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SAVE $150: As of Oct. 9, get the GoPro HERO13 Black Ultra Wide Edition for $329.99, down from its usual price of $479.99. That's a discount of 31% and the lowest price we've seen.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon GoPro HERO13 Black Ultra Wide Edition $329.99 at Amazon
$479.99 Save $150 Get Deal

Looking for a reliable way to capture all the action you're getting up to? Maybe you did some sick skateboarding tricks and want the world to see. Or maybe you want a way to record your runs or hikes. Whatever the case may be, an action camera is an easy option. If you're looking to save some cash on one before taking the plunge, however, now is the time to buy thanks to this Amazon deal on a great GoPro bundle.

SEE ALSO: GoPro unveils new action cameras with 360-degree video and inbuilt light

This waterproof action camera boasts 5.3K60 video with 27MP photos, and includes a boosted 177-degree FOV with compatibility with HB-Series lenses. It can shoot in pro quality, but thanks to its special ultra wide lens, you get more to view in your lens with up to 36% wider and 48% taller than the standard GoPro option.

Mashable Tech Editor Timothy Beck Werth awarded the Mashable Choice Award to the standard GoPro Hero 13 Black, praising it for its "insanely good motion stabilization", and "impressive lens mods", including the ultra wide option.

Don't miss this sale while it's still live post-Prime Day, and get out there and record all those exciting exploits.

SAVE UP TO $20: Staub ceramic pumpkins are on sale at Amazon for as low as $24.99 (0.5 quart) and some varieties are up to 40% off.

Opens in a new window Credit: Staub Staub ceramic pumpkin (0.75 quart, burnt orange) $29.99 at Amazon
$49.99 Save $20.00 Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Staub Staub ceramic pumpkin (0.5 quart, matte black) $24.99 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $15.00 Get Deal

Welcome to spooky season when the neighborhood gets filled with 12-foot skeletons and it's cool to turn your lawn into a graveyard. but if you're also interested in the creepy Halloween decor, Amazon has the perfect deal in store.

As of Oct. 9, several Staub ceramic pumpkins are sale at Amazon for as low as $24.99 (0.5 quart) and some varieties are up to 40% off, which takes a nice $20 off the price. This deal went live during October Prime Day, but it's still hanging on so we'd recommend buying sooner rather than later to make sure you score the savings.

SEE ALSO: The Home Depot's comically large Halloween decorations are up to 50% off today only

It's hard to go wrong with adding a Staub ceramic pumpkin to your fall kitchen collection or Halloween decor. The ceramic pumpkins are both oven and stove safe up to 572 degrees Fahrenheit, so they can serve as either a baking dish or a delightful candy dish. They would also make the perfect host gift for Thanksgiving.

While they're still on sale, scoop up some versatile and adorable Staub ceramic pumpkins from Amazon.

Apple has taken down more community-generated apps meant to document and hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents accountable, according to a report by 404Media.

In addition to apps that track ICE movements in live time, the tech giant banned an app that lets users anonymously record ICE agents and then archive the content for safekeeping. Users can also store news and advocate reports, social media posts, and other digital evidence of ICE operations in public spaces.

SEE ALSO: For Trump officials, social media is war

Called Eyes Up, the app was developed to organize information that may be hard to source but necessary to reference in the future, such as witness accounts of raids for later court proceedings. It also maintains a historical record of escalating immigration operations.

"The sole purpose of Eyes Up is to document and preserve evidence of abuses of power by law enforcement, which is an important function of a free society and constitutionally protected," the app's administration told 404Media. All content is manually verified by the app's administrators before being stored on the app. It's then pinned on a searchable map, intended to make finding evidence easier for those impacted — Eyes Up's desktop version is still operating.

Apple has recently faced growing pressure from the Trump administration to crack down on apps that support community organizing around ICE.

Last week, Apple banned a popular app that let communities track the movement of ICE officers and the locations of reported raids. The ICEBlock app, along with its developer, Joshua Aaron, had previously faced threats from federal officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Bondi said the Trump administration would attempt to prosecute Aaron for the risks it posed to ICE agents, with Noem arguing apps like this are an "obstruction of justice."

