Aronus

Music title: Stargazing Signer: Myles Smith Release date: 2024 Official YouTube link:

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The gaming phone market used to be an exciting and competitive niche, with companies innovating with newer and weirder ways to make their handsets great for mobile gaming. My use of the past tense there is intentional, as the Asus ROG Phone 8 is a sign of the times. With Lenovo giving up its short-lived Legion Duel line in 2021, and my personal favorites, Black Shark, not having released a device since 2022, Asus doesn’t have much competition when it comes to producing the best gaming phone, and as a result, it doesn’t seem to be trying. On paper, the Asus ROG Phone 8 looks like a decent gaming phone. It has a high refresh rate display, the newest and fastest chipset, and extra gaming features that you don’t find on most Android mobiles. And, to an extent, it is good for playing mobile games. The ROG had no problem loading up the top graphical settings on any game I tested, and it easily ran higher refresh modes in the few games that offer it. Plus, it gives you lots of customization over the power allotment, so you can focus on latency, graphics, battery management and more – really useful tools for gamers on the go. Asus’ Android fork is also one of the easiest to use I’ve seen in a gaming phone – it’s nice and clean, but with a few added extra features for gamers like customization modes. There’s no bloatware either, which isn’t something you can say about many Android phones. While I'm listing positives, I also want to commend the camera. It's not quite iPhone-level, but it's definitely the best I've seen on a gaming phone, given that manufacturers working in this niche rarely spare a thought for photography. It even has a zoom camera, which is quite the rarity these days! However, I came out of my time with the Asus ROG Phone 8 not quite sold on its gaming chops beyond all that power. Gaming tech companies don’t seem to want to acknowledge the fact that there’s a lot more to making a good gaming phone than performance; case in point, the ROG Phone 8. Instead of physical triggers, the ROG Phone 8 has ‘Air Triggers’, or haptic areas that you can tap to pre-mapped functions. These are finickity to use, requiring pronounced motions that take more time and attention than simply pressing on-screen buttons. Plus they’re quite buggy, sometimes not triggering and other times getting stuck. Asus has also made the mistake of placing the side-mounted speakers right where your hand will be when you’re holding the mobile horizontally to game. I kept blocking sound when playing games, which was infuriating. I imagine Asus hopes gamers will use the ROG phone alongside one of its peripherals, but expecting consumers to buy extra tech brings into view another issue with the ROG Phone 8 – it’s really expensive! Costing $1,099 / £949 (roughly AU$1,600), it’ll set you back more than many top-end flagships including the OnePlus 12, Google Pixel 8 or Xiaomi 14. More importantly, the ROG Phone 8 costs a lot more than the Nubia Red Magic 9 Pro, which is its big rival in the gaming space, and I don’t think you’re getting your money’s worth with the price hike. If the gaming phone space was more competitive, this price tag would get Asus laughed out of the room. As it stands, the high cost of the ROG Phone 8 and the lack of refinement in its gaming chops make it hard to recommend. Asus ROG Phone 8 review: drops the ball on key gaming features | TechRadar

One of the most po[CENSORED]r data recovery tools on macOS, Disk Drill is now available for Windows. With a range of features and a choice of free and premium versions, Disk Drill is designed to recover data from hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, SD/CF cards, digital cameras, and even smartphones. Disk Drill's website boasts that any lost data file type can be recovered, from almost any data loss scenario you can think of. But does Disk Drill rediscover the deleted data you're expecting? Three versions of Disk Drill are available. The free option gives you file recovery of up to 500 MB. Beyond this, the software cannot work without being upgraded. Recovered data is stored in a Recovery Vault, with disks backed up with "byte-to-byte" recovery. All recovery methods can be used. For the PRO version, you'll need to pay either $89.99 (£78.35) or $118 (£103.88) with lifetime upgrades and for the price you'll get unlimited recovery for one user with activation on up to three devices. Aimed at home users with high data recovery requirements, PRO features include Quick & Deep Scan, Smart FAT and NTFS algorithms, and Lost Partition Search. All storage types and file systems are supported. Enterprise users can enjoy all the above, licenses for 10 users and infinite activations, and priority support for $499 (£439.28) or $598 (£526.44) with lifetime upgrades. Minor upgrades within major versions e.g. version 5.2 to 5.5 are free. At the time of writing, there's a limited two-for-one deal, which gives you a copy of the Mac version of Disk Drill free with the Windows PRO version. The developers also offer a 50% discount to anyone upgrading from a past version of Disk Drill or a competing Windows/macOS product bought within the last year, provided you can present a valid proof of purchase. Education/Non-Profits also benefit from a 20% discount. Disk Drill Review: Pros & Cons, Features, Ratings, Pricing and more | TechRadar

