keyboard Folio, which I happen to like the customizability of more than the proper Magic Keyboard.

Interestingly enough, the iPad (A16) appears to have a slightly larger display than the previous generation. It now measures in as an 11-inch Liquid Retina display (2360 x 1640 resolution) with support for True Tone compared to the tenth-generation 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display of the iPad.

Apple does note that the iPad still has rounded corners, so the “actual viewable area is less” on the ‘tech specs’ section of the site, but we’ll need to see once we can go hands-on if the bezels were shrunk.

The iPad still sticks with a 12-megapixel camera on the back and a 12-megapixel camera on the front with support for Center Stage to automatically keep you in the frame for calls. Rounding out the specs are landscape stereo speakers, dual microphones for capturing audio, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.3. If you opt for the cellular model, it will still support 5G Sub-6GHz, but there is no mmWave support, similar to the iPhone 16e.

Like the iPad Air with M3, you can preorder the iPad (A16) right now if you’re already sold and it will formally launch on March 12, 2025.

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• Security researchers spotted a new ClickFix campaign
• The goal is to deploy the Havoc post-exploitation framework
• The framework is hosted on a Microsoft SharePoint account

Hackers have been seen abusing Microsoft SharePoint to distribute the Havoc post-exploitation framework in a new ClickFix phishing attack.

Cybersecurity researchers Fortiguard Labs, who have been tracking the campaign since last year, highlighted how ClickFix is a type of scam we’ve probably all encountered at least once. Cybercriminals would hijack a website, and create an overlay that displays a fake error message (for example: “Your browser is outdated, and to view the contents of the webpage, you need to update it”). That fake message would prompt the victim into action, which usually concludes by downloading and running malware, or sharing sensitive information such as passwords or banking data.

This campaign is similar, although requires a bit more activity from the victim’s side. The attack chain starts with a phishing email, carrying a “restricted notice” as a .HTML attachment. Running the attachment displays a fake error that says “Failed to connect to OneDrive - update the DNS cache manually”. The page also has a “How to fix” button that copies a PowerShell command to the Windows clipboard, and then displays a message on how to paste and run it.

Rising threat of ClickFix

Running this script then runs a second one, hosted on the attackers’ SharePoint server which, in turn, downloads a Python script that deploys the Havoc post-exploitation framework as a .DLL file.

Havoc is a post-exploitation framework designed for advanced red teaming and adversary simulation, providing modular capabilities for stealthy command and control (C2) operations. It offers features like in-memory execution, encrypted communication, and evasion techniques to bypass modern security defenses.

ClickFix has gotten insanely popular in these last couple of months. In late October last year, a new malware variant was observed compromising thousands of WordPress websites, installing a malicious plugin that would serve the ClickFix attack.

Just a few weeks prior, researchers saw fake broken Google Meet calls, which was also a variant of the ClickFix attack.

Via BleepingComputer

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• 11- and 13-inch iPad Air tablets get the M3
• This adds support for new Magic Keyboard
• Pricing unchanged since last models

Not even 24 hours after Tim Cook teased, "There’s something in the AIR,” Apple’s just made its next-generation iPad Air official. Along with getting the M3 chip, it still comes in several fun, poppy colors and now supports the ‘new’ Magic Keyboard, which was initially launched alongside the iPad Pro M4.

Now, this is a pretty early refresh for the iPad Air, considering it was upgraded to the M2 chip and a refreshed design on May 7, 2024. Still, it’s clearly popular within the lineup and is now getting an even more powerful chip to make all sorts of tasks even more fluid.

It’s still available in either an 11-inch or 13-inch size, allowing you to pick what best fits your needs, and there is no price increase year over year. The 11-inch model starts at $599 in the United States, while the 13-inch is $799 (starting), both start at 128GB storage and come in Blue, Purple, Starlight, or Space Gray.

The screens are still Liquid Retina displays, meaning no Dynamic OLED like on the iPad Pro. However, they offer a vibrant and crisp experience with an anti-reflective coating standard. They also support the P3 Wide Color gamut and True Tone, which will automatically adjust the color temperature to your space. This is all quite nice to have, and considering this still supports the Apple Pencil Pro, you can hover over the screen to see what impact a pen stroke might have before committing to it.

What the M3 means

iPad Air M3 with Magic Keyboard (Image credit: Apple)

As far as the M3 chip goes, it’s an 8-core CPU – split between 4 performance, 4 efficiency cores, a 9-core GPU with support hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and a 16-core Neural Engine. Plus, Apple has even confirmed that the new iPad Air ships with 8GB of RAM out of the box. Suffice to say, this should be plenty of power for everyday performance in iPadOS 18, for the Stage Manager multitasking experience, and for Apple Intelligence features. Remember, the iPad Air with M2 was no slouch, but this should future-proof the device even further.

The iPad Air still sticks with a Touch ID sensor baked into the power button for easy authentication or unlocking, but it does keep the 12-megapixel front-facing camera on the horizontal spot, meaning that this device is best used in landscape mode.

And that's why ushering in a whole new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air makes so much sense. It's still the same square footage and in fact, backward compatible with the M2 iPad Air's, but Apple's plopped in a larger trackpad and 14 function keys at the top. Think quick keys for brightness, playback, microphone, and volume.

Another welcome change is that USB-C passthrough port now supports faster charging, but we don't know how that impacts data speeds just yet. Still a win, though! It's also a bit cheaper at $269 for the 11-inch iPad Air and a bit more at $319 for the 13-inch, but it only comes in white.

True to the older Smart Keyboards and every Magic Keyboard that Apple has offered, you won’t need to worry about charging this accessory or a pesky pairing process as it has a Smart Connector built-in. Interestingly enough, the base iPad is still the only model supporting the two-part Magic Keyboard, so it sticks with the floating design here on the iPad Air.

Rounding out the iPad Air on the rear is still a 12-megapixel camera for taking photos or videos. As far as this refresh goes though, it’s pretty much focused on giving the iPad Air even more headroom and better performance across the board courtesy of the M3 chip. In the press release, Apple calls out its performance gains not on the M2-powered iPad Air but on older models – promising up to two times faster than the M1 iPad Air and a leapfrogging three and a half times faster than the A14 Bionic model.

