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These Are the Best Games We Played in 2023

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2023 was an incredible year for games, with each month grabbing our attention with a defining entry — be it sequels, remakes, or highly-anticipated blockbusters. Since the Holiday season is here, we asked the folks at Gadgets 360 what their highlights were, only to be met with some truly compelling takes. One of them is an award hoarder pushing the role-playing medium forward and alarming the larger AAA gaming industry, while the other is an indie game about fishing, whose deep waters hide some Lovecraftian horrors. Then there’s a nightmarish twist on Pinocchio’s Tale, new escapades from Marvel’s web crawlers, and Link’s journey back in time to save Hyrule.

With that, here are Gadgets 360’s favourite games of the year, available across PC, Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X. (In no particular order)

Baldur’s Gate III

A triumphant distillation of complex Dungeons & Dragons mechanics, it’s actually unreal how Larian Studios managed to immerse us into the Forgotten Realms and make fraternising with devils, deities, and the supernatural feel like the best thing ever. If you’re still whining about its tabletop origins governed by a turn-based combat style, maybe the awards haul will convince you to at least give it a fair shot. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a staggering achievement in player agency, where every decision contorts the world around you, be it landmark events, absurd dialogue options, or romantic flings with its wonderful cast of companions. Befriend a squirrel or punt it into a slobbering mash of blood and flesh, side with the goblins to lead a genocide, or woo a vampire spawn to learn about his torturous and submissive past at the behest of a manipulative master.

The top-notch voice acting and performances make it impossible to not care about your party mates’ plights — an assassin hellbent on proving herself worthy, an amnesiac cleric on a suicide mission, and a Tiefling with an engine for a heart — revealed through sprawling sub-quests and strengthening bonds, in moments that feel personal. The notion that every activity is dependent on the roll of polyhedral dice is certainly intimidating, but that’s the charm of DnD, where every step you take is equally anxiety-inducing as is rewarding. Anything could happen at any given second but that rule also applies to NPCs. Unorthodox tactics such as pushing enemies off cliffs or stabbing them from the back are as viable as facing them head-on with carefully planned attacks and spell loadouts. There’s limitless freedom in how you want to approach a situation — smooth talk your way out of fights, have sex with a bear, turn yourself into a literal wheel of cheese, or pledge allegiance with a squid-faced entity to harness godly powers.

Apologies for endlessly gushing about this game, but it’s just that good! The technical merits are one thing, but the memories I created in these gorgeous lands picking the wildest options and leading my group to comical deaths, while the soothing voice of the dungeon master graphically describes them, is something I’ll cherish for a long time. I must also commend Larian Studios for its unending post-launch support and honest communication with the community to account for pretty much every feedback. The team just went, “Oh, you want to change your character’s appearance in-game? Fine, We’ll add the feature in a future patch.” I can’t recall the last time a developer rewrote an ending just because the fans were unsatisfied, and that’s saying something! — Rahul Chettiyar

Buy: Baldur’s Gate III

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

Baldur’s Gate 3 was crowned Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023

Photo Credit: Larian Studios

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Insomniac Games have just about perfected the art of churning out high-production value blockbuster games that also clear a certain bar of quality when it comes to storytelling. Spider-Man 2 is no different. It pins down the soul of a Spider-Man story while maintaining an incredibly high level of polish. It takes all the good things from the previous two Spider-Man games from Insomniac and makes them just a little better. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 does not rewrite the playbook. In many ways, it is an iterative sequel that also sticks to tried and tested open-world game design, but it attempts to curate the experience in a way that it never feels like an interminable checklist of chores.

Insomniac clearly put the emphasis on the journeys of both Peter and Miles and the people around the two Spider-Men. The web-swinging duo are the stars of the show, but side characters like MJ, Rio Morales, and Mr. Negative are portrayed with care and attention. Spider-Man 2’s villains, Lizard, Kraven, and Venom, feel fleshed out and imposing. And the expanded New York City map remains a detailed and visually stunning playground to swing around in. I found myself launching the game, even after I’d Platinumed it, just to web-swing and glide around the beautiful map.

Spider-Man 2’s combat remains elastic and fun and flexible, but it shies away from experimentation and complexity. I wish Insomniac added more depth to the fighting, instead of just throwing in a parry mechanic. Spider-Man 2’s story, too, takes the easy way out, avoiding a bolder approach and instead opting for a predictable final act. But most of the gripes are swept away by the sheer quality of the overall package. Insomniac’s Spidey sequel is visually stunning at all times, it tells a fun and engaging story, and it delivers on kinetic set-piece action moments. It’s like rewatching a good Marvel movie, where familiarity is part of the reason why you can pick it up again any time. — Manas Mitul

Buy: Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man 2 Review

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The monstrous Venom is the primary antagonist in Spider-Man 2

Photo Credit: Insomniac Games

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

In a year packed with excellent, genre-defining games, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom defies categorisation. It annihilates genres to mulch and forms something entirely new from the rubble. On the surface, it’s an open-world action-adventure title with an intense focus on exploration and freedom. But when you dive into its depths, quite literally, you find it to be so much more. Tears of the Kingdom packs experiences that aren’t found in video games at all, all while being one of the greatest video games ever made.

To begin with, it throws out all the mechanical tools from Breath of the Wild right out of the window from the get-go. At first, it’s a little disorienting. But soon, the game introduces new ways to play at a measured pace, revealing new powers at Link’s disposal. When you first begin to test out the new Ultrahand ability, which lets you pick up objects in the game world and join them together to build machines, the game is careful to not overwhelm you. Your initial constructions are simple but effective. They help you cross a lake and ride a rail to reach destinations that initially seemed out of bounds. With time, Ultrahand grants you the freedom to build anything you want — a virtual Lego with unlimited blocks and unlimited imagination. You only need to go to r/HyruleEngineering to see some of the incredibly complex constructions players came up with to completely change the nature of the gameplay. From fire-spitting mechs to flying saucers, machines you build in Tears of the Kingdom are the ultimate sandbox you can experience in the medium.

No other game has surprised me as much as TotK. No other game has come even close to providing the kind of variety and freedom as TotK has. And no other game matches TotK in its commitment to creative gameplay. It’s almost as if the game hands over total control to the player, like it was a test build meant for the developers’ eyes only. Tears of the Kingdom provided me game-breaking tools and allowed me to go crazy with them. And it’s a testament to its robustness that it did not buckle under the weight of intense experimentation. And it’s not just its mechanical wonders that make it an all-time great video game. It’s the evocative music, it’s the stunning vistas and beautiful visuals, it’s the layered game world that lets you explore the skies and dive the depths, and it’s the emotional earnestness of it all that could teleport players to the first time they picked up a toy. — Manas Mitul

Buy: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Lies of P

Haters might call this a knockoff, but I think Lies of P carves its own identity in this vast pool of Soulsborne-inspired games. Sure, there are stark similarities to Bloodborne by way of the gothic atmosphere — punctuated by cobblestone streets soaked with blood and oil, fancy lamps, and piles of corpses — but it incorporates some unique mechanics to bolster its hack-and-slash gameplay. Much of this is tied to the lore, which puts you in control of the infamous lying puppet boy Pinocchio, who must unravel the secrets behind a pestilence that’s turning all machinations into frenzied monsters. Dodge-rolling through the interconnected routes of Krat and discovering shortcuts brought flashbacks from the first time I played Dark Souls Remastered — my mouth wide open in immersion as I soaked in the winding level design that tied all key locations together.

Add to that a cast of eccentric NPCs — drawn from Carlo Collodi’s works — spewing tales of a rebellious uprising, where undervalued puppets fight back against their creators, and I was sold on this dark reimagining of a children’s classic. But for most, the highlight of a good souls-like is the punishing boss battles, and oh boy, Lies of P delivers in spades by forcing you to perfect parries to the dot and memorise patterns for what feels like eternity. Understandably, this could be frustrating for newcomers and as such, the game lets you summon spirits outside the arena, in addition to adding a slew of funnily creative weaponry; from stabbing foes with an umbrella to a giant pipe wrench for some heavy damage. Regardless of what build you choose, nothing beats the dopamine hit you get upon painstakingly beating a boss — a FromSoftware staple that developer Neowiz has managed to replicate nicely.

There are some quality-of-life tweaks as well, such as any lost souls from death can be placed outside the boss arena, the ability to regenerate healing items by exerting damage, and special icons that guide you to the next step in an NPC questline. Another thing I adore about Lies of P is how almost every character serves c-nt with their stylish 19th-century France-inspired garments; some of them emanating a strong steampunkish aura that you can’t resist dressing your Pinocchio in. Unlike most RPGs, there are no stats — or shall I say ‘strings’ — attached to clothing, so you can parade around in outlandish donkey masks, top hats, to reindeer antlers, and pair them up with some formal attire without fear of being underpowered. It feels casual in all the right places.