But Eyes Up, which only archives publicly posted materials after the clandestine operations of ICE have taken place, does not appear to carry the same "real time security risk" to immigration operations that Noem and Apple described. "Our goal is government accountability. We aren’t even doing real-time tracking,” the administrator said. Apple provided the same removal reasoning for both ICEBlock and Eyes Up, alleging they violate the company's objectionable content guidelines.

Following an appeal to the marketplace host, arguing that the app's map is significantly delayed by a manual review process and is not a safety threat, Apple told Eyes Up's administrators that the ban would remain in place.

Creating programming projects is great. But if it has a graphical interface? Even better! Building a GUI application has many perks. You end up with something even non-techie friends can appreciate. That's why we're going to make a Python GUI application and learn the Tkinter library in the process.

2026 is shaping up to be the year of Westeros.

In addition to Season 3 of House of the Dragon, which is tentatively slated for a summer 2026 release date, HBO will also be releasing a third series set in George R.R. Martin's world of Westeros: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

SEE ALSO: Fall TV preview: 25 TV shows you need to know, and where to stream them

Co-created by Martin and former House of the Dragon writer Ira Parker, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is based on Martin's 1998 novella The Hedge Knight, the first of his three Dunk and Egg novellas. The story takes place roughly 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and roughly 80 years after the events of House of the Dragon. By this point, the last of the Targaryen dragons are long dead. As a result, the famed dynasty has lost much of its sheen.

However, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' lead character is no Targaryen, nor even a member of the noble houses. Instead, Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), also simply known as "Dunk," is the humble squire to hedge knight Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). When Ser Arlan dies, Dunk must make his own way in the world as a knight. Hoping to earn some coin, he sets off to a tourney at Ashford Meadow.

Along the way, he picks up a squire in the form of Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a small, bald boy with a few secrets of his own. Together, the pair will cross paths with the ancestors of many a Game of Thrones character, from Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings) to Prince Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel). And while Dunk may not have a noble name or any great renown, his adventures with Egg will have unlikely impacts on all of Westeros.

According to an Entertainment Weekly interview with Parker, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is less of a sweeping fantasy in the vein of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon and more of a character-focused travelogue. The show's focus is squarely on the Westerosi smallfolk, and it will even forego an epic title sequence in favor of simple title cards, just the way the very non-flashy Dunk would like it. In short, it's a very different Westeros to what fans may be used to seeing, but that could be just what A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms needs to separate itself from the growing pack of Westeros-set shows.

To see what's in store for Dunk and Egg in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, check out the trailer above.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres Jan. 18 2026 on HBO Max.

For its past three seasons, Critical Role's The Legend of Vox Machina has been a reliably great source of fun fantasy hijinks and epic animated battles. Now, Critical Role looks to strike TV gold again with their second series, The Mighty Nein.

Adapting their second live-streamed Dungeons and Dragons campaign, The Mighty Nein returns viewers to the world of Exandria, where they'll fall in love with a brand new party of adventurers.

SEE ALSO: How 'The Legend of Vox Machina' brings a 'Dungeons and Dragons' campaign to life

The show's first trailer introduces the chaotic crew. There's "homeless wizard" Caleb Widogast (voiced by Liam O'Brien), "inebriated goblin" Nott the Brave (voiced by Sam Riegel), "shipwrecked sailor" Fjord (voiced by Travis Willingham), "cocky ringmaster" Mollymauk Tealeaf (voiced by Taliesin Jaffe), "temperamental monk" Beauregard Lionett (voiced by Marisha Ray), and "chaos incarnate" Jester Lavorre (voiced by Laura Bailey). In short, they're not the kind of adventurers you'd expect to save the world, but then again, neither was Vox Machina when they first started out!

