Tag Archives: Gaming

The 29 best PC games you can play right now for 2025

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PC gamers have almost too many options when it comes to titles to play, which is a great problem to have. With decades of games to choose from (and the first port of call for most indie titles, too), the options are endless. You also get the perks of (nearly always flawless) backward compatibility and console-beating graphical performance — if you've got the coin for it when you’re building your perfect kit or picking up a high-powered gaming laptop.

The whole idea of what a gaming PC is and where you can play it is shifting, too, with the rise of handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck. We've tried to be broad with our recommendations here on purpose; here are the best PC games you can play right now.

Check out our entire Best Games series including the best Nintendo Switch games, the best PS5 games, the best Xbox games, the best PC games and the best free games you can play today.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-best-pc-games-150000910.html?src=rss

This Car Key Fob Doubles as a Retro Gaming Console

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Remember the pure, unfiltered joy of steering a remote-control car around your living room as a kid? That magical feeling of control, the anticipation as you pressed the buttons, watching your tiny vehicle zoom across the floor? Designer Ishwari Patil remembers too, and she’s asking a pretty wild question: what if you could feel that same rush with your actual, full-sized car?

Enter Playfob, a concept that’s here to shake up one of the most overlooked objects in our daily lives. Think about it. We obsess over our phone cases, carefully curate our accessories, and treat our watches as extensions of our personality. But car key fobs? They’ve been stuck in design purgatory, purely functional gray blobs we shove into pockets and forget about. Patil saw this gap and decided to do something about it.

Designer: Ishwari Patil

The genius of Playfob lies in its refusal to play it safe. This isn’t just a key fob with a few extra features slapped on. It’s a complete reimagining of what this everyday object could be. The device transforms into a compact gaming console, complete with that glorious Game Boy-inspired aesthetic, bright nostalgic colors, and a monochrome screen that immediately transports you back to simpler times. When you dock it in your car, it connects to the vehicle’s screen, turning waiting time into playtime.

But here’s where it gets really interesting. Playfob taps into something designers call the “kidult” trend, where adults aren’t just tolerating nostalgic design but actively seeking it out. We want objects that bring comfort and joy, that remind us of times when things felt less complicated. It’s why we see grown adults collecting toys, why retro gaming is having such a massive moment, and why anything that evokes childhood gets us reaching for our wallets.

Of course, a key fob still needs to be, you know, a key fob. Playfob doesn’t sacrifice functionality for fun. It includes Bluetooth connectivity, on-screen feedback when you lock or unlock your car, and GPS-enabled parking assist for those moments when you’ve wandered through three parking garage levels and have absolutely no idea where you left your vehicle. These features bring the humble fob into the modern age without losing sight of its core purpose.

Then there’s the feature that really brings the remote-control car fantasy full circle. Using the built-in D-pad (yes, just like your old Nintendo controller), you can actually move your car remotely in tight spaces. Squeezed into a parking spot with barely enough room to breathe? No problem. Navigate your car out from the comfort of the sidewalk. It’s practical, sure, but it’s also just incredibly cool.

The design itself is deliberately larger than typical key fobs, and that’s entirely the point. While most fobs are designed to disappear, Playfob wants to be seen. It features a rubberized grip that feels good in your hand, intuitive button layouts that make sense without needing a manual, and those vibrant colors that make it feel less like a tech accessory and more like a statement piece. It’s meant to dangle from your bag, to spark conversations, to be an object you actually enjoy carrying around.

What makes this concept so compelling is how it challenges our assumptions about automotive design. Cars have become increasingly personalized over the years, with customizable interiors, ambient lighting, and infotainment systems that sync with our digital lives. Yet somehow, the thing that literally gives us access to all of this remained stubbornly utilitarian. Playfob suggests that every touchpoint matters, that even the smallest interaction with our vehicles could be an opportunity for delight rather than drudgery.

Patil developed this concept during a summer internship at Tata Motors, which makes you wonder what else might be possible when young designers are given the freedom to question conventions. Playfob might be a personal project, but it represents something bigger: a shift toward designing objects that don’t just work well but feel good to use, that acknowledge our emotional needs alongside our practical ones.

Whether or not we’ll ever see Playfob in production remains to be seen. But as a design statement, it’s already succeeded in making us reconsider what a car key could be. And honestly? It makes every boring black fob in existence look just a little bit sadder by comparison.

The post This Car Key Fob Doubles as a Retro Gaming Console first appeared on Yanko Design.

