When I first unboxed the Razer Raiju V3 Pro, my brain immediately went: okay, this is exciting. It had that wow factor — that feeling of holding a piece of tech that’s meant to do something special. It’s the kind of controller that makes you want to jump straight into a game just to see what all the fuss is about.

Build and feel — familiar, but also very not

Coming from the DualSense, the first surprise is the weight. The Raiju V3 Pro is definitely lighter, but not in a cheap way. Holding it felt different, wider even, and my hands were a little more relaxed because of that added space.

The grip texture is great — no fear of slipping, and it feels particularly good on the bottom of your palm.

The face buttons? Smaller surface area, longer travel. Premium-feeling overall, though I’ll be honest: I’m not entirely convinced the Raiju V3 Pro’s feel matches its price tag. That’s mostly because I’ve tried some GameSir controllers that felt surprisingly similar for a fraction of the price. But still — this feels like a product built with intent.

Gameplay experience — where it actually comes alive

Most of my testing happened on NBA 2K26 because… well… that’s the game I always end up playing. And this was the moment the TMR thumbsticks flexed. I found myself doing more dribble combos and experimenting with shot styles using the right stick simply because I had zero fear of drift.

I also jumped into a few fighting games — TEKKEN 8 and My Hero One’s Justice 2 — then humbled myself in several Death Match sessions on Call of Duty Black Ops 7. I even swung through Spider-Man Remastered for a bit. Across all of these, the controller felt responsive, fast, and ready for whatever chaos I threw at it.

HyperTriggers and extra inputs — surprisingly useful

The triggers were most noticeable during my Call of Duty matches. I still sucked at it — let’s be real — but I can totally see how better players would squeeze more value out of the locked fast-trigger mode. The surprise twist was how useful the triggers were for fighting games. Having minimal travel made reaction-based inputs feel snappier and more controlled.

As for the back paddles and claw bumpers: I thought about taking some of them out, but ended up keeping everything on. Eventually, they became little fidget points that didn’t interfere with gameplay.

Mapped the extra trigger to Square to make it easier to hit the Triangle + Square combo for self alley-oops.

In practice, I rarely used them because I’m such a muscle-memory player… except in NBA 2K26. I mapped self alley-oops and flashy passing to the extra triggers, which helped because 2K moved those combos around this year.

Thumbsticks — the star of the show

The TMR sticks? Excellent. Smooth, accurate, fluid — all of it. I had fun abusing them without worrying about drift, and NBA 2K26 really let me push them to their limit. COD: Black Ops 7 was harder, but I think that’s more on me than the controller. Maybe a sensitivity tweak or two will fix that over time.

Customization — only what I needed

I’m not the type who loves deep tweaking, so I mostly skipped Synapse. I only used the mobile Razer Controller app to remap the extra triggers. And honestly? That was enough. The controller already felt good out of the box.

Wireless performance — HyperSpeed does its job

No lag. No hiccups. No difference between wired and wireless — seriously. HyperSpeed Wireless worked wonders and felt as reliable as any cable-connected controller I’ve used.

Pain points — minor, but noticeable

There are a couple of things worth noting.

The big one: no haptic feedback. The DualSense’s signature feature simply doesn’t exist here. Razer says this controller was designed with real pro players, and removing rumble seems to be one of those “it’s not needed in esports” decisions.

Honestly? After a while — especially during fast-paced games — I didn’t miss it. Haptics matter more in story-driven titles, and this controller isn’t really meant for those anyway.

One more thing: I couldn’t turn on the PlayStation with the Raiju V3 Pro. I still needed a DualSense for that.

Who is this for?

This controller is for people who play fast-paced, competitive games. Plain and simple.

But it’s also for players who want a controller built to take a beating — the kind that survives long sessions, intense button-mashing, and weekend-long gaming marathons. Its battery life is impressive, too, making it a great backup for when your DualSense suddenly taps out mid-game.

If you want a premium esports controller designed specifically for PS5, this is one of the best — if not the best — option right now.

If you want rumble, adaptive triggers, or a cinematic gaming experience? This isn’t it.

Is the Razer Raiju V3 Pro your GamingMatch?

If I had to describe the whole experience in one line: I’m swiping right because the Razer Raiju V3 Pro is an excellent piece of tech.

But it’s not for everyone, especially not for its asking price (EUR 209.99 / PHP 12,990). You can argue there are cheaper options — absolutely — but most of those lean heavily toward PC.

In the PS5 space, especially for competitive players, this is probably the strongest contender you can buy today.

There is always a moment in every athlete’s life when the universe nudges you in a direction you swore you were not ready to face again.