Neowiz completely knocked it out of the park with this release, and I’m already headed to New Game+ to scratch that never-ending Bloodborne itch! — Rahul Chettiyar

Buy: Lies of P

Dredge

On the surface, Dredge is a simple game about fishing. But dive a little deeper and this little indie gem from Black Salt Games shows up to be a profound adventure about isolation, existence, and the devils that dwell in dark waters. The game starts with you, a fisherman, reaching a small coastal town in a remote archipelago. The locals help you fix up your boat and hand you a list of fish to catch in the sea. The game follows a day-night cycle, with most of the fishing done during the daytime. Nights, on the other hand, are a different affair altogether. While it’s advisable to fish during the day, some special fish only show up at night. Out in the sea, when the sun goes down, strange creatures show up and attack you. As your panic rises in the open sea, you start hallucinating and take on nightmares head on.

As you keep finding rarer fish, you sell your catch to buy upgrades for your boat that make it faster and sturdier. You also slowly get better fishing gear to catch different kinds of fish. You must also manage resources well as your boat has limited space for upgrades and equipment. Aside from your fishing adventures, you can also take up requests and side quests from people living in coastal towns. Your adventures lead you through mysteries of the sea — ghostly ships and lost messages in bottles — as you slowly piece together bits of information to unravel the story.

Low on action and heavy on atmosphere, Dredge became my go to game to play on the Nintendo Switch in bed just before sleeping. There’s a calming quality to its quiet horror and I was drawn towards its mysteries, loading up my boat night after night and heading out to sea to fish. You don’t really know what strange phenomena you may encounter on each trip. But the best part is slowly sailing back to shore after your adventure — your boat loaded with your catch for the day, your lamp flickering in the sea breeze, and the lighthouse guiding you home. — Manas Mitul

Buy: Dredge

Dave the Diver

Getting ultra-addicted to a roguelite about ocean exploration and fishing wasn’t on my bingo card this year, but here we are. Dave the Diver largely revolves around spearfishing during the day to catch the freshest bounty and managing a local sushi restaurant by night, all of which is presented in a cutesy pixelated art style that you’ll struggle to break free of. Knowing that the gameplay loop could get tiring super fast, developer Mintrocket slowly evolves the game like a Jenga tower by adding new mechanics and character arcs without making it overwhelming. In just a few weeks into your new gig as a fisherman, you’ll have run into a full-blown otaku who helps with weapon crafting, an archaeologist studying underwater mysteries, a biology research student, and an Ash Ketchum cosplayer looking to gather digital cards based on what sealife you caught. Yep, that’s a play on obsessive Pokémon card collectors.

By gradually upgrading my suit and equipment, I got strong enough to make encounters with sharks and other perilous creatures. But back on the surface, I had veered into an even greater challenge — running multiple branches of Bancho’s sushi shop and dealing with a group of relentless dolphin poachers. So, if I wasn’t hastily running around the restaurant serving dishes and pouring matcha tea for impatient customers, I was busy hiring staff and harvesting produce and rice at a nearby farm. Things started to get really intense, so I would chill out by feeding the local cat Momo every once in a while, only to soon discover that he’s got a family in the backyard. As you’d guess, I took them in.

A lot of such smaller interactions in Dave the Diver grow into entire sidequests — be it celebrity chefs challenging Bancho, talking to some mysterious sea people, or even basic fetch missions. I never got bored throughout my playthrough and was always willing to jump back in for that one extra day of fish-hunting by even setting an alarm early in the morning before work. Safe to say, I was OBSESSED… but then Baldur’s Gate 3 launched (welp). — Rahul Chettiyar

Buy: Dave the Diver

Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact is one of the most popular free-to-play, cross-platform RPG games available today. The game grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic — it was launched by publisher miHoYo in 2020 — and has since been updated with several new features, regions, characters, and enemies to the game. This year, gamers were treated to a new region on the map of Teyvat — Fontaine, while regions like Sumeru and the adjoining desert were also expanded with new bosses and domains.

Earlier this year, miHoYo added a new region in the desert that is influenced by Persia with the Gavireh Lajavard update. Gamers also gained more insight into Sumeru’s Dendro Archon, and the map was opened up even further leading to another area to the north of the desert — the new region of Fontaine.

Right off the bat, you can tell that Fontaine is heavily inspired by France, from the names of characters to locations on the map. With a new steampunk aesthetic, Genshin Impact players will have to adapt gameplay to take advantage of new features and explore new regions in the game. The game also introduced Furina, the Archon in charge of the Hydro nation.

Unlike other regions in the game, the waters of Fontaine will not let you drown when you run out of stamina. In fact, you can actually swim underwater indefinitely when you are in Fontaine — your stamina bar appears blue instead of yellow. You can also “borrow” some underwater capabilities from aquatic animals, as your character’s skills do not work while swimming.

Among the more interesting areas added to the game is the Fortress of Meropide, which is a vast prison that can be explored with primary and secondary quests. The game has also added Neuvillette, Furina, Navia, Charlotte, Freminet, and Chevreuse — new characters from Fontaine that you can acquire through the game’s gacha system. — David Delima

Download: Genshin Impact

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Locations are consistently updated with new enemies, wildlife, and storylines

Photo Credit: miHoYo

Stasis: Bone Totem

Dragging the revolting themes of a David Cronenberg film thousands of feet down to the ocean floor is a frightening affair for many. But for the grieving sea-faring couple Charlie and Mac, a discovery of such horrid proportions is like striking a goldmine, with the all-consuming darkness of a secret laboratory inviting them with questions and the festering stench of rotting carcasses. As a huge fan of the literary RPG Disco Elysium, I always have a soft spot for isometric games that rely on exploration and environmental storytelling to paint the larger picture. It also helps that I’ve gotten tired of the action-heavy Dead Space-esque route most sci-fi horror games take, where fear is generated from the anticipation of a jumpscare and dim lighting. While the latter is still true for Stasis: Bone Totem, the ability to see a whole room from above urges me to explore every corner and appreciate this gory universe.

One moment I’m learning about a brain implant that uploads memories to a digital afterlife upon death, and then a few hours later, I’m literally knee-deep in a pool of blood, listening to horrifying ritualistic chants from the next room. The art style is stunningly creepy, which is amplified by pulsating effects on living pieces of flesh and particulate matter floating around in the air. The meat of this game, however, is the elaborate puzzles — almost fashioned after a metroidvania wherein you’ll often revisit locations and run around in circles to slot in the new pieces. What’s more interesting is that the lead characters — Charlie, Mac, and an animatronic bear Moses — leverage their skills in breaking objects, repairs, and hacking to work together on convoluted solutions. A lot of this can feel like trial-and-error, but it always felt safe knowing that when I’m stuck, I can simply move the items over to the next character and mess about to see what happens.

Scattered around the underwater facility are datapads, yielding unique side stories about the crude experiments and other bizarre acts committed by scientists before your arrival. All of it is detailed in a neat order — almost like a diary — so it’s easy to decipher the spine-chilling events and connect the dots to the larger tragedy at hand. That said, I do wish that logs were narrated (one robotic voice) so I could just continue playing the game as I listened to them. Besides that, Stasis: Bone Totem is a fantastic indie gem that I simply can’t stop recommending to my friends! — Rahul Chettiyar

Buy: Stasis: Bone Totem

Final Fantasy XVI

I had never experienced a Final Fantasy game before Final Fantasy XVI, so I dived into the franchise with a blank slate, not really knowing what to expect aside from some of the recurring themes the series is known for. What I got was a sweeping adventure with deep and engaging lore, an emotional story with betrayal and revenge at its heart, and one of the best combat systems in video games all year. FFXVI falters where most modern RPGs excel — it has lacklustre exploration; it has underwhelming loot and character customisation; and it barely offers any meaningful choices. But it puts all its eggs in the basket of its incredibly polished and fun combat. FFXVI boss fights are some of the most epic in video games this year.

FFXVI has an interesting story to tell, too. I found myself wrapped up in the intricacies and politics of Valisthea, the palace intrigue that interjected the action, and shifting loyalties of the land’s kingdoms. As you take on Clive’s journey, you meet friends and foes and form your own group of companions. Clive, who has been on a path of revenge, takes on a higher cause and becomes a leader of the oppressed. The sprawling story, which takes cues from Game of Thrones, spans decades and involves a host of different players at different points. The information overload could easily become overwhelming, but the Active Time Lore system, which brings up contextual information and character bios in real-time with the press of a button, keeps things palatable.

If you’ve never played a Final Fantasy title, FFXVI is an ideal and accessible starting point. Each Final Fantasy game resets the setting and characters, so you can dive in without worrying about previous titles. FFXVI doesn’t quite match up to the diverse offerings of modern RPGs, but the game’s fascinating setting, its excellent combat and monolithic Eikon battles, and its evocative musical score make it one of the best narrative-action titles released this year. — Manas Mitul

Buy: Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy XVI Review

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Final Fantasy XVI puts you in the shoes of a brooding, likeable protagonist, Clive Rosfield

Photo Credit: Square Enix

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Starfield Review: A Slow Liftoff, but the Ride’s Worth It

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It’s no secret that Starfield — out now on PC and Xbox Series S/X — is hands down one of the most monumental game launches of the year. For Bethesda, it’s a gamble in uncharted territory as they undertake their first new universe in 25 years, set across the stars in a futuristic civilised corner of the Milky Way galaxy. For publisher Xbox, it’s an opportunity to bounce back from a lacklustre 2022 slate and dominate the gaming conversation for a long time — probably years, given the staying power director Todd Howard’s RPGs are notorious for. With over a thousand planets to explore, dashing factions to align with, and cosmic mysteries bubbling with political intrigue, Starfield aims to be the most complex spacefaring adventure of our generation. As such, it soars gracefully, but not without some turbulence.

