Another day, another update on the RAM crisis—and now, insider statements made to Bloomberg point toward both a PlayStation 6 delay and a Nintendo Switch 2 price hike, in response to current industry supply/demand conditions. For PlayStation 6, its delay could be pushed "to 2028 or even 2029," and the Nintendo Switch 2 price hike could kick 
Over on X/Twitter, the developers of the cross-platform PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 have touted a key compatibility milestone, with 98% of PS3 titles playable on the emulator in some form and an impressive 73% playable to completion. Of the remaining 62 games (1.74%) that aren't playable—games that simply crash before entering gameplay—46 
A public radio mainstay is taking on Big Tech over a voice he says sounds a little too familiar. David Greene, the longtime host of NPR's Morning Edition and current co-host of political talk show Left, Right & Center, has filed a lawsuit alleging that Google's AI podcast feature in NotebookLM cloned or closely replicated his voice without 
Gamers have had a tough time lately, as prices have continued to creep up on hardware and software alike. That just means that when a sale comes around, you have to strike while the iron is hot! Luckily, President’s Day is bringing some nice discounts for those who are in Nintendo’s ecosystem. Here are some of the best deals we found on the Now available in its 1.0 version, The Pirate: Republic of Nassau is greater than the sum of its parts, offering a myriad of options to fulfill the pirate fantasy.
In July 2025, I wrote an impressions piece of The Pirate: Republic of Nassau for UploadVR. Initially impressed with what was on offer, the potential for more content, including melee combat and multiplayer, led me to believe it had a promising future. Having just debuted its 1.0 version, I returned to this pirate fantasy in hopes of seeing if my prediction was correct. Better than the sum of its parts, I can confidently say it was.
To not repeat myself, I will briefly touch upon what I expounded on in my initial thoughts and focus on what is brand new. The Pirate: Republic of Nassau is light on narrative, instead opting to give players a slew of activities to fund your newly founded pirate republic on Nassau during the golden age of piracy. Equipped with nothing more than a sloop and a skeleton crew, the sole objective is to grow your empire by recruiting historical pirates such as Blackbeard and Anne Bonny by defeating them in naval battle first.
Your initial vessel being rather unfit against these legends, the only sensible choice is to improve your ship with hard-earned gold. Nassau itself will generate money as you build the town, but in the modest beginning, doing lowly work is the way to go. Looting crates from fallen ships, treasure diving, and clashing at sea against rival ships, among the novel options, is the only path forward. With your work cut out for you, it is effortless for time to slip by once you get a hold of the game's mechanics.
Not many changes in this 1.0 version positively impact the moment-to-moment gameplay, but improvements do exist. In the Early Access version, you could only fast travel from one port to another from the map in your cabin. This removed any wonder because the only way to discover new ports was by paying either the Merchant's Guild or at the tavern to hear rumors from far-off places. Now, there is an option to visually move your small ship through the map and discover uncharted territories in the process. New ports in the Caribbean mean new vendors, merchants, and quests, and finding out about them in no particular order instills a sense of free will when playing.
The clearest improvement over the initial release is the crisper visuals, especially inside the cabin. Whereas it formerly looked blurry and unfocused, now the cabin looks pristine in comparison. As the place where players strategize and choose where to embark upon next, it’s a logical rework. Other areas, such as the ship’s deck, nearby islands when sailing, and the new explorable areas on foot, still show muddy textures.
A handy spyglass lying on your right-hand side when aboard the ship goes further into feeling like a captain. Having to close one eye when looking at an enemy ship at a distance evokes Jack Sparrow's films. Amidst all the quality-of-life changes, the highlight is the time boost, bar none. The ability to sail faster is a game changer. When the wind was against the sails before this helpful mechanic, the vessel would grind to a halt. Now, turning on fast forward with the click of a button speeds things up when needing to sail to a lighthouse or catch crates of sugar or in naval battle, significantly improving the experience.
A game like The Pirate: Republic of Nassau should be judged by its full package, not each element individually. That is why sea shanties seem like an inconspicuous addition that would fade into the background if the tunes were not as catchy as they are. Developer Home Net Games is no stranger to pirate-themed games, with The Pirate: Caribbean Hunt dating back ten years. This experience is evidenced in the musical choices. Wildly fun rhymes of tall tales sung by gravelly voices sound right at home by ringing a bell on your ship's deck or when visiting taverns.
One of my most eagerly anticipated features, cave exploration, added damp, pitch-black areas hidden deep within some islands. Accessible through hearing rumors in taverns, this is a refreshing change-up to standing in your ship all the time, as no ports can be explored on foot. I would appreciate seeing that in a future update, as the developer pledged to continue supporting this pirate simulator. But I digress.