AYANEO Just Built a 115Wh Strix Halo Handheld and Killed Portability

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Gaming handhelds are supposed to fit in your hands, but AMD’s new Strix Halo processors generate serious heat and drain batteries faster than you can finish a boss fight. The GPD Win 5 and OneXFly Apex responded by strapping external battery packs to their backs, which works, but looks like your handheld is wearing a fanny pack in the wrong spot. It’s practical but awkward, and it raises an obvious question: if you’re adding external batteries anyway, why not just make the whole device bigger?

AYANEO apparently asked that same question and decided to run with it. The AYANEO NEXT II skips external packs entirely, hiding a massive 115Wh battery and a 9.06-inch OLED inside a thick, sculpted body that feels more like a portable gaming monitor with grips than something you’d slip into a backpack. It’s AYANEO’s answer to Strix Halo’s power demands, and the solution involves simply accepting that this thing was never going to be pocketable in the first place.

Designer: AYANEO

The design doesn’t apologize for its size. Deep grips flare outward like a proper gamepad, and the body is thick enough to house dual cooling fans without turning into a space heater. Hall effect sticks sit where your thumbs expect them, surrounded by a floating D-pad, dual touchpads, and speakers that actually face you instead of firing sound into your lap. It looks less like a Switch rival and more like someone decided gaming monitors needed handles attached.

That 9.06-inch screen uses an unusual 3:2 aspect ratio instead of the typical widescreen shape most games expect. You get a gorgeous OLED panel with refresh rates up to 165Hz and brightness that peaks at 1100 nits, which sounds fantastic until you realize most games will either add black bars or run nowhere near 165 frames per second at this resolution anyway. Still, it’s lovely for desktop windows and emulators that appreciate the extra vertical space.

The 115Wh battery is where things get complicated. Everything stays hidden inside for a cleaner look and more console-like feel, but that capacity might cause questions at airport security since many airlines cap carry-on batteries at 100Wh. You also can’t swap batteries when one dies, and constantly feeding an 85-watt processor means faster charge cycles and potential long-term wear. You’re looking at two to three hours of heavy gaming before hunting for an outlet.

The dual cooling fans work hard to keep Strix Halo from overheating, and you’ll definitely hear them during intense sessions. AYANEO claims it can sustain up to 85 watts, which should let the integrated Radeon graphics handle modern games at respectable settings, though you’ll also feel warmth radiating from the vents. This is less a grab-and-go portable and more something you carry from the couch to the desk when you need a scenery change.

AYANEO loaded the NEXT II with premium controls that enthusiasts will genuinely appreciate. Hall effect sticks and triggers promise zero drift, dual-stage trigger locks switch between smooth analog and clicky digital modes, and rear buttons plus dual touchpads give you more inputs than a standard controller. A magnetic haptic motor adds feedback that tries to mimic console vibration, and the AYASpace software hides Windows behind a console-style launcher with performance tuning options built in.

The AYANEO NEXT II essentially stops pretending to be portable. It won’t fit in a jacket pocket, might get flagged at airport security, and is almost certainly too heavy for comfortable one-handed play in bed. But if you want something that feels more like a small gaming monitor with built-in controls rather than a device you’d actually carry around town, this oversized approach makes a strange kind of sense. You just have to accept that portability took a back seat to screen size and battery capacity.

The post AYANEO Just Built a 115Wh Strix Halo Handheld and Killed Portability first appeared on Yanko Design.

This $200 Nintendo 64 Can Play Your Old Cartridges in 4K With Zero Lag

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Palmer Luckey’s gaming company just dropped the M64, and honestly, I’m torn about the whole thing. The guy’s built actual VR headsets that changed gaming, sure, but he’s also neck-deep in military contracting through Anduril, which makes autonomous drones and surveillance tech for the Department of Defense. So when he teases a translucent purple Nintendo 64 clone on X with a note saying “no peeking until Christmas,” I’m simultaneously hyped about the hardware and deeply uncomfortable about where my $200 might end up. The M64 hits that exact nostalgia sweet spot with three transparent colorways (purple, green, and white) that scream late 90s Funtastic edition, complete with matching wireless trident controllers that preserve the original’s questionable three-pronged ergonomics.

