Gaming

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a step in the right direction for the series

Despite some strange gameplay loops

Published

March 19, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

Despite how similar each game in the series plays, the Assassin’s Creed franchise always tries to do something different with every iteration. For example, the past three mainline games focused on the RPG elements of the franchise. Meanwhile, the more recent Mirage successfully reemphasized the game’s stealth roots. Now, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the first mainline game since Valhalla, finds itself with a complex balancing act between an RPG and a stealth game.

Two assassins in one

Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes place in 16^th-century Japan during the military campaigns of daimyo Oda Nobunaga. Naoe, a vital member of a resistance movement, fights against the incursions of the daimyo. On the other hand, Yasuke, a respected samurai under the Nobunaga regime, tries to find his place in a foreign society. Both suddenly find themselves on a collision course with one another after a political conspiracy threatens to upheave the country. It’s one of the most anime stories I’ve seen in a game.

For the first time since Syndicate, Shadows will feature two playable protagonists: Naoe, the female shinobi, and Yasuke, the male samurai. However, unlike the older game, there are significant reasons to choose one over the other.

Naoe, a much nimbler shinobi, favors stealthier approaches to an objective and avoids fights. She represents the classic Assassin’s Creed experience, albeit with a weaker constitution, so direct fights can get deadly. Meanwhile, Yasuke, a stronger samurai, prefers fights and mostly fails at masking his movements. In fact, he doesn’t have access to Eagle Vision and can destroy haystacks when falling into them from too high up.

Over time, you’ll likely prefer one character over the other. Personally, I prefer balancing the two: Naoe for when I want a more surgical assassination, and Yasuke for when I want to fight everyone. I appreciate how the choice between the two isn’t just cosmetic.

However, do take note that the game is absurdly long. It took me 15 hours of Naoe time before I could finally play as Yasuke freely.

Webs of intrigue

In past games, the Assassin’s Creed franchise faced a problem with side quests. The series tended to bloat its gameplay with endless fetch quests and lackluster side stories. Shadows tries to fix this problem by turning most of the side quests into small webs of assassination targets.

Throughout the game, characters will share the ills of their respective communities. Often, these problems stem from a group of evildoers scattered around the map. It’s your job to find and assassinate these targets, while uncovering their motivations and who their leader is.

For me, this system works so much better than a downpour of fetch quests and stories which I’ll forget immediately after completing them. For one, the quests have more involvement. You have to find the targets yourself using a few clues. Though you can always use Eagle Vision or Scouts to narrow your search down, allowing players to find the targets themselves harkens back to how the original game wanted you to uncover who the target is by yourself.

It feels meaningful to complete a full web. In some cases, it’s even personal for the characters. For example, one web consists of traitorous samurai who went against Yasuke’s daimyo, Lord Nobunaga.

In the center of these smaller webs is a larger board called the Shinbakufu, the main group behind the events of Shadows. For a main story, the bigger web feels like a well-balanced approach between allowing players to accomplish targets in chunks at their own leisure and compelling them to go through the plot.

A gameplay loop that can test your patience

As with all open-world games, part of Shadows’ gameplay loop involves exploring the entire map to check off points of interest. In the quest to address criticisms of the past, the game no longer turns the map into a checklist of chores to do. Rather, the game now wants you to explore everything organically.

As intended, I don’t feel obsessed to collect every single point of interest anymore. However, I still think that there is a lot of room for improvement. The map still has some vestiges of the past lying around: Viewpoints and enemy-heavy bases called castles.

Let’s talk about Viewpoints first. Introduced in the very first game, Viewpoints are climbable points which can reveal more of the map once climbed. The feature has been an important part of the series since its inception. These points are back in Shadows, but they just don’t have the same gravitas as they did.

They don’t reveal the map as much anymore, for one. Instead, they just give users a bird’s eye view of objectives around the area. Players can still use them as fast travel points, but this feature is mostly obsolete because of assassin hideouts. These are unlockable fast travel points — 800 mon to unlock — that allow players easy access within urban centers. Because these hideouts already spawn you in the ground, it’s a lot better than Viewpoints which spawn you way high up and often cause you to land in inconveniently placed haystacks.