We’ll be going hands-on and testing the new iPad Air with M3 just as soon as we can, but for now, if you’re sold, it’s up for preorder right now and will formally launch on March 12. But if you were hoping for one more thing, Apple also gave the entry-level iPad a bit of a spec bump, but maybe most importantly kept the price the same.

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The aquarium helping Chappy — a nod to the New Haven, Conn., neighborhood where he was rescued last month — said he died of gastrointestinal issues and "was surrounded by love until the very end."

• A number of RTX 5070 models have been listed at MSRP in the US
• This appears to hint that pricing for the GPU could come out favorably
• There are plenty of reasons to doubt that, though, sadly

Nvidia’s RTX 5070 graphics cards have been spotted complete with pricing at retailers ahead of their imminent release (tomorrow, March 5), and what we’re seeing is something of a pleasant surprise – on the face of it.

There are reasons to be very wary here, though, which I’ll come back to.

At any rate, first the prices themselves, and Wccftech reports that a regular hardware leaker on X, @momomo_us, picked up on B&H Photo over in the US listing a number of RTX 5070 models with price tags (which are still live at the time of writing).

https://t.co/0KwWX8yDbO pic.twitter.com/rjmn3m5JihMarch 3, 2025

These are RTX 5070s from third-party card makers which are pitched at the official MSRP, and while some are entry-level boards as you might expect, there are overclocked models in here too.

The latter are PNY’s RTX 5070 OC variant which is priced at the MSRP of $550, along with Gigabyte’s WindForce OC – and the entry-level WindForce is at the same $550 price, as well as the Asus Prime RTX 5070.

Previously, Best Buy has also listed the Asus Prime RTX 5070 at the $550 recommended price, too (and that product listing remains unchanged as I write this).

So, as mentioned at the outset, this could be read as an encouraging sign that the cost of RTX 5070 GPUs might fall reasonably in line with Nvidia’s recommended pricing.

As I indicated before, though, I’m not reading it that way, and let’s dive into why that’s the case.

(Image credit: Pixabay) Analysis: Getting real for a moment

Okay, there are a few bones to pick with this one (perhaps an entire carcass). Firstly, with the B&H Photo pricing, it doesn’t make any sense that the WindForce models would be the same – the entry-level and overclocked model – the latter surely won’t be at MSRP (the former should be, granted).

Just look at these same variants in the case of the existing RTX 5080 and you’ll see that Gigabyte prices the OC version at just over 25% more expensive. There’s no way this won’t be mirrored with the RTX 5070 (at least to some extent, anyway, even if it’s not as big a jump).

What this shows is that these are (at least partially) placeholder prices from B&H, though that said, it’s entirely likely that the entry-level Gigabyte WindForce, and indeed the likes of the Asus Prime RTX 5070, will be at MSRP. Remember, the latter is priced at the MSRP over at Best Buy as well, and these are entry-level boards that should be fixed at the base recommended pricing.

Anyway, the broad point here is let’s not get carried away with the notion that somehow overclocked RTX 5070 boards away from the baseline models will be at MSRP – they won’t. Hopefully entry-level flavors will – they absolutely should be – but there’s an obvious second problem here that looms large.

Namely that pricing might be kind of academic anyway, based on how the Blackwell GPU launches have gone so far – stock levels have been very low in general, and all RTX 5000 models have sold out in a flash. Going by the latest rumors, RTX 5070 stock is going to be much the same story, or maybe even worse than the RTX 5090 (which was particularly shaky).

The problem in that case is that pricing tends to be pumped above MSRP (even by retailers, not just scalpers) simply due to demand, as we’ve seen already with Blackwell.

And you can get pricing dynamics coming in such as MSI reportedly hiking its entry-level Blackwell boards well above MSRP (as VideoCardz noticed). This happened briefly in the case of the RTX 5070 Ti, but the card maker now seems to have thought better of it, and reduced pricing again at the MSI store. (Not at Newegg, mind, at the time of writing, where the Ventus 3X OC version of the 5070 Ti remains at its artificially inflated price of $900 – and MSI’s RTX 5080 boards remain well over their MSRP at its own online store, too, for now).

Not that you can buy these GPUs anyway, even if you wanted to pay that much.

In short, the whole situation around Blackwell graphics cards is a bit of a mess, and I’m going to be very surprised if things turn out much different with the RTX 5070. And definitely don’t expect any reasonable prices for overclocked 5070 models, that really is just pie in the GPU sky.

Meanwhile, AMD has RDNA 4 graphics cards sweeping in on March 6, apparently with healthier stock levels, causing an extra headache for Nvidia, potentially.

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The M3 iPad Air sounds useful, but I'm most excited about the boost to the entry-level iPad. The new models arrive March 12, but you can preorder them now.

This sharp-looking, sharp-shaving razor may have converted me from a life of cartridges.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070: Two-minute review

A lot of promises were made about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, and in some narrow sense, those promises are fulfilled with Nvidia's mainstream GPU. But the gulf between what was expected and what the RTX 5070 actually delivers is simply too wide a gap to bridge for me and the legion of gamers and enthusiasts out there who won't be able to afford—or even find, frankly—Nvidia's best graphics cards from this generation.

Launching on March 5, 2025, at an MSRP of $549 / £549 / AU$1,109 in the US, UK, and Australia, respectively, this might be one of the few Nvidia Blackwell GPUs you'll find at MSRP (along with available stock), but only for lack of substantial demand. As the middle-tier GPU in Nvidia's lineup, the RTX 5070 is meant to have broader appeal and more accessible pricing and specs than the enthusiast-grade Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, but of all the cards this generation, this is the one that seems to have the least to offer prospective buyers over what's already on the market at this price point.

That's not to say there is nothing to commend this card. The RTX 5070 does get up to native Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 performance in some games thanks to Nvidia Blackwell's exclusive Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) technology. And, to be fair, the RTX 5070 is a substantial improvement over the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, so at least in direct gen-on-gen uplift, there is a roughly 20-25% performance gain.

