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Review: New Framework Laptop 16 takes a fresh stab at the upgradeable laptop GPU

AMD, AMD Ryzen, Features, framework, framework laptop 13, framework laptop 16, gaming, NVIDIA, nvidia geforce, Reviews, right to repair, Tech / 9u50fv / November 12, 2025

framework laptop 16, take two

New components make it more useful and powerful but no less odd.

Credit: Andrew Cunningham

The original Framework Laptop 16 was trying to crack a problem that laptop makers have wrestled with on and off for years: Can you deliver a reasonably powerful, portable workstation and gaming laptop that supports graphics card upgrades just like a desktop PC?

Specs at a glance: Framework Laptop 16 (2025)
OS	Windows 11 25H2
CPU	AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (4 Zen 5 cores, 4 Zen 5c cores)
RAM	32GB DDR5-5600 (upgradeable)
GPU	AMD Radeon 860M (integrated)/Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (dedicated)
SSD	1TB Western Digital Black SN770
Battery	85 WHr
Display	16-inch 2560×1600 165 Hz matte non-touchscreen
Connectivity	6x recessed USB-C ports (2x USB 4, 4x USB 3.2) with customizable “Expansion Card” dongles
Weight	4.63 pounds (2.1 kg) without GPU, 5.29 pounds (2.4 kg) with GPU
Price as tested	Roughly $2,649 for pre-built edition; $2,517 for DIY edition with no OS

Even in these days of mostly incremental, not-too-exciting GPU upgrades, the graphics card in a gaming PC or graphics-centric workstation will still feel its age faster than your CPU will. And the chance to upgrade that one component for hundreds of dollars instead of spending thousands replacing the entire machine is an appealing proposition.

Upgradeable, swappable GPUs would also make your laptop more flexible—you can pick and choose from various GPUs from multiple vendors based on what you want and need, whether that’s raw performance, power efficiency, Linux support, or CUDA capabilities.

Framework’s first upgrade to the Laptop 16—the company’s first upgrade to any of its products aside from the original Laptop 13—gets us pretty close to that reality. The laptop can now support two interchangeable motherboards: one with an older AMD Ryzen 7040-series CPU and one with a new Ryzen AI 300-series CPU. And both motherboards can be used either with just an integrated GPU or with dedicated GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia.

The Nvidia GeForce 5070 graphics module is the most exciting and significant part of this batch of updates, but there are plenty of other updates and revisions to the laptop’s external and internal components, too. These upgrades don’t address all of our problems with the initial version of the laptop, but they do help quite a bit. And a steady flow of updates like these would definitely make the Laptop 16 a platform worth investing in.

Re-meet the Framework Laptop 16

Framework’s Laptop 13 stacked on top of the 16. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Framework treats each of its laptops as a platform to be modified and built upon rather than something to be wholly redesigned and replaced every time it’s updated. So these reviews necessarily re-cover ground we have already covered—I’ve also reused some of the photos from last time, since this is quite literally the same laptop in most respects. I’ll point you to the earlier review for detailed notes on the build process and how the laptop is put together.

To summarize our high-level notes about the look, feel, and design of the Framework Laptop 16: While the Framework Laptop 13 can plausibly claim to be in the same size and weight class as portables like the 13-inch MacBook Air, the Framework Laptop 16 is generally larger and heavier than the likes of the 16-inch MacBook Pro or portable PC workstations like the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 or Dell 16 Premium. That’s doubly true once you actually add a dedicated graphics module to the Laptop 16—these protrude a couple of inches from the back of the laptop and add around two-thirds of a pound to its weight.

	Frame-work 16 (no GPU)	Frame-work 16 (GPU)	Apple 16-inch MBP	Dell 16 Premium	Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8	HP ZBook X G1i	Lenovo Legion Pro 5i Gen 10	Razer Blade 16
Size (H x W x D inches)	0.71 x 14.04 x 10.63	0.82 x 14.04 x 11.43	0.66 x 14.01 x 9.77	0.75 x 14.1 x 9.4	0.39-0.62 x 13.95 x 9.49	0.9 x 14.02 x 9.88	0.85-1.01 x 14.34 x 10.55	0.59-0.69 x 13.98 x 9.86
Weight	4.63 lbs	5.29 lbs	4.7-4.8 lbs	4.65 pounds	4.06 lbs	4.5 lbs	5.56 lbs	4.71 lbs

You certainly can find laptops from the major PC OEMs that come close to or even exceed the size and weight of the Laptop 16. But in most cases, you’ll find that comparably specced and priced laptops are an inch or two less deep and at least half a pound lighter than the Laptop 16 with a dedicated GPU installed.

But if you’re buying from Framework, you’re probably at least notionally interested in customizing, upgrading, and repairing your laptop over time, all things that Framework continues to do better than any other company.

The Laptop 16’s customizable keyboard deck is still probably its coolest feature—it’s a magnetically attached series of panels that allows you to remove and replace components without worrying about the delicate and finicky ribbon cables the Laptop 13 uses. Practically, the most important aspect of this customizable keyboard area is that it lets you decide whether you want to install a dedicated number pad or not; this also allows you to choose whether you want the trackpad to be aligned with the center of the laptop or with wherever the middle of the keyboard is.

It might look a little rough, but the customizable keyboard deck is still probably the coolest thing about the Laptop 16 in day-to-day use. Andrew Cunningham

But Framework also sells an assortment of other functional and cosmetic panels and spacers to let users customize the laptop to their liking. The coolest, oddest accessories are still probably the LED matrix spacers and the clear, legend-less keyboard and number pad modules. We still think this assortment of panels gives the system a vaguely unfinished look, but Framework is clearly going for function over form here.

The Laptop 16 also continues to use Framework’s customizable, swappable Expansion Card modules. In theory, these let you pick the number and type of ports your laptop has, as well as customize your port setup on the fly based on what you need. But as with all AMD Ryzen-based Framework Laptops, there are some limits to what each port can do.

According to Framework’s support page, there’s no single Expansion Card slot that is truly universal:

Ports 1 and 4 support full 40Gbps USB 4 transfer speeds, display outputs, and up to 240 W charging, but if you use a USB-A Expansion Card in those slots, you’ll increase power use and reduce battery life.
Ports 2 and 4 support display outputs, up to 240 W charging, and lower power usage for USB-A ports, but they top out at 10Gbps USB 3.2 transfer speeds. Additionally, port 5 (the middle port on the right side of the laptop, if you’re looking at it head-on) supports the DisplayPort 1.4 standard where the others support DisplayPort 2.1.
Ports 3 and 4 are limited to 10Gbps USB 3.2 transfer speeds and don’t support display outputs or charging.

The Laptop 16 also doesn’t include a dedicated headphone jack, so users will need to burn one of their Expansion Card slots to get one.

