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SAVE $50: As of Sept. 25, get the Ninja Slushi for $299.99, down from its usual price of $349.99, at Best Buy via Best Buy Drops. That's a discount of 14%. This discount is only available via the Best Buy app.

Opens in a new window Credit: Best Buy Ninja Slushi $299.99 at Best Buy
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Do you love frozen treats? Do you find an excuse to get a slushie every time you go out? Stop spending all your extra money on frozen goodies when out and about and just make them at home with the Ninja Slushi, which you can snag for a great price right now.

As of Sept. 25, get the Ninja Slushi for $299.99, down from its usual price of $349.99, at Best Buy via Best Buy Drops. That's a discount of 14%. This discount is only available via the Best Buy app.

SEE ALSO: The coolest kitchen gear and gadgets we'll always recommend

To participate in Best Buy Drops deals, you need to download the Best Buy app, as this sale price won't appear on the Best Buy website proper. Head to the Ninja Slushi store page, and just add the item to your cart. You'll see when the Drop is live on the app as there will be a status bar with a percentage showing what's already been claimed of Best Buy's inventory. Once a Drop is gone, you're out of luck. But at the time of writing, there appear to be plenty of Slushi machines in stock.

This frozen drink maker is all about whipping up frozen drinks at home, with no ice needed. With just one touch, you can have a variety of drinks ready to go in about an hour, whether that means juice, soda, coffee, milk, or whatever it is your heart desires. It has 5 preset settings, simple temperature control, and plenty of ways to customize how your drink will come out. Plus, it can keep your drinks frozen for up to 12 hours.

Mashable's Senior Shopping Reporter Leah Stodart praised the Ninja Slushi for whipping up frozen treats in less than an hour, calling it a "guaranteed hit" in homes with kids who will drink their healthier fruit juice when it "basically feels like a Slurpee". She also praised its straightforward buttons and indicator lights as well as how quiet it is when in operation.

If making frozen drinks at home sounds like fun, this is a Drop you'll want to pounce on while it's still available.

This week marks nearly 120 years since the 1906  Atlanta Race Massacre, when white mobs laid waste to Black‑owned businesses and lives. At SXSW this spring, I experienced that history through a phone‑based augmented‑reality installation. Standing on a downtown sidewalk, I watched a true-to-life hologram of an actor portraying Black journalist Jesse Max Barber describe the violence as it occurred. The smoke and fear felt immediate, in a way no book or film could convey. It reminded me that immersive media, used with care, can turn cold facts into felt experience.

We’re rightfully wary of technology. Algorithms feed us outrage; screens swallow our evenings. Critics warn that headsets will lure us into isolation. (WALL‑E, anyone?) That risk is real. 

But by focusing only on the dangers, are we missing the other side of the story? Immersive tools can also cut through the noise, slow us down, and connect us to truths we cannot grasp on a flat screen.

Evidence for that power is growing. Researchers found that participants who navigated a 360‑degree video simulating violent intergroup conflict became less likely to demonize the opposing side and more open to compromise. The Messy Truth, a virtual-reality series that places viewers in scenarios like racial profiling, was shown at the Conservative Political Action Conference; police officers who experienced being a Black teenager pulled over by a cop said they saw the world differently. 

These projects hint at how immersive media might help us reclaim attention and rebuild connection in an age of lies and fragmentation. When you inhabit someone else’s perspective, or even something’s perspective — a kid with ADHD, a farmer in the Himalayas, or a spore in a mycelial network — abstract issues become personal. At a time when climate change is reduced to statistics and racism to slogans, the chance to feel another life for a few minutes can seed empathy and action. I’ve been surprised at how often these experiences slow me down. They’re not adrenaline rides. They’re invitations to linger and listen.