Mine arrived softly, almost shyly, in the form of a date circled on my calendar: Spartan Trail 50K. The last piece of my so-called “Trailfecta.” It stared back at me like an old friend I loved deeply and feared at the same time.

I had conquered the 10K and the 21K earlier in the year. They felt like small victories; reminders of who I used to be. Yet beneath them lingered a shadow from a different mountain range. A memory from the Cordilleras that still pricked at my ribs.

The kind of memory where you fight for your life. You survive, but a part of you walks away shaken. And for a long while, I thought that version of me was gone.

Then one day, on an ordinary afternoon, a package arrived at my doorstep: the Shokz OpenFit 2+. They rested inside the box like a whisper from the universe saying, “You want a comeback. Take the first step.” And so I did.

Resting gently on your ears

I grew up in the world of open-ear audio. Not literally, of course, but you know what I mean.

After four years of living an endurance athlete’s life, open-ear earbuds became less of a gadget and more of a ritual. They were the pre-run talisman I reached for before lacing my shoes. The companion waiting for me beside my hydration pack.

It’s the one constant that never complained whenever I trained in places that didn’t always feel safe.

Most tech journalists don’t understand these ear-shaped talismans. They look at the Shokz OpenFit 2+ and frown like it is abstract art they didn’t sign up to interpret.

“It’s strange,” they say. “It’s odd.” And maybe it is. But it only seems odd when you do not spend your hours running through cities and trails, weaving through traffic, or lifting in gyms where someone is always dropping a dumbbell somewhere near your foot.

For me, the OpenFit 2+ felt natural. Familiar. Like another part of my training routine that never asked for attention yet always showed up for the work.

They sit on your ears the same way confidence sits on you after a successful training block: quietly, but securely.

There was no pinching or awkward reshuffling mid-run. No pressing against your skin when sweat turns your face into a waterfall.

With open-ear earbuds, awareness becomes part of the soundtrack. You hear your playlist, and you hear the city. You hear your breath, and you hear the wind. In my experience, I have become more connected to my run, not less. That is why athletes like me gravitate toward them.

They do not isolate you from the world. They teach you how to move through it mindfully.

Weightless enough to forget

Compared to the other open-ear companions I have worn —  JBL Soundgear Sense and Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo — the OpenFit 2+ felt almost unreal. So light it made me question physics.

They disappeared on my ears in the same magical way race-day nerves disappear once your feet start moving. One step, two steps, breathe, and suddenly your mind remembers what your body is built for.

The comfort surprised me. When training gets intense, everything on your body begins to irritate you. Your shirt scratches. Your watch strap sticks to your skin.

Even your hydration vest becomes a test of patience. Yet the OpenFit 2+ stayed soft, even during the sweatiest sessions. Their ultra-soft silicone 2.0 material feels like it was designed by someone who has actually suffered through humid outdoor runs.

The nickel-titanium hooks mold themselves to your ears like muscle memory. They adapt to you without asking you to adapt to them.

During my long solo runs — and these truly are solo because I can’t stand running with a group — the OpenFit 2+ stayed with me. They stayed in place through deadlifts at Anytime Fitness during peak hours in the evening.

They stayed with me through slow, frustrating MotoTaxi rides, where your only job is to survive the traffic and not lose your patience. And then one day, they didn’t.

The heartbreak of losing one half of a perfect pair

I had finished a long ride on a MotoTaxi. I removed my helmet and felt a strange lightness on my right ear. Not the peaceful kind. The “something-is-missing” kind.

My right OpenFit 2+ had fallen somewhere along the way. I retraced my steps like a detective in running shorts. I scanned the pavement, checked the corners, and prayed it had simply slipped somewhere. But… nothing.

And to make things worse, the battery had already died. The app could not reconnect. My tracking option was gone. The trail had gone cold.

The loss felt strange. Not dramatic, but emotionally inconvenient. Like when you lose a water bottle on a long run and pretend you don’t care until you realize you’ll think about it for days.

I tried other earbuds the next morning. It felt wrong and empty, so I got a new pair. Sometimes, we do not choose our attachments. They choose us.

Long runs and long hours

People imagine endurance athletes as superhumans, but the truth is we spend half our lives managing energy. Training teaches you that effort is currency. You cannot spend it carelessly.

Which is why I appreciated the OpenFit 2+ battery life more than I expected. My usage pattern is predictable. I run, work out, commute, and move between meetings. And still, it takes me a full week before the earbuds reach zero and ask for mercy.

Each pair lasts up to 11 hours of playtime. With the case, you get around two days, sometimes more. It reminded me of how endurance athletes stretch every calorie on race day.