Practically speaking, most users will be able to come up with a port arrangement that fits their needs, and it’s still handy to be able to add and remove things like Ethernet ports, HDMI ports, or SD card readers on an as-needed basis. But choosing the right Expansion Card slot for the job will still require some forethought, and customizable ports aren’t as much of a selling point for a 16-inch laptop as they are for a 13-inch laptop (the Framework Laptop 13 was partly a response to laptops like the MacBook Air and Dell XPS 13 that only came with a small number of USB-C ports; larger laptops have mostly kept their larger number and variety of ports).

What’s new in 2025’s Framework Laptop 16?

An upgraded motherboard and a new graphics module form the heart of this year’s Laptop 16 upgrade. The motherboard steps up from AMD Ryzen 7040-series processors to AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 and Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chips. These are the same processors Framework put into the Laptop 13 earlier this year, though they ought to be able to run a bit faster in the Laptop 16 due to its larger heatsink and dual-fan cooling system.

Along with an upgrade from Zen 4-based CPU cores to Zen 5 cores, the Ryzen AI series includes an upgraded neural processing unit (NPU) that is fast enough to earn Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC label. These PCs have access to a handful of unique Windows 11 AI and machine-learning features (yes, Recall, but not just Recall) that are processed locally rather than in the cloud. If you don’t care about these features, you can mostly just ignore them, but if you do care, this is the first version of the Laptop 16 to support them.

Most of the new motherboard’s other specs and features are pretty similar to the first-generation version; there are two SO-DIMM slots for up to 96GB of DDR5-5600, one M.2 2280 slot for the system’s main SSD, and one M.2 2230 slot for a secondary SSD. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth connectivity are provided by an AMD RZ717 Wi-Fi card that can at least theoretically also be replaced with something faster down the line if you want.

The more exciting upgrade, however, may be the GeForce RTX 5070 GPU. This is the first time Framework has offered an Nvidia product—its other GPUs have all come from either Intel or AMD—and it gives the new Laptop 16 access to Nvidia technologies like DLSS and CUDA, as well as much-improved performance for games with ray-traced lighting effects.

Those hoping for truly high-end graphics options for the Laptop 16 will need to keep waiting, though. The laptop version of the RTX 5070 is actually the same chip as the desktop version of the RTX 5060, a $300 graphics card with 8GB of RAM. As much as it adds to the Laptop 16, it still won’t let you come anywhere near 4K in most modern games, and for some, it may even struggle to take full advantage of the internal 165 Hz 1600p screen. Professional workloads (including AI workloads) that require more graphics RAM will also find the mobile 5070 lacking.

Old 180 W charger on top, new 240 W charger on bottom. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Other components have gotten small updates as well. For those who upgrade an existing Laptop 16 with the new motherboard, Framework is selling 2nd-generation keyboard and number pad components. But their main update over the originals is new firmware that “includes a fix to prevent the system from waking while carried in a bag.” Owners of the original keyboard can install a firmware update to get the same functionality (and make their input modules compatible with the new board).

Upgraders should also note that the original system’s 180 W power adapter has been replaced with a 240 W model, the maximum amount of power that current USB-C and USB-PD standards are capable of delivering. You can charge the laptop with just about any USB-C power brick, but anything lower than 240 W risks reducing performance (or having the battery drain faster than it can charge).

Finally, the laptop uses a second-generation 16-inch, 2560×1600, 165 Hz LCD screen. It’s essentially identical in every way to the first-generation screen, but it formally supports G-Sync, Nvidia’s adaptive sync implementation. The original screen can still be used with the new motherboard, but it only supports AMD’s FreeSync, and Framework told us a few months ago that the panel supplier had no experience providing consumer-facing firmware updates that might add G-Sync to the old display. It’s probably not worth replacing the entire screen for, but it’s worth noting whether you’re upgrading the laptop or buying a new one.

Performance

Framework sent us the lower-end Ryzen AI 7 350 processor configuration for our new board, making it difficult to do straightforward apples-to-apples comparisons to the high-end Ryzen 9 7940HS in our first-generation Framework board. We did test the new chip, and you’ll see its results in our charts.

We’ve also provided numbers from the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in the Asus Zenbook S16 UM5606W to show approximately where you can expect the high-end Framework Laptop 16 configuration to land (Framework’s integrated graphics performance will be marginally worse since it’s using slower socketed RAM rather than LPDDR5X; other numbers may differ based on how each manufacturer has configured the chip’s power usage and thermal behavior). We’ve also included numbers from the same chip in the Framework Laptop 13, though Framework’s spec sheets indicate that the chips have different power limits and thus will perform differently.

We were able to test the new GeForce GPU in multiple configurations—both paired with the new Ryzen AI 7 350 processor and with the old Ryzen 9 7940HS chip. This should give anyone who bought the original Laptop 16 an idea of what kind of performance increase they can expect from the new GPU alone. In all, we’ve tested or re-tested:

The Ryzen 7 7940HS CPU from the first-generation Laptop 16 and its integrated Radeon 780M GPU
The Ryzen 7 7940HS and the original Radeon RX 7700S GPU module
The Ryzen 7 7940HS and the new GeForce RTX 5070 GPU module, for upgraders who only want to grab the new GPU
The Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU and the GeForce RTX 5070 GPU

We also did some light testing on the Radeon 860M integrated GPU included with the Ryzen AI 7 350.

All the Laptop 16 performance tests were run with Windows’ Best Performance power preset enabled, which will slightly boost performance at the expense of power efficiency.

Given all of those hardware combinations, we simply ran out of time to test the new motherboard with the old Radeon RX 7700S GPU—Framework is continuing to sell it, so it is a realistic combination of components. But our RTX 5070 testing suggests that these GPUs will perform pretty much the same regardless of which CPU you pair them with.

If you’re buying the cheaper Laptop 16 with the Ryzen AI 7 350, the good news is that it generally performs at least as well as—and usually a bit better than—the high-end Ryzen 9 7940HS from the last-generation model. Performance is also pretty similar to the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in smaller, thinner laptops—the extra power and cooling capacity in the Laptop 16 is paying off here. People choosing between a PC and a Mac should note that none of these Ryzen chips come anywhere near the M4 Pro used in comparably priced 16-inch MacBook Pros, but that’s just where the PC ecosystem is these days.

How big an upgrade the GeForce 5070 will be depends on the game you’re playing. In titles like Borderlands 3 that naturally run a bit better on AMD’s GPUs, there’s not much of a difference at all. In games like Cyberpunk 2077 with heavy ray-tracing effects enabled, the mobile RTX 5070 can be nearly twice as fast as the RX 7700S.

Most games will fall somewhere in between those two extremes; our tests show that the improvements hover between 20 and 30 percent most of the time, just a shade less than the 30 to 40 percent improvement that Framework claimed in its original announcement.

Beyond raw performance, the other thing you get with an Nvidia GPU is access to a bunch of important proprietary technologies like DLSS upscaling and CUDA—these technologies are often better and more widely supported than the equivalent technologies that AMD’s or Intel’s GPUs use, thanks in part to Nvidia’s overall dominance of the dedicated GPU market.