For immersive media to meet its promise, we need more than experiments. We need institutions, artists, and community groups to build with these tools — and to do so thoughtfully. That’s why I cofounded Agog, a philanthropic institute dedicated to using emerging media to cultivate empathy and connection, and inspire action. Projects like Kinfolk Tech, which uses AR to surface hidden Black and Brown histories in public spaces and prompts 91 percent of users to learn something new when engaging with the app, and Electric South’s New Dimensions Lab, which supports African creators making nonfiction XR, show what’s possible. Yet most nonprofits still view XR as costly or difficult to wield. Meanwhile, tech giants are racing ahead. Meta’s Ray‑Ban Display glasses — smart frames with an AI‑powered screen that debut next week — signal that mainstream spatial computing is near. Apple’s new “Liquid Glass” design language, which uses translucent layers and parallax on phones and tablets, trains us for interfaces that live in three dimensions. If the mission-based world doesn’t join this conversation, the commercial players will set the terms.

SEE ALSO: Despite awkward demos, Meta Ray-Ban Display early testers say it's the real deal

I get the skepticism. Immersive media could be used to manipulate, to addict, to surveil. It could lull us into passivity or feed unhealthy impulses. The antidote is intention. We must ask: Does this experience reconnect us to reality or replace it? Does it foster empathy, or does it sensationalize suffering? Does it create new ways in, or push people to the margins? For example, new features in smart glasses, like real-time captions for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, or instant text-to-speech for those with visual impairments, can expand participation. That’s momentum we can build on.

As the National Center for Civil and Human Rights Museum reopens in Atlanta, and features the 1906 Race Massacre AR experience this weekend, we have a choice. We can treat immersive tech as another entertainment toy, or we can harness it to reclaim attention, relay truth, slow us down, and build connections across divides. I remain agog at the possibilities. With curiosity and care, we can ensure that immersive media doesn’t usher in a dystopia, but helps us imagine and build a better reality.

Chip Giller, along with Wendy Schmidt, is co-founder of Agog: The Immersive Media Institute, a philanthropic organization that helps people use emerging media like virtual and augmented reality to create human connection, cultivate empathy, and inspire action toward a brighter future for all.

This column reflects the opinions of the writer.

If you’ve ever felt that the streaming services you’re subscribed to seem to always give you more of the same, you’re not the only one. These platforms use algorithms that serve you content similar to what you’ve already liked. It creates a sort of narrow bubble or loop, which leaves little room for genuine surprise and discovery. Let’s change that, and help you find films you’ll love without the help of an algorithm.

When AI slop started making the rounds on Spotify — bands like The Velvet Sundown for instance — users urged Spotify to do something about it. They wanted a label showing that the music on their Discover Weekly and recommendations was actually created by AI. Some users even went so far as to say they should "boycott Spotify" until a label was made.

On Thursday, Spotify said it would start doing just that, saying in a press release that "aggressively protecting against the worst parts of Gen AI is essential to enabling its potential for artists and producers." The platform is integrating a new spam filtering system, AI disclosures, and "improved enforcement of impersonation violations" like deepfakes.

Spotify worked with DDEX, or the Digital Data Exchange, which is a standards-setting organization in the music industry, to require a "new industry standard for AI disclosures in music credits." This is because, as Spotify says, many artists responsibly use AI tools while creating music, so adding a simple "AI" or "Not AI" label doesn't actually solve the issue of listeners wanting to know if they're listening to AI music.

"This standard gives artists and rights holders a way to clearly indicate where and how AI played a role in the creation of a track—whether that’s AI-generated vocals, instrumentation, or post-production," Spotify wrote in its press release. "This change is about strengthening trust across the platform. It’s not about punishing artists who use AI responsibly or down-ranking tracks for disclosing information about how they were made."

"At its best, AI is unlocking incredible new ways for artists to create music and for listeners to discover it. At its worst, AI can be used by bad actors and content farms to confuse or deceive listeners, push 'slop' into the ecosystem, and interfere with authentic artists working to build their careers," Spotify's press release read. "That kind of harmful AI content degrades the user experience for listeners and often attempts to divert royalties to bad actors."