The Mighty Nein's (and yes, there's only six of them, don't worry about it) first quest? To prevent war from breaking out after an arcane relic known as the Beacon falls into the wrong hands. Along the way, they'll have to face serious new foes and confront their own past traumas, which will lend the series a much darker tone than The Legend of Vox Machina. The Mighty Nein episodes will also be an hour long, as opposed to The Legend of Vox Machina's half-hour episodes.

Of the main Critical Role cast, The Mighty Nein also stars Ashley Johnson as barbarian Yasha Nydoorin and Matthew Mercer as wizard Essek Thelyss.

Also joining the voice cast are Auli'i Cravalho, Alan Cumming, Nathan Fillion, Jonathan Frakes, Anjelica Huston, Rahul Kohli, Lucy Liu, Tim McGraw, T'Nia Miller, Anika Noni Rose, Mark Strong, and Ming-Na Wen.

The Mighty Nein premieres Nov. 19 on Prime Video.

SAVE $55: The new Blueair Mini Restful Sunrise Clock Air Purifier is on sale at Amazon for $144.99, down from the normal price of $199.99. That's a 28% discount and the lowest we've ever seen at Amazon.

Opens in a new window Credit: Blueair Blueair Mini Restful Sunrise Clock Air Purifier (beige) $144.99 at Amazon
$199.99 Save $55 Get Deal

Dreary and chilly winter mornings will be here in no time. Of course, we have coffee to look forward to, but if you're interested in waking up gently without the need for your phone to be right next to you, check out this new Blueair device that's on sale.

As of Oct. 9, the Blueair Mini Restful Sunrise Clock Air Purifier is on sale for $144.99 at Amazon, marked down from the standard price of $199.99. That works out to a savings of $55 from a 28% discount. It's also the lowest we've ever seen at Amazon.

Newly launched on Oct. 2, the adorable Blueair Mini Restful builds on the brand's expertise in air purifiers and adds in a sunrise clock. Blueair makes some of our favorite air purifiers and the Mini Restful is the perfect size for a bedroom nightstand. The included HEPA filter is great at scrubbing the air of potential allergens like dust, dander, and pet hair.

SEE ALSO: My favorite air purifier with heating is down to a record-low price at Amazon ahead of October Prime Day

What makes the Mini Restful unique to Blueair's lineup is the addition of a sunrise clock to the air purifier. From the app, you'll be able to set a wake-up schedule and customize your lighting preferences and the alarm sound. Choose between delightful birds chirping, relaxing rainfall, and many other soothing sounds.

One of the best parts about the Mini Restful is its quiet operation, reaching about 18 decibels when on the low fan speed. That makes it even more friendly for sound sleeping. Blueair's designs are always thoughtful and the brand added in a USB-C port so you can charge up devices from the air purifier while you rest.

Keep in mind the Mini Restful is designed to work best in smaller rooms like a bedroom, nursery, or an office. If you're looking for an air purifier that'll work well in larger rooms, the Blueair ComfortPure 3-in-1 is 50% off today. Since that model includes a heater and a fan, it's great for using all year-round.

If you're looking for peaceful wake ups this winter and reassurance bedroom air is clean, snag the new Blueair Mini Restful while it's on sale for a record-low price at Amazon. Investing in something you'll use everyday is a great form of self-care.

Vivaldi 7.6 is officially out on mobile platforms, and this update brings some much-needed features to iOS and Android. Vivaldi’s latest release brings in reader mode, better tab management, and that polish under the hood that makes browsing much smoother.

The designers at Canadian audio brand Kanto Audio are best known for building great speakers, so it's no surprise that they've taken the plunge into the vinyl revival. Meet the company's first turntable: the cute and cuddly Obi3.

One common criticism of Android phones, tablets, and other devices is "fragmentation". In other words, the fact that there are many different extant versions of Android, numerous devices with different specifications and abilities and, therefore, a tough job for anyone who wants to support it all.

No one captures social anxiety quite like Tim Robinson.