In the tests we’ve run on them, the Radeon 860M and 890M are both respectable integrated GPUs (the lower-end 860M typically falls just short of last generation’s top-end 780M, but it’s very close). They’re never able to provide more than a fraction of the Radeon RX 7700S’s performance, let alone the RTX 5070, but they’ll handle a lot of lighter games at 1080p. I would not buy a system this large or heavy just to use it with an integrated GPU.

Better to be unique than perfect

It’s expensive and quirky, but the Framework Laptop 16 is worth considering because it’s so different from what most other laptop makers are doing. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Our original Framework Laptop 16 review called it “fascinating but flawed,” and the parts that made it flawed haven’t really changed much over the last two years. It’s still relatively large and heavy; the Expansion Card system still makes less sense in a larger laptop than it does in a thin-and-light; the puzzle-like grid of input modules and spacers looks kind of rough and unfinished.

But the upgrades do help to shift things in the Laptop 16’s favor. Its modular and upgradeable design was always a theoretical selling point, but the laptop now actually offers options that other laptops don’t.

The presence of both AMD and Nvidia GPUs is a big step up in flexibility for both gaming and professional applications. The GeForce module is a better all-around choice, with slightly to significantly faster game performance and proprietary technologies like DLSS and CUDA, while the Radeon GPU is a cheaper option with better support for Linux.

Given their cost, I still wish that these GPUs were more powerful—they’re between $350 or $449 for the Radeon RX 7700S and between $650 and $699 for the RTX 5070 (prices vary a bit and are cheaper when you’re buying them together with a new laptop rather than buying them separately). You’ll basically always spend more for a gaming laptop than you will for a gaming desktop with similar or better performance, but that does feel like an awful lot to spend for GPUs that are still limited to 8GB of RAM.

Cost is a major issue for the Laptop 16 in general. You may save money in the long run by buying a laptop that you can replace piece-by-piece as you need to rather than all at once. But it’s not even remotely difficult to find similar specs from the major PC makers for hundreds of dollars less. We can’t vouch for the build quality or longevity of any of those PCs, but it does mean that you have to be willing to pay an awful lot just for Framework’s modularity and upgradeability. That’s true to some degree of the Laptop 13 as well, but the price gap between the 13 and competing systems isn’t as large as it is for the 16.

Whatever its lingering issues, the Framework Laptop 16 is still worth considering because there’s nothing else quite like it, at least if you’re in the market for something semi-portable and semi-powerful. The MacBook Pro exists if you want something more appliance-like, and there’s a whole spectrum of gaming and workstation PCs in between with all kinds of specs, sizes, and prices. To stand out from those devices, it’s probably better to be unique than to be perfect, and the reformulated Laptop 16 certainly clears that bar.

The good

Modular, repairable, upgradeable design that’s made to last
Cool, customizable keyboard deck
Nvidia GeForce GPU option gives the Laptop 16 access to some gaming and GPU computing features that weren’t usable with AMD GPUs
GPU upgrade can be added to first-generation Framework Laptop 16
New processors are a decent performance improvement and are worth considering for new buyers
Old Ryzen 7040-series motherboard is sticking around as an entry-level option, knocking $100 off the former base price ($1,299 and up for a barebones DIY edition, $1,599 and up for the cheapest pre-built)
Framework’s software support has gotten better in the last year

The bad

Big and bulky for the specs you get
Mix-and-match input modules and spacers give it a rough, unfinished sort of look
Ryzen AI motherboards are more expensive than the originals were when they launched

The ugly

It’ll cost you—the absolute bare minimum price for Ryzen AI 7 350 and RTX 5070 combo is $2,149, and that’s without RAM, an SSD, or an operating system

Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue.

Review: New Framework Laptop 16 takes a fresh stab at the upgradeable laptop GPU Read More »

New project brings strong Linux compatibility to more classic Windows games

compatibility layer, gaming, Linux, Open Source, steamos, valve, Windows / DJ Henderson / November 10, 2025

Those additional options should be welcome news for fans looking for new ways to play PC games of a certain era. The PC Gaming Wiki lists over 400 titles written with the D3D7 APIs, and while most of those games were released between 2000 and 2004, a handful of new D3D7 games have continued to be released through 2022.

The D3D7 games list predictably includes a lot of licensed shovelware, but there are also well-remembered games like Escape from Monkey Island, Arx Fatalis, and the original Hitman: Codename 47. WinterSnowfall writes that the project was inspired by a desire to play games like Sacrifice and Disciples II on top of the existing dxvk framework.

Despite some known issues with certain D3D7 titles, WinterSnowfall writes that recent tuning means “things are now anywhere between decent to stellar in most of the supported games.” Still, the project author warns that the project will likely never reach full compatibility since “D3D7 is a land of highly cursed API interoperability.”

Don’t expect this project to expand to include support for even older DirectX APIs, either, WinterSnowfall warns. “D3D7 is enough of a challenge and a mess as it is,” the author writes. “The further we stray from D3D9, the further we stray from the divine.”

New project brings strong Linux compatibility to more classic Windows games Read More »

With Skigill, the classic RPG skill tree becomes a crowded battlefield

achromi, gaming, roguelike, skill tree, survivors / Beth Washington / November 7, 2025

The stark presentation can threaten to be overwhelming at times, especially when nearly the entire screen descends into a mass of yellow pixels. But the simplicity of the colors also makes it easy to unfocus your eyes and instinctually plan a path away from the red and yellow threats and through to the safety of the inky black void.

Skigill also benefits from allowing players to speed up or slow down time with a quick tap of the shoulder buttons. This is a lifesaver for the tedium of the early parts of runs, when the enemies are coming in at a relative trickle and you don’t want to stand around waiting for the actual challenging part of the run.

Thankfully, you can fast-forward through the early-run doldrums… Credit: Achromi

Where Skigill suffers most, for the moment, is in an overall lack of variety. The recent Early Access release only has three playable characters and four skill-tree maps. While they differ in some important ways, the options fall far short of the dozens of arcane unlockable options that can keep players coming back to a game like Vampire Survivors for dozens of hours.

For replayability, Skigill currently relies on a difficulty system that simply scales up the quantity and health of enemies alongside a secondary skill tree that lets you purchase more permanent upgrades from the main menu. Unfortunately, even at the higher difficulty levels, you’ll see the same four yellow-on-black enemies filling your immediate vicinity, with little in the way of interesting movement or attack patterns to mix things up.

The developers promise on Steam that Skigill will see at least three new characters “along with more weapons and build possibilities” as it goes from Early Access to a Version 1.0 launch. We’re happy to hear that, because even this limited, somewhat repetitive taste of the game has had us coming back for the fun take on an old RPG staple.

