For almost a decade, I’ve reviewed gadgets. I used to tell people some of them are easy to evaluate. Switch them on, test what they can do, decide if they’re worth your money.

A few years ago, I dabbled in the intersection of pleasure and technology. I hadn’t thought about testing another intimate device until the Lovense Solace Pro was offered to me during a trip to London.

Writing about it felt unexpectedly difficult. It’s a piece of technology built explicitly around intimacy, and I had just parted ways with someone I loved deeply.

It feels surreal to write about physical pleasure when your heart is somewhere else entirely. In between panic attacks, I found myself seeing visions, longing for trysts without ever touching his skin, indulging in fatal fantasies that gave way to labored breath.

No one warns you how grief blurs the line between wanting to be touched and refusing it entirely. I craved connection; I just couldn’t bring myself to ask for it from someone real.

In a moment of raw vulnerability, I reached out to the Lovense Solace Pro. It was the closest proxy I had to an experience I genuinely wanted with someone who was no longer there.

Guilty as Sin?

This wasn’t my first time testing technology built around intimacy. I still remember when placing a Bluetooth chip inside a sex toy felt like a novel concept.

Back then, app connectivity just meant adding remote controls to something that already worked on its own. Sex technology has grown considerably more sophisticated since, and Lovense has continually pushed that evolution forward.

The Solace Pro shows how far their ecosystem has extended beyond basic app controls. It combines connected devices, interactive patterns, content synchronization, and artificial intelligence.

The AI-powered thrusting stroker is designed for hands-free use and comes with a sturdy desk mount. Holding the 1.2kg device during a session tires your hands fast, which makes the mount a necessary addition, not a bonus.

The mount lets you adjust the angle up to 180 degrees. Hands-free works only when the alignment actually matches your body.

Mounting the toy to my office desk and adjusting my chair height worked well enough. But I no longer have the reckless enthusiasm of an eighteen-year-old who can indulge anywhere.

The bedroom remains my sacred space for intimacy.

One slip and falling back into the hedge maze

The standalone hardware gives you plenty of built-in controls to adjust stroke speed and intensity in small increments.

But opening the Lovense Remote app unlocks a much higher level of personalization. Pleasure is deeply subjective, so having room to experiment matters.

The app lets you explore various patterns and build your own sequences. It’s built to let you discover what suits your body, rather than forcing your body to adapt to the hardware.

The AI Sync feature stands out. It pairs the device’s movements with interactive content or livestreams through VibeMate, an AI browser that syncs using audio cues.

During a 36-minute session watching my favorite creator, Titus Low, the tracking stayed smooth and lag-free. The feature works just as well in practice as it sounds on a product page.

Beyond video sync, AI Play and Game Mode offer more interactive options. The real appeal isn’t replacing human intimacy.

It’s making solo routines feel less repetitive, giving your senses dynamic stimuli to respond to.

What if the way you hold me is actually what’s holy?

Lovense rates the Solace Pro at up to 300 strokes per minute. I couldn’t, as a matter of fact, count how many strokes there were when pleasure enveloped my whole body.

The soft TPE sleeve does a lot of the work here. It keeps the experience feeling supple, not rigid, despite the heavy hardware around it.

Ambient sound shapes the mood too. The device is rated at 63dB, about the volume of an ordinary conversation. The mechanical noise gets more noticeable at higher intensity.

I get distracted by the sound, so I turn up whatever I’m watching to compensate. Earbuds work even better if you want the sensation to lead, not the machine’s hum.

Battery life is respectable. Lovense rates it at 14 hours of use, 120 hours on standby. Two months in, I still haven’t drained it, and I haven’t charged it since.

You’re unlikely to use it continuously anywhere close to 14 hours, though. But keeping that in mind, that kind of battery life still means plenty of sessions between charges.

They don’t know how you’ve haunted me so stunningly

Like most devices from the brand, the Solace Pro supports partner syncing for long-distance play.

Releasing control of my pleasure to a partner sounds intoxicating in theory, yet having a feature designed for someone you love feels haunting when that person is no longer in your life.

The device became something to lean on through the grief, stepping in during moments when I longed for the touch of my former partner.

It highlighted the strange borderland between fantasy and reality, where you try to keep these longings locked inside a vault while your imagination does everything it can to break the door down.

In those quiet moments, the fantasy alone is enough to make my bedsheets feel ablaze. There are nights when I have screamed his name into the silence, feeling the longing building up like waves, crashing over my grave.

Beyond the emotional weight, the practical side of owning an intimate device is also emotionally taxing. It requires proper maintenance.