Engaging in naval combat while the crew sings their heart out fits the scene perfectly.
The caverns themselves—apparently full of treasure—leave much to be desired, only truly displaying corridor after corridor of skeleton bones, rats, and sparse gold pouches. Random small spiders hanging from stalactites creep up in surprising ways, so that at least excites in an otherwise uneventful incursion. For those with arachnophobia, these can also be entirely removed in the settings. Another option to make the cave double the size in hopes of finding more loot is also an option.
Feeling isolated is a strong emotion recreated in these tunnels. Always holding a torch to guide you in the dark severely increases the eerie atmosphere. Bats, the hollow echoes, and water dropping do their best to convince the mind that you are in fact spelunking. Because the only true danger faced exploring these desolate caves is falling to your death, it ends up being a rather introspective activity.
A second land-based foray is exploring jungles to exact revenge on another pirate captain who stole from you. Set in the middle of the day, the suspiciously hallway-shaped islands focus more on melee combat as there is not much in the way of exploration. The ability to crouch and try to be stealthy in the process of approaching enemy camps is an option, with twigs littered around that can reveal your location to enemies and ruin the surprise.
Once getting rid of said foes, it does not feel particularly rewarding to explore every nook and cranny, because there is not much to see. Occasional gold pouches will be left by corpses or left near campsites, but other types of items like cannonballs, planks, or oil are nowhere to be seen. This makes the exploration limiting, resulting in a very straightforward experience that is only salvageable by the combat, which in and of itself is a mixed bag.
This combat demonstration speaks for itself.
The combat feels undercooked, with collisions being a notable hit or miss. Armed to the teeth with a sword, a hatchet, bombs that explode on contact with campfires, and three daggers on your chest, no foe stands a chance. That said, while fighting the pirate captain, who naturally donned the flashier clothes, his attacks did not register from my perspective when gesturing my sword swings, so a baffling “You lost. Try Again?” message was deflating. A video game that tries to do too much might end up not doing everything well, and that seems to be the case here.
Ultimately, as a diversion taking away from the commerce and naval combat, it serves as a nice complement, but not the main course. On my second try with the boss, I threw a hatchet at his head before he could get close, and he collapsed right then and there. I earned a good bit of gold coins from a chest nearby in that incursion that would have taken me longer otherwise. At least that was satisfying.
The Pirate: Republic of Nassau is a bit unsatisfactory when it comes to comfort. Other than the expected smooth or snap turning, there’s the ability to turn off or on hand commands to signal your crew to raise the sails and to use hand motion to rotate when swimming. New options like Auto-Aim and Auto-Fire are welcome for naval combat, but since Early Access there is no option to teleport instead of artificial stick-based locomotion. This is most noticeable with the new on-foot explorable levels.
Another lacking feature related to those walkable areas is that there is no option to toggle instead of holding down the button to grab items. When holding a torch while spelunking or carrying both swords when fighting, this can become cumbersome the longer the time played.
The final new mode is multiplayer. PvE, PvP, and Port Attack are the possible sessions prospective players can choose. Deciding how many players—or bots—can enter, the tier of both your and your enemy's ship, and if Auto Aim should be allowed or not are some variables to fiddle with. Playing the entire campaign with friends sounded like a more enticing idea, but it certainly would be a lot more complex than the currently available skirmishes at sea.
There is no one defining aspect of The Pirate: Republic of Nassau that stands out above the rest. It is every element working in tandem that makes it a worthwhile golden age of piracy fantasy. A veritable time sink, the pleasant hands-on activities to expand your criminal empire, from wreck diving to engaging in spontaneous naval combat, hark back to the best moments of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. The newly added tasks, such as exploring gloomy caves and fighting buccaneers, while not spectacular, add a sense of variety to easily spend several hours in. The result is a worthwhile endeavor that those intrigued by the pirate's life should sail away.
UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.
Sony has launched PlayStation Flex in the UK, a hardware leasing programme that allows gamers to rent a PlayStation 5 for a monthly fee with no upfront cost. Developed in partnership with London-based fintech firm Raylo, the programme marks a shift in Sony's strategy, targeting audiences who may not want to pay for a console they plan to replace soon or want to have some fun for a couple of months or so.