Starfield review: Main story and its pitfalls

The year is 2330. Earth, what was once known as the ‘Blue Planet,’ lost its atmosphere and turned into an uninhabitable barren wasteland, causing humanity to leave and settle in other star systems. And so, our story begins in the cosmos, from the humble beginnings of a nameless space miner who’s unearthed a cavern and found a mysterious piece of shiny debris. Touching the shard pulls us into a bizarre trance of celestial visions and sounds that speak to us on a spiritual level, before blacking out. Open your eyes, and Starfield hits you with the classic RPG amnesia trope where one must remember who they are through in-depth character creation. It’s got all the hallmarks of a standard Bethesda game, sticking close to its role-playing blueprint of exploring, scavenging, and killing, albeit on a much grander scale that feels overwhelming a lot of the time.

Fair warning though: Starfield is extremely slow to start, restricting you to some bland exposition hunt for the first few hours, before opening things up and granting the freedom to explore any planets at will. I admit that the game soon becomes irresistible to put down, but that opening stretch could easily make or break the experience for many, as you mindlessly go from point A to point B or try getting attuned to its unorthodox menus. Personally, it took me over 10 hours for the game to finally get going, forming doubts in my mind if I’ll ever end up enjoying it. And it’s not like I hate passive openings either — most of my favourite movies are slow-burn dramas that spend a chunk of the runtime establishing their characters and the setting. Sadly, video games are a different beast altogether. They could easily go beyond 60 hours of playtime and thus demand 100 percent engagement.

Starfield to Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, the Biggest Games Releasing in September

Character creation in Starfield is quite detailed, with swappable traits that make you feel like a blank slate
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

It doesn’t help that Starfield’s main campaign isn’t all too compelling, having you join a ragtag group of interstellar explorers called the Constellation, who’re looking to track down artefacts of unknown origin — like the metallic one we encountered earlier. As you’d expect, the story hits familiar beats as we are tasked with hunting the mysterious artefacts down by venturing into other planets, throwing us into all sorts of wondrous adventures — from dark mines teeming with space raiders to deserted landscapes that serve as a graveyard for mechs. However, these stellar sequences are wrapped around repetitive missions that involve basic puzzle-solving, dispatching enemies, and floating around in potentially alien temples, which gets boring really fast and pivots into fetch quests that you feel coerced to do for the sake of pushing the story forward.

While the plot is certainly derivative with tonnes of sci-fi tropes stuffed in, there is some delight to be found through its intriguing cast of characters — precisely, our companions. None of them are really likeable at first, but bringing them along on adventures makes them open up about their feelings and backstories. The lone space cowboy Sam Coe became my favourite of the bunch, wanting to escape his celebrity father’s shadow and often musing about his early years smuggling across the vast expanse.

You learn there’s more depth to him than simply being a brazen peacekeeper when he brings along his daughter on board, stressing his overprotective nature as he never-endingly praises her smarts. But you also uncover a sense of entitlement and internal conflict in his parenting, where he questions whether it’s ideal to raise her under the risky, often life-threatening situations he puts himself through. It’s indeed humane, but I utterly despise how his backstory is unspooled — just incessant trauma dumping at random intervals, with no regard for your objectives.

Starfield Is Getting Nvidia DLSS Support, FOV Slider, and More in Future Updates

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The companions’ plight came across as overly shallow at times
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

The same could be said for other companions as well, though I wasn’t able to form equally strong connections with them. Sure, there’s some individual charm to Constellation chair Sarah Morgan’s drive to explore the stars, the easy-going adventurer Barrett, and the mysterious stealth expert Andreja, but their plight came across as overly shallow and at times, conveyed dully for me to care enough. You see, conversations in Starfield give you a close-up full-frontal view of the other person, revealing flaws in Bethesda’s character modelling, which limits certain facial expressions. Basic emotes like sorrow or happiness have a creepy demeanour to them, venturing into the uncanny valley — almost as if the NPCs are all secretly androids being trained to fake smiles. They all look dead inside, which isn’t helped by the often-stiff voice-acting that makes it tempting to read through subtitles quickly and spam-skip to the next line of dialogue.

Starfield review: Immersive side quests and world-building

Keeping with Bethesda’s tradition, Starfield’s true magic lies in its sprawling side quests that pop up along the way — most stemming from random gossip and world events. I wouldn’t call them all equally gripping to boot, but they all led to some unexpected encounters that often had a hint of tragedy to them. Once on foot, it’s easy to lose track of your initial goal and spend hours exploring the more populated, charming regions of the galaxy teeming with odd denizens who have a big or small ask of you.

One such locale was the suitably named Neon, a rain-drenched Blade Runner-esque cyberpunk city where I ran around threatening vandals, pocketing exotic fish-based psychedelic drugs, and vibing at the local dance club. But mainly, it was a place to make some big money, which I did by climbing the corporate ladders of Ryujin Industries, a massive tech corporation that deals with weapons, spaceships, and drones. Within the next couple of hours, I went from grabbing coffee for my superiors to heading out on espionage missions to sabotage rival corporations by breaking into their systems.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

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I had a lot of fun exploring the valleys of Neon, hoarding an immense amount of quests
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

Safe to say, I’d become an integral asset of the faction, getting into the confidential stuff and being able to smooth-talk my way into restricted areas. This persuasive approach was something I decided from the very get-go — during character creation — with an extra trait that makes the cult favourite Adoring Fan from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion follow me around and praise me at every given opportunity. His compliments served as some much-needed ego boost for finishing tasks with little to no bloodshed.

For some, these stealth-based storylines could be boring, so Starfield offers multiple factions to join, all of which have unique storylines to explore and rewards to accrue. And since you’re never hard-locked to a certain faction, you can explore pretty much every path the game has to offer — be it living out your space pirate fantasies, serving the militia, or bringing wrongdoers to justice as a planet-hopping cowboy. The last of them — joining the Freestar Collective — was a memorable affair, plunging me into a large-scale conspiracy that tested my moral alignment at every corner and hammered in the idea that in the line of peacekeeping, justice is never black or white.

Some quests are naturally conveyed through environmental storytelling. Early on in Starfield, I picked up a datapad from a fallen enemy, which led me to a fabled space vigilante’s secret lair holding a legendary armour and a tough spaceship. Stealing and equipping them led to some funny space interactions later on, with criminals mistaking me for the real Mantis, begging for mercy, and even handing over some credits just so I’d leave them alone.

Another time, I stumbled upon Juno, NASA’s real-life Jupiter space probe, which had now flown off course and turned into a rogue AI. When tasked with changing its control board, I learnt that it had become sentient and developed feelings of wanting to be treated like a real person. Next thing you know, I was engaged in an emotional debate about what it means to be human and what constitutes a machine. Starfield is filled to the brim with such intriguing side quests, a lot of which get deeper treatment than its generic main story. So, if you keep getting sidetracked on your journey, I’d highly recommend embracing and following through on them. They’re worth your time!

Despite being set 300 years in the future, Starfield’s overall aesthetic has a retro feel to it, rather than the fantastical holograms we’ve seen in other sci-fi titles like Mass Effect. Bethesda coined the term ‘NASA Punk‘ for this visual language, which grounds technology with tactile buttons and everyday knick-knacks like pens, notepads, and potted plants, in what feels like a realistic and plausible evolution. It’s a stylistic choice that radiates humanity’s presence and quirkiness, regardless of the centuries-long advancement.

Immortals of Aveum Review

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Food looks so appetising in Starfield
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

The streets of Neon City are characterised by the sounds of humming engines; Akila is a dusty wild west zone with a tavern in the middle; and the masses at New Atlantis tug briefcases around. There’s a futuristic food brand called Chunks that processes consumables like fruits, cooked poultry, and even beverages into unappetising little cubes — based on the idea that people don’t care what they eat, as long as it’s delicious. But, you can also run around stockpiling normal sandwiches, patty melts, kebabs, chicken tikka masala, sushi rolls; you name it, all of Starfield’s culinary curiosities feel deeply grounded and charming.

Starfield review: Exploration

Starfield’s scale is ambitiously massive, promising over 1,000 explorable planets that sound too good to be true. That level of scope is soon lowered upon realising that one cannot freely land a spaceship onto planets and take off, as No Man’s Sky did seven years ago. Instead of manual discovery, interplanetary transit in Starfield is achieved through a series of maps, menus, and an overwhelming amount of loading screens that simply break immersion. Here’s the gist of it: You pull open the galaxy’s map, select another star system you want to travel to, pick a planet within it, grav-jump to the destination, and then open the map once again to select a landing point, after which you’ll be treated to a cutscene of your ship descending onto the surface. In my opinion, this fast travel system also detaches you from the game’s universe by making things so systematically driven that I failed to find a sense of belonging on any of random planets I visited.

