The LiberNovo Omni is a high-end ergonomic office chair packed with features: electric lumbar adjustment, a flexible segmented backrest, a massage mode, a wide reclining range and fully adjustable headrest and armrests. With all those fancy features comes a fancy price tag – costing around £1200 when at full RRP. We're looking at everything the Omni offers, how its design and adjustability work in practice, and whether this premium chair is actually worth the asking price.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:46 Pricing and bundle options
02:17 Design first impressions
03:25 ‘Dynamic’ Ergonomic chair?
05:01 Adjustment capabilities
06:51 Electronic lumbar support
07:28 Mat’s experience day-to-day
09:27 The massage functionality + battery
10:56 But there are issues…
13:30 The assembly process + build quality
14:30 Mat’s closing thoughts
Specifications
Product Name – LiberNovo Omni Dynamic Ergonomic Chair
Black Friday has now come and gone, with various hardware and software manufacturers offering deep discounts on their games, accessories, consoles and more. Despite the Nintendo Switch 2 being the new hotness, it was Sony’s PlayStation 5 which seems to have ‘won’ Black Friday – taking home half of all console sales for the period.
According to industry analyst Mat Piscatella of Circana, the PlayStation 5 accounted for 47% of all console hardware sales during Black Friday in the US, with the Switch 2 landing in second (24% of sales) and the relatively unknown Kinect-styled ‘NEX Playground’ taking the 3rd spot from Xbox with 14% of sales.
In the UK, PlayStation performed even better, with Christopher Dring of TheGameBusiness confirming that PS5 took home 62% of all console sales during Black Friday. As expected, the Switch 2 ended up in second place with 23% of sales, and Xbox bringing up the rear with 10%.
Sony had been pretty aggressive this Black Friday, with the relatively-more-affordable PS5 console seeing rather steep discounts during the promotional period. This strategy seems to have worked wonders for the console maker, with PS5 continuing its lead.
It will be interesting to see how sales for both PS5 and Switch 2 evolve over the next year as Nintendo’s console starts to mature.
KitGuru says: What did you pick up this Black Friday? Are you surprised by PlayStation’s dominance? Did you expect the Switch 2 to take the top spot? Let us know down below.
The second season of Amazon Prime's Fallout series is about to air very soon and it looks like production will pretty swiftly move over to Season 3 in an effort to have a quicker turnaround time between seasons.
In a recent interview with IGN, Fallout executive producer, Jonathan Nolan, confirmed plans to begin filming Season 3 next year, with the goal of getting “back on the air in a reasonable amount of time”.
Nolan also addressed the current state of TV, with many shows opting for longer and longer breaks between seasons, which has become a source of frustration for many:
“I think what's happened with television in terms of taking longer and longer from season to season is an unfortunate trend. You don't want the show to lose any of its scope, but we know that we'd like to be back on the air as soon as we can.”
It sounds like the Fallout production team is aiming to capitalise on the show's early momentum and not needlessly slow down the process.
Fallout Season 2 begins on December 17th, furthering the story in New Vegas, a favourite location amongst fans of the Fallout videogames.
KitGuru Says: Are you looking forward to the second season of Fallout? It sounds like the show will stick to a one season per year cadence moving forward, which I think would be for the best. A lot of shows lose their momentum with lengthy breaks.
After the overwhelming success that was Elden Ring, FromSoftware surprised many with the announcement and release of Nightreign – a co-op roguelite spin-off. Since its launch back in May, the title has received a solid amount of free post-launch support and even a paid expansion; the latter of which has already sold over 2 million copies since its arrival a couple days ago.
Making the announcement via Twitter, FromSoftware confirmed that “The cumulative worldwide shipment volume of ‘ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN The Forsaken Hollows’ has exceeded 2 million units. To all the users who are playing this game, thank you very much. We hope you enjoy the new battles undertaken by the Nightfarers. We look forward to your continued support.”
For context, The Forsaken Hollows released just a couple days ago on the 4th of December, and so to have sold 2 million copies already is a major achievement. That said, reception towards the DLC is less-than-perfect, with Steam reviews currently sitting at a Mixed rating owing to the game’s new ‘Shifting Earth’ map being less-than-intuitive to navigate.