The new impersonation policy Spotify released specifically details how it plans to give artists stronger protections against AI voice clones. Spotify plans to attack spam music — like "mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop" — by rolling out a new system that "will identify uploaders and tracks engaging in these tactics, tag them, and stop recommending them." They're going to start conservatively so they don't accidentally punish the wrong people, and then add more signals as the system ramps up.

"These updates are the latest in a series of changes we’re making to support a more trustworthy music ecosystem for artists, for rightsholders, and for listeners. We’ll keep them coming as the tech evolves, so stay tuned," Spotify wrote.

Lenovo's IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook price has dropped by a massive 57%, but it likely won't last long. You can get this Chromebook for just $139.00 at Best Buy, which is a major discount from its original price of $319.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will power 2026's best phones, but that won't stop some companies from releasing theirs while this year is not over. Xiaomi is the first company to release a phone powered by Qualcomm's latest chip—meet the Xiaomi 17 series.

I love using keyboard shortcuts when working in Microsoft Excel, as they help me speed up my workflow and prevent me from having to alternate between my keyboard and mouse. One group of keys I find more useful than most is the Arrow keys. Here's what they can do.

Amid reports that Apple's new iPhone 17 Pro is particularly prone to scratches on its backside, the company has issued a response.

Apple told 9to5Mac that the scratches that people are (as far as I can tell) largely seeing on store display units of the iPhone 17 Pro are not scratches at all. Per Apple's response to 9to5Mac, this is actually "material transfer" that is occurring via the use of worn down MagSafe stands in retail stores. This can apparently affect older iPhone models, too. Apple says these "scratches" are removable by cleaning, though we can't explicitly confirm that at this time.

SEE ALSO: Review: The new iPhone Air is the sexiest iPhone I've ever tested

Mashable has reached out to Apple to confirm this for ourselves, but the company has not responded at the time of publication.

Whether or not the scratches are actually scratches, they do seem to be real. One Mashable employee reported seeing scratches on the blue and orange iPhone 17 Pro models at an Apple Store. Most reports indicate the scratches are around where the MagSafe stand would touch the phone, which would lend some credence to what Apple is saying. However, again, there's no guarantee that what Apple said is actually the explicit truth.

Whatever the reason may be, it might be prudent to put a case on your iPhone 17 Pro.

For years, reading manga online legally has meant juggling multiple subscriptions across a confusing mess of publisher-specific apps — or resorting to sketchy fan-scan sites just to keep up. But now, Crunchyroll is stepping in to make things simpler. (And to, hopefully, save you some cash.)

The anime giant announced today that Crunchyroll Manga, a new premium add-on for manga readers, will launch Oct. 9, 2025, on iOS and Android in the U.S. and Canada, with a web version to follow on Oct. 15.

SEE ALSO: 'Gachiakuta' might be the most original shōnen anime in years

The new service offers an ad-free experience with hundreds of titles from major publishers, including VIZ Media, Square Enix, Yen Press, AlphaPolis, and more — all in one place.

Launch titles span genres and hype levels, including One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Delicious in Dungeon, The Summer Hikaru Died, The Apothecary Diaries, My Dress-Up Darling, and several digital-firsts never published online before. (Though, the press release also notes that these launch titles are subject to change.)

A sneak peek at Crunchyroll Manga. Credit: Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll Manga will be a standalone app, powered by Japan's Link-U Group, and separate from Crunchyroll's anime streaming service.

As for pricing, if you already have Crunchyroll's Ultimate Fan plan ($15.99/month), it will be available to you at no extra cost.

If you're on a lower-tier plan, listen up — the Manga add-on costs extra:

• Fan + Manga runs $11.99/month, combining the $7.99 Fan tier with a $4 manga add-on.

• Mega Fan + Manga bumps up to $15.49/month, with the add-on discounted to $3.50.