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Interplanetary transit in Starfield is achieved through fast travels
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

Each planet or moon might have pre-determined points of interest — some quest-oriented while others optional outposts and plants — where you can land and explore on foot. But one could also go off the beaten path and be greeted with procedurally generated locations, which are mostly barren and lacking in character. I won’t deny that stepping onto the now-abandoned Earth, a colonised Mars, and hopping across our moon in low gravity to stare upwards and bear witness to a heavenly cluster of stars wasn’t jaw-dropping, but that magic eventually wears off. Besides the brief run-ins with alien life forms, you’ll soon realise that most of the on-foot exploration is set across seemingly endless plains that sometimes throw in bandits into the mix or have a foreign ship land in the distance to create a sense of liveliness.

The general loop in such planets involves simply running around and mining for resources, which can then be used for weapon mods, spaceship upgrades, and outpost building. The last of them requires a LOT of grinding, so it’s best saved for late game. But perhaps the most annoying aspect of on-foot exploration is that it’s exclusively ‘on foot’. As in, we’re in the year 2330 and for some odd reason, there are no rovers to navigate across vast stretches of land. Even Death Stranding, which was comically branded as a ‘walking simulator,’ had the foresight to include vehicles for easy traversal.

What’s funny is that Starfield recognises this design flaw by giving you the option to pull out the scanner and warp back to your spaceship, just so you don’t have to mundanely backtrack for the next 5–10 minutes. All of this is compounded by its horribly blank surface map that doesn’t convey any information besides key points of interest. It gets even more annoying when guiding around cities, forcing you to memorise important shops and locations by yourself.

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Yep, I was jamming to ‘A Cruel Angel’s Thesis’ while customising my ship
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

While hurtling around in outer space, you might sometimes get roped into intense dogfights, which can be pretty unforgiving early on, as you struggle with managing multiple ship systems at once — from the engine and missiles to the shields, weight balance, and more. Since our starter ship sucks, we can spend hours customising the one we’ve got, buy new ones, or even steal and modify it to suit personal needs. The fights get increasingly satisfying and the skill upgrades simply make your ship stronger. There’s even one skill that’s heavily reminiscent of the VATS system from Fallout — Targeting Control Systems — letting you zoom in and lock onto enemy ships to target specific sensitive parts and gain an edge in battle.

Starfield review: Combat and skills

Gunplay in Starfield is significantly better than Bethesda’s past shooters like Fallout 4, though that was never a high bar to begin with. There’s a weird floatiness to firearms when aiming down sights and sometimes my shots just wouldn’t register, despite shooting foes point-blank. Another thing I noticed is that gunfights are pretty much unplayable in the third-person, due to issues like poor accuracy to an odd heft and clunkiness. Yes, I understand that it’s part of the so-called ‘Bethesda experience,’ but still feels odd for the devs to put all that time and effort into subtle animations. If you’re in the same boat as me, I’d suggest intermittently switching between the two perspectives — first-person for combat and third-person for everything else.

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Upgrading individual skills requires you to grind, which can be tedious at times
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

It’s crucial to remember that Starfield’s roots lie in the role-playing department, which makes combat prowess heavily dependent on your character’s build, rather than your own talent. Yes, being good at aiming helps to a degree, but if you don’t unlock certain skills through level-ups, your character won’t be as efficient in combat or other activities. The skill tree is divided into five subcategories: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech, with each of them branching into several skills within them. For instance, dumping skill points in Ballistics will increase the general firearm damage, whereas doing the same on the Gymnastics skill will let you slide around the map. It’s for you to decide what your character’s good at. However, upgrading those unlocked skills requires a lot more work since each of them is further segregated into four tiers with increasing perks. From here on out, you’re forced to grind out certain challenges for those ranks, before being allowed to invest a skill point and unlock it.

While the rewards are certainly worth it, I find the process to be rather tedious. Furthermore, the game locks some basic/ starter abilities behind the skill tree. Despite equipping a boost pack to double-jump across the map, you won’t be allowed to use it until you unlock the required skill from the Tech section. Similarly, you won’t be able to lockpick anything above a ‘Novice’ security level lock without upgrades, regardless of whether you as a player are able to decipher the key combination using your brains. Such useless stipulations feel like a waste of skill points.

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Procedurally generated planets are largely barren
Photo Credit: Bethesda Softworks

Navigating through the vanilla inventory system also feels like a chore, as it doesn’t fit enough items on the screen, in addition to lacking options to sort them for quick access. For the latter, even a simple search function would’ve been a tremendous help. Encumberment is also a major issue in Starfield, disabling fast travels and rapidly depleting stamina upon carrying too much weight. Since you can pick up pretty much any tangible object in the game, your inventory is bound to be maxed out quite often, forcing you to constantly transfer or get rid of items.

Starfield review: Bugs, performance issues, and Bethesda jank

Bethesda titles have built a reputation for being incredibly buggy, but in Starfield, such instances were quite rare — nothing game-breaking that would hinder my playthrough. Some of the notable bugs I encountered include: characters walking into each other or standing atop high planes, enemies fusing with walls, dead bodies shooting up and getting stuck onto ceilings, NPCs facing the other direction while in conversation, and the objective marker occasionally directing me to head under the ground. Most of these were alleviated by simply reloading the save file, so I must admit that it’s a remarkably polished entry for Bethesda’s standards — albeit nothing of note in the AAA gaming space where you expect a certain level of polish. Meanwhile, the performance on PC was loaded with sporadic micro-stutters with some framerate dips when venturing out into crowded areas — specifically, in New Atlantis and Akila.

Another odd quirk I noticed was that for the longest time, my character had a bounty on their head, but not a single guard reacted to it until I decided to trigger a conversation with them. The same could be said for freely walking around with weapons armed, where the NPCs simply wouldn’t bat an eye, as long as I didn’t hurt anyone. I’m guessing this is an oversight, and it’s unfortunate to see it make it into the final build as it does go on to break the immersion a bit.

Starfield review: Verdict

Starfield is an imperfect but grandly immersive voyage into the vastness of the galaxy, rife with immaculate world-building that absorbs you in time. It’s a Bethesda game through and through, featuring an immense array of side quests and a quality role-playing system that favours player agency above all else. In the few moments that it tries breaking the mould, it under-delivers through its disjointed space exploration, poor navigation, and the banality of its main campaign. By dialling up the scale, I can’t help but feel like Bethesda Game Studios perhaps bit off more than it could chew here, resulting in an experience that at times gets swallowed in the cold, blackness of space. It’s an enjoyable ride nonetheless and a seismic achievement that Todd Howard and team can be proud of.

Rating (out of 10): 7

Starfield was released September 6 on PC, Xbox Series S/X, and Xbox Game Pass.

Pricing starts at Rs. 4,999 for the Standard Edition on Steam for PC. Meanwhile, both the PC and Xbox Series S/X versions from the Microsoft store cost Rs. 6,499.

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Starfield to Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty: The Nine Biggest Games in September

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September promises to be a blockbuster month for gaming, with a stellar lineup of heavy hitters set to release this month. Kicking off the show is Starfield, Bethesda’s epic sci-fi space fantasy RPG, which has been in development for eight years, apparently. The studio’s first original IP in 25 years, Starfield, as director Todd Howard puts it, is essentially Skyrim in space. Hundreds of hours of spacefaring adventure await, with a side helping of nostalgic Bethesda style. The game is out now on PC and Xbox Series S/X. It’s also a big month for RPGs, as CD Projekt Red’s much-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 expansion hits the shelves on September 26. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty promises a ton of upgrades from the base game, including an overhauled skill tree, a new wanted system, and gameplay tweaks. There’s a brand new story, too, with Idris Elba joining the cast, and Keanu Reeves returning.

Already feeling the RPG hangover from Baldur’s Gate III? You could just kick back and boot up the two most popular sports games on the planet; both NBA 2K24 and a rebranded EA Sports FC 24 arrive this month. Fighting games fans also have cause to celebrate as Mortal Kombat 1, which resets the MK universe after the events of the last game, drops on September 19. For masochists, the Souls-like action title Lies of P arrives on the same day. Like we said, it is indeed a packed month. So, here are our picks for the biggest games coming to PC and consoles in September 2023.

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Starfield

When: September 6
Where: PC, Xbox Series S/X

Starfield is an open-world action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios. The game’s development began in 2013, making it Bethesda Game Studios’ longest-running project to date, and is set in the year 2330, during the Second Era of Space Exploration. Players take on the role of a space explorer who can join one of three factions: the United Colonies, the Freestar Collective, or the Crimson Fleet. Each faction has its own unique goals and motivations, and players will have to choose which one they want to support.

Starfield features a vast and explorable universe, with over 1,000 planets to visit, and over 1,000 different alien species to interact with, each with its own unique culture and language. Each planet has its own unique environment and inhabitants, and players will be able to land on any of them and explore them at their own pace. The universe is large enough that a player will take over 300 hours to visit every planet. There’s also a variety of different weapons and vehicles that players can use, as well as a deep crafting system that lets you customise gear.

Starfield Peaks at Over 248,000 Concurrent Players on Steam During Early Access Period

NBA 2K24

When: September 8
Where: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch

NBA 2K is one of the most profitable, popular, and self-sustaining game franchises out there. Its technically detailed and mechanically robust simulation of basketball has birthed a legion of dedicated fans, who — without fail — get their hands on every new edition. NBA 2K24 is no different. The usual polish and quality is expected, but the popular basketball sim will also include cross-play for the first time in the franchise’s history.