With Skigill, the classic RPG skill tree becomes a crowded battlefield Read More »

After confusing driver release, AMD says old GPUs are still actively supported

AMD, gaming, Radeon, rdna, rdna 2, Tech / Shannon Garcia / November 4, 2025

The release notes for the 25.10.2 Adrenalin release also dropped Windows 10 from the list of “compatible operating systems,” listing only Windows 11 21H2 and later. But AMD confirmed to Windows Latest that the driver packages would still support Windows 10 for the foreseeable future. The company said that the OS is not listed in the release notes because Microsoft has technically ended support for Windows 10, but home users running Windows 10 on their PCs can get an extra year of security patches relatively easily. Microsoft will continue to provide support for the OS in businesses, schools, and other large organizations until at least 2028.

Why all the fuss?

It would look bad if AMD dropped or reduced support for those Radeon 5000- and 6000-series GPUs, given that Nvidia continues to support GeForce RTX 20- and 30-series graphics cards launched in the same 2019 to 2022 time window. But the end of support could have been even worse for gaming handhelds and lower-end PCs with integrated graphics.

The RDNA 2 architecture, in particular, has enjoyed a long and ongoing life as an integrated GPU, including for systems that are explicitly marketed and sold as gaming PCs. And because so many of AMD and Intel’s lower-end chips are just rebranded versions of older silicon, AMD continues to launch “new” products with RDNA 2 GPUs. The RDNA 2 architecture is the one Valve has used in the Steam Deck since 2022, for example, but Microsoft and Asus’ just-launched ROG Xbox Ally series also includes an RDNA 2 GPU in the entry-level model.

The last time AMD formally scaled back its GPU driver support was in 2023, when it moved drivers for its Polaris and Vega GPU architectures into a separate package that would only get occasional “critical updates.” At the time, AMD had launched its last dedicated Vega-based GPU just four years before, and many lower-end desktop and laptop processors still shipped with Vega-based integrated GPUs.

For the Steam Deck and other SteamOS and Linux systems, at least, it seems that things aren’t really changing, no matter what happens with the Windows drivers. Phoronix points out that the Linux driver package for AMD’s GPUs has always been maintained separately from the Windows drivers and that GPU architectures considerably older than RDNA 1 continue to get official support and occasional improvements.

After confusing driver release, AMD says old GPUs are still actively supported Read More »

CS2 item market loses nearly $2B in value overnight due to “trade up” update

counter-strike 2, CS@, CS2, gaming, items, Marketplace, trading, valve / 9u50fv / October 23, 2025

Valve benefits from any panicked trading in the short term, with every Steam Marketplace sale carrying a 5 percent “Steam Transaction Fee” on top of a 10 percent “Counter-Strike 2 fee… that is determined and collected by the game publisher” (read: Valve). In the long term, though, making some of the rarest items in the game easier to obtain will likely depress overall spending among the whales that dominate the market.

Wild CS2 update tonight. I’ve spent the last few hours digging through market data and built this projection chart to show how I think things play out.

Knives and gloves drop fast (40–50%) as the new trade-up path floods supply, while Covert skins surge short-term as everyone… pic.twitter.com/8NOMIBPZ1F

— SAC (@SAC_IG) October 23, 2025

Using marketplace data, Irish Guys esports team owner SAC ran some projections estimating that, over the next few months, “the market settles about 5–10% lower overall, not a crash, just a correction.” But there are also more bullish and bearish possibilities, depending on how overall item demand and market liquidity develops in the near future.

Market tracker CSFloat also crunched some numbers to determine that the overall supply of knives and gloves could roughly double if every common item were traded up under the new update. In practice, though, the supply increase will likely be “far less.”

Massive monetary shifts aside, this latest update seems set to make it easier for new CS2 players to access some once-rare in-game items without breaking the bank. “I got burned a little [by the update]… but honestly, this is the way to go for the long term health of the game,” Redditor chbotong wrote. “[It’s] given me faith that Valve is actually steering in a direction that favors the average player than a market whale.”

CS2 item market loses nearly $2B in value overnight due to “trade up” update Read More »

Roberta Williams’ The Colonel’s Bequest was a different type of adventure game

adventure games, C:ArsGames, DOS, gaming, gog, MS-DOS, point-and-click, roberta williams, shopping, Sierra, The Colonel's Bequest / Shannon Garcia / October 18, 2025

However, my mom was another story. I remember her playing Dr. Mario a lot, and we played Donkey Kong Country together when I was young—standard millennial childhood family gaming stuff. But the games I most associate with her from my childhood are adventure games. She liked King’s Quest, of course—but I also remember her being particularly into the Hugo trilogy of games.

As I mentioned above, I struggled to get hooked on those. Fortunately, we were able to meet in the middle on The Colonel’s Bequest.

I remember swapping chairs with my mom as we attempted additional playthroughs of the game; I enjoyed seeing the secrets she found that I hadn’t because I was perhaps too young to think things through the way she did.

Games you played with family stick with you more, so I think I mostly remember The Colonel’s Bequest so well because, as I recall, it was my mom’s favorite game.

The legacy of The Colonel’s Bequest

The Colonel’s Bequest may have been a pivotal game for me personally, but it hasn’t really resonated through gaming history the way that King’s Quest, The Secret of Monkey Island, or other adventure titles did.

I think that’s partly because many people might understandably find the game a bit boring. There’s not much to challenge you here, and your character is kind of just along for the ride. She’s not the center of the story, and she’s not really taking action. She’s just walking around, listening and looking, until the clock runs out.

That formula has more niche appeal than traditional point-and-click adventure games.

Still, the game has its fans. You can buy and download it from GOG to play it today, of course, but it also recently inspired a not-at-all-subtle spiritual successor by developer Julia Minamata called The Crimson Diamond, which we covered here at Ars. That game is worth checking out, too, though it goes a more traditional route with its gameplay.

*The Crimson Diamond*‘s influence from *The Colonel’s Bequest* wasn’t subtle, but that’s OK. Credit: GOG

And of course, The Colonel’s Bequest creators Roberta and Ken Williams are still active; they somewhat recently released a 3D reboot of Colossal Cave, a title many credit as the foremost ancestor of the point-and-click adventure genre.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

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Open source GZDoom community splinters after creator inserts AI-generated code

AI, civil war, developers, disagreement, Doom, gaming, gzdoom, id Software, Open Source / 9u50fv / October 16, 2025

That comment led to a lengthy discussion among developers about the use of “stolen scraped code that we have no way of verifying is compatible with the GPL,” as one described it. And while Zahl eventually removed the offending code, he also allegedly tried to remove the evidence that it ever existed by force-pushing an update to delete the discussion entirely.

// This is what ChatGPT told me for detecting dark mode on Linux.

Graf Zahl code comment

Zahl defended the use of AI-generated snippets for “boilerplate code” that isn’t key to underlying game features. “I surely have my reservations about using AI for project specific code,” he wrote, “but this here is just superficial checks of system configuration settings that can be found on various websites—just with 10x the effort required.”

But others in the community were adamant that there’s no place for AI tools in the workflow of an open source project like this. “If using code slop generated from ChatGPT or any other GenAI/AI chatbots is the future of this project, I’m sorry to say but I’m out,” GitHub user Cacodemon345 wrote, summarizing the feelings of many other developers.