Castles are tedious

The other returning mechanic is the enemy base. Like other games, enemies will pool around concentrated areas ripe for infiltration. These castles can be “conquered” by eliminating a number of samurai daisho, or heavily armed minibosses lurking inside the premises. Eliminating all of them unlocks a huge chest with a legendary item inside.

I’m not a fan of this system. The daisho aren’t marked, so you have to find them yourselves but without any clues. Like other targets, you can use Eagle Vision to find them. However, if the castle is too big for Eagle Vision to cover the entire area, you still have to run around aimlessly, and this can take a long time.

Additionally, most of the daisho aren’t killable in a single assassination, especially in lower levels. Even if you play in the stealthiest way, you’re forced to engage in combat. Plus, they’re usually surrounded by minions, so you’ll end up outnumbered in a fight.

Completing a castle also does not make it non-hostile. To make matters worse, main and optional objectives can show up inside castles even if you’ve completed them previously. Since the area remains hostile, it’s as if you have to approach them from scratch again. It disincentivizes early exploration.

Should you play Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

Though I’m not a fan of the gameplay loop, Assassin’s Creed Shadows still manages to shine with an interesting story and fairly gripping side quests. It’s also the most graphically beautiful games I’ve played in the entire series.

There is room for improvement, but Ubisoft has discovered a true path to rekindle the spark and excitement from way back in the Ezio Auditore era. If you’re a fan of the franchise, Shadows is a worthy play, especially if you have the time to explore its vast map.

Gaming

Life is Strange: Reunion now available on consoles and PC

Max and Chloe return for an emotional finale

Published

March 27, 2026

GadgetMatch

Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia and Square Enix have officially launched Life is Strange: Reunion, the latest entry in the narrative adventure series. Developed by Deck Nine Games, the title is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store. A physical PlayStation 5 edition is also available across Southeast Asia.

The launch comes with an official trailer, marking the return of one of the franchise’s most beloved storylines.

A long-awaited reunion

Set 11 years after the original events, Life is Strange: Reunion brings back Max Caulfield and Chloe Price as they reunite to solve a new timeline-spanning mystery. This time, the stakes center on a devastating inferno threatening Caledon University–Max’s workplace as a photography teacher.

Returning from a trip, Max discovers the campus engulfed in flames, with lives lost across the university. She survives only by using her Rewind ability, a power that allows her to reverse time.

The situation takes an unexpected turn with Chloe’s sudden arrival–an outcome tied to the timeline-merging events of Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Now dealing with fractured memories and an unstable sense of reality, Chloe once again finds herself relying on Max.

Dual perspectives, new gameplay dynamics

For the first time in the series, players can take control of both Max and Chloe, switching perspectives as the story unfolds.

Max’s Rewind power lets players revisit decisions, reshape conversations, and manipulate environments to solve complex, time-based puzzles. Meanwhile, Chloe brings her signature Backtalk ability, allowing her to push conversations in her favor and access situations Max cannot.

This dual-character approach expands both narrative depth and gameplay variety, offering different ways to uncover clues and influence outcomes.

A character-driven finale

Life is Strange: Reunion continues the series’ focus on grounded, emotional storytelling, with choices that carry meaningful consequences. The game builds toward a dramatic climax that aims to close out Max and Chloe’s journey.

As the final chapter in their story, Reunion positions itself as both a continuation and a conclusion–tying together years of narrative threads while delivering a new mystery shaped by time, loss, and choice.

Gaming

Nintendo will make it cheaper to buy digital games than physical

Physical releases will have the same price.

Published

March 26, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

The days of lining up for a newly released game are well and truly over. Though some games still experience shortages in brick-and-mortar stores, such as the widely successful Pokémon Pokopia, gamers can get their titles digitally. Now, Nintendo is making digital releases more enticing by offering a tempting discount on the eShop.