The subscription service offers tiered pricing based on the length of the commitment, with the lowest rates reserved for those who sign up for 36-month leases. For the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition (825GB), prices start at £9.59 per month for a three-year term. Shorter 24-month and 12-month terms increase the monthly cost to £10.49 and £14.59, respectively. For those seeking ultimate flexibility, a monthly rolling plan is available for £19.49, allowing users to cancel at any time, provided the console is returned. In addition to the Digital Edition with one controller or two controllers (starting at £10.99), there are also options for the 1TB version with a single controller (£11.59) or two DualSense controllers (£12.49).
Beyond the standard console models, the Flex programme encompasses a wide range of hardware, including the PS5 Pro (starting at £16.99/month), PlayStation VR2 (from £11.99/month), PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle (from £10.99/month), the PlayStation Portal remote player (from £7.49/month), and a DualSense Edge controller (from £6.49). Every leased device comes with a lifetime warranty and free next-day delivery. At the end of the term, users have three primary choices: return the console to exit the plan, upgrade to the latest model for no additional fee, or continue paying the monthly subscription indefinitely.
KitGuru says: While PlayStation Flex makes upgrading more accessible, it can also be seen as the beginning of “end of ownership” in gaming. Unlike financing programmes like Xbox All Access, Flex is a pure rental model; after paying roughly £358 over three years for a PS5 Digital Edition, the customer still does not own the device.
The post Sony partners with Raylo to bring PS5 console subscription to the UK first appeared on KitGuru.The director behind Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 has been discussing the game in interviews for quite a few months now. In his latest, he confirms plans to develop the third-game as a multiplatform title from the jump, adding that PC is technically the lead platform this time.
For the first two titles in the series, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, PlayStation consoles were the lead development platform, as each game launched as a timed exclusive for Sony's platform. With Part 3, this will no longer be the case, so Part 3 is already being made with PC, Xbox and the Switch 2 in mind.
In an interview with Automaton, Naoki Hamaguchi said that it is “correct” to view PC as the lead platform for Final Fantasy Remake Part 3, adding that the development team creates assets for the ‘highest possible' spec first, before scaling things down to optimise for platforms like the Switch 2 or Xbox Series S, where memory and GPU resources are a bit more limited.
With that in mind, Hamaguchi states that there will be no impact on the quality of the launch version of the new game, as it focuses on what can be achieved at the high-end first, before scaling down to mid-range systems like the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Then it does additional optimisation work to get the games running on lower-spec systems like the Steam Deck, Switch 2 and Xbox Series S.
Final Fantasy Remake Part 3 doesn't have a release date yet but all signs are currently pointing to a 2027 launch, and perhaps an initial reveal of the game later this year. In the meantime, Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to more platforms, including the Switch 2 and Xbox in June.
KitGuru Says: Are you looking forward to the finale for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy?
The post PC is the lead development platform for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 first appeared on KitGuru.Ubisoft has confirmed that the iconic protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid series, Solid Snake, will join the tactical roster of Rainbow Six Siege as a permanent new operator. Making his debut on March 3rd as part of Year 11, Season 1 (Operation Silent Hunt), Snake is being positioned as a high-speed, high-intel attacker.
Reflecting his origins in stealth and infiltration, Snake is categorised as a 3-speed, 1-health operator, making him agile but fragile. His signature gadget is the Soliton Radar MKIII, a handheld device that materialises a floor plan of his immediate surroundings to detect enemy threats and cameras. The radar features a Precision-Finding Mode that recharges over time, allowing Snake to see the exact real-time position and vision cones of nearby defenders.
Snake's loadout is equally distinctive, headlined by a new secondary weapon: the TACIT .45 pistol, a semi-automatic handgun featuring an integrated suppressor and reflex sight. For his primary weapons, players can choose between the F2 assault rifle and the PMR90A2 battle rifle. He also introduces the OSP (On-Site Procurement) Pouch, which allows him to scavenge a secondary gadget from fallen operators' bodies.
To further delight long-time fans, the character is voiced by the legendary David Hayter (Solid Snake's voice on Metal Gear Solid 3), who returned to record new, unique voice lines specifically for this collaboration.
The collaboration extends beyond just the new operator, as the premium battle pass for Operation Silent Hunt includes several themed cosmetics. Those include a Psycho Mantis skin for Smoke, a Gray Fox outfit for Jackal, and a Meryl skin for Ash. The season will also feature a limited-time 4v4 infiltration event where Snake and Zero (Sam Fisher) team up to recover stolen data, marking the first time these two stealth legends have officially appeared on-screen together.
KitGuru says: Landing Solid Snake is perhaps the biggest crossover in the game's history. While some fans may have hoped for a cardboard box gadget, the decision to prioritise the Soliton Radar and David Hayter's voice work shows a deep respect for the source material.