Crunchyroll says all subscription tiers will get unlimited, ad-free reading across mobile, tablet, and web. Features include offline downloads, light and dark modes, full two-page spreads, and the ability to build a personalized reading list with curated recommendations.

With more publishers like Shueisha and J-Novel Club joining post-launch, the platform could become a one-stop shop for digital manga — no shady pop-ups required.

Enter a world of dreams and nightmares in the upcoming In Your Dreams, from Netflix Animation.

SEE ALSO: The best Netflix movies of 2025 now streaming

In Your Dreams is the debut feature from Pixar alum Alex Woo, who's worked on films like Ratatouille and WALL-E. Woo co-wrote the film with Erik Benson, also a Pixar alum. Based on the trailer, it looks like the pair have used their Pixar experience to create a fantastical adventure that explores childhood anxieties about parental separation.

In Your Dreams introduces siblings Stevie (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and Elliot (voiced by Elias Janssen). Practical Stevie is a stalwart perfectionist, while amateur magician Elliot is more of a go-with-the-flow type guy. The pair rarely get along, but when their parents' (voiced by Simu Liu and Cristin Milioti) marriage hits a rough patch, they'll have to find a solution to keep their family together.

Enter The Legend of the Sandman, a magical book that claims that the Sandman (voiced by Omid Djalili) can make their deepest wish a reality. To find him, Stevie and Elliot must journey through their own personal dreamscapes and make it past Nightmara (voiced by Gia Carides), the creator of all nightmares. Along the way, they'll cross paths with talking breakfast foods, evil Whac-a-Mole machines, and Elliot's long-lost favorite stuffed animal, Baloney Tony (voiced by Craig Robinson). He's a beaten-up toy giraffe with a penchant for throwing baloney and letting off laser farts. Basically, he's Elliot's dream come true — and Stevie's nightmare.

To witness Baloney Tony in all his glory, and to see the rest of the dreams that await Stevie and Elliot on their quest, check out the full trailer above.

In Your Dreams hits Netflix Nov. 14.

The clock is ticking on Windows 10. We're less than a month away from the operating system's official EOL date on October 14th, after which point, unless you're eligible for extended updates, you'll stop getting security updates unless they're absolutely critical. Now, some regions are eligible for at least an extra year of updates, but probably not you.

The Toyota Corolla is still holding its own in today’s car market—even against the wave of crossovers and SUVs. It’s affordable, reliable, and efficient—all the things people expect from a Corolla.

Hinge is the dating app that's "designed to be deleted." The app, which was acquired by Match Group in 2018, promises a more relationship-finding focus for its members — hence the tagline.

While Hinge is owned by the same parent company as Tinder and OkCupid, it's emerged as a popular contender in the space. This year, Hinge has shown growth in direct revenue and paying users, whereas for Tinder, they've decreased. Despite Tinder trying to shed its hookup reputation, it seems that Hinge doesn't have that issue.

SEE ALSO: Cuffing season is upon us: Best dating apps for serious relationships

"Hinge's intentional app design makes it easier for daters to express themselves and more quickly connect with people they’re compatible with through detailed profiles built around Prompts (short questions that allow people to showcase who they are)," a Hinge spokesperson told Mashable last year for an article about dating app fatigue. "And it's working. Currently, we're setting up a date every two seconds."

How does Hinge work?

Hinge is free to sign up and get started. Like every other dating app, there are premium features at a cost. (More on that below.) Unlike Tinder, Hinge doesn't have a swipe model. You can see one profile at a time and "like" an aspect of it — a photo, or an answer to a prompt — instead of "swiping right." 

How to use Hinge

Speaking of prompts, they're a feature that is very popular on Hinge and one of its defining characteristics (despite the fact that other apps have introduced prompts due to how popular they are on Hinge. This is a phenomenon of dating apps becoming more and more alike as they struggle to maintain their user bases.)