But this card is a far, far cry from the promise of RTX 4090 performance that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presented on stage at CES 2025, even with the qualifier that such an achievement would be "impossible without artificial intelligence," which implies a heavy reliance on DLSS 4 and MFG to get this card over the line.

If we're just talking framerates, then in some very narrow cases this card can do that, but at 4K with ray tracing and cranked-up settings, the input latency for the RTX 5070 with MFG can be noticeable depending on your settings, and it can become distracting. Nvidia Reflex helps, but if you take RTX 4090 performance to mean the same experience as the RTX 4090, you simply won't get that with MFG, even in the 80 or so games that support it currently.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Add to all this the fact that the RTX 5070 barely outpaces the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super when you take MFG off the table (which will be the case for the vast majority of games played on this card) and you really don't have anything to show for the extra 30W of power this card pulls down over the RTX 4070 Super.

With the RTX 5070 coming in at less than four percent faster in gaming without MFG than the non-OC RTX 4070 Super, and roughly 5% faster overall, that means that the RTX 5070 is essentially a stock-overclocked RTX 4070 Super, performance-wise, with the added feature of MFG. An overclocked RTX 4070 Super might even match or exceed the RTX 5070's overall performance in all but a handful of games, and that doesn't even touch upon AMD's various offerings in this price range, like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE or AMD's upcoming RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 cards.

Given that the RTX 4070 Super is still generally available on the market (at least for the time being) at a price where you're likely to find it for less than available RTX 5070 cards, and competing AMD cards are often available for less, easier to find, and offer roughly the same level of performance, I really struggle to find any reason to recommend this card, even without the questionable-at-best marketing for this card to sour my feelings about it.

I caught a lot of flack from enthusiasts for praising the RTX 5080 despite its 8-10% performance uplift over the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super, but at the level of the RTX 5080, there is no real competition and you're still getting the third-best graphics card on the market with a noticeable performance boost over the RTX 4080 Super for the same MSRP. Was it what enthusiasts wanted? No, but it's still a fantastic card with few peers, and the base performance of the RTX 5080 was so good that the latency problem of MFG just wasn't an issue, making it a strong value-add for the card.

You just can't claim that for the RTX 5070. There are simply too many other options for gamers to consider at this price point, and MFG just isn't a strong enough selling point at this performance level to move the needle. If the RTX 5070 is the only card you have available to you for purchase and you need a great 1440p graphics card and can't wait for something better (and you're only paying MSRP), then you'll ultimately be happy with this card. But the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 could have and should have been so much better than it ultimately is.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070: Price & availability

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• How much is it? MSRP/RRP starting at $549 / £549 / AU$1,109
• When can you get it? The RTX 5070 goes on sale on March 5, 2025
• Where is it available? The RTX 5070 will be available in the US, UK, and Australia at launch

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 is available starting March 5, 2025, with an MSRP of $549 / £549 / AU$1,109 in the US, UK, and Australia, respectively.

This puts it at the same price as the current RTX 4070 MSRP, and slightly less than that of the RTX 4070 Super. It's also the same MSRP as the AMD's RX 7900 GRE and upcoming RX 9070, and slightly cheaper than the AMD RX 9070 XT's MSRP.

The relatively low MSRP for the RTX 5070 is one of the bright spots for this card, as well as the existence of the RTX 5070 Founders Edition card, which Nvidia will sell directly at MSRP. This will at least put something of an anchor on the card's price in the face of scalping and general price inflation.

• Value: 4 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070: Specs

• GDDR7 VRAM and PCIe 5.0
• Higher power consumption
• Still just 12GB VRAM, and fewer compute units

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 is a mixed bag when it comes to specs. On the one hand, you have advanced technology like the new PCIe 5.0 interface and new GDDR7 VRAM, both of which appear great on paper.

On the other hand, it feels like every other spec was configured and tweaked to make sure that it compensated for any performance benefit these technologies would impart to keep the overall package more or less the same as the previous generation GPUs.

For instance, while the RTX 5070 sports faster GDDR7 memory, it doesn't expand the VRAM pool beyond 12GB, unlike its competitors. If Nvidia was hoping that the faster memory would make up for keeping the amount of VRAM the same, it only makes a modest increase in the number of compute units in the GPU (48 compared to the RTX 4070's 46), and a noticeable decrease from the RTX 4070 Super's (56).

Whatever performance gains the RTX 5070 makes with its faster memory, then, is completely neutralized by the larger number of compute units (along with the requisite number of CUDA cores, RT cores, and Tensor cores) in the RTX 4070 Super.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The base clock on the RTX 5070 is notably higher, but its boost clock is only slightly increased, which is ultimately where it counts while playing games or running intensive workloads.

Likewise, whatever gains the more advanced TSMC N4P node offers the RTX 5070's GPU over the TSMC N4 node of its predecessors seems to be eaten up by the cutting down of the die. If there was a power or cost reason for this, I have no idea, but I think that this decision is what ultimately sinks the RTX 5070.

It seems like every decision was made to keep things right where they are rather than move things forward. That would be acceptable, honestly, if there was some other major benefit like a greatly reduced power draw or much lower price (I've argued for both rather than pushing for more performance every gen), but somehow the RTX 5070 manages to pull down an extra 30W of power over the RTX 4070 Super and a full 50W over the RTX 4070, and the price is only slightly lower than the RTX 4070 was at launch.

Finally, this is a PCIe 5.0 x16 GPU, which means that if you have a motherboard with 16 PCIe lanes or less, and you're using a PCIe 5.0 SSD, one of these two components is going to get nerfed down to PCIe 4.0, and most motherboards default to prioritizing the GPU.

You might be able to set your PCIe 5.0 priority to your SSD in your motherboard's BIOS settings and put the RTX 5070 into PCIe 4.0, but I haven't tested how this would affect the performance of the RTX 5070, so be mindful that this might be an issue with this card.

• Specs: 2.5 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070: Design

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• No dual-pass-through cooling
• FE card is the same size as the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Super FE cards

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Founders Edition looks identical to the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 that preceeded it, but with some very key differences, both inside and out.

