Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090 is the undisputed most powerful consumer graphics card, but which 5090 is the best one? In terms of value, the answer is the cheapest one you can find – probably the Founders Edition at a steep $2000 – but what if you’re willing to spend even more and want absolutely top-tier performance? Read more

One of the things video games do really well is absence – specifically recent absence. Dump me into a game world and give me enough clues that someone else has just left and I’ll be happy for hours. A cigar still sending up a ribbon of smoke from an overflowing ashtray, the wind plucking at a curtain where a window has been left just slightly open, a microwave that has some kind of horrible lasagne in it that’s still – jeepers – giving off a hint of steam? Games are brilliant at this kind of Marie Celeste set-up. Instant mystery. I don’t need actual people around. I just want to know who, what, why? Read more

If you ever find that you’ve fallen asleep in a big-shot Hollywood story meeting, and you need something to say that makes it look like you’ve actually been paying close attention, you could do worse than this. “Whose story is this again?” This question – who is the true focal point of the adventure being pitched? – seems both central to any film and also one of the easiest things to lose track of in the detailing. Read more

Few still-perfectly-decent games have felt as desperate a disappointment as this one. South of Midnight is gloriously pretty, a game of sumptuous environmental detail and rich attention. It’s one of the best sounding games I’ve played in an age, with a highly unique, artfully implemented original score woven into its sound design. And it’s also extremely well acted, a cut above the vast majority of video games in emotional authenticity and heft. But goodness me can it get tiresome to play. Read more

Next year Devil May Cry will catch up with its lead character’s hair by celebrating its silver anniversary. The hellacious Capcom action series launched in 2001 and has nimbly zigged, zagged and pirouetted over the course of six core installments. Viewed as a gunslinging, sword-swinging continuum, the through line of the franchise seems to be this: if a demon is worth slaying, it’s worth doing it with needlessly flashy style. Read more