The timing feels deliberate in the best possible way for ModRetro. Analogue 3D shipped to pre-order customers last month after being sold out for over six months, and here comes the M64 exactly when early adopters are posting unboxing videos and first impressions. You can sign up for the waitlist now and get priority when it goes on sale, though if the Chromatic’s instant sellout taught us anything, that waitlist notification better ping your phone fast. The price point matters because $200 puts this squarely in impulse-buy territory for people who’ve been sitting on a stack of N64 cartridges since 1998, waiting for something better than janky software emulators or hunting down original hardware with failing capacitors.

Designer: ModRetro

The console uses AMD-powered FPGA technology and features four controller ports, a power button, a menu dial, and an eject button, with both hardware and software confirmed as open-source. That menu dial is the interesting bit because it suggests actual system-level features beyond basic cartridge reading. Could be scanline filters for that authentic CRT feel, aspect ratio toggles, or even overclock options like what Analogue builds into their consoles. We don’t have concrete specs on the actual FPGA chip yet, but the AMD chip is likely much larger and faster than the one in ModRetro’s Game Boy-like Chromatic, which makes sense given the N64’s significantly more complex architecture. The Reality Coprocessor, the texture filtering system, the expansion pak doubling RAM mid-generation – all of that needs accurate recreation at the hardware level if you want GoldenEye and Rogue Squadron running without the timing glitches that still plague software emulation in 2025.

The system promises 4K graphics with classic N64 visuals, which translates to clean upscaling rather than texture packs or visual overhauls that some emulators push. FPGA consoles shine here because they maintain pixel-perfect accuracy and minimal latency while outputting through modern HDMI connections. Anyone who’s tried running Perfect Dark through RetroArch knows the N64’s quirky architecture makes software emulation perpetually finicky. Audio sync issues, texture warping that doesn’t match original hardware, input lag that throws off muscle memory from childhood speedruns – FPGA sidesteps all of that by literally rebuilding the original silicon pathways in programmable logic gates. The open-source firmware commitment matters too because it means community developers can add features, fix edge cases, and potentially expand compatibility beyond Nintendo’s official library if ModRetro’s implementation allows it.

The elephant in the room is Anduril. Luckey co-founded the military tech company that makes autonomous drones, surveillance systems, and weapons platforms with billions in government contracts. Every M64 purchase potentially funds defense projects that some buyers might find uncomfortable, and Luckey’s various companies are built to promote his excessively militaristic worldview according to critics. This isn’t tangential either – Anduril is Luckey’s primary focus, not a side investment. Whether that matters to you personally is a calculation only you can make. The Analogue 3D costs more and restocks are brutal, but your money goes to a company focused exclusively on gaming hardware preservation. Practically every tech purchase has military connections somewhere in the supply chain, but there’s a difference between incidental contracts and building autonomous weapons as your core business model. Some people won’t care. Others will wait months for Analogue restocks rather than compromise on this particular issue.

The hardware itself looks genuinely sharp though. Those transparent shells channel the atomic grape and jungle green N64 variants that defined late 90s bedroom gaming setups, and the wireless controllers solve the biggest practical problem with original hardware – constantly tripping over cables stretched across living rooms. Luckey promises the M64 will remain at $200 through Black Friday and beyond despite inflation and component shortages, which suggests they’ve locked in manufacturing costs and aren’t playing the artificial scarcity game that plagued PS5 launches. If ModRetro actually ships before Christmas and the FPGA implementation handles compatibility cleanly across the N64’s library, this becomes the accessible entry point for cartridge-based retro gaming that doesn’t require scouring eBay for working consoles or dealing with composite video on modern displays.

The post This $200 Nintendo 64 Can Play Your Old Cartridges in 4K With Zero Lag first appeared on Yanko Design.

Nike Air Max 90 turned into fully playable SNES console is the ultimate retro-modern mashup

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Sneaker culture and gaming go a long way back, good enough reason we’ve seen many interesting collaborations that signify the retro-modern charm of reliving the golden era. The excitement of playing arcade titles that defined the ’80s and ’90s keeps the creative juices of inventive DIYers flowing. While having the superficial elements of gaming on a pair of sneakers is common, having an actual gaming console running right off your sneaker is worth the attention.

Designer Gustavo Bonzanini has come up with a unique way to celebrate the Super Nintendo’s 35th anniversary since its release in Japan. The one-off sneaker running the 16-bit SNES games is a homage to the 90s fashion and gaming technology. He calls them the AIR SNES since they are based on the Nike Air Max 90, which are as nostalgic as the arcade games we are all obsessed with. He positions them as comfort-laden classic runners that bring the thrill of 16-bit adventure.