Keeping the toy clean and completely dry is simple ’cause you remove the inner sleeve, rinse it, and let it drip-dry. And the sleeve is easily replaceable, meaning, the entire unit remains useful over time.

Amidst all this grief and longing, who needs a boy when you can have a toy? At least this one isn’t going to make you cry while you’re 30,000 feet up in the sky.

Is the Lovense Solace Pro your GadgetMatch?

At US$399, the Lovense Solace Pro is a premium intimate device. The question, then, isn’t whether its connected technology justifies the price. It’s whether you actually want all that technology wrapped around the experience.

Swipe Right if you’re looking for a premium solo experience with smart features, hands-free control, and enough customization to keep things from feeling repetitive. Get it here.

If you’re looking for a simple stroker that you can pick up and get the job done, consider this a Swipe Left.

The Solace Pro makes sense for someone who wants to explore physical pleasure without asking themselves to be emotionally available to another person before they’re ready.

It gives you control over how you experience pleasure, whether that means letting the app dictate the rhythm, experimenting with different patterns, or simply finding your own pace.

Honestly, technology cannot replicate the feeling of being wanted by someone you love. It cannot replace their hands, their presence, or the connection that makes intimacy mean something. Instead, it gives you agency over your own experience.

The Solace Pro cannot replicate the person I want. It cannot make me forget him, either. What it can do is give me somewhere to put the longing when it gets too loud.

How do you review one of the greatest games of all time?

Elden Ring is one of those games that needs no introduction. Launched in 2022, the difficult fantasy RPG rapidly skyrocketed into the year’s top spot. Then, it got even better with 2024’s Shadow of the Erdtree, a sizable DLC that packed in a new map with new challenges. Now, I’ve reviewed both and found them well worth the price of admission. So, what else is there to say?

Well, late last month, Elden Ring launched its much-awaited port for the Switch 2 through a Tarnished Edition, a bundle that conveniently pairs the base game with the DLC in one package. In an instant, there are now two new things to talk about: How well does the game perform on a Switch 2? What does the Tarnished Edition add?

Is Elden Ring worth getting for the Switch 2?

Compared to the original Switch, the second Switch features a way better processor. Games aren’t locked to the limitations of yesteryear: 720p resolution, 30fps. However, the Switch 2 still isn’t the best console for chasing performance. Personally, I’ve been using it almost exclusively for first-party Nintendo games and older (and smaller) titles.

That said, Nintendo has grandiose dreams for its latest console. Starting with Cyberpunk 2077, the console wants to be a home for modern games, too, and Elden Ring is the perfect candidate for that.

Naturally, a Switch 2 port can fill fans with consternation especially after they’ve experienced the legendary game on more powerful consoles. Is the Switch 2 a good match?

Yes, if you don’t mind playing at 30fps. Unfortunately, Elden Ring is locked to only 30fps on the console. Though a good chunk of the population is clearly fine with the framerate, it’s a bit of a struggle for me especially in handheld mode.

Maybe it’s my aging eyes, but having a game so close to my face but locked at 30fps doesn’t make for a good time. I got dizzy pretty quickly. It also didn’t help that the handheld mode had several stutters.

As with other games on the platform, docked mode had significant improvements. Sure, it’s still locked at 30fps, but a consistent framerate is much better than a stuttering one. Despite the downgrade, the Switch 2 can handle the game well.

Is the Tarnished Edition worth getting?

Most FromSoftware games will get a complete edition eventually. All of the Dark Souls titles got one, and Elden Ring is no exception.

The biggest difference here is that the Tarnished Edition is technically exclusive to the Switch 2. It’s the only package available for the console. It includes the base game, the expansion pack, two new starting classes, new skins for Torrent, and new armors. It’s the most comprehensive way to play the entirety of Elden Ring, excepting Nightreign.

If you’re on another platform, the Tarnished Edition updates — the new classes, skins, and armors — are available only through a Tarnished Pack purchased separately. Is it worth the price?

The most exciting part of the update is the addition of two new classes: Heavy Knight and Idus Knight. For me, I prefer the Heavy Knight, a hardy class focused on heavy armor, endurance, and strength. It’s a very straightforward class for those who prefer direct damage. Idus Knight, on the other hand, focuses on dexterity and faith, if you prefer playing with quicker attacks and miracles.

The rest, in my opinion, is just cherry on top. The new armor and customization options are nice to have, but I don’t have a strong feeling that it’s worth the price of an extra DLC.

Is Elden Ring Tarnished Edition your PlayMatch?