One of the best things about the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 FE cards was the innovative dual pass-through cooling solution on those cards, which improved thermals so much that Nvidia was able to shrink the size of those cards from the gargantuan bricks of the last generation to something far more manageable and practical.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

It would have been nice to see what such a solution could have done for the RTX 5070, but maybe it just wasn't possible to engineer it so it made any sense. Regardless, it's unfortunate that it wasn't an option here, even though the RTX 5070 is hardly unwieldy (at least for the Founders Edition card).

Otherwise, it sports the same 16-pin power connector placement as the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, so 90-degree power connectors won't fit the Founders Edition, though you will have better luck with most, if not all, AIB partner cards which will likely stick to the same power connector placement of the RTX 40 series.

The RTX 5070 FE will easily fit inside even a SFF case with ease, and its lighter power draw means that even if you have to rely on the included two-to-one cable adapter to plug in two free 8-pin cables from your power supply, it will still be a fairly manageable affair.

Lastly, like all the Founders Edition cards before it, the RTX 5070 has no RGB, with only the white backlight GeForce RTX logo on the top edge of the card to provide any 'flair' of that sort.

• Design: 3.5 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070: Performance

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• Almost no difference in performance over the RTX 4070 Super without MFG
• Using MFG can get you native RTX 4090 framerates in some games
• Significantly faster performance over the RTX 4070

A note on my data

The charts shown below offer the most recent data I have for the cards tested for this review. They may change over time as more card results are added and cards are retested. The 'average of all cards tested' includes cards not shown in these charts for readability purposes.

Boy howdy, here we go.

The best thing I can say about the performance of this card is that it is just barely the best 1440p graphics card on the market as of this review, and that DLSS 4's Multi Frame Generation can deliver the kind of framerates Nvidia promises in those games where the technology is available, either natively or through the Nvidia App's DLSS override feature.

Both of those statements come with a lot of caveats, though, and the RTX 5070 doesn't make enough progress from the last gen to make a compelling case for itself performance-wise, especially since its signature feature is only available in a smattering of games at the moment.

On the synthetic side of things, the RTX 5070 looks strong against the card it's replacing, the RTX 4070, and generally offers about 25% better performance on synthetic benchmarks like 3DMark Steel Nomad or Speed Way. It also has higher compute performance in Geekbench 6 than its direct predecessor, though not be as drastic a margin (about 10% better).

Compared to the RTX 4070 Super, however, the RTX 5070's performance is only about 6% better overall, and only about 12% better than the AMD RX 7900 GRE's overall synthetic performance.

Again, a win is a win, but it's much closer than it should be gen-on-gen.

The RTX 5070 runs into similar issues on the creative side, where it only outperforms the RTX 4070 Super by about 3% overall, with its best performance coming in PugetBench for Creators' Adobe Premiere benchmark (~13% better than the RTX 4070 Super), but faltering somewhat with Blender Benchmark 4.3.0.

This isn't too surprising, as the RTX 5070 hasn't been released yet and GPUs tend to perform better in Blender several weeks or months after the card's release when the devs can better optimize things for new releases.

All in all, for this class of cards, the RTX 5070 is a solid choice for those who might want to dabble in creative work without much of a financial commitment, but real pros are better off with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti if you're looking to upgrade without spending a fortune.

It's with gaming, though, where the real heartbreak comes with this card.

Technically, with just 12GB VRAM, this isn't a 4K graphics card, but both the RTX 4070 Super and RTX 5070 are strong enough cards that you can get playable native 4K in pretty much every game so long as you never, ever touch ray tracing, global illumination, or the like. Unfortunately, both cards perform roughly the same under these conditions at 4K, with the RTX 5070 pulling into a slight >5 fps lead in a few games like Returnal and Dying Light 2.

However, in some titles like F1 2024, the RTX 4070 Super actually outperforms the RTX 5070 when ray tracing is turned on, or when DLSS is set to balanced and without any Frame Generation. Overall and across different setting configurations, the RTX 5070 only musters a roughly 4.5% better average FPS at 4K than the RTX 4070 Super.

It's pretty much the same story at 1440p, as well, with the RTX 5070 outperforming the RTX 4070 Super by about 2.7% across configurations at 1440p. We're really in the realm of what a good overclock can get you on an RTX 4070 Super rather than a generational leap, despite all the next-gen specs that the RTX 5070 brings to bear.

OK, but what about the RTX 4090? Can the RTX 5070 with DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation match the native 4K performance of the RTX 4090?

Yes, it can, at least if you're only concerned with average FPS. The only game with an in-game benchmark that I can use to measure the RTX 5070's MFG performance is Cyberpunk 2077, and I've included those results here, but in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Dragon Age: Veilguard (using the Nvidia App's override function) I pretty much found MFG to perform consistently as promised, delivering substantially faster FPS than DLSS 4 alone and landing in the ballpark of where the RTX 4090's native 4K performance ends up.

And so long as you stay far away from ray tracing, the base framerate at 4K will be high enough on the RTX 5070 that you won't notice too much, if any, latency in many games. But when you turn ray tracing on, even the RTX 5090's native frame rate tanks, and it's those baseline rendered frames that handle changes based on your input, and the three AI-generated frames based on that initial rendered frame don't factor in whatever input changes you've made at all.

As such, even though you can get up to 129 FPS at 4K with Psycho RT and Ultra preset in Cyberpunk 2077 on the RTX 5070 (blowing way past the RTX 5090's native 51 average FPS on the Ultra preset with Psycho RT), only 44 of the RTX 5070's 129 frames per second are reflecting active input. This leads to a situation where your game looks like its flying by at 129 FPS, but feels like it's still a sluggish 44 FPS.

For most games, this isn't going to be a deal breaker. While I haven't tried the RTX 5070 with 4x MFG on Satisfactory, I'm absolutely positive I will not feel the difference, as it's not the kind of game where you need fast reflexes (other than dealing with the effing Stingers), but Marvel Rivals? You're going to feel it.