The comedian has proven adept at converting deeply anxiety-inducing situations into cringe comedy. Take the film Friendship, where Robinson's Craig experiences first-hand the perils of being the odd one out in a group hang. Or the sketch show I Think You Should Leave, which features any number of characters making a major social faux pas, then doubling down on it in the hopes of convincing the people around them that everything's fine. (It never works for them. Case in point: the much-memed hot dog car sketch.) Yes, these characters are often over-the-top and obnoxious, but they also hold up mirrors to our own fears and embarrassments, turning them from simple caricatures into figures we see bits of our worst selves in.

SEE ALSO: Fall TV preview: 25 TV shows you need to know, and where to stream them

That trend carries over into HBO's The Chair Company, co-created by Robinson and Zach Kanin (I Think You Should Leave). The Chair Company's main character, Ron Trosper (Robinson), begins the show as a bit of an everyman, a tad toned-down by Robinson standards. However, his quick descent into a wild world of conspiracy theories echoes all-too relatable feelings about obsession, especially in our online age.

What's The Chair Company about? Sophia Lillis, Lake Bell, Will Price, and Tim Robinson in "The Chair Company." Credit: Virginia Sherwood / HBO

Ron Trosper should be enjoying his life, both professionally and personally. He's in a loving marriage with his wife, Barb (Lake Bell). His daughter, Natalie (Sophia Lillis), is about to get married, and his son, Seth (Will Price), is a high school basketball star. At work, he's been tapped to head up a major project: the construction of a new mall in Canton, Ohio.

Yet when Ron experiences a humiliating accident at work, all those achievements fly out the window. Suddenly, all he can think about is that one particular incident and the nefarious forces that may have conspired against him.

The Chair Company is a surreal tale of obsession. Tim Robinson in "The Chair Company." Credit: Sarah Shatz / HBO

While I can't reveal the particulars of Ron's accident, suffice it to say it's the kind of moment that onlookers will wince at, then refrain from mentioning again in order to be polite. But for Ron, it's a moment that he will replay over and over again. You know the feeling when an embarrassing high school memory resurfaces, unbidden, from your subconscious? Ron's experience is like that, only the memory never goes away.

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But while an awful memory may just elicit full body cringes for you or me, it manages to send Ron down a full-on detective spiral. He does deep dives into vague corporate websites, investigates property deeds, and even trespasses in abandoned buildings. These sequences are a perfect example of Robinson and Kanin's ability to escalate a relatable sentiment — in this case, embarrassment at a horrible past memory — to ridiculous heights.

SEE ALSO: How much does HBO Max cost per month?

Robinson and Kanin's I Think You Should Leave sketch sensibilities come through at various points along Ron's journey as well. A visit to a menswear store leads to a riotous discussion about a seemingly very exclusive member's club. One of Ron's co-workers is obsessed with throwing a sketchy "mistakes" party. At one point, there is a prolonged argument about getting soup on one's sleeve. Each segment builds out Ron's quest for answers, but also provides hilariously idiosyncratic details about Ron's world that only ratchet up The Chair Company's overall absurdist portrayal of anxiety.

The Chair Company plays into the anxieties of online life. Sophia Lillis in "The Chair Company." Credit: Sarah Shatz / HBO

While The Chair Company doesn't explicitly focus on the internet, it still speaks to the anxieties or inconveniences that arise from being online today.

One of the biggest examples comes in episode one, when Ron tries to look into the mysterious Tecca furniture company. Their website doesn't offer much in the way of contacting them. The phone number listed on their site goes to a broader furniture company, and when Ron tries to get an email address from the site's helper bot, it just directs him back to the unhelpful contact page. The frustrating circularity of it all calls to mind purposefully obscured customer sites, but there are elements of the dead internet theory — that most activity on the internet is machine-generated — as well. There's a corporate emptiness to these websites reminiscent of ghost jobs and employment scams, and that emptiness only enrages Ron further.

Elsewhere, The Chair Company taps into ideas of online privacy, from tracking someone's location to stealing their identity. But the biggest connection to online life is The Chair Company's depiction of hyper-fixations on conspiracy theories, with Ron's detective work coming to resemble the misinformation-fueled armchair detective work of online conspiracy theorists. Of course, The Chair Company hints that Ron may very well be onto something, but that doesn't change the fact that his frenzied search for answers has alienated him from his family and his co-workers, in much the same way that conspiracy theories can break families apart.