As I said, it’s hard to review the special edition or a port of a universally acclaimed game. Focusing on the minutiae of performance and slight upgrades doesn’t feel like it does Elden Ring justice. The game earned 2022’s Game of the Year for a reason.

That said, I can’t recommend Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree enough. If you haven’t played it yet and only have a Switch 2, the Tarnished Edition gets a Swipe Right and a Super Swipe.

However, if you’ve already finished the game and have no intention of playing it elsewhere (especially on a potentially weaker platform), this gets a Swipe Left. You can shell out a few bucks for the Tarnished Pack, though, if you really want to support the game.

SEE ALSO: Elden Ring review: Should you play the hardest game of 2022?

If NBA 2K27 were a player, he’d be someone getting out of his rookie contract and coming back from the summer with improved defense and finishing.

Same player, but with some significant tweaks.

The general controls are the same, but there are notable changes to player collision and physics. Those changes have a real impact on how you finish shots around the rim and how you play defense.

There are also new modes you can sink your teeth into, although these could definitely use more training to reach their full potential.

That’s really the story of NBA 2K27.

It doesn’t reinvent NBA 2K. It makes the basketball better.

Call the play

The core gameplay changes are immediately noticeable.

The pace is slower. The game feels more deliberate. It feels even more like a real basketball simulation than something arcadey.

You’ll definitely feel the change during the first few hours, especially if you’re playing on Superstar or Hall of Fame. You have to be more precise with what you’re doing, whether you’re attacking the rim, looking for a shot, or trying to stay in front of your man.

But if you’ve been playing basketball simulation games for years, the adjustment isn’t particularly difficult.

I’ve been playing all the way back from NBA Live 97 before switching over to NBA 2K12. I’m familiar with how these games work, and NBA 2K27 doesn’t completely throw that foundation out the window.

If you’ve been playing NBA 2K since the ProPLAY era, a lot of the controls and animations will feel familiar.

The changes are most obvious when you’re looking for them. After a few games, though, they start fading into your normal gameplay. You naturally adjust to the new feel and speed.

Take it to the rack

The biggest adjustment for me has been finishing.

When I first got my hands on the game, I was attacking the rim with reckless abandon.

The results weren’t great.

NBA 2K27’s changes to player collision, the Dynamic Layup Engine, and the way contact plays out around the basket mean you can’t just assume you’ll get the same result every time you drive.

You have to be more methodical.

You need to know the ability of the player you’re controlling. That means understanding their ratings, their animations, and the defense you’re going up against.

My play style was never that of a layup mixmaster, so I’m admittedly having a tougher time getting a feel for this.

Even with players I regularly use, like Vince Carter, Derrick Rose, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, some of the layups and close-to-the-rim shots still feel awkward.

But the tools are there.

You just have to figure out when to use them.

That’s where NBA 2K27 starts feeling like actual basketball. You find where you can create an advantage, attack that point, and then adjust depending on how the defense reacts.

The Dunk Meter also gets a logic-driven overhaul, which means you can’t simply rely on forcing your way to the rim and expecting a highlight every time.

You have to read the situation.

Lock him up

Defense is another area where I immediately felt the difference.

The AI feels smarter.

Where it used to take a while for the AI to lock in on a player who was on fire, it now makes adjustments more quickly, especially at higher difficulties.

Help defense also feels less arbitrary. It reacts to the pace of the game and adjusts accordingly.

That’s important because it makes defending feel less like you’re fighting the game and more like you’re actually reacting to what’s happening on the floor.

It also happens to fit my play style.

I’m much more interested in shot contests and blocks than steals. My MyPLAYER build reflects that too. I tend to favor a higher block rating over steals.

NBA 2K27 gives that approach more room to breathe.

Position yourself properly. Time your jump. Read the play.

You can rack up blocks.

The improved collision system plays a big part in that, as does the redesigned hands-up defense and better contest feedback. There are more situations where you can actually feel like you made the defensive play instead of simply hoping the animation goes your way.

Find your rhythm

Shooting is a little different for me because I basically have two experiences with it.

In MyCAREER, I’m a deadshot.

I’ve been using mostly the same shooting animations, so I have them down to a tee whether I’m using the button or Rhythm Shooting.

Quick Play and MyNBA are trickier.

There, I’m constantly adjusting to the timing of every player I use.

But I appreciate that there’s no randomness to the shooting. It behaves pretty much exactly as 2K described it.

You have to hit the green window.

That window expands or tightens depending on the player’s ratings and the intensity of the shot contest.

So when I miss with a player I’m not familiar with, I don’t immediately feel like the game cheated me.