Nvidia Reflex definitely helps take the edge off MFG's latency, but it doesn't completely eliminate it, and for some games (and gamers) that is going to matter, leaving the RTX 5070's MFG experience too much of a mixed bag to be a categorical selling point. I think the hate directed at 'fake frames' is wildly overblown, but in the case of the RTX 5070, it's not entirely without merit.

So where does that leave the RTX 5070? Overall, it's the best 1440p card on the market right now, and it's relatively low MSRP makes it the best value proposition in its class. It's also much more likely that you'll actually be able to find this card at MSRP, making the question of value more than just academic.

For most gamers out there, Multi Frame Generation is going to be great, and so long as you go easy on the ray tracing, you'll probably never run into any practical latency in your games, so in those instances, the RTX 5070 might feel like black magic in a circuit board.

But my problem with the RTX 5070 is that it is absolutely not the RTX 4090, and for the vast majority of the games you're going to be playing, it never will be, and that's essentially what was promised when the RTX 5070 was announced. Instead, the RTX 5070 is an RTX 4070 Super with a few games running MFG slapped to its side that look like they're playing on an RTX 4090, but may or may not feel like they are, and that's just not good enough.

It's not what we were promised, not by a long shot.

• Performance: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070?

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 if...

You don't have the money for (or cannot find) an RTX 5070 Ti or RTX 4070 Super
This isn't a bad graphics card, but there are so many better cards that offer better value or better performance within its price range.

You want to dabble in creative or AI work without investing a lot of money
The creative and AI performance of this card is great for the price.

Don't buy it if...

You can afford to wait for better
Whether it's this generation or the next, this card offers very little that you won't be able to find elsewhere within the next two years.

Also consider

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
The RTX 5070 Ti is a good bit more expensive, especially with price inflation, but if you can get it at a reasonable price, it is a much better card than the RTX 5070.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti review

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super
With Nvidia RTX 50 series cards getting scalped to heck, if you can find an RTX 4070 Super for a good price, it offers pretty much identical performance to the RTX 5070, minus the Multi Frame Generation.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super review

How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070

• I spent about a week with the RTX 5070
• I used my complete GPU testing suite to analyze the card's performance
• I tested the card in everyday, gaming, creative, and AI workload usage

Test System Specs

Here are the specs on the system I used for testing:

Motherboard: ASRock Z790i Lightning WiFi
CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K
CPU Cooler: Gigabyte Auros Waterforce II 360 ICE
RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR5-6600 (2 x 16GB)
SSD: Crucial T705
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower PF3 1050W Platinum
Case: Praxis Wetbench

I spent about a week testing the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, using it as my main workstation GPU for creative content work, gaming, and other testing.

I used my updated testing suite including industry standard tools like 3DMark and PugetBench for Creators, as well as built-in game benchmarks like Cyberpunk 2077, Civilization VII, and others.

I've reviewed more than 30 graphics cards for TechRadar in the last two and a half years, as well as extensively testing and retesting graphics cards throughout the year for features, analysis, and other content, so you can trust that my reviews are based on experience and data, as well as my desire to make sure you get the best GPU for your hard earned money.

• Originally reviewed March 2025

The company reveals its least-expensive QD-OLED to date and more with its newest design and less intrusive base for the stand.

• Lego's next castle set is themed after Beauty and the Beast
• It stands at over 20 inches tall and is built from 2,916 pieces
• Lego unveiled the set at Toy Fair 2025, closing out its reveals for the show

Whether you’re a fan of the animated original or the live-action remake, Beauty and the Beast is an iconic story within the Disney lineup. And if you’re equally a fan of Lego or of castles, the next set that the two brands have teamed up for will check off the boxes for you.

Making its debut at the 2025 Toy Fair – alongside the River Steamboat and a massive T-Rex – is the Disney Beauty and the Beast Castle building set. It’s the next castle within Lego’s lineup, joining the classic Cinderella’s Castle – as made famous by several Disney parks –, Hogwarts Castle, the Lion’s Knight Castle, which is a classic, and countless other Disney ones.

The Beauty and the Beast one, like the classic Disney one, looks like a beast in terms of size and piece count. It stands 20.5 inches tall, 12.5 inches wide, and 6 inches deep, all coming together courtesy of nearly 3,000 pieces – it’s 2,916 pieces, to be exact.

(Image credit: Future)

Once the build is complete, you’ll have an entire exterior front and a rear that reveals the interior. On the front, you’ll be able to see the four levels and a crest at the top, with a purple exterior brick front as the main color. It’s packed with a lot of intricate details on the front and on the inside.

Up near the top of the castle, though, you’ll find the first of many murals depicting the all important rose in various colors, though red is prominent here.

Flipping the Beauty and the Beast Castle around, you’ll be able to explore all four levels and a side room in which you recreate the iconic dance via a spinning floor title between Beast and Belle. And if you look at the very top, the actual enchanted rose is held under a glass cover on the interior behind the mural.

The various levels include the dining room and grand staircase, so the set will be a real treat for fans of the film, the characters, architecture and design, and Disney at large. Of course, alongside the actual set you get the all-important Minifigures. This set includes Belle, the Beast, Gaston, LeFou, Maurice, Lumière, Fifi, Cogsworth, Chip, and Mrs. Potts. I’d bet money that the Lego team had fun creating these, especially when you realize that Gaston is smiling while holding the torch.

(Image credit: Lego)

There seem to be a lot of easter eggs within stickers for murals and other elements, as well as the book that tells the story of Beauty and the Beast. You’ll get the instruction manual in the box, but as with more recent Lego sets, you can download the ‘Builder app’ for iOS and Android to view the manual digitally.

You won’t have to wait too long to get your hands on the Lego Beauty and the Beast Castle set as it will launch on April 1st for Lego Insiders members – we promise it’s not a joke, and the program is free to join – and April 10th for everyone else at $219.99 / £189.99 / AUS$449.99 at Lego’s online store or from a physical location. If you can’t wait until then we suggest streaming either the animated or live-action Beauty and The Beast on one of the best streaming services, Disney Plus.