Starting in May, Nintendo will start charging different prices for the physical and digital releases of first-party games. While physical releases will still have the same prices going forward, digital releases via the eShop will enjoy a discount.

The discount, of course, will likely depend on the title itself. Nintendo has already given the upcoming Yoshi and the Mysterious Book as the first example. The new platformer will cost US$ 70 from retailers. However, it will cost only US$ 60 on the digital eShop.

The company says that the new pricing scheme “simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format.” With the prices of chips skyrocketing, it’s no surprise that the physical release is more expensive than the digital one.

To be more technical about it, Nintendo has started skipping a physical game card for a while now. The physical release of Pokémon Pokopia, for example, has only a game-key card or a code to download the game. In this format, physical releases are just pretty cases you can display on your shelf.

Also, digital releases do carry the added risk of getting delisted on the whims of the developers, the publishers, or Nintendo itself. It is, however, still a cheaper option, especially in a world where getting any discount is a welcome thought.

SEE ALSO: Nintendo sues the United States

Gaming

Razer Blade 16 (2026) packs more cores, faster memory

Razer’s thinnest gaming laptop yet

Published

March 26, 2026

Rodneil Quiteles

Razer has officially unveiled the 2026 version of its Blade 16, doubling down on what it does best: squeezing high-end performance into an ultra-slim chassis.

This year’s refresh focuses on meaningful internal upgrades. That includes a new Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, faster LPDDR5X memory, and NVIDIA’s latest RTX 50 Series laptop GPUs — all while keeping the Blade 16 as the thinnest gaming laptop in Razer’s lineup.

Performance gets a serious bump

At the core of the new Blade 16 is the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H, featuring 16 cores and up to 4.9GHz boost clock. Razer claims a 33% increase in core count versus the previous generation, translating to stronger performance across gaming, content creation, and AI workloads.

There’s also an integrated NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS, enabling faster on-device AI tasks like image generation and live translation.

Memory gets a notable upgrade too. The Blade 16 now supports up to 64GB of LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM, which Razer positions as the fastest available in a laptop today. The result: quicker responsiveness for heavy multitasking, creative apps, and AI-assisted workflows.

On the graphics side, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series (Blackwell architecture) brings DLSS 4 and enhanced AI capabilities for both gaming and creator use cases.

Display and design stay premium

Razer isn’t fixing what isn’t broken. The Blade 16 retains its signature CNC-milled aluminum chassis, measuring just 14.9mm thick and weighing around 2.14kg.

The display remains a highlight. You get a 16-inch QHD+ OLED panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, now brighter and certified for VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 1000. It supports full DCI-P3 coverage, Calman calibration, and NVIDIA G-SYNC, making it just as suited for creators as it is for competitive gaming.

Battery life and efficiency improve

Despite the performance gains, Razer is also pushing efficiency. Thanks to Intel’s newer architecture and system-level optimizations, the Blade 16 can hit up to 13 hours of productivity use and up to 15 hours of video playback under ideal conditions.

That’s a notable improvement for a machine in this class, especially given its slim form factor.

Connectivity and audio step up

The 2026 Blade 16 gets a future-ready connectivity suite, including Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0. There’s also a full set of ports, from USB-A to HDMI 2.1 and an SD card reader.

Audio gets an upgrade too. The six-speaker system now supports THX Spatial Audio+ with virtual 7.1.4 surround, aiming to deliver more immersive sound both on speakers and headphones.

Price and availability

The Razer Blade 16 configured with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (16GB VRAM) and 32GB LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM is priced at US$3,499.99 / €3,599.99 MSRP.

It is available now, exclusively via Razer.com and select RazerStores worldwide.

Still the Blade, just sharper

At a glance, the 2026 Blade 16 doesn’t reinvent the formula. But under the hood, it pushes performance, memory speed, and efficiency forward in ways that matter.

It’s still the same idea: a no-compromise gaming laptop that looks like it belongs in a minimalist workspace — just faster, smarter, and a bit more future-proof this time around.