I probably just missed.

That’s the kind of consistency I want from a basketball simulation.

Let him cook

The slower pace also changes how you approach offense.

You can’t always just run your favorite action and expect it to work the same way it did last year.

The game wants you to pay attention.

That doesn’t mean every possession suddenly turns into some high-level basketball chess match. It’s still NBA 2K. You can still get into your rhythm, call the plays you like, and let your best players cook.

But when the game gets tighter, especially at higher difficulties, you have to make better reads.

There’s a significant amount of computation happening where both your own skill and the stats of the player you control affect the outcome of each action and play.

In that regard, the game feels balanced.

My brother and I used to play against each other a lot when we were younger. One of his biggest complaints was that things in the game didn’t behave the way they would in real life.

I used to think it was mostly about learning the physics of the game.

His criticism still made sense from a development standpoint, though.

And I think NBA 2K27 is closer than ever to things in the game behaving the way they would in real life.

Make the right read

That balance is also why the new gameplay takes some getting used to.

You can be good at NBA 2K and still have to respect what your player can actually do.

You can have an elite player and still make the wrong decision.

And you can have a great matchup and still attack the wrong part of the floor.

The game gives you the tools. It’s up to you to find the advantage.

That’s especially true around the rim.

If you’re going to attack, you need to understand the player you’re using and the defender in front of you. If the defense closes one option, you need to find another.

That sounds obvious when talking about actual basketball.

It feels surprisingly refreshing when a basketball game makes you think about it in the same way.

Running the floor

MyCAREER is where I spent the most time outside of straight-up basketball.

I put around six to seven hours into Fire & Concrete and, even while writing this review, I was still dying to get back and finish the story.

It’s nothing too new or major, but it’s been engaging enough.

There’s also more basketball this time around. The experience is mostly cutscenes and basketball, which I actually appreciate. As someone who likes story and RPG elements, I do wish there was more to it, but I also understand why 2K is leaning harder into the basketball.

Most players probably just want to hoop.

I do wish MyCAREER would give us more meaningful paths into the NBA, though.

I haven’t reached the Draft in my own playthrough, but I’ve seen videos showing that you can essentially choose where you play anyway.

That’s generally fine, but I liked the idea of previous MyCAREER games having target teams, workouts, interviews, and ways to influence where you end up.

That’s a real process draftees go through.

I’d like to see more of that.

Running Mate

The Running Mate system is a nice new wrinkle. I completely forgot about it when I was building my MyPLAYER because I was so focused on making my own build as self-sufficient as possible.

My archetype is an “Athletic Iso Savant,” molded around Kaede Rukawa from Slam Dunk, although my actual play style leans more toward Mitsui.

Then I had to pick a Running Mate for Trace Miller.

There are nine archetypes inspired by NBA stars, with three options each for guards, wings, and bigs. Ultimately, I went with the Giannis build because it felt closest to Hanamichi Sakuragi, who would have been Rukawa’s actual running mate had Slam Dunk continued.

The Running Mate objectives were annoying at first.

But they did force me to think beyond my own player and actually use the tools 2K gives you to play within a team.

I also spent around three hours in the MyPLAYER Builder, exploring my own builds, prebuilt options, and builds I found online. I like the new badge-led approach because it feels a lot like the passive buffs you’d find in an action RPG. You build around the badges that fit how you want to play, then use Badge Tokens and other systems to further shape that build.

I haven’t spent much time with female MyPLAYERs yet, but I absolutely intend to. I’m planning to play The W with another Iso Savant build: Dance Machine Momo.

The second unit

Progression is still where NBA 2K27 loses some points with me.

It’s still very much pay to— I wouldn’t necessarily say win, but pay to have a better experience.

Starting at level 60 is insufferable for those first few games. If you want to avoid spending, your best bet is to grind some VC through places like Casual Corner and get your player somewhere around 73–75.

After that, progression starts feeling more reasonable.

I also didn’t get enough time with Co-op MyCAREER to properly judge the experience with another player. Certain personal circumstances got in the way of me actually hooping with a Player 2.

From what I did experience, though, it adds another interesting wrinkle to MyCAREER. Some early objectives require both players to perform well, which gives the mode a different dynamic from playing through the story alone.

MyCAREER Eras is another story.

I haven’t played enough of it to give it a proper verdict, but there’s one part of the mode that immediately disappointed me.

I think it’s highway robbery that you can’t just take your current leveled-up build and jump into another era.

You can take the build, yes.

But you still need to get VC, either by grinding or buying, to level that MyPLAYER up for that save.