Still, 2 million copies sold for what is a DLC for a spin-off is highly impressive and seems to suggest that FromSoftware has ensured their financial success regardless of the direction they choose to go in.
KitGuru says: What do you think of Nightreign’s new DLC? Is it worth the relatively cheap asking price? As an experiment, has Nightreign succeeded or failed in your eyes? Let us know down below.
Despite an incredibly strong launch, Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds has been a disappointment in many people’s eyes, primarily due to various optimisation issues. In what will hopefully be a positive affair, Capcom has now scheduled their next Monster Hunter Showcase for later tonight – offering a look at their upcoming ‘Title Update 4’ and more.
“Join us for a Monster Hunter Showcase on December 8 at 2pm PT/10pm GMT! Tune in to the livestream for all the info on Monster Hunter Wilds Free Title Update 4, and new info for Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection!”
While it will be exciting to see more from Monster Hunter Stories 3, the free title update for MH Wilds is by far the most interesting, especially as PC players in particular continue to suffer from various performance and optimisation issues.
Capcom made sure to note that Wilds’ presence in the showcase will be limited to talk surrounding Title Update 4, and so don’t expect to hear about any expansions any time soon.
Hopefully however this means that the publisher has put a lot of effort into ensuring that this upcoming update will satiate frustrated fans. We won’t have to wait long to find out exactly what is being fixed/improved.
KitGuru says: Are you looking forward to the showcase? Have you had many issues running Wilds on your PC? Let us know down below.
For Day 8 on the KitGuru Advent Calendar, we have teamed up with Thermal Grizzly to give away the brand-new WireView Pro II tool, along with a mouse mat and a full set of premium thermal materials to level up your cooling and overclocking.
Here is a breakdown of the prizes:
Duronaut – A high-performance thermal paste engineered for exceptional long-term stability and superior heat conductivity, ideal for overclockers and demanding cooling setups.
KryoSheet – A graphene-based thermal pad that delivers extremely high and consistent thermal conductivity as a durable alternative to paste, though it is electrically conductive.
Putty – An electrically non-conductive thermal gap filler designed to replace GPU thermal pads, available in Basic, Advance, and Pro variants with increasing conductivity.
WireView Pro II – A GPU power monitoring device for 12V-2×6 connectors, offering per-pin current measurement, active cooling, automatic shutdown safety, and detailed logging to prevent cable failures.
Due to the WireView Pro II being in the pre-order phase at the moment, the winner of this giveaway will receive their prizes in January.
How to Enter:
To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is head over to our competition announcement post on Facebook, HERE. In the comments, leave an answer to the following question – What GPU are you running?
This competition is open in the UK, EU and USA.
The winners will be picked randomly shortly after 11AM GMT December 9th, and a new competition will be announced for Day 9. The chosen winners have 48 hours to respond, if we do not hear from them, a new winner will be picked.
Terms and Conditions: This competition is open UK, EU and USA starting at 11AM GMT on December 8th and ending at 10:59AM GMT on December 9th. Due to the busy Christmas season, prize deliveries could take longer than usual, and some prizes may not ship until January. In compliance with GDPR, we will not collect or store any personal information as part of this competition. Once the winner has been contacted and their prize received, personal details will be deleted from our email servers. Your details will not be shared, we respect your privacy.
KitGuru Says: Good luck, we'll be back tomorrow to announce the winner and turn the calendar over to Day 9!
It's not often that we review products here at KitGuru that we outright cannot recommend, but today's monitor falls into that category. We're looking at the iiyama GB2771UHSU, a 27in IPS monitor with dual-mode functionality – offering support for either 4K/144Hz or 1080p/288Hz depending on your preference. On top of that it has a claimed brightness of 450 nits, along with contrast of 1500:1, all on offer for just £240. It sounds good on paper, but as we find out, real-world usage is another thing entirely…
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:54 iiyama’s new range
01:22 We’re doing things differently today
01:55 Response time testing – ouch!