Designer: Gustavo Bonzanini

The Singapore-based designer has a knack for creating unique wearable art from everyday shoes. This time, he’s hit the note right with the retro arcade vibe of gaming consoles of yesteryear. The idea for the build came from his Street Fighter II gaming streak, as he noticed Ryu launching fireballs from the device linked to the foot. Gustavo asked himself a question: why can’t a pair like the Nike Air Max 90 that looks like a video game double as a gaming console? Hence came the idea of designing sneaker shoes with built-in gaming capabilities. The best thing is that they are completely wearable, and you can play games right off them. The majority of the shoe remains the same, like the air cushioning system, but the magic happens right up at the tongue. The section is loaded with a Raspberry Pi Zero W tiny computer that’s no bigger than a business card.

It is paired with a small battery placed in the footbed, which provides 30 minutes of playtime. You can just plug it into an old school TV and play, since it has RCA output ports (instead of an HDMI output) to retain the classic feel. According to him, this was done, “to make the design feel like it could exist in 1990.” Of course, you need a controller to enjoy the games, so he had to tinker around with the regular SNES controller to get going. He modified the peripheral with a new internal for improved reliability and Bluetooth connectivity via the 8BitDo Mod Kit. That had to be done as the shoe’s contraption could not fit the input for the controller and would have added to the overall weight.

The AIR SNES can be used to play titles like Super Mario World or The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past via the microSD card slot, which is slotted inside the tongue. Gustavo has even gone the length to test the sneakers on the road and thereafter play games on them to make the build as authentic as possible. The final element comes in the form of a gray and purple palette of the sneakers, complemented by the light purple stitching along the seam to replicate the controller’s button layout. Unfortunately, these sneakers are not available to buy, and you’ll have to follow Gustavo’s build to create one for yourself.

The post Nike Air Max 90 turned into fully playable SNES console is the ultimate retro-modern mashup first appeared on Yanko Design.

Level up your feet with the new Xbox Classic Controller Clogs

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Xbox and Crocs have found an unexpected sweet spot between gaming culture and lifestyle fashion, creating a collaboration that feels both humorous and oddly fitting. For years, Xbox controllers have shaped how players interact with their consoles, while Crocs have become the go-to footwear for effortless comfort. Now, the two brands have merged these worlds with a product that looks like it jumped straight out of a gamer’s wishlist.

The result is the Xbox Classic Clog, a limited-edition release that transforms the familiar Xbox controller layout into a fully wearable piece of footwear. It’s the kind of drop that instantly sparks curiosity, something playful enough to be a conversation starter while still holding the appeal of a genuine collectible.

Designer: Xbox and Crocs

The clogs mimic the look of an Xbox controller with surprising accuracy. Each pair features molded analog sticks, the D-pad, ABXY buttons, menu and share buttons, and even the iconic Xbox guide button positioned just as it appears on a real controller. These fixed-dimensional elements rise from the clog’s surface, creating a sculpted texture that’s unmistakably inspired by the gamepad. The design continues around the sides, where the clogs integrate bumper-like detailing, and the heel strap hinges display the Xbox logo. Even the footbeds get their own touch of gamer personality with “Player Left” and “Player Right” printed inside, giving the shoes a fun two-player theme.

Released today, the Xbox Classic Clog is priced at $80 and sold through the Crocs website. While the design leans heavily into novelty, the footwear retains the brand’s standard comfort features. They remain lightweight, water-friendly, buoyant, and quick to dry, with pivoting heel straps for a more secure fit. They’re also compatible with Jibbitz charms, and Xbox has introduced its own five-pack of themed charms for $20. This pack includes franchises such as Halo, Fallout, DOOM, World of Warcraft, and Sea of Thieves, giving fans a way to personalize their clogs with characters and symbols from some of Microsoft’s biggest titles. Unlike typical Crocs, the strap itself is designed to hold these charms, while the main upper remains focused on showcasing the controller layout.

The collaboration arrives as part of Microsoft’s growing interest in lifestyle products. Earlier in the year, the company released Windows XP–themed Crocs to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Microsoft, showing that this partnership with Crocs is becoming more than a one-off novelty. The Xbox Classic Clog continues this trend, embracing gaming nostalgia and translating it into something wearable, collectable, and immediately recognizable.

Because the release is limited, demand is expected to surge, especially since the launch coincided with the holiday shopping rush. For gamers, it’s more than just footwear—it’s a fun, unexpected extension of the Xbox brand, blending comfort, fandom, and a bit of humor into one product. Whether worn during long gaming sessions, used as lounge shoes, or displayed as part of a gamer’s setup, the Xbox Classic Clog stands out as a clever crossover that celebrates the culture surrounding the console while delivering the ease and comfort Crocs are known for.