If it’s the same build, I should be able to take that same leveled-up player into another era.

How else am I gonna help Allen Iverson get a ring?

The Hoop ‘What If’

MyNBA is my ‘What If”.

This is the mode where I usually take Jason Kidd’s Nets, add Vince Carter, keep Richard Jefferson, change up the rest of the players, and try to get them a ring.

The Kidd, Vinsanity, and the Bald Eagle.

This is also where I give D-Rose a ring and imagine what his career might have looked like if he never suffered those devastating injuries.

I’m particularly fond of the 2000s NBA, so I’ll sometimes build around the 7-seconds-or-less Suns or reunite Stephon Marbury with Kevin Garnett sooner.

That’s what I love about MyNBA.

It’s where I can rewrite NBA history however I want.

NBA 2K27 gives me more room to do that.

The biggest addition for me is the expanded number of teams and assets you can move around in Trade Proposals. That’s something I’ll get a lot of mileage out of because I’m already planning a full Kobe Era What If.

I previously used one save file for one focus team. This time, I think I’ll go all in on a couple of saves. One starting in 2002-03 and another a season or two later.

I still wish there was a simpler way to jump into a specific season, though.

I want to drop into 2005-06 with the correct rosters.

The players are already in the file.

Why can’t I just pick the season?

MyNBA Legacy

MyNBA Legacy is a much bigger commitment.

I tried it, but dipped out pretty quickly. It feels like a mode that needs more attention than I could give it during this review period.

My first instinct was to pick a retired legend and drop him into the modern NBA.

You can technically do that, but it’s a roundabout process. You’d have to add a Classic Team where that player is part of the roster and build a custom league around it.

That also means adding his teammates and creating a weird imbalance when all I really wanted was the player.

I didn’t get far enough into Legacy to properly judge the generational mechanic either. From what I’ve seen, it feels more like a G Leaguer than a regular NBA rotation player.

I’d still try a long Legacy save, though.

There’s enough here for me to be curious.

Same old ball game

This is ultimately where NBA 2K27 gets complicated.

The basketball is better.

The rest of NBA 2K feels much more familiar.

The City is basically the same experience for me. The nighttime and neon redesign looks nice, but it also feels like a copy-paste of the last two or three years.

Casual Corner is a genuinely useful addition for someone like me, though. I consider myself a casual online player, and having a place to grind and advance my specialization without jumping straight into the deep end worked wonders.

The general menus are familiar too.

The home menu looks almost exactly like NBA 2K26, with minor changes to the look, colors, and featured players.

None of this is particularly egregious.

But you notice it after enough annual releases.

There’s an argument to be made that NBA 2K could work as a live-service game with major annual software updates instead of an entirely new release every year.

I don’t know what that would do to the business or how players would react.

But as we get closer to the next generation of consoles, I think it’s at least worth looking into.

The same goes for roster management.

I remember back in the 2000s and early 2010s when I memorized every player because I had to manually handle player movement myself. Now, I don’t necessarily want to go back to that. I just want an easier way to keep the game current.

And then there’s the Kobe-Pau Lakers.

Why are those teams still not part of Classic Teams?

That’s a HUGE and GLARING missed opportunity.

Don’t reach for the check

If you already own NBA 2K26, the strongest reason to upgrade is the gameplay.

The collision system changes how you attack the rim, how shots at the basket play out, how blocks happen, and how shot contests feel.

The smarter AI helps too.

So does the slower pace.

All of it pushes NBA 2K27 closer to the kind of basketball simulation I’ve always wanted it to be.

But if you’re short on funds, don’t make this a priority.

Wait for the inevitable Christmas or All-Star Weekend sale.

NBA 2K27 is still very much NBA 2K.

It doesn’t reinvent the franchise. The City isn’t suddenly a revelation. The menus aren’t going to make you feel like you’re playing a brand-new game. Some of the modes still feel like they need more time and attention.

But the actual basketball?

That’s where 2K made the right investments.

NBA 2K27 is a two-way layup mixmaster that’s a borderline perennial All-Star.

I’m giving the game a Swipe Right because as a basketball simulator, it remains uncontested.

There are certainly many things they can improve in terms of presentation, rosters, and keeping other game modes more interesting and engaging, rather than just focusing on the ones that have people spending on Virtual Currency.

But it’s still a joy to play if you’re a hoop head.

You can recreate NBA moments however you want. Maybe it’s something that just happened on a random Tuesday. Maybe it’s getting your favorite NBA star an elusive championship.

That’s what keeps me coming back.

And NBA 2K27 gives me a better basketball game to do it with.