04:20 Motion clarity examples
06:06 Real-world gaming experience
07:29 Panel analysis / factory calibration
09:24 More bad news – sRGB mode
10:42 Quick look at the design
12:22 Closing thoughts
Launched only at the start of November, iiyama got in touch with us earlier this year to let us know a new wave of Fast IPS and IPS screens would be hitting the market before the end of the year – the GB2771UHSU included. Dual-mode has proven popular this year so when the company offered to send us this new model, we jumped at the chance. Join us for our usual detailed analysis as we explain why this is not a monitor you should be adding to your shortlist in 2025.
The broad rollout of the Windows 11 25H2 update has started, and users who want to fast-track it are being referred to the relevant update options in a new blog post on Microsoft's site. Windows 11 25H2 comes with an assortment of additional Copilot+ related features (exclusive to those with sufficiently-powerful NPUs rated for 40+ TOPS) and
Following the release of the 590 driver branch, which formally ended “Game Ready” support for the GTX 900 and 10 series GPUs, Nvidia has been forced to issue a correction regarding its supported hardware list. Initially, the release notes revealed that the Titan GTX and several Pascal-based mobile GPUs were still listed as supported, but that is no longer the case.
Nvidia has since removed all mentions of the MX and Titan GTX GPUs in the list of supported hardware, as noted by VideoCardz. The company has updated its documentation to confirm that all Pascal-based GPUs are indeed moving to legacy status. This correction hits the entry-level laptop segment particularly hard, wiping out almost the entire MX lineup. The only survivor is the MX450, which remains supported solely because it is built on the newer Turing architecture (TU117S), unlike its Pascal-based predecessors.
The transition to the 590 branch also marks the end of an era for the Titan family. With the deprecation of Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta, the support list has been decimated. The Titan X, Titan XP, and Titan V are no longer supported. This leaves the Turing-based Titan RTX as the sole remaining member of the family with active driver support.
Note that, as these GPUs will be moved to legacy, they'll still receive critical security updates via a dedicated branch.
KitGuru says: Do you own a Titan GTX or a mobile MX GPU? Are you planning to upgrade those systems, given they're about to be considered legacy?
Lian Li has introduced the RS Series, a new line of power supplies designed to address the physical constraints often found in compact or dual-chamber PC cases.Available in 1000W and 1200W capacities, the series introduces a unique mechanical feature: a rotating AC inlet.
The rotating inlet found on the RS series allows builders to adjust the orientation of the power cord connection, making it easier to fit the unit into a chassis with limited clearance or unusual mounting brackets. The design's flexibility extends to the modular interface as well, with the RS Series featuring 24-pin motherboard output ports on both the left and right sides of the unit. This dual-port layout ensures the main ATX cable takes the most direct path to the motherboard, regardless of the PSU's orientation, helping declutter the cable management chamber.
Some RS PSUs come with an RS Hub designed to solve the common shortage of internal USB headers in RGB-heavy builds. It provides four USB 2.0 headers capable of supporting up to eight devices. The hub is magnetic and can be placed anywhere in the case or mounted directly onto the PSU. This accessory is included with the 1200W models, but it's also an optional add-on for the 1000W variants.
Under the hood, the units are built using a combination of Japanese capacitors and industrial-grade EPCOS capacitors, which Lian Li claims are smaller yet more durable than traditional components. The platform is rated for high efficiency, carrying 80 Plus Gold, PPLP Gold, and Cybenetics Platinum certifications. Cooling is provided by a 135 mm fluid-dynamic bearing (FDB) fan that supports a Zero RPM mode for silent operation under lighter loads.
The PSUs ship with soft, flat modular cables and magnetic cable ties to further assist with routing. The Lian Li RS Series is available starting December 5th, 2025, in both black and white. The RS1000G Black without a hub is priced at $154.99, while the RS1000G White without a hub is priced at $159.99. If you choose the RS1000G bundled with the RS Hub, the Black version costs $159.99, and the White version is $164.99. Finally, for the RS1200G models, which are available only with the RS Hub, the Black edition is $179.99, and the White edition is $184.99.
KitGuru says: Although a bit pricey, these PSUs' feature set is quite rare in the current market. The only similar alternative is the Corsair RMx Shift, which is priced similarly to these at the same power level.