These parallels to online life add substance to what's already a bizarrely zany ride, full of classic panicked Robinson shouting and a memorable collection of seedy side characters. The result is sure to be a treat for Robinson fans, one that offers up one of his most unfortunately relatable characters yet.

The Chair Company premieres Sunday, Oct. 12 at 10 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, with new episodes weekly.

Elon Musk's social media platform X has settled a $128 million lawsuit with four former Twitter executives over their promised severance package.

On Wednesday, Musk's X settled with the company's former Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, and General Counsel Sean Edgett. All four worked at the company when it was still known as Twitter and joined prior to Musk's takeover.

The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.

The four former executives were all immediately fired by Musk after he acquired the company in October 2022. They filed the lawsuit in March 2024. The former Twitter executives claimed in the lawsuit that they were owed a combined $128 million contractually obligated severance package, with Agrawal, Segal, Gadde, and Edgett entitled to $57.4 million, $44.5 million, $20 million, and $6.8 million respectively. The severance included the executives' salary and hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock options, according to the suit.

Musk refused to payout the executives after firing them, accusing them of misconduct. The four claimed the misconduct charges were false and Musk had fired them in retaliation for Twitter's lawsuit forcing Musk to buy the company after he tried to back out from his initial April 2022 offer.

"Because Musk decided he didn’t want to pay Plaintiffs’ severance benefits, he simply fired them without reason, then made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to uphold his decision," the complaint read. "He claimed in his termination letters that each Plaintiff committed 'gross negligence' and 'willful misconduct' without citing a single fact in support of this claim."

The lawsuit also included details from Musk's authorized biography where he was quoted as saying he would "hunt every single one of" the former Twitter executives "till the day they die."

Earlier this year, Musk's X also settled a $500 million class action lawsuit from rank-and-file former Twitter employees who were also denied severance pay by the billionaire.

SAVE $150: As of Oct. 9, get the Google Pixel Tablet for $249, down from its usual price of $399 at Amazon. That's a discount of 38%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Google Pixel Tablet $249 at Amazon
$399 Save $150 Get Deal

Amazon's October Prime Day event may have come and gone, but there are still plenty of deals to be found. If you're in the market for a new tablet, now is still a great time to shop. You can snag a Google Pixel Tablet for its lowest price yet right now, despite the fact that the sale is no longer going on.

As of Oct. 9, get the Google Pixel Tablet for $249, down from its usual price of $399 at Amazon. That's $150 off and a discount of 38%. Currently, this price only applies to the Porcelain colorway, with the Hazel option still sitting near the tablet's usual asking price.

SEE ALSO: The 7 best tablets of 2025: Compare iPads, the Microsoft Surface Pro, and Amazon Fire

We named the Google Pixel Tablet an honorable mention when compiling our list of the best tablets, and it's still an impressive piece of tech. It boasts an 11-inch screen with 128GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, a Google Tensor G2 chip, and 8MP cameras for both front and back. It's lightweight and quite attractive in its form factor, which should match all the rest of your Google-branded products.

One thing to consider is the fact that the tablet does not come with the much-hyped charging speaker dock at this price. It's something to think about adding to your setup, though it is a separate purchase. However, it does enhance your experience considerably, according to Mashable's Alex Perry.

If you want a reliable tablet that can do it all at a budget price, the Google Pixel Tablet is a great option. Just make sure you go ahead and lock it in while it's still available at this price.

Microsoft just dropped a bombshell of updates for OneDrive. The company is once again forcing more Copilot features into another app in its suite, but that is coming with other changes that will make OneDrive a lot better for users.

Tech company Nothing designed a dream phone for MrWhoseTheBoss, real name Arun Maini, a popular YouTuber who reviews mobile devices. The result? Pretty much the most tricked-out, maxed-out phone possible.