 

The post Level up your feet with the new Xbox Classic Controller Clogs first appeared on Yanko Design.

GBA SP With DeWALT Battery Will Outlast the Apocalypse

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Handheld gamers obsess over battery life like it’s a matter of survival. We swap cells, carry backup chargers, and baby old consoles through one more dungeon before the screen flickers off. Battery anxiety is real, especially for something like the Game Boy Advance SP, where the original cell barely lasted through a single flight. This mod responds to that anxiety by going completely overboard, bolting a GBA SP onto a DeWALT power-tool battery big enough to run drills and apparently several full-length RPGs.

The project comes from a Reddit build where a modder mounts a GBA SP onto a DeWALT XR FLEXVOLT lithium-ion pack, creating what commenters immediately dubbed the “jobsite Game Boy.” The console’s original tiny battery is gone, replaced by a buck converter that steps down the tool battery’s eighteen volts to the four-ish volts the SP expects. The result looks like Nintendo and DeWALT secretly collaborated on a rugged portable for construction workers.

Designer: Bangoo H

The battery is rated at nine amp-hours at 18 volts, which works out to around 162 watt-hours compared to the few watt-hours of the original cell. Reddit did the math and estimated hundreds of hours of runtime, with one commenter joking that the battery might finally die fifteen minutes after the nukes start flying and another suggesting you could finish your entire childhood backlog before needing a recharge.

The wiring is straightforward if you squint. The modder dropped a buck converter into the SP where the original battery lived, wired it to the battery contacts via a dummy cell, then connected that to a custom holder that slides onto the DeWALT pack’s rail. Charging still happens through the regular DeWALT charger, so the Game Boy just thinks it has an absurdly large external battery that never quits.

The aesthetics are what really sell it. The SP shell has been resprayed in black with yellow buttons, and the lid wears a big DeWALT logo, so when it’s closed, the whole thing reads like a tiny power-tool accessory. Open it up, and the screen pops out of the battery like a work light. It even has a little Nintendo badge on the back, making the mashup feel weirdly official.

Of course, the DeWALT pack turns the SP from a pocketable handheld into a luggable brick. Commenters joked about dropping it on your face in bed or finally silencing anyone who says the SP is too small for their hands. It’s not exactly travel-friendly unless your idea of travel involves rolling a toolbox around, but it does give the console a much larger grip.

The DeWALT GBA SP mod turns battery anxiety into a punchline and shows how far you can push an idea just because it makes you laugh. By strapping a beloved handheld to a power-tool battery, it mixes serious electrical work with a sense of humor, reminding us that modding can be joyful and completely unnecessary in the best possible way.

The post GBA SP With DeWALT Battery Will Outlast the Apocalypse first appeared on Yanko Design.

Apple Vision Pro Expands Its Immersive Universe: New Content and Award-Winning Apps Redefine Spatial Computing

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Apple just dropped a wave of announcements that prove the Vision Pro isn’t just a headset. It’s becoming a legitimate platform for experiences you can’t get anywhere else. From backcountry skiing with Red Bull athletes to stepping inside Real Madrid’s locker room, the content pipeline is starting to deliver on spatial computing’s promise.

Designer: Apple

The Dual Knit Band Finally Solves Vision Pro’s Comfort Problem

The original Vision Pro had a fatal flaw. You could wear it for 30 minutes before the front-heavy weight started digging into your forehead. The Solo Knit Band slipped. The Dual Loop Band created pressure points. Extended viewing sessions meant discomfort, which meant the immersive content didn’t matter if you couldn’t stay immersed.

Apple’s new Dual Knit Band addresses this directly. The design looks simple but hides serious engineering.

3D-Knitted Counterweight Engineering

The band is 3D-knitted as a single piece with upper and lower straps forming a dual-rib structure. The lower strap contains flexible fabric ribs embedded with tungsten inserts. These aren’t decorative. They’re counterweights that balance the front-heavy Vision Pro by adding weight at the rear. The result is a headset that feels stable without the constant forward pressure that plagued earlier bands.

The upper strap provides cushioning and stretch. The dual-rib structure creates airflow channels that keep your head cooler during long sessions. The entire assembly prioritizes breathability without sacrificing support.