A fork in the road

In a GitHub bug report posted Tuesday, user the-phinet laid out the disagreements over AI-generated code alongside other alleged issues with Zahl’s top-down approach to pushing out GZDoom updates. In response, Zahl invited the development community to “feel free to fork the project” if they were so displeased.

Plenty of GZDoom developers quickly took that somewhat petulant response seriously. “You have just completely bricked GZDoom with this bullshit,” developer Boondorl wrote. “Enjoy your dead project, I’m sure you’ll be happy to plink away at it all by yourself where people can finally stop yelling at you to do things.”

Open source GZDoom community splinters after creator inserts AI-generated code Read More »

ROG Xbox Ally X: The Ars Technica review

Features, gaming, Handheld Gaming, microsoft, ROG Ally, xbox ally, xbox rog ally / Kelly Newman / October 15, 2025

You got Xbox in my portable gaming PC

The first portable “Xbox” fails to unify a messy world of competing PC gaming platforms.

The ROG Ally X sure looks great floating in a void… Credit: Asus

Here at Ars, we have been writing about rumors of a portable Xbox for literal decades now. With the ROG Xbox Ally, Microsoft has finally made those rumors a reality in the weirdest, most Microsoft way possible.

Yes, the $600 ROG Xbox Ally—and its souped-up cousin, the $1,000, ridiculous-mouthful-of-a-name ROG Xbox Ally X, which we tested—are the first official handheld hardware to sport the Xbox brand name. But Microsoft isn’t taking the exclusive-heavy, walled garden software approach that it has been committed to for nearly 25 years of Xbox home consoles. Instead, the ROG Xbox Ally is, at its base, simply a new version of Asus’ Windows-based ROG Ally line with an Xbox-flavored coat of paint.

That coat of paint—what Microsoft is calling the Xbox Full-screen Experience (FSE)—represents the company’s belated attempt to streamline the Windows gaming experience to be a bit more console-like in terms of user interface and overall simplicity. While that’s a worthy vision, the execution in these early days is so spotty and riddled with annoyances that it’s hard to recommend over the SteamOS-based competition.

Promises, promises

When Microsoft announced the ROG Xbox Ally this summer, the company promised that what it was calling a new “Xbox Experience for Handheld” would “minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks” usually present in Windows, meaning “more [and] higher framerates” for gaming. While this is technically true, the performance improvement is so small as to be almost meaningless in practice.

In our testing, in-game benchmarks running under the Xbox Full Screen Experience were ever so slightly faster than those same benchmarks running under the full Windows 11 in Desktop Mode (which you can switch to with a few button presses on the ROG Xbox Ally). And when we say “ever so slightly,” we mean less than a single frame per second improvement in many cases and only one or two frames per second at most. Even on a percentage basis, the difference will be practically unnoticeable.

Comparing ROG Xbox Ally X benchmarks on the Xbox Full-screen Experience (FSE) and the standard Windows 11 desktop. Here’s Doom: The Dark Ages. Kyle Orland

The other major selling point of Microsoft’s Xbox FSE, as sold this summer, is an “aggregated gaming library” that includes “all of the games available on Windows” in one single mega-launcher interface. That means apps like Steam, Battle.net, GOG Galaxy, Ubisoft Connect, and EA Play can all be installed with just a click from the “My Apps” section of the FSE from the first launch.

The integration of these apps into the wider Xbox FSE is spotty at best, though. For one, the new “aggregate gaming library” can’t actually show you every game you own across all of these PC gaming platforms in one place. Choosing the “installable” games filter on the Xbox FSE only shows you the games you can access through Microsoft’s own Xbox platform (including any Xbox Game Pass subscription). For other platforms, you must still browse and install the games you own through their own apps, each with their own distinct interfaces that don’t always play well with the ROG Xbox Ally’s button-based controls.

The home screen shows your most recent titles while also offering some ads for other available titles. Kyle Orland / Asus

Even games that are supposed to be installable directly via the Xbox FSE caused me problems in testing. Trying to load the EA Play app to install any number of games included with Xbox Game Pass, for instance, triggered an “authentication error” page with no option to actually log in to EA’s servers. This problem persisted across multiple restarts and reinstallations of the extension that’s supposed to link EA Play to the Xbox FSE. And while I could load the EA Play app via Desktop Mode, I couldn’t get the app to recognize that I had an active Xbox Game Pass subscription to grant me access to the titles I wanted. So much for testing Battlefield, I guess.

Mo’ launchers, mo’ problems

Once you’ve gone to the trouble of installing your favorite games on the ROG Xbox Ally, the Xbox FSE does a good job of aggregating their listings in a single common interface. For players whose gaming libraries are spread across multiple platforms, it can be genuinely useful to see an FSE game list where Battle.net’s Hearthstone sits next to a GOG copy of Cyberpunk 2077, a Steam copy of Hades II, and an Epic Games Store copy of Fortnite, for instance. A quick tap of the Xbox button will even show you the last three games you played, regardless of where you launched them (alongside quick access to some useful general settings).

The “My Games” listing shows everything you’ve installed, regardless of the source. Credit: Kyle Orland / Asus

Unfortunately, actually playing those games via the new Xbox FSE is far from a seamless experience. You never quite know what you’re going to get when you hit the large, green “Play” button to launch a third-party platform via the Xbox FSE. All too frequently, in fact, you’ll get no immediate outward sign for multiple seconds that you did anything, leaving you to wonder if your button press even registered.

In the best case, this long wait will eventually culminate in a separate launcher popping up and eventually loading your game (or possibly popping up and down multiple times as it cycles through necessary launcher updates). In a slightly annoying case, the launcher might require you to close some pop-up and/or manually hit another on-screen button to launch the game (if you’re playing with the console docked to a TV, this may be downright impossible without a mouse plugged in). In the worst case, the wait might stretch to 30 seconds or more before you think to check the App Switcher and realize that Battle.net actually launched in the background and is waiting for you to input your username and password (to cite just one of many frustratingly counterintuitive examples I encountered).

Tapping the Xbox button brings up this helpful overlay no matter where you are in a game or app. Kyle Orland / Asus

Sometimes, switching from one active game to another via the handy Xbox button will pop up a warning that you should close the first game before opening a new one. Quite often, though, that pop-up warning simply fails to appear, forcing you to go to the trouble of manually closing the first game if you don’t want it eating up resources in the background. But in cases where you do want to multitask—downloading a game on Steam while playing something via the Epic Games Store, for instance—you can never be quite sure if the background app will actually keep doing what you want when it isn’t in focus via the FSE. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.

There are plenty of other little annoyances that make using the Xbox FSE more painful than it should be. Sometimes the system will swap between third-party launchers or between a launcher and the Xbox FSE for seemingly no reason, interrupting your flow. When the Xbox app itself needs updating, it does so via the desktop version of the Windows Update settings menu, which isn’t really designed for controllers (but which will offer to let you install the latest version of Notepad). Sometimes, Steam’s Big Picture Mode would have the very top and bottom of the full-screen interface cut off for no apparent reason. The system will frequently freeze on a menu for multiple seconds and refuse to respond to any input, especially when loading or closing an outside launcher. I could go on.