Mashable recently profiled Maini as a part of our Mashable 101 series, a guide to the most influential creators of the last year. Maini's racked up more than 20 million YouTube subscribers with fun, relatable tech content, and Nothing has developed a reputation for its unique gadget designs.

"There's actually something very personable about the imperfection of it," he told Mashable.
"You know, the same reason why we don't hire a massive garage and turn it into a studio. We just film videos in our house. And it's actually a big part of why people were drawn to our channel. Until we hit about 20 million subscribers, everything was shot in an attic, and that attic was my bedroom."

You can tell from the video with Nothing, however, that Maini clearly knows his stuff and has specific, particular thoughts on how a phone should look and operate. Sure, he may rely on the imperfection of being a normal guy, but his tricked-out dream phone makes clear he has the knowledge of a true expert.

SAVE UP TO $220: As of Oct. 9, a ton of the Home Depot's giant Halloween decorations are on sale for up to 50% off — including Skelly's 5-foot sitting dog, 12-foot Levitating Reaper, the 15-foot Worricrow, and a bundle of the notorious 12-foot Skelly with his 5-foot Skelly dog.

Quick links: 5 ft. Grave & Bones Skelly's Sitting Dog with LifeEyes $129 (save $120) Get Deal 15 ft. Gruesome Grounds Giant-Sized Animated LED Worricrow $199 (save $200) Get Deal 15 ft. Grave & Bones Giant-Sized Animated LED Gally-Crow $199 (save $200) Get Deal 5 ft. Grave and Bones Skelly's Sitting Dog and 5 ft. Skelly's Cat $228 (save $220) Get Deal 5 ft. Long Grave & Bones LED Skelly's Cat $99 (save $100) Get Deal 12 ft. Giant-Sized Skelly and 5 ft. Skelly's Sitting Dog $428 (save $120) Get Deal 8 ft. Wide Gruesome Grounds Giant-Sized Color Changing Animated LED Wyvern $199 (save $200) Get Deal 7 ft. Dead Water LED Megalodon Shark $179 (save $170) Get Deal 12 ft. Grave & Bones Giant-Sized Color Changing Animated LED Levitating Reaper $149 (save $150) Get Deal

If you've held off on splurging on Halloween decorations, it's your time to shine, baby. The Home Depot's popular collection of comically large decorations are seeing massive savings.

Sound the alarm: As of Oct. 9, several epic items from the Home Depot's 2025 Halloween collection are on sale for up to 50% off. That includes both the five-foot Skelly's Cat and Skelly's Sitting Dog (the 12-foot skeleton's pets), the 15-foot Worricrow and Gally-crow (spooky scarecrows), and more. You can check out the full array of animatronics and decorative figures on the Home Depot Halloween landing page.

The iconic 12-foot Skelly is not discounted on its own, but you could bundle it with Skelly's Sitting Dog or Cat for up to 22% off. And if 12- or 15-feet is just too large and in charge for your yard, there's also a few smaller spooky friends on sale — like a a 3.5-foot Scarred Chucky Doll that's $110 off or these 6.5-foot witches with a cauldron for $120 off.

Most of these creepy creatures are part of the Home Depot's Special Buy of the Day promotion, which means these discounts will only be around for 24 hours. In other words, if you see something you want, grab it ASAP. Otherwise, it will jump back up to full price tomorrow. The good news is that there seems to be enough to go around. For once, each Halloween prop has plenty of units in stock — including Skelly himself.

Chloé Zhao's Hamnet is almost here, and the trailer is almost too much for my little heart to bear.

Paul Mescal (Aftersun) and Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter) lead this deeply moving adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's lauded novel. It's based on the relationship of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes, and the devastating loss of their 11-year-old son Hamnet, whose death occurred a few years before the playwright penned Hamlet.

If you can get through this trailer and Max Richter's swirling heart-punch of a score, something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

As Mashable entertainment editor Kristy Puchko writes in her review, "Hamnet could be an unconventional but strong Oscar contender. But whether you're invested in awards season or just seeking a powerful drama from actors at the top of their form, be sure to bring tissues. Hamnet could leave you tear-soaked and in tatters."