After completing not one but two GTC events this year, NVIDIA is already looking ahead to what's in store for the next one, which the company confirms is returning to San Jose, California next year. It will run from March 16-19, 2026. For those who are interested in attending, registration is now open, though you can expect a livestreamed
Dell is reportedly preparing to increase its system prices by 15-20% as early as mid-December, driven by a dramatic surge in DRAM costs. Lenovo may follow suit, as industry insiders point to the exploding cost of memory as the cause, specifically DDR5, which has seen year-over-year increases of 70%, with some specific components spiking by a massive 170%.
According to Trendforce, Lenovo is already advising customers that current price quotes will expire on January 1st, with significant increases expected in early 2026 due to AI-driven demand and shortages.Other major OEMs, including HP, Samsung, and LG, are also said to be reassessing their 2026 product roadmaps, particularly for AI tablets and PCs.
TrendForce has consequently downgraded its notebook shipment forecast for 2026 from 1.7% growth to 2.4% decline. With memory accounting for a significant chunk of a PC's cost, 2026 is shaping up to be a challenging year for consumers, likely characterised by higher prices, limited availability, and potentially lower-spec products as brands attempt to maintain price points.
KitGuru says: With all these new reports lately, it seems those planning to buy a laptop are better off getting it ASAP or risk paying a considerably higher price.
After years of anticipation since its initial tease as ‘Project L', Riot Games has confirmed that its League of Legends-based tag fighter, 2XKO, will officially launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in January 2026.
The console debut will coincide with the launch of Season 1 across all platforms, marking a significant milestone for the title, which has been in PC Early Access since October 2025. This simultaneous rollout ensures that the player base remains unified, with Riot confirming cross-platform progression. Console players will not be left behind, as a catch-up mechanism will allow them to earn or unlock content from the PC-exclusive early access period, including champions, skins, and mastery rewards.
Season 1 is set to bring substantial new content, headlined by the arrival of a new champion to the roster. Additionally, Riot is doubling down on the esports ecosystem with the introduction of the “Frame Perfect” skin line. A portion of the proceeds from these skins will go directly to tournament organisers to support prize pools and production costs.
Riot has also unveiled the 2026 Competitive Series, a global circuit developed in partnership with independent event organisers. The series will feature twenty sanctioned events, including five major tournaments. The competitive calendar kicks off almost immediately after launch, with the first event scheduled for January 29th, 2026, at Frosty Faustings.
KitGuru says: Have you already tried 2XKO, or were you waiting for the console release?
Update: This competition is now CLOSED. Our winners today are Domenico Bonacci (Prime TX), Conner Macaulay (Vertex PX) and Josh Cambell (Prime GX). Our next giveaway is now live and can be found HERE.
For Day 7 of the KitGuru Advent Calendar we have teamed up with Seasonic to give away not one, not two but THREE prizes. Today's prize list includes the Seasonic GX-850, Vertex PX-1000 and Prime TX-1300 power supplies!
The Power Supply is the beating heart of any high performance gaming PC. Seasonic happens to make some of the best power supplies on the market, One winner will get the 850W model, while another will get the 1000W PSU and a third winner will get the Prime TX-1300, which offers the highest efficiency rating as well.
How to Enter:
To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is head over to our competition announcement post on Facebook, HERE. In the comments, leave an answer to the following question – What is the capacity of your current PSU?
This competition is open in the UK, EU and USA.
The winners will be picked randomly shortly after 11AM GMT December 8th, and a new competition will be announced for Day 8. The chosen winners have 48 hours to respond, if we do not hear from them, a new winner will be picked.
Terms and Conditions: This competition is open UK, EU and USA starting at 11AM GMT on December 7th and ending at 10:59AM GMT on December 8th. Due to the busy Christmas season, prize deliveries could take longer than usual, and some prizes may not ship until January. In compliance with GDPR, we will not collect or store any personal information as part of this competition. Once the winner has been contacted and their prize received, personal details will be deleted from our email servers. Your details will not be shared, we respect your privacy.
KitGuru Says: Good luck to all who enter, we'll be back tomorrow morning to announce a winner and turn the calendar over to Day 8!