NBA 2K24 will also posthumously feature Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant on the cover, and introduce a ‘Mamba Moments’ mode that lets you relive some of the Lakers legend’s biggest career moments. NBA 2K24 arrives September 8 across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.

The Crew Motorfest

When: September 14
Where: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

The Crew Motorfest is a racing game that takes place in a massive open world. Players can race against each other in a variety of different vehicles, including cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The game also features a number of different game modes, including a career mode, a multiplayer mode, and a free-roam mode. One of the things that makes The Crew Motorfest so unique is its open world, which is so large that it can take hours to explore it all. There are also a number of different hidden areas and secrets to find.

Another thing that makes Crew Motorfest so enjoyable is its range of different vehicles. Players can choose from a wide range of different cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Each vehicle has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, so players will need to experiment to find the ones that work best for them. Crew Motorfest is potentially a great racing game that will likely offer a lot of variety and replayability.

Mortal Kombat 1

When: September 19
Where: PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch

Marking yet another reboot in the iconic bone-krunching franchise, Mortal Kombat 1 introduces a new timeline forged by the Fire God Liu Kang after his ascension into godhood. That shake-up brings some interesting twists to the canon, turning longtime rivals Scorpion and Sub-Zero into brothers, and keeping Kitana’s homeland intact for once. However, the idyllic life Kang hoped for doesn’t last long, as a familiar threat from the past, the powerful sorcerer Shang Tsung, signals his return by painting a blood-red eclipse in the sky. Fighters of the Earthrealm must now unite to perform all kinds of bloodshedding Fatalities – including skull krushes, kurb stomps, hurling icicles, slitting throats, and more – to thwart evil.

Amidst all the classic Mortal Kombat jazz, we’ve got the Kameo Fighters, who are basically a second set of allies that can be picked at the start of a match to briefly assist in combat through short bursts of damage. Netherrealm Studios also continues to innovate in film-like story modes in the fighting game scene, and this year they’ve upped the ante by adding a new RPG-like mode as well. Dubbed the Invasion mode, you pick a character and explore a board game-like map, burrowing through nodes to acquire loot, engage in battles, minigames, solve puzzles, and more — all of which are tied to the idea of different factions trying to conquer other realms. The studio plans to keep it regularly updated, so expect new locations and challenges every six weeks.

Watch the Gameplay Trailer for Mortal Kombat 1

Lies of P

When: September 19
Where: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

While we still await any official news about a Bloodborne remake/ remaster, Lies of P appears to be a great substitute for it. Set in the plague-ridden gothic city of Krat, this upcoming Souls-like from Neowiz has you play the fabled Pinocchio, who must fight his way across its rotting streets, killing mechanised bloodthirsty puppets and tough-as-nails steampunk bosses in order to find Geppetto, the creator. True to his character, there’s also a lying mechanic in the game, where certain side quests will force you to pick between dialogue options — truthful or lie — to change the game’s ending — essentially determining whether you remain as a puppet or become a real boy.

To go along with its haunting belle époque atmosphere, Lies of P delivers fast-paced gameplay that largely relies on parries and strikes, where a minute lapse in judgment could significantly deplete your health. Drawing heavily from FromSoftware’s progression format, you’ll be met with Stargazers (checkpoints) for upgrading stats and replenishing healing pots. However, it also leverages its narrative aspects to create a unique crafting system, wherein Pinocchio the puppet can swap out body parts to augment special tools into their frame — such as a grappling hook for better vertical exploration or general evasion during scuffles.

Similar to Bloodborne, weapon durability is reduced with repeated use of armaments, albeit you won’t have to rush over to the hub world to get it repaired. Instead, your arm is fitted with a grindstone, which you can run along your entire weapon’s length to keep it in tip-top shape and prevent it from breaking — even during the heat of the battle. In case you’re sceptical about this one, feel free to try out the Lies of P demo, which is now available on all platforms.

Party Animals

When: September 20
Where: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

Fight your friends as an adorable corgi, a blunt-toothed dino, a duck that resembles a certain Pokémon, feisty kittens, and more, in this physics-based competitive brawler. You can rely on your soft paws to deal devastating blows, squishy heads to headbutt others, or even dropkick them for good measure — or, you can pick from an assortment of solid weapons laid out across its cutesy arena to gain the upper hand and become the last person standing. It’s hard to ignore its similarities to another hit party game Gang Beasts, in the sense that you’re provided with a variety of game modes and its characters all have ragdoll physics, which makes each encounter feel overtly funny.

Beyond fist fights, you can compete to steal giant gummy bears, toss critters off running planes, and coordinate in team-based football sessions to score the highest points. Party Animals has gone through numerous rigorous playtests over the years, so we can expect it to be polished at launch. Hopefully the servers don’t get overloaded, which was a huge bummer when Fall Guys made it onto the scene in 2020. It’s also coming day one to Xbox Game Pass, which is a huge bonus if you’re looking for something more relaxing after long, intense sessions of Starfield.

Payday 3

When: September 21
Where: PC. PS5, Xbox Series S/X

Deep Silver’s third instalment in its popular first-person shooter series is set to arrive later this month, as the Payday Gang comprising Chains, Dallas, Joy, Hoxton, Pearl, and Wolf team up in New York for modern heists using the latest technology. Payday 3 was developed on Unreal Engine 4, but is expected to be upgraded to the more advanced Unreal Engine 5 after it is released.

The upcoming co-op FPS title will also support crossplay and cross-progression on all platforms. You can also expect to see four additional heists, four tailor packs, and four weapon packs within the first year, according to Deep Silver. Gamers won’t have to wait until the release date to try the game out; publisher Starbreeze has announced a three-day open beta for Payday 3 that will run from September 8 to September 11.

Payday 3 Closed Beta Impressions

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

When: September 26
Where: PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X

The year is 2077, and the world is in chaos. Corporations rule the streets, and the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. In this world, anything goes. You can be a hero, a villain, or anything in between. The choice is yours. In Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, you play as V, a mercenary who is trying to make a name for themselves in Night City. Night City is a sprawling metropolis, full of opportunities and danger. You can choose to take on jobs for the various gangs and corporations, or you can go it alone and try to make it on your own.

The game is set in a dystopian future, and the world is full of violence and corruption, but there is also hope. There are still people who are fighting for a better future, and you can join them. You will come across sleeper intelligence agent Solomon Reed (played by Idris Elba).

This is an open-world RPG, and you can choose to play the game however you want. You can focus on the story, or you can explore the world and do side quests. You can also customize your character and choose their skills and abilities. If you are looking for a new RPG to play, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is definitely worth checking out. Who knows, you might even run into Keanu Reeves along the way!

Watch the Action-Packed Trailer for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

EA Sports FC 24

When: September 29
Where: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch

The FIFA franchise has consistently ranked among the top-selling titles every year, with each annual edition selling like hotcakes, despite bringing only incremental improvements. This time though, big changes seem to be on the way, and it begins with the name itself. FIFA 23 will pass the baton to EA Sports FC 24 on September 29. A new brand, but much of what is loved (and hated) about the wildly popular football sim, will likely return. The game will feature Hypermotion V technology, which brings extensive match data captured from live matches via cameras in the stadiums.

The game also brings PlayStyles, adding unique attributes to in-game players in line with their real-life counterparts. The much-maligned Ultimate Team (FUT) mode returns too, but long-term fans of the franchise would be eager to see what’s fresh in the stagnating and often neglected Career Mode. EA Sports FC 24, with Manchester City forward Erling Haaland as its cover star, will be available across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch.

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Payday 3 Closed Beta Impressions

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If films like Heat and Sexy Beast are anything to go by, when you’re in the professional heist business, retirement does not come easily. There’s always that one last job you get called in to tie up some loose ends, rekindling greed and the drive to plan elaborate robbery schemes within you. With the old gang rounded up, Payday 3 now takes us to the bustling streets of New York City, several years after our reign of terror in Washington DC, masked-up and prepared for new challenges in a present-day environment of mass surveillance gadgets, cryptocurrency, the deep web, and more. Having spent a few hours in the internal playtest, followed by the ongoing closed beta, I must say that I’m truly impressed with how streamlined this sequel is shaping up to be.

The test version only came with one location, the SCB Bank, which is carrying an unusually big amount of cash in its vault, awaiting transport. In what feels like a familiar callback to the Payday 2 days, this is your standard bank heist mission, sticking to the four-player co-op shooter formula, that has you bring a personalised loadout of weapons and high-tech gadgets to ease your cashout. Your approach can heavily vary between sneaking in and out without triggering any alarms, or you could take the loud route and blast in with guns blazing, striking fear into the hearts of the civilians. My experience with Payday 3 was a mix of both, starting by meticulously lockpicking my way through the backdoors to eventually culminating in an all-out assault, where my team was surrounded by cops from every angle.

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Interestingly though, there’s a bit more freedom in stealth segments, where previously, simply being spotted in restricted areas would set the alarms off. But here, you can trespass in private staff areas or behind counters without wearing a mask and the guards would politely escort you to the nearest public area without ruining your stealth attempt. You only get one slip-up, though. Not to mention, it’s a more realistic depiction of how security would react in a given situation. What I did find perplexing, however, was how you could freely walk up to windows in the lobby of the bank and press a button to close the shutters without raising suspicion. While this would prevent passersby from being able to peer inside the building and watch my team take everyone hostage, its inclusion feels very off-putting — almost as if it was an oversight from developer Starbreeze Studios. Hopefully, it’s addressed in a sensible manner, closer to launch. Regardless, it’s a massive step up from Payday 2, where you mostly just avoided detection and intimidated security.