The post Rainbow Six Siege is getting a Metal Gear Solid crossover that brings Solid Snake as a playable character first appeared on KitGuru.TT Games caught some heat a couple of weeks ago when it revealed the PC system requirements for its new Lego Batman game. At the time, the recommended requirements called on users to have as much as 32GB of RAM in their, which sounds pretty ridiculous for a Lego game. Fortunately, the PC system requirements have since been revised.
In a new statement shared on the game's Steam Community page, TT Games confirms that LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight now has reduced PC system requirements. The specs are still higher than what was necessary to run 2022's LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, but the insane 32GB RAM recommendation has indeed been fixed.
The revised PC system requirements for the new LEGO Batman game are as follows –
Minimum:
OS: Windows 11
Processor: Intel Core i5-9600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, 8GB or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, 8GB or INTEL Arc A770, 16GB
Storage: 50GB available space
Recommended:
OS: Windows 11
Processor: Intel Core i7-12700K or AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, 10GB or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, 16GB
Given that the memory chip market is currently facing massive shortages and price hikes, impacting both the gaming PC market and console markets alike, software developers are really going to have to hone-in on optimisation, as very few will be able to upgrade their systems over the next couple of years. Part of that will have to include creating games that work well on limited memory budgets.
KitGuru Says: Game developers have worked magic with limited memory resources in the past but ever since the Xbox One era and beyond, all of that seems to have been thrown out of the window. Now with RAM no longer being a plentiful resource, the industry will have to shift back and shake the mindset that consumers have plenty of spare memory to work with.
The post Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight removes 32GB RAM recommendation first appeared on KitGuru.Akko has steadily expanded its presence in the peripheral market, moving beyond the mechanical keyboards that established its reputation. The Verge gaming headset is the latest product of that expansion, representing a calculated attempt to balance enthusiast-grade components with a chassis designed for prolonged usage.
The Verge headset uses 53mm N52 neodymium drivers, a notable step up from the 40mm or 50mm units typically found at its price point. The headset also features a three-chamber TCB design that increases the effective cavity volume to 39 mm³, a technical choice intended to improve spatial separation. For the user, this translates to a more defined soundstage where low-frequency impacts do not overwhelm the high-frequency details required for directional tracking.
Connectivity is handled through a quad-mode system. While many manufacturers force a choice between USB-A and Type-C for wireless dongles, the Verge Gaming Headset implements a dual-port receiver that supports both. This is supplemented by Bluetooth 5.3 and a traditional wired Type-C connection, ensuring compatibility across PC, PlayStation, and mobile platforms. Powering the wireless experience is a 2000 mAh battery that delivers up to 250 hours of playback.
Processing is handled by a 32-bit dual-core DSP, which enables onboard virtual 7.1 surround sound and toggleable audio profiles. Users can cycle between dedicated modes for music, cinema, and FPS gaming directly on the headset. For voice capture, there's a detachable unidirectional microphone featuring environmental noise cancellation, designed to filter out approximately 20 dB of ambient room noise. The microphone itself connects via a gold-plated 3.5mm jack to maintain signal integrity during intense sessions.
Physically, the Verge Gaming Headset focuses on an understated aesthetic using CNC-machined aluminium arms for the headband adjustment, finished with a sandblasted texture to balance structural rigidity and weight. At 270 grams, it sits comfortably in the lightweight category. The headset is available for £54,00/$73.00/€73,79 (Early Bird price) in three colour options: black, white, and black and red.
KitGuru says: Although not as cheap as other Akko headsets, the higher-end feature set and simple design make the Verge worth checking out.
The post Akko expands its audio lineup with Verge gaming headset first appeared on KitGuru.In recent weeks, we've heard from one analyst that Sony is pushing back its next-gen PlayStation console plans due to the on-going RAM shortage. We have also heard from Nintendo's CEO about the possibility of a Switch 2 price hike due to rising component costs. Now, a new report claims that both of these scenarios are indeed due to take place.
According to Bloomberg, Sony is indeed considering delaying the launch of the PlayStation 6 from its apparently planned 2027 launch to 2028 or 2029. This is due to a global memory shortage, with AI corporations buying up nearly all available supply, leaving little left over for consumer electronics.
On top of that, the same report also claims that Nintendo is also contemplating a Switch 2 price hike, due to the rising cost of components like memory. Previously during a recent earnings call, Nintendo's CEO said that there were ‘no immediate plans' to raise the Switch 2 price but that it would have to reconsider that should the component market continue to face price increases.