Efficiency becomes instinct. You learn to conserve and push only when needed. The OpenFit 2+ works the same way. They’re generous with energy when you ask for it, and thoughtful when you don’t.

My only real gripe is a funny one. When the earbuds are inside the closed case, my iPhone sometimes decides it is still connected.

Imagine scrolling through TikTok and hearing nothing, only to realize your earbuds are quietly vibing inside the case. Not ideal, but manageable.

But every morning, they connect quickly. I leave the house, play “Maneater” by Nelly Furtado, and let myself strut down the hallway like it’s a runway disguised as daily life.

A soundtrack that made the miles feel lighter

The best thing about the OpenFit 2+ is not the volume, or the clarity, or the surprisingly balanced bass. It is the feeling it gives you.

At moderate volume, the audio wraps itself around your day like a soundtrack in a coming-of-age movie about an endurance athlete with questionable life choices and a stubborn heart.

My Spotify algorithm is as messy as my mind. Show tunes. Rock. Lofi beats. Taylor Swift. Ariana Grande. Olivia Rodrigo. Olivia Dean. Sabrina Carpenter.

It is a circus, and yet the OpenFit 2+ handles everything like a concert.

Running with them feels like training inside a music video. The world stays audible, but your flow becomes heightened. You can hear the cars, the dogs, the wind, your breath, and still lose yourself in the melody because it frames the run without overwhelming it.

Turning the volume too high can sound cranky, but this is not the device for noise cancellation addicts. This is for runners. Lifters. Commuters. People who need to stay present.

And when it comes to calls, the OpenFit 2+ performs better than many in-ears. I once attended a meeting while running — yes, running — and no one noticed the traffic, the footsteps, or my heavy breathing.

My colleagues said the audio was clean. Maybe they were not paying attention. Maybe the noise-cancelling mics are that good. Either way, I survived both the meeting and the run.

Tools that stay out of your way

The Shokz app is simple enough to complement your routine without distracting you.

You can adjust EQ, customize button controls, switch between Bass Boost or Vocal mode, or toggle Dolby Audio when you want your life to feel cinematic.

Multipoint pairing is smooth, especially when switching between a smartphone and a smartwatch. But the true beauty of the app is that it never feels like homework.

With the OpenFit 2+, life always comes first, music second. It becomes the soundtrack of grocery runs, slow walks, errands, and morning routines.

You start to feel like the protagonist of a charming 90’s romcom wandering through cobblestone streets even when you are just crossing the street to buy electrolytes.

Is the Shokz OpenFit 2+ your GadgetMatch?

The Shokz OpenFit 2+ is not for everyone.

Open-ear earbuds require a lifestyle that benefits from awareness and movement. If you stay indoors or prefer complete isolation, you will not enjoy them. You may even find them strange, like many do at first glance.

If you want awareness but in a different form, the Shokz OpenDots One might suit you. It clips onto your ear like jewelry and offers a similar open-ear experience. If that is the vibe you are leaning toward, it is time to Swipe Left.

The OpenFit 2+ is for people like me. The ones who train and the ones who move. The ones who sweat through sessions and still have a full day ahead of them.

It is for people who want comfort, durability, awareness, and audio that levels up their way of life. Sounds like you? Then it’s a Swipe Right.

At PhP 11,990, it feels like a steal when you consider how much higher other open-ear wearables cost for similar quality. For me, it is a Super Swipe. It earns the GadgetMatch Seal of Approval.

More importantly, it has earned a place in my life longer than any other open-ear earbuds I have owned. Long enough that when I lost one pair, I got another. That alone tells the full story. You know it: This is my GadgetMatch of the year.

People often ask me why I like playing strategy games. The answer lies in the beauty of creating a well-oiled machine. Though the genre hardly fulfills the quick shots of adrenaline from playing competitive shooters or sports games, there’s still a palpable satisfaction in creating something that works. If you’re still on the fence, Anno 117: Pax Romana serves up an easily digestible experience even for those who are new to the genre.

What’s in a strategy game?

Have you ever built a Lego Technic set, tried knitting, or did a home improvement project on your own? A proper strategy game scratches the same itch: the desire to cobble together smaller into a beautiful product.

In Anno 117, you find yourself beginning a new life as a fledgling governor of a Roman province during a time of relative peace. The game begins, as they all do, with a blank slate. You land on your chosen island, build a few houses to start a small town, and send your villagers off chopping wood and gathering food. When you’ve gathered enough materials, you unlock a new tier of buildings and requirements. Grow big enough again, and you expand to more islands. Then, it’s all rinse and repeat.