You can do more with your mask off

Well, what was I doing back there, you ask? Scouting, mostly. Keeping track of important rooms and cameras, and quietly sneaking behind guards to pickpocket keycards that would grant access to the main security control room. This allowed me to hack into and disable the security system without too much hassle — such actions are all tied to a single button press, ‘F’. Stealth is still extremely difficult to pull off though, especially once you put on heist masks to conceal your identity, whereupon being spotted, witnesses would immediately report your presence. However, I did feel a bit pressured into wearing a mask, because there were certain basic mechanics, such as vaulting over surfaces, that Payday 3 kept locked behind the mode. Without a mask, you cannot climb through windows nor can you brandish a pistol. That said, it’s still quite insane how far you can progress in the game with masks off — as opposed to Payday 2 — so with the remaining time, I’d just run around the block to look for any potential escape routes that wouldn’t draw attention.

Once you put on a mask, you can’t take it off anymore, immediately raising the stakes for the heist, as you’re finally allowed to partake in more nefarious activities. Now equipped with guns, your squad can walk around intimidating civilians into submission and tying them up, check corners for cameras and shoot them down, and snap security guards’ necks for no disruptions. I’d recommend investing in a silencer for your pistol ASAP, in order to avoid creating a ruckus, but the most important toolkit in your arsenal would be to remain alert at all times. Dropping guards triggers a small alarm on their radio/ walkie-talkie, which if left unanswered, raises suspicion among the security team. Other times, an unattended civilian might escape and pull an alarm, throwing a wet blanket over your perfect plan. Things could easily go sideways once the mask is on, so it’s best to have a team you could always rely on.

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Once you put on a mask, you can’t take it off anymore until the heist session ends
Photo Credit: Starbreeze Studios

Such nail-biting sequences are peppered throughout Payday 3, though they can be severely eased by evenly dividing tasks among you. There’s a lot more flexibility in how you approach missions, such as sifting through documents for clues on how to open the vault, intuitively following red cables to shut down power to the gates, or grabbing an executive to scan their retina on the bank’s high-tech lock system. Of course, none of this would’ve been possible without numerous failed attempts, where my team and I almost immediately set off alarms, causing the police to come barging in. That’s the beauty of Payday 3 — there’s always something new to learn through repeated tries, making it more rewarding for the experienced players.

Now, you might be wondering how the early games in Payday 3 would work for newer players. Well, usually super loud, because you have zero clue of what’s going on or how things work. So, you’ll end up drawing all kinds of unwanted attention, shooting every guard in sight, and grabbing civilians as body shields to help with negotiation, before getting bored soon enough that you let go of them and shoot them in the back of the head. Guilty as charged. I mean, no witnesses if everyone’s dead, right?

Speaking of going loud, the bank heist mission has you breaking into the vault from the floor above in an aggressive fashion, where you collect bags of thermite, pile them up, and ignite them to gradually breach through the fortified wall. Of course, there are bells and sirens going crazy all around, which just adds to the tension as more cops start storming into the place. There is some method to this madness though, as adding too much thermite to increase the rate of breaching causes the water sprinklers to turn on, effectively reducing the flames and sending you on an errand run to turn it off.

Improved combat, more unpredictability

The combat is a strong highlight in Payday 3, throwing increasingly challenging enemies at you, which gets pretty overwhelming, even with human teammates. While it might seem too daunting and overly difficult for some, the heat level perfectly ties with the premise, where you’re trying to steal a truckload’s worth of cash — it’s a pretty serious crime you’re committing here. You should get punished for making careless moves like not checking corners or standing out in the open and tanking bullets Tropic Thunder style. Taking the fight to the streets with bags of cash strapped to our shoulders is where I had the most fun, mimicking the chaos from the iconic LA shootout scene in Michael Mann’s Heat (1995).

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payday 3 beta impressions streets payday 3 beta impressions streets

Taking the fight to the streets is where I had the most fun, mimicking the chaos from Michael Mann’s Heat (1995)
Photo Credit: Starbreeze Studios

As you await your getaway vehicle and run back in to grab more cash, you engage in an all-out battle with hordes of different police types, including far-away snipers who’ve got their laser sights trained on you. I’ll admit, they appear a lot more scary than they actually are — in the sense that the snipers are very slow to react to movement. So, you’ll generally have an easy time dealing with them, as long as you keep sliding around the map. Don’t completely ignore them though, as a single shot from them will instantly deplete your armour, leaving your body exposed to direct hits.

Whatever tactics you had planned at the start of a heist session are completely thrown out of the window at this stage, leaving you to rely on any armour or medic bags you brought along. In merely 10 to 15 minutes since the alarms sounded off, the tone of the game will have changed entirely to a modern-day warzone, with special enemies like the Grenadier who will chuck highly damaging poison bombs, which not only blur our vision but prevents us from sprinting until we step out of the gas. The near-indestructible Bulldozer also returns, armed with powerful firearms and occasionally charging headfirst into you. It’s best to have all four teammates focus on this behemoth at once since trying to take him down solo would result in guaranteed death or quick depletion of resources.

The Heavy SWAT team also consists of a brutish riot shield user, who would bash and stun you if you get too close. I found it super beneficial to just hurl a grenade behind them, causing them to turn around and expose their bodies to my onslaught. Another powerful unit relies on stun guns as well, though none of them seemed to be affected by the difficulty modifiers. All difficulty increments — at least in the Payday 3 closed beta — were based solely on security measures, such as indestructible cameras and a lead guard. This ensured that the enemies you faced in combat had the same health pool across the board, without turning them into mundane bullet sponges.

XDefiant Closed Beta Impressions

payday 3 beta impressions skill tree payday 3 beta impressions skill tree

You can pick skills to create a personalised build, or synergise them with teammates for better success rates
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

All of this is bolstered by a robust skill tree, opening room for you to experiment with various builds, whereby performing certain stealth or assault-based actions, you’ll gain bonuses in terms of movement speed, inflicted damage, faster reload speeds, and more. For instance, investing skill points into Tank stats grants defence-oriented perks such as effective armour, while favouring Hacking lets you take remote control of security cameras. You could also double down on stealth abilities to perform faster takedowns and lockpicks or gain ‘Rush’ buffs to escape into hiding quickly. In addition to working toward a setup specifically tailored for you, one could also synergise them with teammates to see which ones offer better success rates.

Just like Payday 2, cash earned from heists can be spent on new weapons and their respective attachments such as scopes, muzzles, and grips to help with heavy recoil. All changes to guns’ stats are neatly shown via a graph, and they can all be personalised with cosmetic mods like paint jobs, stickers, and charms. This forms the core gameplay loop of Payday 3, though for now, I have no idea how the larger story ties into this — after all, we reunited after years to identify and crush an undisclosed ‘new threat.’

payday 3 beta masks payday 3 beta masks

It was cool to see Robert De Niro’s mask from Heat in Payday 3
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Rahul Chettiyar

Further, you could customise your characters’ appearance with new suits, gloves, and a medley of creepy-looking masks, including the white, perforated hockey one that Robert De Niro wore in Heat! Not to mention, all armour and protective gear is worn underneath your suit, so you don’t need to worry about making a bad impression.

Final thoughts

Having only played one heist level, Payday 3 comes across as a remarkable evolution from its predecessor’s ethos, focusing on mechanical depth through a myriad of new high-tech toys to mess around with. The emphasis on stealth opens room for creativity, giving you the incentive to scout locations more freely and tick past an array of meticulous objectives, before donning the mask and going berserk. I also think it’s an excellent choice for this threequel to be set in a contemporary timeline, given the game is designed to grow over time with a regular flow of post-launch content, so it should hopefully feel timeless.

Payday 3’s closed beta is now live and is slated to end on August 7, across PC and Xbox. The full game will launch September 21 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

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Inside ‘Alone in the Dark’: THQ’s Re-Imagining of the ‘90s Survival Horror Game

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Before Resident Evil, there was Alone in the Dark — a Lovecraftian survival horror game from Frédéric Raynal, that relied on fixed, pre-rendered backdrops upon which 3D characters would scurry about. That game design impressed visionary creator Shinji Mikami to adapt it into RE’s early model, prior to which it was planned as a first-person shooter. Arriving on the scene in 1992, Alone in the Dark spawned an entire series of compelling titles, before eventually fading into obscurity over the next decade. That is, until Swedish developer Pieces Interactive took it upon itself to dig the franchise back from its haunting grave through a modernised re-imagining — one that ironically now draws inspiration from the recent Resident Evil remakes. It forms a complete circle.

Best described as a love letter to the original, Alone in the Dark — out October 25 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X — brings back lead characters Detective Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood to the moody Derceto Mansion, in response to a disturbing letter from the latter’s uncle Jeremy Hartwood. Unlike the original, wherein Jeremy was haunted by the ‘Dark Man’ and killed himself, this re-imaging stretches his arc further so he seeks therapy at the countryside hospital, creating a lingering fear of whether history is doomed to repeat itself.