Yes, we talked about DDR5 pricing a lot, again. But we also talked about a very special Intel 18A customer, one billion PCs screaming out in pain (it's a metaphor!), AMD CPU…
Intel's Panther Lake processors are due to arrive soon in new notebooks from a wide array of partners. MSI has a refreshed line-up of Prestige machines coming, for example, powered by Intel's latest and greatest mobile chips, flaunting OLED screens up to 16 inches and long battery life. Based on initial disclosures from Intel and some leaked
This might just be the most will-they-or-won't-they GPU release story of all time. Intel's Arc Battlemage was rumored to come in two different versions as soon as we ever heard about it, but the larger "BMG-G31" chip never materialized and was rumored to be canceled. Then it appeared in leaks, and then it was rumored to have been canceled
If you haven't done so already, check out our roundup of excellent deals on several generations of iPhone and Apple Watch devices, with Woot (owned by Amazon) offering massive savings on its Grade-A refurbs backed by a 1-year warranty. Then once you've done that, check out the big discounts from Amazon on more Apple products, all in new condition,
Blink and you'll miss Woot's flash sale on a whole bunch of 'Grade-A' Apple Watch and iPhone devices with hundreds of dollars of savings on tap, and delivery in time for Christmas. And before you dismiss the sale because these are refurbished items, consider that Woot (which is owned by Amazon) is promising "like-new functionality" and battery
Update: This competition is now CLOSED. Our winner today is Chris Reed! If you missed out this time then keep an eye out as we have many more daily giveaways left on the calendar. Today's giveaway can be found HERE.
For Day 6 of the KitGuru Advent Calendar we have teamed up with Sapphire to give one lucky reader a new graphics card and motherboard! Our prizes today include the Sapphire Pure RX 9060 XT 16GB graphics card and a Pure B850M motherboard/
The graphics card being given away today is the 16GB variant of the RX 9060 XT. With this GPU, you'll be able to access the full FSR 4 feature set for improved performance in supported games and thanks to the generous amount of VRAM, you should be able to avoid stutter issues in certain newer titles. To go with the graphics card, the winner will also receive a Sapphire Pure B850M WIFI motherboard, which supports the latest Ryzen AM5 processors in a Mico-ATX form factor.
How to Enter:
To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is head over to our competition announcement post on Facebook, HERE. In the comments, leave an answer to the following question – What GPU are you currently running?
This competition is open Worldwide.
The winners will be picked randomly shortly after 11AM GMT December 7th, and a new competition will be announced for Day 7. The chosen winners have 48 hours to respond, if we do not hear from them, a new winner will be picked.
Terms and Conditions:This competition is open worldwide starting at 11AM GMT on December 6th and ending at 10:59AM GMT on December 7th. Due to the busy Christmas season, prize deliveries could take longer than usual, and some prizes may not ship until January. In compliance with GDPR, we will not collect or store any personal information as part of this competition. Once the winner has been contacted and their prize received, personal details will be deleted from our email servers. Your details will not be shared, we respect your privacy.
KitGuru Says: Good luck to all who enter, we'll be back tomorrow morning to announce a winner and turn the calendar over to Day 7!
Meta is delaying its ultralight headset with a tethered puck to the first half of 2027 and starting work on a gaming-focused Quest 4, leaked memos reveal.
The two internal memos were sent earlier this week. They were first reported by Business Insider a few hours ago, and UploadVR can independently confirm their authenticity.
One was sent by VP of Reality Labs Maher Saba to staff, and mentions delaying the ultralight open-periphery headset with a tethered compute puck running Horizon OS that multiple reports, including our own, have suggested that Meta recently hoped to release next year. Various codenames have leaked for candidates for the product, including Puffin, Phoenix, and Loma.
Saba tells staff that the new goal is to release the ultralight device in the first half of 2027.
The headset will be focused on virtual screens and other seated use cases. Names that Meta has internally floated for the product have included "Quest Air", but it's far from certain what it will decide.
His memo also mentions the release of a new "limited edition" wearable device codenamed Malibu 2 in 2026. It's unclear what this will be, but it might be the rumored Prada Meta Glasses.
The other memo comes from the heads of the Metaverse and Horizon OS groups within Reality Labs, Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns.