After showing at BFI London Film Festival, Hamnet opens in select theaters in the US on Nov. 27, expanding nationwide on Dec. 12.

The Battlefield series, to me, has always thrived when it leans into weaponized stupidity.

EA's flagship multiplayer shooter franchise just works best when it feels like a rollercoaster that careened out of control three loops ago. Ideally, Battlefield is a game about cowardly huddling behind a tank with a vehicle repair torch for an entire match while helicopters explode around you every 30 seconds. Vehicle parts fly by your face on a regular basis, and merely sticking your head out to see what's going on will probably result in an opportunistic sniper ruining your day. When I play Battlefield, personal stats or even winning don't really matter; I'm there to see very expensive looking explosions and die in hilarious ways as often as possible.

The good news for fans of the series is that Battlefield 6 delivers on all of that on the multiplayer side of things. Series developer DICE has gone with a sort of "back to basics" approach after the mixed (to put it generously) reception of Battlefield 2042, rooting the setting in modern day and cutting back on the number of systems and upgrade paths you need to worry about on a moment-to-moment basis. As a result, it's the most fun Battlefield multiplayer has been in one of these games at launch in a long time.

Unfortunately, there's also a single-player campaign, which seems to be another in a long line of vaguely fun but tonally off-putting and stupid-in-the-wrong-way Battlefield campaigns.

SEE ALSO: Review: 'Ghost of Yotei' proves that the PS5 is still a winner Battlefield 6 works when it really needs to work I've been there! Credit: DICE/EA/Steam

Starting with the good news, I really like the multiplayer in Battlefield 6. For some context, I have played and enjoyed most of these games since Bad Company on the Xbox 360, with 2016's Battlefield 1 probably being my favorite overall. I'm not even close to being a hardcore, expert-level Battlefield fanatic, but I know enough to get by.

With that in mind, I can feel pretty confident in saying this is closer to what Battlefield fans want than what the last game, 2042, provided at launch. Where that game was convoluted and busy, BF6 is relatively easy to grasp. There are four classic soldier archetypes to choose from, each with a distinct role in combat and proficiency with different weapons. This stands in contrast to 2042, which muddied up the works with a much larger roster of Overwatch-style characters to choose from. Battlefield has always been about feeling like a disposable cog in a larger war machine, so going back to nameless and faceless goobers who die every minute or two is a plus, in my book.

The rest of it is, honestly, pretty self-explanatory if you've ever played one of these games. All the classic modes like Conquest and Breakthrough are here. Rather than really try anything new, DICE just rolled with what has always worked, to this game's benefit. Normally I'd prefer at least one big, experimental new mode like 2042's 128-player matches, but then I remember how cacophonous and un-fun those actually were in practice, and feel good about what's on offer in BF6 instead.

Rather than shake things up in terms of modes or upgrade paths, DICE chose to simply refine the on-the-ground combat mechanics a bit. You have some new moves, like the ability to drag companions behind cover while reviving them, which makes the action feel appropriately desperate and cinematic. Being able to slide, sprint while crouching, and flop down on your back with your gun drawn also all feel pretty cool. And, of course, firing guns feels as good as ever, thanks in part to some truly incredible audio design that makes every shot feel impactful and a little bit terrifying.

Most importantly, BF6 has that distilled chaos that every good Battlefield game has. Sometimes you'll be stalking your way through a small building when someone's rocket blows the entire structure up with you inside of it. Other times, you'll see someone fly a helicopter straight into the side of a mountain because they hopped into the cockpit without knowing how to fly it. Battlefield, at its best, is slapstick comedy with a veneer of Serious War Stuff, and BF6 delivers on that promise to an endearing degree in multiplayer matches.

Unfortunately, the Battlefield 6 campaign feels like a dud

There is also a single-player portion of Battlefield 6, which I got maybe halfway through during the review period before deciding I'd rather do anything else with my time.