Such minor changes and callbacks are peppered throughout the game, with writer-director Mikael Hedberg likening the development to ‘cultivating a seed that was planted 30 years ago’. For the uninitiated, Hedberg also wrote Amnesia: The Dark Descent and the deep-sea horror game Soma, and promises an atmospheric experience that’s ‘more than just jumpscares’. He believes that the scare merely releases the tension and that the anticipation of what’s about to happen is what keeps players on their toes.

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“I remember that with the first Alone in the Dark I made in 1992, we were basically doing something that nobody had done before,” creator Raynal said during the preview event. “It was the first time that we could explore a big mansion, fight monsters, and solve difficult puzzles — all in real-time 3D.” He then went on to praise Pieces Interactive for doing a great job in preserving the core feeling of the game, while adding that the closed confines of the Derceto Mansion always served as an additional, important character that really tightened up the story. At its core though, Alone in the Dark will have you play as either niece Emily Hartwood or the brooding detective Edward Carnby — whom she hired in response to being spooked by her uncle’s letter — and investigate its long passageways, tunnels, and a nearby town teeming with cosmic monstrosities.

“We knew early on that we had a character-driven story, so we needed to find some really good actors to make those characters come to life,” director Hedberg said. David Harbour of Stranger Things-fame headlines the cast as our detective character, who himself has never shied away from displaying his affection for the world of video games — specifically World of Warcraft and the horror genre. “He’s kind of a gruff detective and he’s searching for something and, you know, he’s hard-boiled, but he’s got some humour to him and stuff like that,” Harbour explained, adding that the character is a ‘bit of a trope.’ Your playthrough as Detective Carnby will vary significantly from that of Emily’s, who has a more personal, familial connection to the mystery. As the hired gun, you will learn step-by-step how the Derceto mystery is connected to you and why you keep seeing weird memories of this place.

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Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) stars as Emily Hartwood in Alone in the Dark
Photo Credit: THQ Nordic/ Pieces Interactive

Meanwhile, Emily is played by Jodie Comer — best known for Killing Eve and Free Guy — who also suffers from the strange affliction known as the ‘Hartwood Curse.’ No further explanation for the curse was provided, but judging by the original game, we can assume it has to do with some dark rituals of an occultist pirate, whose spirit wanders around looking for a suitable host.

“Yes, there is the kind of scary element, but then she still has to go on a journey and discover different things,” Comer describes her character’s traits. “There should still be room to breathe and have a funny moment or a sarcastic moment or a moment of discovery.” Both Comer and Harbour provided full voice acting and motion capture for their roles, whose ‘spellbinding performances’ were instrumental to Alone in the Dark’s psychological horror angle — one that leans into the grounded narrative aspects rather than the physical terror.

Further in the preview event, Hedberg explained that Alone in the Dark will offer a different take on the same story, depending on who you play as. Most of these will be reflected in cutscenes through differing interactions with NPCs and slight changes in the way your character navigates situations. For instance, there’s a spiteful maid in the game, who reacts more ‘nicely’ to Emily’s snooping, compared to Detective Carnby who is greeted with a kitchen knife pointed at his face. Same situations and dialogue, but different outcomes that incentivise you to play the game more than once.

“The player will get to see exclusive levels and parts of the mansion depending on your chosen protagonist,” Andreas Schmiedecker, Associate Producer, THQ Nordic told Gadgets 360. “If you go for a second playthrough with the other characters, there will be slight influences in your game depending on which items you found in your first playthrough.” Since both Emily and Carnby conduct their separate investigations, they also will often run into each other during cutscenes and offer glimpses at what they’ve been up to.

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alone in the dark exploration alone in the dark exploration

Depending on what protagonist you choose, you’ll see exclusive levels
Photo Credit: THQ Nordic/ Pieces Interactive

Gameplay largely revolves around exploration from an over-the-shoulder perspective — much like Resident Evil 4 — where you gun down bizarre zombie-like creatures and giant roaches akin to Fallout 4. The developer describes the combat as ‘intense’, where you’ll need to conserve and make every bullet count, though there’s no word on general resource management such as healing items or a proper inventory system that needs to be planned well beforehand. I’m of course comparing it to the suitcase in Resident Evil 4, where you need to perfectly align and prioritise items you need to carry until you reach the next save point. “Careful resource management is a staple of the survival-horror-adventure genre and this game is no different. Especially on higher difficulties,” Schmiedecker said.

Alone in the Dark also comes with a backup plan in case you run out of bullets — melee attacks, which can be performed using rusty pipes and planks, or you could chuck Molotov cocktails from afar. The latter was a jarring occurrence during the preview, where you could see Emily just picking a random bottle of alcohol and hurling it towards a humanoid creature, resulting in an explosion of flames. There was no crafting menu or animation that showed her lighting a fuse to ignite it, which not only breaks immersion but reduces tension buildup when hordes charge toward you.

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alone in the dark combat alone in the dark combat

Combat largely revolved around gunplay and melee attacks
Photo Credit: THQ Nordic/ Pieces Interactive

Regardless of who you choose, the goal is to figure out what happened to Jeremy Hartwood, and in pursuit of that, you’ll need to visit some unexpected places. Getting to those areas will have you rely on your wits and puzzle-solving skills, involving cyphers, odd patterns, and light switches to activate. The preview also mentioned that players will be able to choose how much help they receive with puzzles, which is ideal for those not willing or unable to do some non-linear thinking and memorising their route around the Derceto Mansion. The idea is for puzzles to not be a dead-end that discourages players from experiencing Alone in the Dark’s larger story.

As a taste of the full game, THQ Nordic has also planned a prologue demo, which is set a few weeks prior to the events of Alone in the Dark, as a segue into the narrative. In it, you step into the shoes of Grace Saunders, a young girl who is tasked with posting a letter — presumably the eerie one from Jeremy Hartwood — and in the process, explore the mansion. Dubbed ‘Grace in the Dark,’ the prologue is now available to download on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X, and does not include any combat segments. It is described as an ‘atmospheric experience’ that’s largely exploration-based and includes some rather basic puzzles.

Alone in the Dark is slated to release October 25 on the aforementioned platforms, with a pre-order bonus that grants the 1992 costume pack — the goofy, pixelated 3D model skins from the original game that can be used against modern-day HD backgrounds. The developers claimed that there’s still a lot of work ahead, therefore marking a busy summer for the team. I’m assuming a lot of this has to do with optimisation, which I hope is up to par for the PC version at launch, which has typically received the short end of the stick in recent titles. There’s a Digital Deluxe Edition as well, which comes with a digital artbook, a director’s commentary mode, and a vintage horror filter pack that lets you experience the game in Sepia, black-and-white, and other colour tones.

Alone in the Dark releases October 25 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. A prologue demo called Grace in the Dark is now available for download on the said platforms.

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8 Biggest New Games on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series S/X in March

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What are the biggest new games coming out in March 2023? After a jam-packed lineup last month, March 2023 continues heating things up on the AAA front, ensuring a good time for gamers this year. The survival horror genre takes the front row, starting with the Resident Evil 4 remake, transporting us back to a cultist European village on a mission to track down the President of the USA’s daughter. Developer Capcom claims that the timeless classic has been fully rebuilt keeping the original’s essence intact. The RE4 remake is out March 24 across PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. Chase it down with The Last of Us Part I, which finally comes to PC on the 28th, letting a new array of players experience the emotional zombie apocalypse story of an unlikely duo.

Oil up, flex your muscles, and step into the ring once again in the latest wrestling showdown from 2K. Releasing March 17 — March 14 for early access — WWE 2K23 features the 16-time world champion and DC Studios’ Peacemaker, John Cena as the cover star, whose iconic career can be relived through this year’s 2K Showcase. A brand-new souls-like from the creators of Nioh is also on the menu this month. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty — out now on all major platforms — places you in the fictional dark fantastical realm of the later Han Dynasty as you take on corrupted demons in punishingly difficult combat.

Keeping with tradition, Nintendo comes in clutch with a new offering on the handheld front. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is a take on the Umbra Witch’s early days, and understandably far less racy. This spin-off title puts the trainee witch on a quest to save her imprisoned mother, accompanied by a demonic feline, Cheshire. The game has you take control of both characters in turn and releases March 17 on the Nintendo Switch. Indie darling Dead Cells is also getting a meaty DLC on March 6, Return to Castlevania, which lets you play as vampire hunter Richter Belmont, navigating the courtyards and corridors of Dracula’s Castle. Dead Cells’ paid Return to Castlevania DLC will be available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch.

With that, here are the eight biggest titles coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X in March 2023:

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

When: March 3
Where: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

Step into a twisted, war-torn version of ancient China, with the Han Dynasty in its final days as demonic forces drag the formerly prosperous realm into collapse. As a nameless militia soldier, you’re plunged into the battlefield to eradicate the Yellow Turban Rebellion and deadly creatures in fast-paced melee combat that relies on timed parries/ deflects. Cycle between armaments, learn Wizardry Spells, and perform martial arts to overcome all odds. To ease the punishing souls-like experience, developer Team Ninja has added summonable spectral beings and a plethora of flagposts that serve as checkpoints for levelling up and resetting any afflictions.