They suggest that the ultralight headset delay will give staff "a lot more breathing room to get the details right".
"There's a lot coming in hot with tight bring-up schedules and big changes to our core UX, and we won't compromise on landing a fully polished and reliable experience", they say.
Aul and Cairns also mention starting work on a next-generation mainline headset, which UploadVR understands would likely carry the name Quest 4.
This headset will focus on immersive gaming, bring a "large upgrade" over Quest 3, and "significantly improve unit economics". That strongly suggests an end to the strategy of subsidizing low-cost devices. Meta wants to slowly transition Reality Labs into a profitable division, and this will be a key part of that plan.
Work on a Quest 4 comes around six months after the cancellation of the previous candidates for a 2026 Quest 4 and Quest 4S line, a decision Meta made alongside prioritizing the release of the ultralight headset.
The new plans suggest the ultralight headset should land in the first half of 2027, with a traditional Quest 4 following at a later date, perhaps in 2028.
The leaked memos come shortly after Meta officially confirmed "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables". And to be clear, within Meta, Wearables does not include Quest.
That doesn't seem to be stopping the company working on new headsets, but Saba's memo does mention needing to be "focused on making the business sustainable", and not subsidizing Quest 4 seems to be the result of that budget pressure.
He also mentions that teams should not use the ultralight headset delay to "add more features or take on additional work", and instead focus on polishing what they already plan.
Keep in mind that Meta's hardware roadmap is constantly shifting, and the company frequently spins up and cancels headsets before they ship. When a specific product gets close to shipping, we'll bring you any reliable rumors of its imminent arrival. Until then, be ready for anything planned to get canceled or delayed.
Microsoft's efforts to convince people to switch to Windows 11 continues to be spectacularly hilarious, at least for those who still have a working computer. While many of their updates are focused…
This week marks the early access arrival of How to God, a deity simulator that encourages you to nurture your followers – or ruin them emotionally.
I played through the full campaign, taking me through a story of deities building alliances – or facing off against one another. Inspired by the gods of real-world civilizations, How to God is a decent, well-paced entry in the god game genre, though you may want to turn off the AI-generated voicework.
The Facts
What is it?: Become a great deity in the sky, convert humble villagers to devout followers (through faith or fire), and uncover the mysterious powers threatening your lands. Platforms: Reviewed on Meta Quest 3. Also available on Quest 2. Release Date: Out now (coming soon to Steam) Developer/Publisher: Thoughtfish GmbH Price: $29.99
How to God feels similar to Townsmen VR due to its narrative-driven campaign, villager-care mechanics, and ability to drop right into the action – or rule from the heavens. While the two games share a similarly cute, stylized aesthetic, some surprisingly dark themes may emerge from How to God. No spoilers, but I loved the spiciness these surprises added to my playthrough.
How to God also differentiates itself from Townsmen through a couple of more mystical features, such as “miracles” (hand-tracking gestures to create balls of water, or open portals back to your God Room) and Creatures.
You’ll first meet your Creature – a semi-autonomous conduit for your godly intentions – in the Godroom (a fancy term for “main menu”). I chose a cute, fat owl, but there are two other options as well: one looks like a horned, contorted Labubu doll and an off-brand canine Pokémon.
Once you’ve conjured your preferred Creature into existence, it’s time to drop into the world. Literally. Like most other games within the genre, you’re an invisible, omniscient force in the sky, able to see everything at once and interact with anything beneath you. The tutorial is simple but comprehensive – in fact, there’s a whole archipelago dedicated to teaching you, well, how to god, and you don’t stop learning stuff even when you advance to the next location.
You’re helped throughout the tutorial by your divine advisors Good and Evil, who are basically the angel-and-demon-on-the-shoulders trope personified (er, spirit-ified). In later levels, they become drivers of the narrative, too – more on that in a bit.
Interestingly, every post-tutorial level is a real-world location such as Egypt or Paris. This affects both the physical appearance of buildings and what rival/friend gods you might encounter. Poseidon hangs out in Greece, for instance. Nearly half of the levels were clustered in Europe, which is where the “cool” gods originate, I guess, but I would like to see locations like South America or India represented too.