If you want to update the Xbox app itself, you still have to go through this Windows Update screen outside of the FSE. Credit: Kyle Orland / Asus

I’m willing to cut Microsoft a bit of slack here. It’s hard to bring the fragmented landscape of competing PC gaming platforms and storefronts together into a single unified interface that provides a cohesive user experience. In a sense, Microsoft is trapped in that XKCD comic where people complain about 14 different competing standards and end up creating a 15th competing standard in the process of trying to unify them.

At the same time, Microsoft sold the Xbox FSE largely on the promise of an “aggregated gaming library” that makes this all simple. Instead, the Full-screen Experience we got papers over the fragmented nature of Windows gaming while causing new problems all their own.

A powerful machine

Xbox FSE aside, there’s a lot to like about the ROG Xbox Ally line from a hardware design perspective. I tested the ROG Xbox Ally X, which is a little thicker and heavier than the Steam Deck but ends up riding that fine line between “solidly built” and “dense brick” pretty well in the hands.

Out of the box. Kyle Orland

I was especially impressed with the design of the ROG Xbox Ally’s hand grips, textured ovoid bumps that slot perfectly into the crook of the palm for comfortable extended gaming sessions. The overall build quality shines through, too, from nicely springy analog sticks and shoulder triggers to extremely powerful, bass-heavy speakers and excellently clicky face buttons (which can be a bit loud when playing next to a sleeping partner). There are also some nice rear buttons that are incredibly easy to nudge with a small flick of your middle finger, if you’re one of those people who never wants to move your thumbs off the analog sticks.

The ROG Xbox Ally’s 7-inch 1080p screen is crisp enough and looks especially nice when delivering steady 120 fps performance on games like Hollow Knight: Silksong. But the maximum brightness of 500 nits is a bit dim if you’re going to be playing in direct sunlight. I also found myself missing the deep blacks and pop of HDR color I’ve gotten used to on my Steam Deck OLED.

The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip in the ROG Xbox Ally X delivers all the relative gaming horsepower you’d hope for from a $1,000 PC gaming handheld. I was able to hit 30 fps or more running a recent release like Doom: The Dark Ages at 1080p and High graphical settings. For a slightly older game like Cyberpunk 2077, the chip could even handle the “Ray-tracing Low” graphics preset at 1080p resolution at an acceptable frame rate when plugged into an outlet.

If you’re away from a power source, though, pushing the hardware for high-end graphical performance like that does take its toll on the battery. Titles that required the hardware’s preset “Turbo Mode”—which tends to run the noisy fan at full blast to keep internal temperature reasonable—could drain a fully charged battery in around two hours in the worst case. Switching over to the power-sipping but less graphically powerful Silent Mode (which can be accessed with a single button press using a handy “Armoury Crate Command Center” overlay) will extend that to about five or six hours of play time at the expense of the frame rate for high-end games.

The SteamOS elephant in the room

In a bubble, it would be easy to see the ROG Xbox Ally X as a promising, if flawed, early attempt to merge the simplicity of console gaming with the openness of PC gaming in a nice handheld form factor. Here in the real world, though, we’ve been enjoying a much more refined version of that same idea via Valve’s SteamOS and Steam Deck for years.

With SteamOS, I don’t need to worry about which launcher I’ll use to install or update a game. I don’t need to manually close background programs or wait multiple seconds to see an on-screen response when I hit the “Play” button. I don’t need to worry about whether a Settings menu will require me to use a mouse or touchscreen. Everything just works on SteamOS in a way I can’t rely on with the Xbox FSE.

Yes, Microsoft can brag that the Xbox FSE supports every Windows game, while SteamOS is limited to Valve’s walled garden. But this is barely an advantage for many if not most PC gamers, who have been launching their games via Steam more or less exclusively for decades now. Even companies with their own platforms and launchers often offer compatible versions of their biggest titles on Steam these days, a tacit acknowledgement of the social-network lock-in Valve has over the market for whole generations of PC gamers.

The Xbox “Full Screen Experience” can also be a windowed experience from the Windows desktop. Credit: Kyle Orland / Asus

Sure, the ROG Xbox Ally can play a handful of games that aren’t available via SteamOS for one reason or another. If you want to play Fortnite, Destiny, Battlefield, or Diablo III portably, the ROG Xbox Ally is a decent solution. Ditto for web-based games (playable here via Edge), games available via niche platforms like itch.io, or even titles you might install directly to the Windows desktop without an outside platform’s launcher (remember those?). And even for games available on SteamOS, the ROG Xbox Ally can give you access to the free or cheap versions you obtained from sales or offers on other platforms (don’t sleep on Amazon’s Prime Gaming offers if you like free GOG codes).

The killer app for the ROG Xbox Ally, though, is Xbox Game Pass. If you subscribe to Microsoft’s popular gaming service, logging in to your account on the ROG Xbox Ally means seeing your “installable” library instantly fill up with hundreds of games spanning a huge swath of the recent history of PC gaming. That’s an especially nice feeling for PC gaming newcomers who haven’t spent years digging through regular Steam sales to build up a sizable backlog.

If you have Xbox Game Pass, your ROG Xbox Ally will have a ton of available games from day one. Credit: Kyle Orland / Asus

The recent price hike to $30 a month for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate definitely makes this a less compelling proposition. But ROG Xbox Ally users can probably get by with the $16.49/month “Xbox Game Pass for PC” plan, which offers over 500 installable games and access to new first-party Microsoft releases. As a way to dip your toe into the wide world of PC gaming, it’s hard to beat.

Even for players who aren’t interested in Xbox Game Pass, the ROG Xbox Ally X is a well-built piece of hardware with the power to run today’s games pretty well. All things considered, though, the poor user experience of the Xbox FSE makes it hard to recommend either ROG Xbox Ally over somewhat less powerful SteamOS devices like the Steam Deck or Legion Go S. That said, we hope Microsoft will continue refining the Xbox Full-screen Experience to make for a Windows gaming experience that lives up to its promise.

Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper.

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AMD and Sony’s PS6 chipset aims to rethink the current graphics pipeline

AMD, chipset, gaming, GPU, pipeline, raytracing, Sony / Mike M. / October 10, 2025

It feels like it was just yesterday that Sony hardware architect Mark Cerny was first teasing Sony’s “PS4 successor” and its “enhanced ray-tracing capabilities” powered by new AMD chips. Now that we’re nearly five full years into the PS5 era, it’s time for Sony and AMD to start teasing the new chips that will power what Cerny calls “a future console in a few years’ time.”

In a quick nine-minute video posted Thursday, Cerny sat down with Jack Huynh, the senior VP and general manager of AMD’s Computing and Graphics Group, to talk about “Project Amethyst,” a co-engineering effort between both companies that was also teased back in July. And while that Project Amethyst hardware currently only exists in the form of a simulation, Cerny said that the “results are quite promising” for a project that’s still in the “early days.”