You can also check out one of the many other castle sets on Amazon or Lego here.

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The jury cited Liu's "reverence for culture, history and nature, chronicling time and comforting users with familiarity through modern interpretations of classic Chinese architecture."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed an $840 billion plan to build up the bloc's defense, as President Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine.

(Image credit: Virginia Mayo)

Early in co-op game A Way Out, my partner and I found ourselves starving in a forest after a taxing escape from the police. While a burger was definitely out of the question, we came across a riverside camp with fish rushing in its shallow waters. To catch our lunch, one of us needed to splash the water and funnel the fish into a tight spot, while the other used a wooden spear to finish the job. It was an archaic process that made for a thoughtful moment in a game occupied by chaos, and put into focus the clarifying themes of teamwork and survival that define Hazelight’s prison-breaking adventure game.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 (PS4 via backward compatibility)
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: March 23, 2018

In A Way Out, you and a partner play as the criminals Leo Carusa and Vincent Moretti as they seek to escape their incarceration after being led astray by the same rotten apple. Landing somewhere between a playable film and an action-packed adventure game, A Way Out’s opening act sets the tone for its silver-screen story. Introduced in tandem, Leo’s character is confident despite being locked in a corrupt system and surrounded by danger. He wanders the halls, chatting and nearly getting into fights as if it’s nothing new.

In contrast, Vincent is just learning about the starkness of his new home, as he is hosed down and marched through the concrete trappings, talking to other new prisoners who have abandoned all hope. The difference in their personalities becomes a central theme throughout the prison-breaking plot, despite their shared goal of escape and ultimate freedom.

(Image credit: Hazelight Studios) Wrong place, wrong time

Across A Way Out’s mayhem-tinged levels, you’ll choose dialogue threads to follow and perform an array of actions like stealthily taking down cops or commandeering getaway cars. Most tasks require the other player to create a distraction or assemble to lift doors and clear obstacles, though there are many pursuits that can be enjoyed on your own. The shared workload works well for the most part, but on a few occasions, one character's exploits can be cut off by the other if they accidentally trigger a key cutscene or interaction, which can be frustrating if you want to immerse yourself in A Way Out’s detailed environment.

Additional quick-time events also crop up in moments of heightened tension and require precision to succeed, like tapping the right button to avoid taking a punch or holding down a trigger to catch yourself before falling from a great height. To account for the shifting attention between the pair, A Way Out trades between a classic 50/50 screen split and a flexible one that offers more display real estate to the player performing a key action. This dynamic blend of perspectives meant that my partner and I both had a chance to feel like the central anti-hero. Occasionally, other characters can also claim a space on the screen for themselves, which adds palpable tension to your actions. Seeing this pressure manifest as a gun-wielding menace pervades the screen is an electric feeling and enough to get you sweating as you force solutions and desperately try to proceed.

Levels are broken up by story events that require you and your co-op buddy to vote and follow a particular narrative path – Leo’s or Vincent’s. Your choices shape the story and give each playthrough a more bespoke feel, even if the overarching narrative remains largely the same. Many of the differences in their personality can feel intangible. However, these impactful decisions help to give them depth by weaving those differences into the gameplay. In my playthrough, I was confident in my choice to play as Vincent, as I thought his analytical mind was more reasonable than Leo’s brash one. However, as the story played out and I became acquainted with them, I began questioning Vincent's motives. A Way Out is keen to keep you in the dark just enough to make you unsure what to choose without making you feel disconnected from the characters or the decision – an aspect I thoroughly enjoyed.

(Image credit: Hazelight Studios) Brains or brawn

A Way Out’s world is a harsh and unforgiving one. The prison is cement and grey, with sparse spotlighting offering little escape from the oppressive mood. Metal bars and staircases shine between tarnish, with matte posters hanging from walls, faded with age. Outside, the surrounding farmland and rural areas feel hazy and vulnerable. Throughout A Way Out, you dance between these cold and warm spaces, with each location thoughtfully dressed with accessories like leaking aircon vents and playable mahogany pianos. Moreover, while many objects are just there to gawk at, some kick-off competitive games like wheelchair balancing or horseshoe pitching. While unnecessary to the story, these optional side objectives do well to offset A Way Out’s heavier themes with some lighthearted fun.

Best bit

(Image credit: Hazelight Studios)

On the surface, Vincent and Leo are two protagonists who could not be more different. Leo’s short-tempered sharpness rubs against Vincent’s careful eye, resulting in tense moments as well as warm ones. As you learn more about them and watch their relationship unfold, it’s hard not to be drawn into their strange chemistry.

Whether you’re mainlining the plot or goofing off in a minigame, A Way Out is made all the better courtesy of Vincent and Leo’s voice actors, Fares Fares and Eric Krogh, who deliver their lines with attitude and grit. And despite solid writing throughout, some of my favorite deliveries came from the casual one-liners rather than the more significant and plot-relevant cutscenes. During the initial prison break, you can find an antique globe in one of the rooms. While interacting with it doesn’t offer anything substantial to the plot, if you spin it enough, Leo dreamily mutters, “Ah, the Pacific Ocean… that sounds nice.” Later, in the hospital, Vincent encounters an old couple bickering about a car accident. After asking their age, the old man makes a poor guess and quickly admits fault. Instead of showing empathy, Vincent sarcastically agrees that he is actually too old to drive. These small, punchy moments offer comic relief to A Way Out’s otherwise heady story and champion the protagonist’s humanity, despite the game’s often unforgiving setting.

A Way Out feels like playing through all the twists and turns of a high-end HBO show – emotionally taxing but very hard to put down. The game’s simple prison break premise quickly gives way to a complicated story about family and friendship, and I thoroughly enjoyed struggling through its immersive set pieces with the help of a friend.

Should you play A Way Out? Play it if...

You like classic dramas
A Way Out strikes a careful balance between dramatic storytelling and game mechanics, putting players in pole position to not only impact the story but also sit back and enjoy their choices in intense and rewarding ways.