Dual-Function Fit Dial

The Fit Dial is now dual-function, letting users adjust both the top and rear straps independently. Previous bands forced you to choose between secure fit and comfort. The Dual Knit Band lets you dial in both. Tighter at the rear for stability. Looser at the top for comfort. Or whatever combination works for your head shape.

This matters more than it sounds. Vision Pro works through eye tracking and precise positioning. If the headset shifts during use, the tracking fails. The Dual Knit Band keeps the Vision Pro stable without creating pressure points.

Universal Compatibility

The band comes in small, medium, and large sizes. Apple uses iPhone Face ID scanning through the Apple Store App to recommend the correct size. The interesting detail: it works with both the new Vision Pro M5 and previous-generation models. If you bought a Vision Pro at launch and have been living with the Solo Knit Band’s compromises, you can buy the Dual Knit Band separately for $99.

Why This Matters for Content

The Dual Knit Band isn’t about specs. It’s about whether you can actually watch the World of Red Bull backcountry skiing episode all the way through without adjusting the headset. It’s about whether the Real Madrid documentary’s immersive locker room access works when you’re constantly aware of the weight on your forehead.

Previous Vision Pro bands made extended viewing uncomfortable. The Solo Knit Band worked for demos. The Dual Loop Band worked for specific head shapes. The Dual Knit Band is engineered for universal comfort during the 2.5-hour battery life the Vision Pro M5 delivers.

The tungsten counterweights in the lower rib are a subtle detail that makes a significant difference. The dual-function Fit Dial turns comfort from compromise into customization. Apple’s immersive content pipeline is finally delivering. The Dual Knit Band ensures you can actually experience it.

Red Bull Takes Immersive Video to Remote Slopes

World of Red Bull debuts December 4 with its first episode, “Backcountry Skiing.” The series uses Apple’s Immersive Video format to transport you into Revelstoke, British Columbia, where the world’s top freeskiers push their limits on remote, untouched slopes. This isn’t watching skiing on a screen. It’s being there as athletes carve through powder in terrain most of us will never access.

Red Bull’s built its brand on putting cameras in impossible places. Apple Immersive Video gives them a format that matches that energy. The result is content that uses the Vision Pro’s strengths instead of fighting against them.

Real Madrid Opens the Locker Room Door

Next year, Apple and Real Madrid are teaming up on an immersive documentary filmed during the 2025-26 Champions League. Over 30 Blackmagic immersive cameras captured Real Madrid versus Juventus, bringing you inside the world’s most decorated club with access fans have never experienced before. Practice sessions. Pre-game tension. Pitch-level intensity. This is spatial computing applied to sports storytelling.

The documentary arrives in 2026, but it signals where this platform is heading. Premium content from premium brands, shot specifically for spatial viewing.

What to Watch Right Now

The content library keeps expanding with experiences that show what spatial computing can do:

Elevated: Maine flies you above autumn landscapes with Oscar-winning actor Tim Robbins as your guide. Rugged coastlines, pristine lakes, and forests of the Pine Tree State unfold below you in ways that make traditional nature documentaries feel flat.

Flight Ready straps you into an F-18 fighter jet on the USS Nimitz flight deck. Full-throttle rides through the skies with real fighter pilots. No green screen. No simulation. Actual carrier operations captured in immersive video.

The Fine Dining Bakery premieres this Friday on the Theater app. Australian filmmakers Ben Allan and Clara Chong created an immersive documentary short about an iconic strawberry watermelon cake. They’ve also authored a book about immersive filmmaking, available exclusively on Apple Books this Friday.

“No Brainer” is an immersive music video from Dallas music collective Cure for Paranoia, filmed with the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive. It’s available for free on Amplium, and also from the Groove Jones website using Spatial Browsing in Safari. Music videos in spatial format are just starting to happen, and this is one of the early experiments worth watching.

Fantastic Four: First Steps in 3D brings Marvel’s first family to Vision Pro. Set against a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, viewers meet the team as they face a daunting challenge. The 3D presentation uses depth in ways traditional 3D movies can’t match.

2025 App Store Awards Spotlight Vision Pro Innovation

Yesterday, Apple announced the finalists for the 2025 App Store Awards. The Vision Pro categories showcase apps and games that exemplify technical innovation, user experience, and design.

Apple Vision Pro App of the Year Finalists

Camo Studio offers creators a more flexible way to livestream and create videos, turning Vision Pro into a production tool.