Mo’ ML, fewer problems?

Project Amethyst is focused on going beyond traditional rasterization techniques that don’t scale well when you try to “brute force that with raw power alone,” Huynh said in the video. Instead, the new architecture is focused on more efficient running of the kinds of machine-learning-based neural networks behind AMD’s FSR upscaling technology and Sony’s similar PSSR system.

From the same source. Two branches. One vision.

My good friend and fellow gamer @cerny and I recently reflected on our shared journey — symbolized by these two pieces of amethyst, split from the same stone.

Project Amethyst is a co-engineering effort between @PlayStation and… pic.twitter.com/De9HWV3Ub2

— Jack Huynh (@JackMHuynh) July 1, 2025

While that kind of upscaling currently helps let GPUs pump out 4K graphics in real time, Cerny said that the “nature of the GPU fights us here,” requiring calculations to be broken up into subproblems to be handled in a somewhat inefficient parallel process by the GPU’s individual compute units.

To get around this issue, Project Amethyst uses “neural arrays” that let compute units share data and process problems like a “single focused AI engine,” Cerny said. While the entire GPU won’t be connected in this manner, connecting small sets of compute units like this allows for more scalable shader engines that can “process a large chunk of the screen in one go,” Cerny said. That means Project Amethyst will let “more and more of what you see on screen… be touched or enhanced by ML,” Huynh added.

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Rally Arcade Classics is a fun ’90s-throwback racing game

Cars, game review, gaming, Rally Arcade Classics / Mike M. / October 3, 2025

Over the years, racing sims have come a long way. Gaming PCs and consoles have become more powerful, physics and tire models have become more accurate, and after COVID, it seems like nearly everyone has a sim rig setup at home. Sim racing has even become an accepted route into the world of real-life motorsport (not to be confused with the Indy Racing League).

But what if you aren’t looking to become the next Max Verstappen? What if you miss the more carefree days of old, where the fidelity wasn’t quite so high, nor were the stakes? Rally Arcade Classics is worth a look.

Developed by NET2KGAMES, you might think of RAC as a spiritual successor to legendary titles like Sega Rally and Colin McRae Rally. Forget about the Nürburgring or even street circuits laid out in famous cities you might have visited; instead, this game is about point-to-point racing against the clock—mostly—across landscapes that long-time World Rally Championship fans will remember.

Not a Focus but a Sufoc WRC, getting air in Finland. Credit: NET2KGAMES

There’s Finland, with plenty of fast dirt roads, complete with crests that will launch your car into the air. Or the dusty, sinewy mountain roads of Greece. Catalyuna (in Spain) provides technical tarmac stages. And Monte Carlo combines tarmac, ice, snow, and challenging corners. But since this is rallying, each location is broken into a series of short stages. Oh, and some of them will be at night.

Then there are the cars. This is an indie game, not a AAA title, so there are no official OEM licenses here. But there are plenty of cars you’ll recognize from the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. These comprise a mix of front-, rear-, and all-wheel drive machinery, some of them road cars and others heavily modified for rallying. You start off in the slowest of these, the Kopper, which is an off-brand Mini Cooper, a car that won a famous victory at the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally, despite being many, many horsepower down on the mostly RWD cars it beat.

The models of the cars, while not Gran Turismo 7-level, are close enough that you don’t really notice the Peugeot 205 is called the Paigot 5, or the Golf GTI now being the Wolf. The Betta is a Lancia Delta Integrale, the Fourtro is an Audi Quattro, and the Selicka is the Toyota Celica, but I must admit I’m not quite sure why the Subaru Imprezas are called the Imperial R and the MR Bang STI—answers in the comments if you know, please.

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Hands-on with Fallout 76’s next expansion: Yep, it has Walton Goggins

bethesda, Bethesda Game Studios, Fallout, fallout 76, Fallout 76 Burning Springs, gaming / Mike M. / October 1, 2025

TV tie-ins aside, it’s the combat tweaks over the past year that really matter.

There aren’t a lot of games set in Ohio, but here we are. Credit: Bethesda

Bethesda provided flights from Chicago to New York City so that Ars could participate in the preview opportunity for Fallout 76: Burning Springs. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

Like anybody, I have a few controversial gaming opinions and tastes. One of the most controversial is that Fallout 76 —the multiplayer take on Bethesda’s rethink of a beloved ’90s open-world computer roleplaying game—has been my favorite online multiplayer game since its launch.

As much as I like the game, though, I’ve been surprised that it has actually grown over the past seven years. I’m not saying it’s seen a full, No Man’s Sky-like redemption story, though. It’s still not for everyone, and in some ways, it has fallen behind the times since 2018.

Nevertheless, the success of the streaming TV show based on the game franchise has attracted new players and given the developers a chance to seize the moment and attempt to complete a partial redemption story. To help make that happen, the game’s developers will soon release an expansion fully capitalizing on that TV series for the first time, and I got to spend a few hours playing that update to see if it’s any fun.

That said, don’t get distracted by the shiny TV tie-in. The important work is a lot less flashy: combat overhauls, bug fixes, balance updates, quality-of-life improvements, and technological tweaks—all of which have been added to the game over time. Ultimately, that little stuff adds up to be more impactful than the big stuff for players.

With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at where things stand based on my seven years of regularly playing the game and a few hours with the next major expansion.

Months of combat and game balance overhauls

You probably already know that the game originally launched without NPCs or the kinds of story- and character-driven quests most people expect from Fallout and that those things were added to the game in 2020, with more similar additions in the years since.

You could make a case that the original, NPC-free vision made sense for a certain kind of player, but that’s not the kind of player who tends to like Fallout games. Bethesda clearly pictured a Rust-like, emergent social PvP (player vs. player) situation when the game first came out. By now, though, PvP is almost completely absent from the game, and story-based quests loaded with NPCs are plentiful.

It still wasn’t enough for some players. There were several small frustrations about gameplay balance, as some folks felt that combat wasn’t always as fun as it could be and that the viable character builds in the endgame were too narrow.

Through a series of many patches over just this past year, Bethesda has been making significant changes to that aspect of the game. Go to Reddit and you’ll see that some players have gripes—mainly because the changes nerfed some uber-powerful endgame builds and weapons to level the playing field. (Also, some recent changes to VATS are admittedly a double-edged sword, depending on your philosophy about what role it should play in the game.)

You’ll definitely engage in some combat in this Deathclaw junkyard battle arena. Credit: Bethesda

As someone who has been playing almost nonstop this whole time, though, I think the designers have done a great job of making more play styles viable while just generally making the game feel better to play. They also totally overhauled how the base-building system works. That’s the sort of stuff that is hard to convey in a marketing blitz, but you feel it when you’re playing.

I won’t get into every detail about it here since most people reading this probably haven’t played the game enough to warrant that, but you can look at the patch notes—it’s a lot.