Expect theatrical boss battles and a high-risk high-reward playstyle, with an emphasis on the Morale system. The higher your Morale, the more damage you deal. Alternatively, if you die, you lose everything until you reclaim it from your killer. Think of it as a passive buff that helps with long-drawn fights. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty also has a free demo available to download on all platforms. In our first impressions of the PC version, we noted how the mouse-based camera controls had detection and sensitivity issues — which explains the game’s negative reviews on Steam. If you’re really looking forward to playing Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty on PC, we would recommend using a controller, for the time being.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

When: March 6
Where: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Motion Twin’s popular roguelike Metroidvania title Dead Cells is set to get a DLC that will let you embark on a new Castlevania-themed adventure. Step through a mysterious gateway into a gothic-themed castle to defeat an evil vampire, as you fight alongside the warrior Richter Belmont and Alucard.

Reaching the evil Dracula won’t be easy, though — you’ll first have to beat three bosses and several new enemies across two biomes. However, you’ll have access to 14 weapons – including a throwing axe, vampire killer, and holy water — along with 20 outfits for Richter, Trevor, Simon Belmont, Maria Reynard, Sybha Belnades, and the evil Dracula.

WWE 2K23

When: March 17
Where: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

John Cena is the official cover superstar for the upcoming wrestling title WWE 2K23. The 16-time World Champion stars in an interactive sports documentary that lets you play through his 20-year career while taking on his biggest rivals. You can also face off with other gamers in teams of three or four to wrestle in two rings inside a steel cage with the new WarGames mode.

The game will feature iconic WWE Superstars such as Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Steve Austin, and Cody Rhodes. WWE 2K23 will also have modes called MyRISE and MyGM that let you make decisions that affect your WWE Superstar career and compete against rival general managers, respectively. MyFACTION, on the other hand, lets you collect WWE Superstar cards and upgrade them while competing with other players.

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon

When: March 17
Where: Nintendo Switch

PlatinumGames’ Bayonetta franchise stands out for its frenetic hack-and-slash combat, unique visuals, and indulgence in indecent innuendo. After three mainline games, the developers have now worked on a spinoff — one that has spun quite far away from its roots. Revealed at The Game Awards 2022, Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon ditches Bayonetta’s edgy art style, third-person Devil May Cry-action, and risque aesthetics to embrace more colourful, indie-like visuals, an isometric camera perspective, and a more family-friendly theme. This game feels more at home in the Nintendo catalogue than the mainline Bayonetta games. Frankly, it’s only Bayonetta in name.

In Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, players control its two titular characters, Cereza (a younger version of the iconic and eponymous witch from the main games) and her demonic companion, Cheshire. Cereza, who is yet to become the leather-clad, corseted, and bespectacled Bayonetta, travels with Chesire through a fantastical forest, where they take on beasts and creatures. Cereza’s powers are, of course, far from fully formed, but you can utilise her magic abilities and Cheshire’s demonic strength to navigate the jungle. The game also offers puzzles and platforming, where teamwork between the two characters is key.

While the game is a departure from Bayonetta’s bawdy adventures, it might just bring new players (including those too young to play the main games) to the franchise.

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Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon embraces more colourful, indie-like visuals
Photo Credit: PlatinumGames

Resident Evil 4

When: March 24
Where: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X

Six years since the biological disaster in Raccoon City, series stalwart Leon S. Kennedy has been deployed on a new mission to rescue the President of the USA’s daughter, Ashley Graham. Just like in the original 2005 game, players will be transported to a secluded, ghoulish Spanish village, teeming with hostile villagers who pledge allegiance to the Los Illuminados cult. In addition to upgraded visuals, Capcom has added new several gameplay elements to the Resident Evil 4 remake, expanding on the lore with new side quests, in-depth exploration, and a new parry mechanic that turns Leon’s knife into a limited resource. Knife durability can be upgraded in shops, though players will need to be mindful of using it to deflect attacks from minor enemies.

The captive Ashley has changed in a few key ways as well. Once rescued, Leon can order her to stay close or at a distance while he takes care of larger hordes. Alternatively, she takes charge when unlocking doors for you. Stealth mechanics have been expanded, letting you silently kill enemies with your knife or create distractions and sneak past them. The developers also have some post-launch content in store for us, including a virtual reality mode for the PS VR2. It is currently in development and will be available as free DLC to those who own the base game.

EA Sports PGA Tour

When: March 24
Where: PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X

Featuring 30 golf courses — 28 of the most well-known ones plus two that are imaginary — EA Sports PGA Tour will feature the Masters Tournament, The Open Championship, the PGA Championship, and the US Open Championship. You can step into the shoes of pro golfers including Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Nelly Korda, Tony Finau, Im Sung-jae, and Lexi Thompson. The game features a career mode, challenges and limited-time tournaments, and live service functionality is coming at a later date.

The publisher says high-resolution visuals for EA Sports PGA Tour are only supported on the latest-generation consoles and some PCs. The upcoming EA Sports PGA Tour will feature a private match mode for friends and family, and a social mode with players at your skill level, as well as a competitive mode that matches you with other players.

The Last of Us Part I

When: March 28
Where: PC

At this point, The Last of Us, first released in June 2013, has to be one of the most-played games on PlayStation. From its first innings on the PS3, and its second life as The Last of Us Remastered on PS4, to its final form as The Last of Us Part I on the PS5, Naughty Dog’s this narrative-focused action-adventure title is a stone cold classic of the platform.

These days, it’s hard to miss the story of Joel and Ellie; those who don’t play games now know them through the hit HBO TV adaptation, which has become a phenomenon in its own right. Now, almost a decade after the original game’s release, PC gamers will finally be able to step into the shoes of the two iconic characters and journey through a post-apocalyptic America, fighting off the infected and the unhinged. The game’s PS5 remake, The Last of Us Part 1, is being ported to PC, and arrives March 28. Those who’ve played the original, or have checked out the new TV show, will know that The Last of Us is less about its undead and more about its living.

While the acclaimed story and beloved characters remain the same, the game has been rebuilt from the ground up, with shiny new visuals, quality-of-life changes, an AI overhaul, and more. All this brings it up to modern standards, closer to its sequel, The Last of Us Part II. Riding high on the buzz from its ongoing live-action adaptation starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us Part I on PC will likely attract a whole new audience, including those who don’t necessarily consider themselves gamers.

Crime Boss: Rockay City

When: March 28
Where: PC

A trailer for Crime Boss: Rockay City dropped out of the blue at The Game Awards 2022, showing off an all-star cast that includes Michael Madsen, Chuck Norris, Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, and Kim Basinger. Along with its throwback cast, Rockay City looks like it will offer throwback first-person shooter action.

Developed by In Game Studios and published by 505 Games, this action-FPS title is set in the 90s and takes place in the Miami, Florida-inspired titular city. Players take control of Madsen’s character Travis Barker and set about building their criminal enterprise. Rockay City offers single-player and up to four-player co-op experiences, letting you indulge in turf wars, heists, and all-around general madness. The game also lets you choose your crew, plan missions, and slowly build your empire.

With its Miami Vice vibes and colourful cast, Crime Boss: Rockay City arrives on PC on March 28.

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For details of the latest launches and news from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and other companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visit our MWC 2023 hub.

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India Tablet PC Market See Rising Demand for 5G Capable Devices in Q3 2022: CMR

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The tablet PC market in India grew 22 percent quarter-on-quarter in July-September with demand for 5G capable devices picking up the steam, CyberMedia Research said on Monday.

CMR anticipates the tablet PC shipments to record a healthy 10-15 percent growth in 2022.

Samsung led the market with a 28 percent market share, followed by Lenovo and Apple with 26 and 19 percent share, respectively, during the quarter.

“The India tablet market grew 22 percent quarter-on-quarter, with 5G-capable tablet shipments picking up steam in the run-up to the festive season,” CMR’s Tablet PC Market Report Review for Q3, 2022, said.

Shipment of tablets with 8-inch-display constituted 43 percent of the overall shipments in the Indian market.

“Shipments of 5G tablets continued to gain strength in Q3 2022. This is driven by the recent 5G auctions and the beginning of the 5G era. The growth in 5G Tablets is consistent with the trends seen in the 5G smartphone market,” CMR, Analyst-Industry Intelligence Group, Menka Kumari said.

Samsung Tab A8 (Wi-Fi and 4G) and Tab A7 Lite (Wi-Fi and 4G) had 25 and 18 percent market share, respectively.

“Samsung shipments recorded 83 percent QoQ growth in the third quarter of 2022,” the report said.

Lenovo was placed at the second position in the entire region, mainly driven by its commercial business and retail market.

Apple iPad 9 (Wi-Fi) and Apple iPad Air 2022 (Wi-Fi) had a 57 and 15 percent market share, respectively, followed by Apple iPad Pro 2021 (Wi-Fi) 8 percent and Apple iPad Air 2022 (Wi-Fi) 6 percent in the tablet market.

“Apple iPad shipments recorded 26 percent QoQ growth in the third quarter of 2022,” the report said.

 

Apple launched the iPad Pro (2022) and the iPad (2022) alongside the new Apple TV this week. We discuss the company’s latest products, along with our review of the iPhone 14 Pro on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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