D-Day: The Camera Soldier pioneers the future of immersive storytelling by putting you in the boots of soldiers during the Normandy invasion. Historical storytelling gets a spatial computing treatment that makes the events feel immediate and personal.

Explore POV transports users through its library of Apple Immersive videos filmed around the world. It’s a curated collection that shows off what spatial video can do when shot properly.

Apple Vision Pro Games of the Year Finalists

Fishing Haven immerses players seeking a retreat into calm waters. Transform your surroundings into beautiful fishing locations for a peaceful escape.

Gears & Goo combines strategic gameplay with endearing characters in a spatial gaming experience that uses the Vision Pro’s unique capabilities.

Porta Nubi builds atmospheric puzzles that make users feel like a light-bending superhero. The spatial puzzles work because you’re physically moving around them, not just looking at a screen.

PlayStation VR2 Controller Support Expands Gaming Options

The PlayStation VR2 Sense Controller and Charging Station is now available from the Apple Store online in the U.S. This opens up new gaming possibilities with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers designed for VR. Here’s what you can play:

Porta Nubi works with the PS VR2 controller for more precise puzzle manipulation.

Pickle Pro turns your surroundings into your own personal pickleball court. With PS VR2 Sense controller support, every swing feels natural and precise with proper haptic feedback.

Spatial Rifts invites players to team up in the same space and fight waves of monsters. This Apple Vision Pro exclusive uses spatial gaming in ways that make co-op play feel genuinely different.

FunFitLand blends spatial interaction, real movement, and guided coaching into one seamless fitness experience. The PS VR2 controller adds tactile feedback to workout routines.

New Games Arriving on the Platform

Following last month’s announcement about expanded controller support, new compatible games are arriving:

Sniper Elite 4 delivers hours of gripping single-player campaign gameplay, with cross-save capabilities to seamlessly pick up where you left off across iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro. The tactical shooting translates surprisingly well to spatial computing.

POOLS offers no typical story. It’s slow, reflective, and intentionally uneventful. This relaxing, unnerving, eerie, and immersive experience rewards patience and quiet attention. It’s the kind of meditative experience that works when you’re fully immersed.

Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss lets players lead their squad of Champions into a fast-paced and immersive arena where tactics, magic, and power collide. This new spatial game is available on Apple Arcade.

The iPad Game of the Year finalists DREDGE and Prince of Persia Lost Crown are also available to play on Apple Vision Pro, showing how Apple’s gaming ecosystem is starting to connect across devices.

The Platform Is Maturing

A year ago, the Vision Pro launched with promise but limited content. Now the pipeline is filling with experiences that justify the hardware. Red Bull backcountry skiing. Real Madrid locker room access. Award-winning apps and games that couldn’t exist on flat screens.

Spatial computing still feels early. But with content like this arriving regularly, it’s starting to feel less like a tech demo and more like a platform with staying power. The question isn’t whether immersive content works on Vision Pro. It’s whether there will be enough of it to matter.

Based on what’s coming in the next few months, that answer is starting to look like yes.

The post Apple Vision Pro Expands Its Immersive Universe: New Content and Award-Winning Apps Redefine Spatial Computing first appeared on Yanko Design.

Echo Aviation Controller mimics realism of flying planes with a full set of flight controls

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Gaming has come a long way from the nostalgic gamepads to the current wireless controllers with haptic feedback that mimic the vibration of game input elements. Right from the texture of the road in racing games, to the recoil of weapons in FPS titles, the idea is to bring that extra element of realism to the whole experience. Wearable headsets have taken the quotient of realism to the next level, but they are bulky, can cause eye strain, and are currently not very practical for everyday gaming. Therefore, the buck stops at buying a pricey racing sim, or dedicated hardware that caters to a niche set of gaming titles.

Microsoft Flight Simulator has a cult following, and I wish there were a simpler gaming controller to enjoy the game without any strings attached. That wish has come true with this unique gaming controller dubbed the Echo Aviation Controller, which is tailored for precision flight control input. Best of all, it has a small form factor and is portable enough to carry in your backpack. Slated for mid-December release for a price of $150, the gamepad guarantees hours of immersive gameplay during the holiday season.

Designer: Honeycomb Aeronautical

The gamepad-shaped flight controller is an accessory that’ll let you game from the comfort of your couch without losing out on the precision control method that isn’t possible with a conventional controller. Coming from a company that crafts flight simulator accessories, this controller is ideal for sim fanatics who like a compact gaming setup, especially for titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator. It comes with small joysticks, a dedicated trim wheel to actuate the plane’s altitude, and buttons on one side for flight-specific controls to actuate the in-game throttle levers. On the other side is positioned a thumbstick, four action buttons, and a conical joystick for panning the sim’s camera control.