To be fair, it's not the worst-playing thing in the world. Every mission feels, in part, like a tutorial for the multiplayer, which is in keeping with some previous Battlefield campaigns. Sometimes you pilot vehicles, sometimes you do various flavors of infantry stuff, and in the handful of missions I played, there were at least three or four extended vehicle turret sequences. Seemingly anything you can do in a multiplayer match is represented to some extent here, and the mostly linear level design is decent enough at creating fun action moments that look very glossy and expensive, but don't have much substance to them beyond that.

Where it really lost me is in anything involving narrative. BF6 is set in a near-future world where NATO has been pushed to the brink of nonexistence, and a private military force known as Pax Armata has spawned to fill in some of the resulting power vacuum. I'm only joking a tiny bit when I say most of the cutscenes, which feature a litany of dull, archetypical gruff military characters barking at each other, feel like paid ads for the concept of NATO. At least in the early goings, you only see things from a pro-NATO perspective, and people are constantly going on about how cool and important NATO is, which is (to put it mildly) the subject of very real debate in real life.

It's a nice looking game. Credit: DICE/EA/Steam

In the parts I played, it's never really articulated why Pax Armata is so scary, other than by virtue of it not being NATO. Look, I'm not naive enough to expect a big, expensive AAA game that was likely made with at least some cooperation from the U.S. armed forces to take any position that questions western geopolitical hegemony. I've played enough military shooters over the years to know what to expect, and that's a game that reflexively sides with America's foreign policy interests whenever possible.

And hey, maybe the parts I didn't play go away from that to some extent. But in a world where I personally do not feel very good about most of the things my tax dollars are used for overseas, militarily speaking, BF6's campaign feels to me like it would've benefited from a different approach. The single-player campaigns in these games have always worked best when they aren't trying to just be Call of Duty competitors, with the irreverent goofball nature of Bad Company or the short-story collection structure of BF1 coming to mind. I just don't really care for the ripped-from-the-headlines aspect of this campaign, and that did a lot to make the prospect of finishing it very unappealing to me.

The good news is you can ignore the campaign and just play online, which is what I imagine many of you were planning to do anyway.

System76's COSMIC desktop environment has been hugely popular lately. It's highly customizable in ways very few Linux distros are, and it's also extremely fast and tweakable. It's not fully stable yet, but that's not stopping System76 from shipping a computer with it.

SAVE $24.50: The Nutribullet personal blender is on sale at Amazon for $47.49, down from the list price of $71.99. That's a 34% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Nutribullet Nutribullet Personal Blender $47.49 at Amazon
$71.99 Save $24.50 Get Deal

Blending up a smoothie is one of the most convenient ways to get your daily fruits and vegetables. Add in some protein powder, and you're on the money in terms of nutrition. But one contestant on the hit Netflix show Love Is Blind has decided baked chicken, one packet of Crystal Light, and water is the perfect smoothie recipe. If you're hoping to recreate the Jordan chicken smoothie from Love Is Blind, listen up because Amazon can help.

As of Oct. 9, the Nutribullet Personal Blender (yes, the one Jordan used) is on sale at Amazon for $47.49, marked down from the standard price of $71.99. That's a 34% discount that shaves $24.50 off the price. Jordan used the white colorway, but the sale price applies to grey.

We're not recommending you try Jordan chicken smoothie recipe, but we're also not not recommending you try it. Why not? Megan wasn't a fan but who's to say everyone will find it as disgusting as she did?

SEE ALSO: October Prime Day has the Ninja Slushi on sale for the best price ever

Whatever you favorite smoothie recipe, the Nutribullet Personal Blender is a convenient and compact way of combining your preferred ingredients. It comes with a 24 ounce blending container that doubles as the drinking vessel. Plus, it includes a travel-friendly lid.

The Nutribullet Personal Blender is especially great if you're short on counter space. It's a compact blending solution that can easily be moved off the counter and into a cupboard or even a drawer. Bonus: the cup is safe to clean in the dishwasher.

Whether you're intrigued by a Love Is Blind chicken smoothie or not, the Nutribullet Personal Blender is a a whiz when it comes to making smoothies and sauces. Snag it while it's on sale for $24.50 off.