But I want to point that out up front because I think it’s more important than anything in the actual expansion the developer and publisher are hyping up. The game is just generally more fun to play than it used to be—even a year ago. You love to see it.

Technically, it’s a mixed bag

Earlier, I mentioned that the game has fallen behind the times in many ways. I’m mostly talking about its technical presentation and the lack of modern features players now expect from big-budget, cross-platform multiplayer games.

The assets are great, the art direction is top-notch, and the world is dense and attractive, but there are some now-standard AAA boxes it doesn’t check. A full redemption story requires addressing at least some of these things to keep the game up to modern standards.

By and large, the game’s environments look great on PC. Consoles are a bit behind. Credit: Bethesda

First up, the game has no executable for modern consoles; the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5/5 Pro consoles seem to run the last-gen Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro versions, respectively, just with the framerate cap (thankfully) raised from 30 fps to 60 fps.

But there’s good news on that front: I spoke with development team members who confirmed that current-gen console versions are coming soon, though they didn’t specify what kinds of upgrades we can expect.

I hope that also means a rethought approach to how the game displays on HDR (high dynamic range) TVs. To this day, HDR does not work like you’d expect; the game looks washed out on an OLED TV in particular, and there are none of the industry-standard HDR calibration sliders to fix it. HDR also didn’t work properly in Starfield at launch (it got partially addressed about a year later), and it is completely absent from the otherwise gorgeous-to-behold The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remaster that came out just this year. I don’t know what the deal is with Bethesda Game Studios and HDR, but I hope they figure it out by the time The Elder Scrolls VI hits.

I also asked the Fallout 76 team about cross-play and cross-progression—the ability to play with friends on different platforms (or to at least access the same character across platforms). These features are likely nontrivial to implement, and they weren’t standard in 2018. They’re increasingly expected for big-budget, AAA multiplayer games today, though.

Unfortunately, the Bethesda devs I spoke to didn’t have any plans to share on that front. Still, it’s good to hear that the company still supports this game enough to at least launch modern console versions—and to continue adding major content updates.

OK, we can talk about the TV show update now

Speaking of major content updates, Bethesda is planning a big release called Burning Springs this December. It marks the second significant map expansion. Whereas the first expanded from the game’s West Virginia locales southward into Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, this one pushes the map farther west, into the state of Ohio.

Ohio is a dust bowl now, it seems, so Fallout 76 will see its first desert locale. That’s an intentional choice, as the launch of this expansion will be timed closely to the release of season two of the TV show, and the show will be set in Nevada (specifically, around New Vegas). It obviously wouldn’t make sense to expand the game’s map all the way out to the western US, so this gives the developers a way to add a little season two flavor to Fallout 76.

As I was leaving my home to go to Bethesda’s gameplay preview event for Burning Springs, my wife joked that they should add Walton Goggins to the game as the ultimate tie-in with the show. Funny enough, that’s exactly what they’ve done. Goggins’ character from the show, The Ghoul, can be found in the new Burning Springs region, and he voices the character. This game is a prequel to the show by many, many years, but fortunately, Ghouls don’t age.

The Ghoul will give players repeatable bounty hunter missions of two types—one that you can handle solo and one that’s meant to be done as a public event with other players.

The Ghoul's ugly mug — Walton Goggins voices his character from the TV show in *Fallout 76*. That must have been expensive! Credit: Bethesda

I got to try both, and I found they were pretty fun, even though they don’t go too far in breaking the mold of Fallout 76‘s existing public events.

I also spent more than two hours freely exploring the game’s post-apocalyptic interpretation of Ohio. Despite the new desert aesthetic, it’s all pretty familiar Fallout stuff: raider-infested Super Duper Marts, blown-out neighborhoods, and the like. There is a very large new settlement that has a distinct character compared to the game’s existing towns, and it’s loaded with NPCs. I also enjoyed a public event that has players battling through a junkyard with a cyborg Deathclaw at their side—yep, you read that right.

I’m told there will be a new story quest line attached to the new region that involves a highly intelligent Super Mutant named the Rust King. I didn’t get to do those quests during this demo, though.

Burning Springs doesn’t do anything to rethink Fallout 76‘s basic experience; it’s just more of it, with a different flavor. But since Bethesda has done so much work making that basic experience more fun, that’s OK. It means more Fallout 76 is, in fact, more of a good thing.

TV tie-ins don’t fix a broken game, but they bring new or lapsed players back to a broken game that has since been fixed.

If you don’t like looter shooters, survival crafting games, or the very idea of multiplayer games—and some Fallout players just don’t—it’s not going to change your mind. But if the reason you skipped this game or bounced off of it was that you liked what it was going for but felt it stumbled on the execution, it can’t hurt to give it another try with the new update.

I don’t think that’s such a controversial opinion anymore. As a longtime player, it’s nice to be able to say that.

Samuel Axon is the editorial lead for tech and gaming coverage at Ars Technica. He covers AI, software development, gaming, entertainment, and mixed reality. He has been writing about gaming and technology for nearly two decades at Engadget, PC World, Mashable, Vice, Polygon, Wired, and others. He previously ran a marketing and PR agency in the gaming industry, led editorial for the TV network CBS, and worked on social media marketing strategy for Samsung Mobile at the creative agency SPCSHP. He also is an independent software and game developer for iOS, Windows, and other platforms, and he is a graduate of DePaul University, where he studied interactive media and software development.

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Fortnite disables Peacemaker emote that might resemble a swastika

culture, epic games, gaming, Peacemaker / Shannon Garcia / September 29, 2025

If you watch this for a full hour, leave a comment to receive absolutely no prize.

Epic Games has disabled a Fortnite emote based on the HBO show Peacemaker after the latest episode cast the dancing animation in a potentially different light.

The remainder of this post contains spoilers for Season 2 of Peacemaker.

The “Peaceful Hips” emote, which was first introduced to the game on September 15, mirrors the dance motions that John Cena’s character Christopher Smith makes during the opening credits sequence for the show’s second season. In the dance and the emote (which can be applied to any character in-game), the dancer briefly flails their arms at opposing right angles before shaking their hips seductively.

Some are seeing the dance in a different light after the sixth episode of the show’s second season, “Ignorance is Chris,” which revealed that the alternate universe featured throughout the season has been controlled by swastika-brandishing Nazis. With that knowledge front of mind, the arm movements in the dance emote could be seen as a winking reference to the arms of a swastika.

“[In] season 2 there’s a lot more of the story of the season in the intro, [in] the first season there wasn’t as much of a reference to the story,” choreographer Charissa Barton said in a video interview posted by Warner Bros. last month.

The opening dance sequence to Season 2 of Peacemaker.

The arm motions mean what?

Fans have been picking up on hints of the show’s eventual Nazi-related reveal (including from that opening dance) as the second season has aired over recent weeks. But the confirmation of the link in Sunday’s episode had Epic quickly re-evaluating the emote by Sunday night.

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