Bottom of the Echo Aviation Controller has flap adjustment controls, landing gear control, and the parking brake activation controls. This gives the player an array of inputs that were earlier only possible with keyboard buttons. That method of input, however, couldn’t reach the level of professionalism you would expect from advanced sims. The shoulder section of the gamepad has sliding paddles to control the rudder function for directional movement of the plane. This controller is a middle ground of gaming aspirations without spending a ton of money or requiring ample space to set up the gaming accessory rigs.

The gaming accessory will be accompanied by a set of interchangeable caps that can be swapped with the default throttle levels and other controls. There are four assignable thrust levers with swappable caps for “GA or commercial aircraft.” The idea is to have the visual differentiation in the form of color and shapes of the remapped buttons. This controller is a plug-and-play experience that requires no advanced setup, perfect for casual gamers who desire to experience advanced simulation games. The gamepad has a 15-hour battery in wireless mode and can also be used in wired mode via USB-C charging port.

 

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The Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost Gamer: Translating Arcade Culture Into Automotive Craft

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The Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost Gamer transforms vintage arcade aesthetics into automotive craft. This one-off commission features hand-painted 8-bit aliens across the coachline, arcade-themed interior details, and custom-programmed fiber-optic headliners that simulate laser fire. The vehicle reflects how luxury collecting now embraces gaming history alongside traditional high-culture references.

Designer: Rolls-Royce

Design Execution

Salamanca Blue covers the lower body, Crystal-over-Diamond Black the upper sections. The coachline features hand-painted “Cheeky Alien” motifs, each composed of 89 individual pixels measuring one-eighth inch square. One side shows a green alien with a pink 8-bit explosion, the other displays yellow and blue variations. Each pixel requires exact placement and consistent paint application to maintain the digital aesthetic at automotive scale.

Black and Casden Tan leather seats feature embroidery reading “Player 1” through “Player 4” in 8-bit font. Each headrest displays a “Cheeky Alien” composed of 89 embroidered pixels in vivid thread colors mimicking vintage CRT monitors. The Waterfall between rear seats features hand-painted arcade artwork requiring over two weeks of execution. Two stainless steel flying saucers hover above a lunar landscape, rendered through brushwork, sponge techniques, and airbrushing.

A metal inlay decorates the rear picnic table. An engraved 8-bit motif hides on the concealed side of the front black-chrome air vent. The Bespoke Illuminated Treadplates display arcade prompts: “PRESS START,” “LOADING…,” “LEVEL UP,” and “INSERT COIN.”

Technical Systems

The “Pixel Blaster” Starlight Headliner features 80 bitmapped battlecruisers formed from individually placed fiber-optic lights. Rolls-Royce’s Shooting Star effect receives custom programming to simulate laser fire pulsing across the headliner. The “Laser Base” Illuminated Fascia integrates an 85-star gunship into the dashboard constellation pattern.

Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke team spent a month studying late-1970s and early-1980s gaming culture, examining original arcade cabinets and promotional materials to ensure authentic translation. The Ghost platform features a 6.75-liter twin-turbo V12 producing 591 horsepower. Zero to 60 mph happens in 4.6 seconds despite the 5,500-pound curb weight.

Black Badge and Collecting Culture

Rolls-Royce established Black Badge to accommodate more assertive design expressions. Traditional clientele expect timeless elegance. Black Badge clients challenge those conventions while preserving quality standards. Hand-painted arcade aliens and “INSERT COIN” treadplates would disrupt a standard Ghost’s character but become legitimate opportunities within Black Badge parameters.

The commission reflects broader market shifts. Sotheby’s launched Geek Week for pop culture collectibles. Heritage Auctions sold a sealed Back to the Future VHS for $75,000. Rally offers fractional ownership in graded Pokémon cards and sealed video games. The person commissioning this Rolls-Royce likely participates in this expanded collecting ecosystem, where sealed Super Mario Bros. cartridges command five-figure prices.

Previous generations requested coachlines celebrating equestrian pursuits or yachting. Contemporary clients increasingly reference gaming history and streetwear culture. Hand-painting 89 individual pixels per alien requires identical precision whether depicting classical mythology or vintage video games.

The post The Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost Gamer: Translating Arcade Culture Into Automotive Craft first appeared on Yanko Design.