The goal, of course, is to build a thriving Roman city that will make neighboring governors jealous. And jealous, they will be. When you butt heads enough, rival leaders can send sorties against you, necessitating you to build an army of your own.

In this way, Anno 117 is all about balancing resources and managing problems across your territories.

The interface is your friend

When you begin your first game, you might get overwhelmed with how little Anno 117 holds your hand. Besides a small introductory pop-up, you’re mostly left to fend for yourself. At first, I thought that this system was oppressive. I just wanted to play the game, not pore over menus.

But that was before I figured out the other element of the game’s magic. Besides managing resources, it’s all about discovering what’s next. The game cleverly hides your next goal by keeping it hidden from view, as opposed to just locking everything with gray locks. When you first start a game, you will have access to buildings corresponding to the first tier of citizens. To even see what the next tier of citizen is, you need to make the preceding tier happy enough with their respective set of needs and luxuries.

This is such an impressive system. While all the different problems keep me busy short-term, the desire to see what else I can unlock keeps me engaged for the long haul.

And it’s not just the different tiers of citizens and buildings, either. Anno 117 also has one of the most extensive tech trees I’ve seen in a game. Calling it a tree or a web is an understatement. There are dozens of technologies you can unlock, and it will take dozens of hours to complete.

Likewise, there’s a religion system that unlocks new benefits based on how many patrons your chosen god has.

In Anno 117, there’s always something new to unlock. Don’t let the starting interface fool you; the game is surprisingly robust and expansive.

Two regions push the boundaries of difficulty

As with other Anno games, Anno 117 features more than one region to develop. To begin with, players have a choice between Latium and Albion. Latium is the Roman-centric region of abundance where most of the neighboring governors are friendly. Albion, on the other hand, is harsher and filled with Celts who don’t always agree with the encroachment of Romans.

Each region has its own challenges, even if Latium is generally a relaxing experience. Personally, I prefer how laidback Latium is, but Albion’s challenges are still just as tantalizing.

The challenge, however, is balancing the two regions together. You can build both regions at the same time. Naturally, the goal is to create a self-running engine that you don’t need to supervise the entire time. The journey is excruciating, though. Often, while you’re in the zone building on Latium, an emergency in Albion ruins your concentration and demands your attention. It doesn’t help that there’s a lengthy loading screen when switching regions.

Thankfully, maintaining colonies in both regions isn’t a requirement. You can easily stay in Latium exclusively without disappointing your citizens.

Also, this won’t be the final lineup. Like the previous Anno 1800, Ubisoft already has a roadmap in place for more content and, presumably, more regions.

An incomplete campaign ruins the story

To be transparent, this is my first Anno game. My natural inclination is to start the campaign. It starts off with a fairly compelling premise. First, you can pick between two characters: Marcus and Marcia. While the broad strokes of their respective campaigns remain the same, there’s just enough difference to differentiate between the two.

For example, Marcus is tasked with proving his worth as a governor to his politician father. He helps build the city of Julianus and ingratiates himself with Emperor Lucius and his family. However, a tragedy forces him to the hostile lands of Albion.

On the other hand, as if in a different universe, Marcia’s campaign started off with herself betrothed to the actual governor of Julianus. However, before she can meet with her new husband, Emperor Lucius warns her that her husband is ill and whisks her away to govern on her own. Regardless, the same tragedy strikes and forces her to Albion.

These stories are compelling enough to see the story to its completion. Unfortunately, it’s a disappointing conclusion.

When Marcus and Marcia are shipped to Albion, a potential usurper, Calidus, ascends and claims himself as Emperor. Regardless of whether you follow or oppose Calidus’s instructions for Albion, the new Emperor will celebrate your success either way. He then leaves you in charge of Latium once again before leaving for parts unknown.

And unknown, they will remain. After settling on Albion, the campaign transitions into a sandbox mode with no limits. There is no conclusion to the story; there is no grand confrontation. It’s a sore disappointment if you’ve invested quite a lot of time in the campaign. Hopefully, future DLC patches this up.

Is Anno 117 your GameMatch?

Lackluster campaign endings aside, Anno 117 is one of the most approachable strategy games today. It doesn’t hold your hand, so you can learn the ropes and get acclimated on your own. There’s a wealth of content to discover, so you can easily spend hours just figuring out what comes next.

In a gaming climate where the Roman empire is often associated with warfare, Anno 117 is a peaceful exploration of Roman culture that leaves a more lasting memory for fans of the genre. What’s more, this is just the beginning; the upcoming roadmap looks exciting enough to keep fans playing for a long time.

With all that said, it gets a Super Swipe from me.