So who are you lording over, anyway? Your world is dotted with hamlets, and you’ll need to build them up, so citizens eventually support you as you go at loggerheads with other spiritual beings and mysterious forces. Turns out there’s truly no such thing as a selfless good deed.
Comfort
You move about by holding and grabbing “the world,” pulling yourself to your desired location. That makes How to God one of those games you can play on your couch – nausea is minimal and no real-world movement (or even standing) is needed.
Accessibility options are limited to selecting left-handed controls and turning on subtitles.
Nobody wants to pray to you while they’re hungry and homeless, and without their worship you’re not going to gain any “faith energy,” which you need to power any action supporting their most basic Maslow needs. In that sense, you can never be 100% evil; you’ll at least need to ensure villagers are fed and housed if you want to get anywhere. Setting fire to their houses may be fun momentarily, but will hamstring your progress.
Crafting is the other main mechanic, and it's one of my favorite parts of How to God. You can combine two elements or materials to form new items. Fire + wood = coal is an early example, but it gets more complex – you’ll even end up combining villagers with, say, iron to create troops for your little army.
Recipes are helpfully stored in your Godbook, a convenient and well-designed compendium of information you’ll collect through your playthrough – from crafting formulas to details on your Creature’s moral alignment. There’s an impressive number of recipes to uncover; I hadn’t even unlocked them all by the time I was done with the campaign.
You’ll also need to build scaffolding for the village’s structures, from farms and lumber mills to new shrines. Think of it like an extremely simple Lego kit: snapping boxes together into vague shapes, like a tall scaffold approximating a silo. It’s nothing challenging by any means, but it’s a cute use of VR that differentiates How to God from god games on other platforms.
You can micromanage your Creature, ordering it to pick berries – or shake a hapless villager for no reason. Mostly, though, it’ll wander about like an errant child, trying to eat rocks or kick logs. There’s a handy brush and spray bottle on your wrist to discipline it in the same way that you would to train a cat; stroke your Creature with the brush to reinforce desired behaviors, or squirt to discourage. Of course, the definition of a “desired behavior” is up to you.
And as for your own behavior… The allure of any god game is being able to lean either way in the good/bad binary. I had good intentions in my first playthrough, vowing to earn my villagers’ respect through noble deeds, but as the campaign’s challenges intensified, I found that it is simply easier to be a bad guy.
For instance, in one situation I faced some aggressive neighbors; as a benevolent god, I could invest time “crafting” some disciples to go over and reason with them…. But it was honestly just easier to smite them with fireballs. Clouds aren’t just cute, by the way: rub them to create some static discharge and carpet-bomb a rival village with lightning. Or squeeze some rain out of them to blanket-water some trees, if you’re feeling more magnanimous.
How to God is heavily narrative-driven, with your advisors Good and Evil playing off each other as they guide you through objectives. The script is promisingly humorous, but numerous characters are dragged down significantly by AI voiceovers. Whatever your thoughts are on AI content, How to God’s characters are distractingly monotonous and emotionless from the very beginning.
Good and Evil are less egregious examples of the AI voicework, but even they often awkwardly emphasize the wrong syllables, forming a very jarring experience. With so many characters shepherding your objectives, this becomes a real bummer – it often feels as though they are simply reciting chores for you to complete, rather than offering engaging challenges and objectives.
It would also be good to at least see these voices more accurately reflect the regions I heard them in. For instance, I only heard one approximation of a Scottish accent in Scotland, with nearly every other speaking character affecting a generic English accent or American drawl.
Mercy or Mayhem: Win Either Way
I didn’t get a sense of how much my choices mattered – or whether there are even alternate endings. Maybe that’s a good thing (finding out adds replayability!) but having been a more neutral deity myself, I didn’t really have much motivation to go back and try leaning more into the naughty-or-nice extremes.
Robot voices aside, How to God is a solid addition to the god game genre across any platform – and a must-buy for VR enthusiasts of the genre especially. I enjoyed my time in the campaign, and I’m especially hoping for some major post-release content updates – bring on Shiva!
UploadVR normally uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines. As an early access release, this review is unscored.
Connexion
prepared, DDC/CI