You want to stress test your friendship
It turns out escaping prison takes a lot more than just blind belief, and you’ll need to think your way through many complex situations, often deliberating with your co-op partner about which path to take. Due to the high-stakes nature of the story, disagreements are likely to come up, giving you a measure of how close you and your co-conspirator are under pressure.

Don't play it if...

You want a lighthearted co-op game
A Way Out is packed with emotive themes, violence, and plenty of swearing. While it features Hazelight’s well-curated cooperative gameplay, the story leans much darker than the likes of It Takes Two.

Accessibility

When it comes to controls in A Way Out, many settings can be toggled per character, so one player can play with different preferences. Inversion horizontal and vertical) and aim/focus sensitivity can be toggled individually. Vibration can be toggled on and off from the settings menu as well. Where audio is concerned, players can toggle on and off subtitles, as well as choose their audio preset (TV, Headphones, and Home Theatre).

(Image credit: Hazelight Studios) How I reviewed A Way Out

I reviewed A Way Out in a local co-op on a PlayStation 5 playing the PlayStation 4 release via backward compatibility and did so alongside It Takes Two, in the run-up to Hazelight's latest game, Split Fiction.

I teamed my PS5 with an AOC CQ27G2 27-inch QHD VA 144Hz gaming monitor and external Creative Pebble V2 computer speakers.

First reviewed February-March 2025

• $100 billion TSMC investment destined for US semiconductor manufacturing
• $65 billion has already been invested in Phoenix, Arizona
• Tens of thousands of jobs could be created

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has announced plans to invest at least $100 billion in the US semiconductor manufacturing industry over the next four years.

The move is set to fund three new fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities and one R&D center, though details of planned locations have not yet been confirmed.

The company boasted that the project has now become the “largest single foreign direct investment in US history," and adds to its existing $65 billion investment in Phoenix, Arizona.

TSMC US jobs

Besides advancing the semiconductor market, much like any other similar announcement, TSMC highlighted the positive impacts of its investment on the workforce. The company estimates creating 40,000 construction jobs over the next four years as well as “tens of thousands of high-paying, high-tech jobs” across both manufacturing and R&D.

Its Arizona plant already employs more than 3,000 workers and supports US efforts to domesticate its supply chain.

TSMC also suggested a further $200 billion in indirect economic output could be achieved across the US as a result of the announcement.

“Back in 2020, thanks to President Trump’s vision and support, we embarked on our journey of establishing advanced chip manufacturing in the United States. This vision is now a reality,” commented company CEO Dr C C Wei.

Trump had recently declared, “If they did [the chips] in Taiwan to send them here they’ll have 25% or $30% or 50% or whatever the number may be… It’ll go only up. By doing it here, there’s no tariffs.”

The two-time President also criticized Taiwan of monopolizing the market, welcoming the Taiwanese company to its shores to conduct business locally.

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A couples counselling puzzle platformer might sound like a strange elevator pitch. Yet, this quizzical pairing is the backbone of Hazelight Studios' co-op game. Following the studio's success with its prison-breaking simulator A Way Out, It Takes Two inspects a new kind of high-stakes relationship… marriage.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PlayStation 5
Available on: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch
Release date: March 25, 2021

Here, you play as a separated couple, Cody and May, whose consciousness is magically transported into doll versions of themselves after their daughter makes an unorthodox wish to a secret magic romance book. From this sudden transformation, the duo are forced to navigate a jumbo-sized version of their home, where inanimate objects and carelessly tossed junk have gained sassy omnipotence. As they determine bric-a-brac friend from foe, their issues frequently rear their head, giving you an impression of how their marriage slid towards breakdown not by one incident but rather a series of slow nudges.

In co-op, players split control, working through the couple's issues in a literal and metaphorical sense by communicating their way across increasingly complex platforming levels. To navigate this danger-filled toy box, you can sprint, jump, dash and equip yourself with level-contextual tools that complement each other. Platforming across the game has a fluid and floaty feel, hammering home the plaything nature of the pair’s new doll bodies.

What’s your love language?

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Despite levels being so full of detail, Hazelight manages a sense of progression and flow well. Points of interest like breakable glass bottles draw your attention, naturally calling you towards the next checkpoint. While it's not always the case, the obstacles often require you to use your special attack to interact with them, which also helps set the tone for future boss battles and teases puzzle solutions within the level.

Bouts of platforming are bookended with multi-stage boss battles based on the surrounding clutter of the area. The connection between each particular boss and the level made the world feel cohesive and thoughtful and helped to immerse me in Cody and May’s tragic love story. The grumbling, rusted toolbox that marks the end of the first zone requires players to work together using their respective hammer and nail tools to deal damage as it cuts away at your fragile metal stage one attack at a time.

This casually instructive style is especially noticeable as puzzles grew in complexity. Despite stopping and starting play sessions, my partner and I maintained solid momentum throughout It Takes Two. That’s not to say we were without arguments or mistakes when navigating the levels, though.

Best bit

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

There’s nothing more hilariously frustrating than trying to time and execute a specific move with your co-op partner, especially when it keeps going wrong. It Takes Two frequently requires you to synchronise carefully, whether it be one player throwing a nail for another to swing on or grinding across electrical wires to turn off switches. No matter how often my co-op partner and I prepared for a sequence, we always fell into the same disorganised traps, laughing or accosting each other as we hit the reset button.

What did cause irreparable damage to my co-op relationship, however, were the PVP minigames that allow you and your partner to take on challenges head-to-head. Found across the map, the parlour games allow you to vent frustrations and brutally thwart your bestie.

Early in the campaign, my partner and I happened upon a game called ‘Flip the Switch’, which involved one player hammering buttons while the other shoots them with nails from an aerial perspective. The player who shoots the most within the timer wins – simple, right? Wrong. What ensued was a series of upsets that ended in a solemn vow not to engage with these distractions ever again — until the next one arrived, and it was just as challenging and interesting. Toys-out-of-the-pram moment aside, It Takes Two does well to surprise you with these unique offshoots throughout its story.