Hinge profiles are built around prompts; these are questions or phrases written by Hinge designed to get your creative juices flowing — and tell more about yourself than a black box "bio" section would. Some of Hinge's top prompts (based on how frequently they lead to conversation) are:

• I go crazy for… 

• My simple pleasures…

• The way to win me over is… 

Earlier this year, famed relationship psychotherapist Esther Perel created prompts with Hinge, including "In my friend group, I'm the one who…" and "Something my pet thinks about me." 

Hinge also recently introduced AI prompt feedback to help users craft better answers to prompts — because everyone who's been on Hinge recognizes the dull one-word response to a question that requires a bit more thought.

You can also share private details only with matches with a feature called Match Note.

On Hinge, free users are limited to eight likes per day. Hinge also limits the number of unanswered messages anyone, both paid and free users, can have at one time.

In 2020, Hinge launched Roses, its version of the Tinder Super Like (aka, an indication that you like them before you match). You can send someone a Rose on the Standouts feature, which is an algorithmically-driven set of potential curated matches for you. Users get one free Rose a week (and don't accumulate), but they're also available for purchase in packs of 3, 12, or 50.

A meme online is that Hinge keeps the best profiles in "Rose Jail" — though there's no real proof of that.

Hinge also has a Boost feature, which makes you more visible to potential users for one hour. Superboost does the same for 24 hours. You have to pay for Boosts.

Hinge+ and Hinge X

Hinge has two paid tiers: Hinge+ and HingeX. 

With Hinge+, users get:

• Unlimited likes

• Ability to view all incoming likes at once

• Advance filtering preferences — the ability to filter users by traits like height, family plans, whether they drink or smoke, and more

With HingeX, users get the above, as well as:

• Enhanced recommendations 

• Skipping the line (Always-on Boost)

• Priority likes (similar to Roses)

The prices of these, according to the most recent information Mashable has as of publication:

• One month of Hinge+: $32.99

• Three months of Hinge+: $64.99 ($21.66 per month)

• Six months of Hinge+: $99.99 ($16.66 per month)

• One month of HingeX: $49.99

• Three months of HingeX: $99.99 ($33.33 per month)

• Six months of HingeX: $149.99 ($24.99 per month)

Is Hinge a good dating app?

Hinge is represented on Mashable's lists for best dating apps for women, best dating apps for men, best overall dating apps of 2025, and more. It's not just us; with increasing paid users, users are getting value out of Hinge.

In addition to photos and prompts, users can also add voice notes to their profiles and they're able to video chat with other users. Hinge is also pretty inclusive, with the ability to choose from a variety of gender identities and sexualities on the platform. 

As previously stated, Hinge is owned by Match Group, which has been in the news a lot recently for different reasons. In Aug. 2025, Match agreed to pay a settlement to the Federal Trade Commission for fake advertisements. In Sept. 2025, two U.S. senators sent a letter to the Match Group CEO asking for evidence of what the company is doing to stop romance scams on the platform.

So if you want an "indie" app, per se, Hinge isn't the one. But to truly know what Hinge is like, you'll have to try it for yourself.

Tech company Nothing is spinning off its budget brand, CMF, into its own company.

Nothing CEO Carl Pei announced the move on X, saying he plans to turn CMF into an India-based consumer tech brand.

Pei wrote on X that Nothing plans "to establish CMF as a subsidiary headquartered in India - building it into the country’s first truly global consumer tech brand." It would be "built from India, to the world," he wrote.

SEE ALSO: Nothing's new Phone 3a and 3a Pro are the coolest-looking phones you can get

The CEO wrote that the company planned to partner with local manufacturer Optiemus, investing more than $100 million to set-up CMF's new operations. Pei also claimed the venture would create at least 1,800 jobs.

CMF's products are decidedly budget friendly. Perusing through Nothing's website, you can find CMF phones for under $300, smartwatches for around $100, and earbuds for about $70. That's certainly a different business plan in a world where a new cellphone can routinely run you more than $1,000.