The 32GB Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C30 memory kit comes to market with support for AMD's EXPO one-click overclocking profiles. Ryzen 7000 processors are the first AMD mainstream chips to embrace DDR5 memory, so Intel isn't the only chipmaker to do so anymore. As a result, we've seen a new wave of EXPO-certified DDR5 memory kits specifically for Zen 4. Nonetheless, most consumers will probably look at a DDR5-6000 memory kit for their next Zen 4 build. It's not a coincidence. AMD has openly stated that DDR5-6000 is the sweet spot for Ryzen 7000 processors, so the data rate has grown in po[CENSORED]rity. Luckily for consumers, there are more than enough DDR5-6000 memory kits to pick from. The first DDR5-6000 memory kits typically carry a CAS Latency (CL) of 40. However, technology evolves rapidly, so DDR5 has matured a bit since its debut. As a result, memory vendors have started to roll out faster DDR5-6000 memory. Nowadays, you can find high-end DDR5-6000 memory kits on the market with CL values as low as 30. The Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C30 is among these options. G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C30 Review: Perfect Together With Ryzen 7000 | Tom's Hardware

It's been 16 long years since World of Goo squidged its way into our hearts and hard drives. The much-loved physics-based puzzle game was one of modern indie gaming's earliest and biggest successes. But a lot has changed since then. Polished games from unfamiliar studios with barely a dozen staff members aren't some headline-grabbing curiosity anymore; they're absolutely everywhere, all the time. My PC. My Steam Deck. My phone. They're often discounted and bundled up and at times even given away for free. Who needs more World of Goo, then, when the original was lovely and creative and very much done and dusted years ago? Playing this game is a lot like catching up with an old friend. It looks, feels, and plays in much the same way it did before. Everything from the artistic stage select design to more than a few goo types, environmental hazards, and puzzle pieces call back to the original gooey head-scratcher. Even the little time rewinding bugs have returned (thank goodness), making it easy to either try out a few wild ideas or finally perfect a tough segment. Within moments it was as if not only had the game never been away, but I'd never stopped playing it either. And because of that, clearing the first few challenges wasn't just easy—it almost felt instinctive. There I was, watching towers of goo dangerously sway as I grabbed and built and stretched an increasingly wobbly mass towards the exit pipe that would suck it all up and end the level, same as last time. Just like the ancient past of 2008, sometimes I needed to hook balloons onto my goo lattice to move it around, flipping it over and over to "walk" it across the landscape or encourage it to roll in a particular direction. At other times I needed to set something on fire, or watch out for drafts. There are a lot of obviously recycled ideas in here. World of Goo 2 review | PC Gamer

Jujutsu Kaisen hits the video game stage for the very first time, known for its high-octane clashes between curses and sorcerers. Yuji Itadori and his fellow classmates must learn to harness Jujutsu Sorcery as an ancient evil swells, beckoning danger ever closer. While the series is po[CENSORED]r among both manga and anime fans, does the magic carry over to the world of video games as well? Right off the bat, the main menu looks like something out of a 2000s title screen, with scenes from the anime playing in the background and a simple bar of options at the top. I bring this up because the UI in this game is atrocious to look at and maneuver through, and feels downright amateurish for the price tag this game has. This was my first red flag that this game might be of lower quality, and after completing the game I can say with confidence that the writing was on the wall from the very start. When you begin a match in most modes, you’ll be playing some combination of 1v1, 1v2 or 2v2. It would seem that the 2v2 mode is likely going to be the most po[CENSORED]r, as it seems like a lot of the moves, combos and balance seem to be centered around this set-up in particular. This is further cemented by the fact that outside of the Story Mode, there are currently no options to set up a 1v1 match. I say combos here lightly, because while there are three attack buttons, about ninety percent of the time you’ll be mashing square the entire match. This is largely because of the game’s greatest flaw; there are attacks that legitimately do zero damage. Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash review — Absolutely cursed — GAMINGTREND

Your bugs are going to die. I feel it's important to let you know that from the start. Bugaboo Pocket is a Tamagotchi-like game about cultivating bug species to revitalize the environment after your evil corpo bosses destroyed it, and inevitably you're going to say goodbye to them all, give them a nice burial and epitaph, and then raise their progeny. It's a circle of bug's life out there. Bugaboo Pocket is planning to fully launch sometime this year, but it's got a demo available right now that I've been thoroughly sucked into. It begins as I flee the fire that destroyed my lab, taking with me just one bug larva to raise in a remote cabin. I initially assume it's just a pill bug, though I now know he's a rubber duck isopod who I name Bront (they're good bugs, Bront) and care for in his terrarium by feeding, petting, and picking up after him. Oh, and I also have to give Bront proper enrichment by using him as a pachinko ball and building a precarious arcade bridge and forcing him through an endless runner tunnel. There's not as much rest for bugs as I'd thought. He does get to wear hats, but only after he's grown into an adult bug with a large enough noggin for the lovely blue flower to perch on. Aside from playing minigames to win bug poop currency to decorate his terrarium with, I'm also learning about Bront by trial and error. When he's small, clicking to pet him makes him curl up and hide, but once he's larger I can tap his thorax to pet him—though he doesn't like being pet on his head or lower thorax, I learned. And eventually I pet him too many times in a row which made him dislike being pet at all anymore according to my journal. Sorry, Bront. Each bug has a tarot card reading for some reason, and grow into personality traits like "cheerful" and "posh." There seems to be a whole list of unlabeled needs meters that I imagine I'll begin to uncover in the full game. Eventually Bront dies, so I bury him in the garden outside, write a nice message to mark his place, and hatch a new larva he left behind. Thanks to this Tamagotchi-like critter care game I now believe that bugs can be cute too | PC Gamer a