Trust fall

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

The thoughtful set dressing and character designs are a standout feature across It Takes Two, with precious tidbits of lore hidden throughout the levels. For example, if you turn up a pathway in their daughter's room, you can find action figures that pay homage to the protagonists of Hazelight’s previous co-op prison-breaking game, A Way Out. Other hidden areas reveal more tender references to games from the past, such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. As I explored each micro world, I was often reminded of The Borrowers or Stuart Little, gawking at how everyday objects could be repurposed as obstacles or idiosyncratic decor.

The care for world-building applies to Cody and May’s doll designs, too, which were clearly handmade by their creative daughter, Rose. May’s fuzzy wooden tendrils and Cody’s rope belt feel haphazardly crafty in a way that represents Rose’s endearing affection for them. The softened, comforting nature of the dolls also feels like a sharp contrast to the couple’s real-world attitude, which is often barbed and biting. The longer they spend outside their bitter, bickering bodies and in their patchwork personas, the more they resemble Rose’s view of them, which feels like a warm visual metaphor for the overarching themes.

Hazelight has built its newest puzzler with plenty of care, allowing you to immerse yourselves in gorgeous fantasy worlds with considerable depth. In exploring Cody and May’s family home and interpersonal trouble, It Takes Two is a surprisingly grounded game, and I adored flipping and dashing through the family's tricky lives.

Should I play It Takes Two?

(Image credit: Electronic Arts) Play it if…

You want a challenging co-op adventure
From a surprisingly violent vacuum cleaner with a vengeance to a sequence of agility testing time-sensitive platforming puzzles, It Takes Two doesn’t pull punches when testing your dexterity

You want a co-op game that mixes up its gameplay
As you progress through It Takes Two’s shifting levels, Cody and May are awarded new weapons that diversify how you can solve puzzles, keeping the gameplay fresh across the familiar base platforming elements.

Don’t play it if…

You aren’t a forgiving person
No matter how much you care for your co-op partner, It Takes Two will inevitably lead to moments of anger as either of you make a mistake. No matter how often you become mulch, you’ll need to swallow pride and forgive each other to survive the ordeal.

Accessibility

In the accessibility menu, you can adjust both the contrast and brightness. From here, there are also three color blindness options to choose between (Tritanopia-Blue Weak, Protanopia-Red Weak, and Deuteranopia-Green Weak). You can toggle on Text-To-Speech and toggle the option to convert voice chat to text. Subtitles and vibrations can additionally be toggled on for either May or Cody.

Where camera settings are concerned, you can toggle settings per character. You can invert the vertical and horizontal cameras and choose how strong the automatic camera rotation is (None, Weak, or Strong). You can also adjust the camera and aim sensitivity for both the horizontal and vertical camera from 1 to 100.

How I reviewed It Takes Two

In anticipation of the launch of Spit Fiction, I played through the entirety of It Takes Two in local co-op on a PlayStation 5 and also replayed A Way Out for comparison.

I used an AOC CQ27G2 27-inch QHD VA 144Hz gaming monitor with my PS5, and for audio, I used my external Creative Pebble V2 computer speakers.

First reviewed February-March 2025

• The new hand luggage-compliant roller-case is available in three colorways
• It's part of Peak Design's ecosystem, with a new purpose-made XL Camera Cube
• Priced from $599.95, with crowdfunding campaign running from March 4 to April 17

Peak Design has unveiled its first roller-case, the premium Roller Pro, with innovative features and familiar design touches taken from its camera accessories ecosystem.

The hand-luggage compliant roller is available in three colorways – black, eclipse (a burgundy-ish shade) and sage – and is currently being crowdfunded from March 4 to April 17 with a backer price of $599.95, and is due to land on the Peak Design website from late June.

There's also a new dedicated Camera Cube (XL) that's designed to maximize the internal storage of the Roller Pro for camera gear that needs extra protection, which costs $139.95 (UK and Australia pricing for both items is TBC).

Of course there are no guarantees with crowdfunding campaigns, but I've already had my hands on a sage Roller Pro prototype for weeks (and I've tested numerous Peak Design products down the years, primarily camera gear, such as the Outdoor Backpack, Camera Cubes, Travel Tripod and Camera Sling), and I can imagine Peak Design's latest product becoming my go-to roller case for many years to come. Let's take a look at what it offers.

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(Image credit: Peak Design) A pricey roller that's a dream to handle, and built to last

Peak Design sent me a prototype of the Roller Pro several weeks ahead of its announcement, and I can tell you that it's an entirely different proposition to budget roller cases made from off-the-shelf parts.

This a premium Peak Design product through and through, with an ultra-smooth and agile four-set of wheels, plus a low-profile handle made from solid single pieces of carbon fiber, rather than rickety telescoping tubes. The handle slots into an aluminum chassis and takes up less space inside the roller case, meaning more space for your stuff.

The roller's exterior is a durable-feeling and expandable soft-shell type, with a familiar Peak Design look and an additional top soft handle (easing that temptation to hoist the loaded case up by the extending handle), while a polycarbonate hard shell structure inside provides rigidity and protection for what's inside.

I love how the main compartment opens for packing and unpacking. Unlike other rollers that double in footprint when you open them up, the Roller Pro's drawbridge top sits vertically up – ideal for when you're in tight spaces trying to access camera gear, or in an airport frantically searching for that thing you need.

With so many camera accessories in its portfolio, naturally Peak Design has put plenty of thought into gear storage. There are dedicated and secure compartments for items such as a laptop, small interior zipped pockets for important items like a passport and memory cards, plus a wide variety of protective Camera Cubes – including the new XL version, meaning you can customize how you split camera gear / personal items storage for your needs, for a each trip.

It's still early days for my Roller Pro testing, but I can already see it becoming my go-to roller case for many years of traveling and photography trips. The elephant in the room is the product's list price – around $600 for the case only is pretty steep, and that's before you add the cost of accessories for camera gear, such as Camera Cubes.

Still, if it's as durable and versatile as my time with it so far indicates, the Roller Pro could ultimately turn out to be excellent value. I'll share more thoughts further down the line by way of a long-term review.

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From strenuous hikes and serious summits to weekend rambles in the park, these boots help you make the most of your time outdoors.