Pandora is in major trouble in the new trailer for James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash.

SEE ALSO: 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' trailer: James Cameron sets Pandora ablaze in stunning first look

The latest trailer for the third film in the Avatar franchise gives viewers our best look yet at the film's new antagonists: the Na'vi Mangkwan clan, also known as the Ash People. As their leader Varang (Oona Chaplin) explains, the Mangkwan once lived in a forest, just like Avatar's Omatikaya. A volcano reduced their village to ash, and while the Mangkwan called for help from the Pandoran deity Eywa, none came. That has led them to revere fire as "the only pure thing in this world."

Now, the Mangkwan want to spread their fire across all of Pandora. They'll join forces with the sinister Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and the humans who wish to keep stripping Pandora of its resources. How will Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their family protect their home from such a large threat?

The human-Mangkwan alliance isn't the only problem Pandora is facing, though. The trailer reveals that, through some miracle, human Spider (Jack Champion) can now live on Pandora without wearing a mask. If every human could breathe Pandora's air, that would only speed up their destruction of the moon further.

That's a lot of doom and gloom for one trailer, but luckily, every second of it is a visual marvel. New alien creatures! The return of Toruk Makto! Battles in forests, the ocean, and the sky! Feast your eyes on the whole sneak peek above.

Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters Dec. 19.

Are you tired of trying to remember IPs and ports for your self-hosted apps? I finally figured out how to make my homelab easier to manage—a detailed dashboard of all my services.

The Apple iPhone 17 series is here, bringing a new level of performance and plenty of polish, but, once again, no charger in the box. And if you’ve been using the same old adapter from years past, you’re probably not getting the speed or efficiency these new phones can actually handle.

Google Photos has been my primary method for backing up photos and videos for nearly a decade. I recently had the realization that it would be Very Bad if something ever happened to it, so I finally took the time to back up all my photos to an external hard drive, too.

Editor's note: This review of Ghost of Yōtei contains bloody images.

Sony and the PlayStation brand have hit a few rough patches in the last year or so. Aside from the standout success of Helldivers 2, PS5’s high-profile multiplayer projects have stumbled — from the cancellation of Concord to the shelving of The Last of Us live-service game. But single-player titles remain PlayStation’s strong suit, with hits like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Astro Bot, and Death Stranding 2 keeping the console top of mind for gamers.

Ghost of Yōtei continues that trend. As the sequel to Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima, it’s grander, bolder, and brighter. Its story of revenge and redemption makes it one of the most heartfelt experiences this year; its combat options have been expanded to give players even more bloody ways to kill enemies, and it features one of the best open worlds in recent memory.

The game takes place once again in ancient Japan, specifically Ezo, more than 300 years after the events of Tsushima. Thankfully, Yōtei’s story is completely separate from the first game, so newcomers can jump in without needing to play the original. Yōtei follows a new protagonist, Atsu, who returns home after wandering around doing odd jobs and mercenary work to stay alive. Sixteen years earlier, her family was slaughtered by the Yōtei Six, a group of rogue samurai who strike fear into Ezo’s citizens. Atsu was pinned to a giant tree in the middle of the family home and left for dead as it burned.

Somehow, Atsu survived and has adopted the persona of the onryō, a vengeful spirit from Japanese folklore. Stories of the spirit spread across Ezo, fueling Atsu’s legend and notoriety. Now, she’s out for revenge against the Yōtei Six and their leader, Lord Saitō. It’s a chilling, dark setup that immediately grabs your attention. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. As Atsu meets new allies across Ezo, her tunnel vision begins to widen. While her quest for vengeance is justified, she’s forced to confront the consequences it could have for her newfound family. Atsu’s development feels natural, her growth believable, and the character arc layered with nuance.

Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment Teaching an old wolf new tricks

As opposed to Ghost of Tsushima’s samurai protagonist, Jin, Atsu wields a wider variety of melee weapons and isn’t limited to the katana. Over the course of her journey, she gains access to weapons like the yari (spear), kusarigama (a sickle with a chain and weighted end), and odachi (two-handed sword). This variety keeps the moment-to-moment gameplay from becoming stale. To further encourage players to switch things up, there’s a weakness system in place. For example, the kusarigama is especially effective against enemies that hold shields, as the weighted end can break them and leave them open to attacks from the sickle blade on the other end. 

Atsu taking on enemies in combat. Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Dual katanas, on the other hand, are advantageous against enemies with polearms like the yari, as their blistering speed can overwhelm them. This makes every melee weapon in Yōtei feel useful and purposeful, rather than an afterthought like in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which had very similar weapons but lacked the proper attributes to differentiate them.

And unlike Jin, Atsu is not bound by a samurai honor code and can fight dirty. She has access to plenty of long-range weapons, too, such as firearms like the pistol and rifle. These add an extra fun flair that gives Atsu her own unique identity. I loved breaking enemy stances up close with my weapons, then immediately switching to my pistol to deliver a satisfyingly deadly blow. Time slows to a crawl whenever you pull up the menu to switch weapons, encouraging you to constantly juggle between and execute flashy chains and combos.

The Yōtei Six, a group of rogue samurai who strike fear into Ezo’s citizens. Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

The slowdown also helps you manage the frantic nature of Yōtei’s combat. At any given time, half a dozen or more enemies might be swarming you, and being able to pause briefly to plan which weapons to use makes battles feel fluid and responsive. From the start, Atsu also has access to the Onryō’s Howl, which works similarly to Jin’s Ghost Stance from Ghost of Tsushima. When activated, Onryō’s Howl strikes fear into enemies, causing some of them to retreat. The ability can be used once Atsu slays enough enemies without getting hit herself, which rewards careful play and precision.

Atsu’s quickfire tools are also helpful for getting out of sticky situations. For example, her oni’s flame lights her weapons on fire, adding extra damage to her strikes, while her smoke bombs momentarily confuse enemies, opening them up for assassinations. Despite Atsu not being a samurai herself — and not even a ninja — Yōtei will have you feeling like a deadly combination of both.

A direct approach isn’t the only option. Atsu also has plenty of stealth tools, such as the bow and kunai, to quietly take out enemies. This lets her thin enemy numbers one by one, ensuring she isn’t completely overwhelmed if she’s spotted. With so many combat options available, Yōtei is always fun to play and experiment with.

Stealth is also an option for Atsu, allowing her to sneak up on her enemies. Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

That said, the sheer variety of weapons can make the controls feel unwieldy. More than once, I had to check the controller layout to remember how to access a newly unlocked weapon or tool. While there are different control presets available, there’s unfortunately no way to fully customize the layout to your liking.

Exploring Ezo

Ghost of Yotei has one of the best open-world formats out there, and that’s due to how seamlessly its side quests and exploration unfold. As Atsu travels across Ezo, NPC characters will call out to her, signaling that they have a side quest for her to tackle. It’s worth doing them too, as they reward Atsu with new equipment or money to help her on her journey. The side quests aren’t mindless fetch quests either — each one has a story that expands Yotei’s lore and worldbuilding. For example, one quest had Atsu rescuing an imprisoned gambler who maintained a winning streak against Saitō’s lackeys, showing not only their lack of morals but their pettiness, too.

In many role-playing games like Ghost of Yōtei, experience points are usually rewarded for defeating enemies — but that’s not the case here. To actually make Atsu stronger, you’ll need to find Altars of Reflection. Praying at these altars grants a skill point that can be spent to upgrade one of her abilities. She has several skill trees, such as the Melee one, where she can learn new weapon attacks beyond simple strikes. Investing in the Onryō skill tree, meanwhile, allows her to assassinate multiple enemies in succession instead of just one. This system lets you tailor Atsu to your playstyle, which makes her increasingly fun to play with. Tying ability upgrades to Altars of Reflection also incentivizes exploring Ezo, rather than just going straight to the next story quest.

