The Effect

Google's Pixel 11 Pro XL doesn't try to reinvent the formula that's carried the Pro line for the past few years. On paper it reads as an incremental refresh: a new Tensor chip, a slightly brighter screen, a familiar camera array wrapped in the same camera bar design language. Spend a week using it as a daily phone, though, and the story shifts.

Marvel has been waiting nearly a decade for a fighting game worth talking about, and Arc System Works has delivered one. Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls takes the tag team formula that made Marvel vs Capcom a genre staple and rebuilds it as a 4v4 brawler, backed by the studio behind Guilty Gear Strive and Dragon Ball FighterZ. Tested on PS5 Pro, it's a game that mostly earns its ambition, even if a few rough edges keep it from being the finished article.

Google has just taken the wraps off its next wave of Pixel hardware, and this year there's more of it than usual. Alongside the expected Pixel 11 phone lineup and a new Pixel Watch, Google is also launching its first proper item tracker, the Pixel Tag. Here's a plain breakdown of what's actually new across all three, and how each one stacks up against what came before.

Splatoon Raiders is Nintendo 's latest attempt to take the Splatoon formula somewhere new, and for the most part, it works. Rather than another round of Turf War, this is a spin-off built around single-player and co-op play, with up to three players teaming up to explore the Spirhalite Islands. It is a shift away from the competitive multiplayer that defines the mainline games, and that change in direction is the biggest talking point going in. Story The setup is simple.

Lenovo has stepped up its involvement in competitive gaming, joining the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 as a Global Partner. The move builds on the company's debut at the tournament last year and gives its Legion gaming brand a much bigger footprint at what organisers are calling the world's largest esports event. The Esports World Cup 2026 runs in Paris from July 6 to August 23, bringing together more than 2,000 players and 200 clubs from over 100 countries.

Open-ear earbuds have been having a moment, and Soundcore's AeroClip is one of the more interesting takes on the format. Rather than plugging into your ear canal, the AeroClip clips around the outer cartilage using a flexible ring, similar in concept to Bose's Ultra Open Earbuds but at a noticeably lower price.

Samsung has just announced its eighth generation of foldables, and this time round it's splitting the lineup into three distinct phones rather than the usual two. There's the Galaxy Z Fold8, a new Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, and the Galaxy Z Flip8. All three are up for pre-order now. Here's a rundown of what's changed and what you're actually paying for.

Ubisoft has spent the last decade churning out sequels, spin offs and remasters, but Black Flag Resynced marks something different: the studio's first full, ground up remake of a previous Assassin's Creed entry. Given that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is still the game most fans point to when asked for their favourite in the series, that's a bold way to start. Having completing the main story and a decent chunk of the side content, it's clear Ubisoft Singapore understood the assignment.

Google is calling this the first Google Home Speaker actually built for Gemini rather than Google Assistant, and after living with the Obsidian review unit for a few weeks now, I get why they made the switch the main selling point for the device's launch. This isn't a huge hardware leap over the old Nest Audio, but the way it talks back to you is genuinely different. Here's how it holds up day to day.

Star Fox is back, and this time it's a full remake of Star Fox 64 rather than a new entry in the series. Developed by Velan Studios, it swaps the cartoony look of past versions for a more grounded, realistic art style and puts a heavier focus on story than any previous take on the game. Story The plot hasn't changed much from the N64 original. You're Fox McCloud, flying with your team to stop Andross from taking over the Lylat system, with Star Wolf popping up throughout to make things difficult.