Meanwhile, it appears that Microsoft is apparently still intending to release its next-generation Xbox in 2027, a move that seems ill-advised at this stage. The component market is impacting many hardware launches this year already, with even Valve delaying the Steam Machine by a number of months while it assesses the market.
KitGuru Says: 2026 is not a great time to be a PC hardware enthusiast, but the wider gaming market is also suffering.
The post Report claims PlayStation 6 to be delayed and Switch 2 may see price hike due to chip shortage first appeared on KitGuru.Nintendo is continuing to issue DMCA takedown notices to a growing number of Switch emulator projects. While Nintendo has moved on to its next-generation Switch 2 at this stage, support for the original Switch is still continuing due to its large user-base, with new first-party and third-party titles still coming to the older console in 2026.
Nintendo began its fight against Switch emulators back in 2024, when it took down prolific projects like Yuzu and Ryujinx. However, many still had access to the files for these emulators and as a result, numerous groups began providing forks, and releasing newly-named Switch emulators.
With its latest takedown effort, Nintendo is targeting various Switch emulator projects, including the likes of Citron, Eden, Kenji-NX, MeloNX, Pine, Pomelo, Ryubing, Ryujinx, Skyline, Sudachi, Sumi, Suyu and Yuzu.
Previously, Nintendo had limited its efforts to targeting ROM sites offering illegal downloads of games for its platforms, but that tactic didn't really work either, as every time a piracy site would shut down, several more would appear in their place. For a long time, it was believed that emulators existed in a legal ‘grey area' and could not be targeted, but Nintendo is quickly changing that narrative, despite no actual court cases coming to fruition yet. The developers behind the emulator Eden have already spoken out saying they intend to continue development despite Nintendo's DMCA but it still remains to be seen if the other projects will live on.
KitGuru Says: Once a product has reached end-of-life, then emulators can be very useful, as it keeps a platform alive and its games accessible long after the creators have lost interest. However, when a platform is still alive, thriving and selling millions of units a year, it is hard to justify emulators for reasons outside of piracy.
The post Nintendo continues to take down Switch emulator projects first appeared on KitGuru.
So, this one's really straightforward. If you've kept up with news about Intel's Nova Lake—its next-next-gen desktop processors—you'll have already heard that the chip is said to support the use of two compute tiles, much as AMD's desktop processors can use two CCDs for additional cores. The full-fat Nova Lake compute tile is said to have 
The current component shortage the technology industry finds itself in, driven by the insatiable appetite of enormous AI data centers, started out with memory but has quickly spread to other components including GPUs and solid-state storage. The carnage continues to spread as Western Digital has shared that its spinning platter hard drives 
George Washington never binged-watched a TV series on a big and glorious OLED display, but you certainly can. Upgrading to an OLED TV doesn't have to put a big hit on your bank account, either. Best Buy is serving up discounts on whole bunch of OLED TVs in its Presidents' Day sale, with savings of up to $1,300 off the suggested pricing.
Samsung's 
Attention all Chrome users, Google is rolling out an emergency patch to address a high-severity zero-day security flaw in the world's most popular browser (by market share), and it's not one you want to ignore. That is because Google confirmed attackers are actively exploiting the flaw in the wild, making it an actual threat rather than a 
There has been considerable chatter over the past several months about Apple releasing a lower-cost MacBook, perhaps in an attempt to combat the growing army of budget Windows laptops and Chromebooks. If such a thing comes to fruition, there will obviously need to be concessions made to lower the cost, but the overall design could end up being At the latest IEM Katowice tournament, Acer provided competitors with Predator Orion 7000 gaming PCs to play on. Now that the event has come to an end, Acer is now shipping this PC to the masses with stock now available throughout the UK.
The Acer Predator Orion 7000 is a prebuilt PC built for high-performance gaming, packing an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, along with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU. With this combination, you'll have more than enough horsepower to drive games at ultra-fast frame rates, even at resolutions as high as 4K. The PC also boasts high-end cooling, thanks to its unique CycloneX 360 triple fan array and AIO liquid cooler.
Other important specs include 32GB of DDR5 memory, a 2TB M.2 SSD, support for WiFi 7 and Gigabit Ethernet, and customisable RGB lighting, which can be controlled via Acer's PredatorSense control centre.
For a limited time, any UK buyers picking one of these up can also claim £139 in free gaming accessories, so you can get a full peripheral set-up to go with your new rig. The Acer Predator Orion 7000 is in stock now at Curry's, priced at £3,299.
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KitGuru Says: Are you in the market for a new prebuilt gaming PC?
The post Tournament-grade Acer Predator Orion 7000 gaming PC lands in the UK first appeared on KitGuru.
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