The skill tree in Ghost of Yōtei. Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Open-world games can often feel like exhausting checklists of activities, and Yōtei fits that mold to a degree. But the developers have made the experience as smooth and immersive as possible. Instead of a direct waypoint pointing you to your next objective, there’s a gust of wind that shows you the direction of it instead. If you’re galloping on your horse across Ezo, sometimes a bird will fly near you, and following it leads you to an activity that can increase your parameters. The hot springs increase Atsu’s max HP, while a bamboo cutting mini-game increases her max Spirit. Sure, these are typical open-world activities, but they’re so naturally integrated into the game’s flow that it feels rewarding to stop, check them out, and enjoy the scenic route.

Ghost of Yōtei’s equipment upgrade system is straightforward: collect a set number of materials dropped by enemies to strengthen your weapons. It’s a simple but effective approach that keeps upgrades from feeling like a chore. That said, spotting materials can be surprisingly tricky. Fallen enemies drop items that sparkle, but it’s hard to notice unless you walk right up to their bodies and wait for the prompt to appear.

I was hoping there would be a way to modify this, but there isn’t. Ghost of Yōtei’s accessibility options are a bit disappointing compared to the ones found in other PlayStation first-party titles. For example, The Last of Us games often include a high-contrast mode, which is immensely helpful in spotting pickups as the colors more clearly differentiate what’s interactable compared to the environment. Options like that are absent in Ghost of Yōtei, though the overall suite of accessibility options is still plentiful, with features such as increasing the subtitle font or the size of the guiding wind.

Ghost of Yōtei’s art direction and sound design are superb. The menus are styled with classic Japanese brush strokes, and flipping through them triggers sound effects reminiscent of traditional Japanese wooden instruments. It lends the game a sense of cultural authenticity, despite being historical fiction. The open-world environments are equally gorgeous — from sprawling grasslands to frozen tundras — and look as realistic as games can get.

Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment Is Ghost of Yōtei worth it?

Ghost of Yōtei is an amazing sequel to one of PlayStation’s most impressive PS4-era games. It improves on its predecessor in virtually every way and is a testament to how much of a powerhouse the PS5 is. Loading times are blazingly fast, and performance is nearly flawless — with the exception that, when jumping into a corner, Atsu’s character model can get stuck in the middle of the jumping animation.

This year is stacked with Japanese games featuring ninjas and samurai, including Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, and the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The upcoming Ninja Gaiden 4, which releases next month, is also highly anticipated. But Ghost of Yotei is on a whole other level, and I can confidently say that it’s one of the best games of the year.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment Ghost of Yotei for Playstation 5 $69 at Amazon
Pre-order Here Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut for Playstation 5 $49.99 at Amazon
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There's a new OnePlus flagship on the way, and it's got a big leg up over the competition.

On Thursday morning, OnePlus confirmed that the OnePlus 15 is officially on the way, and offered basically only one concrete detail for us to work with: It runs on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile chipset. According to Qualcomm, it will be the first phone in North America, and one of the first in the world, with this chipset. That puts it ahead of the competition from Google and Samsung, at least as it pertains to cutting-edge hardware.

SEE ALSO: New OnePlus flagship phone revealed on Weibo

Aside from that, OnePlus said we'd learn more about the phone "over the coming weeks."

We still don't have any official photos of the device yet, but it was teased earlier this week on Chinese social media. In a photo shared on Weibo, you can see that it has a new square camera bump on the back (as opposed to the circular one on the OnePlus 13), but we'll have to wait to find out more.

OnePlus flagships tend to offer pretty serious value at whatever price they end up settling on, so if you're in need of a new smartphone, maybe keep an eye on this.