Tag: Sony

Astro Bot: The Full-Price Game That Actually Earned Its Full Price

Game Review · Purchased September 6, 2024 · $89.59 CAD via EB Games

Key art for Astro Bot on PS5
Astro Bot. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Astro Bot took home the Game Awards’ Game of the Year trophy for 2024, and it did so as a pure, joyful 3D platformer built from the ground up to show off exactly what the PS5 and DualSense controller can do, level by inventive level.

The Review

I bought the physical copy on launch week alongside the limited edition controller and digital deluxe upgrade covered elsewhere in this series, and the game more than justified going all-in on day one. Every level introduces a new mechanic, gadget, or gimmick tied specifically to the DualSense’s haptics and adaptive triggers, and rather than the usual pattern of a few standout ideas stretched across a whole game, Astro Bot keeps generating fresh ideas at a pace that rarely lets up across its full runtime.

This has been widely compared to the best Mario platformers of the current era, and having played through it, that comparison holds up: tight controls, generous but fair difficulty curve, and a level of craft and polish in every individual level that most platformers, even good ones, do not sustain for an entire game.

What I Liked

  • Constant stream of fresh ideas and mechanics, level after level
  • Some of the best use of DualSense haptics and adaptive triggers in any PS5 game
  • Tight, satisfying platforming controls
  • Genuinely joyful tone throughout

What I Didn’t

  • As a mascot platformer, it will always have a lower ceiling of mainstream attention than bigger franchise names, despite deserving comparison to the best of them
  • Some players may find the difficulty curve too gentle if they want a harder platforming challenge

The Verdict

Rating: 5/5

This is the rare full-price game that consistently gets recommended as worth buying at launch rather than waiting for a sale, and having played it, I agree completely.

Where to Buy

Sony WH-1000XM5: The Headphones I Use for Everything Except Actually Gaming

Hardware Review · Purchased April 29, 2024 · $391.72 CAD via Amazon

Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless noise cancelling headphones in black
The Sony WH-1000XM5 in black. Photo via Best Buy Canada.

I want to be upfront about something before this review even starts: the WH-1000XM5 is not a gaming headset, and that is exactly why I bought it.

The Background

I already owned a dedicated gaming headset before this purchase, and it was fine for what it was. What it was not was a headphone I wanted to wear on a flight, during a work call, or on a walk. By spring of 2024 I had decided I wanted one really good pair of noise-cancelling headphones that could do double duty across my actual life, gaming included, rather than a gaming-specific headset that only made sense at my desk. Sony’s flagship XM line has been the benchmark in consumer ANC headphones for several generations running, and the XM5 is the current version of that reputation.

I paid close to full retail at $391.72, picked up from Amazon in late April. In hindsight, that was the one mistake in this purchase: these go on sale often enough, sometimes $100 or more off, that patience would have paid off. If you are considering the same pair, it is worth watching prices for a couple of weeks before buying.

Living With It

The noise cancelling is the headline feature and it delivers. Airplane cabin noise, HVAC hum, open-office chatter, all of it gets flattened to a low murmur, and the transparency mode (for when you need to hear someone talking to you without taking the headphones off) is genuinely useful rather than a gimmick. Sound signature is clean and slightly warm, not the bass-forward tuning a lot of consumer headphones lean into, which I personally prefer for long listening sessions since it does not fatigue the ears the way an aggressive bass boost can.

Comfort is where these earn their keep for me. I use them for hours at a stretch, gaming in the evening after wearing them all day for work calls, and the clamping force and ear cushion padding hold up without the hot-ear feeling some over-ear headphones give you after a few hours.

The genuine complaint, and one that shows up in basically every review of this generation, is that Sony dropped the folding hinge design from the XM4. The XM5 collapses flatter but does not fold in on itself, so the case is noticeably bigger and less pocketable in a bag. It is a small thing until you are the one repacking a carry-on around it.

For gaming specifically: these connect over Bluetooth, not a wired connection with a dedicated gaming DAC, so if you are chasing the lowest possible input latency for competitive play, this is not the tool for that job. For anything else, story-driven games, general couch gaming, streaming, they sound excellent.

What I Liked

  • Best-in-class noise cancelling for the price bracket
  • Comfortable enough for genuinely long sessions
  • Clean, accurate sound signature that does not fatigue over time
  • Multi-device pairing makes switching between PS5, phone, and laptop painless

What I Didn’t

  • No longer folds flat, bigger case than the previous generation
  • Bluetooth-only means it is not ideal for latency-sensitive competitive gaming
  • I paid full price when patience would have saved a real amount of money

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

As a headphone that has to work across my whole day, not just gaming, this was the right call, and the audio and noise cancelling quality genuinely justify the price bracket. The only real ding is on me: buying at full retail when a sale was probably two or three weeks away the whole time. If you want one pair of headphones to do everything reasonably well, this earns its reputation. If you specifically want a gaming headset, look elsewhere first.

Where to Buy

Dead Island 2 Deluxe Edition: Buying the Whole Meal Instead of Ordering Extras Later

Game Review · Purchased January 16, 2024 · $70.50 CAD via PSN

Key art for Dead Island 2
Dead Island 2. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Dead Island 2’s Deluxe Edition bundles the base game with its full expansion pass and a handful of cosmetic extras, essentially pre-purchasing both the story expansions I reviewed separately elsewhere in this series and the core game in a single transaction.

The Review

The base game earned its positive reception honestly: gory, physical melee combat with genuine weight behind every swing, and a strong, distinct sense of place across a zombie-infested, sun-bleached version of Los Angeles that manages to feel different from the series’ earlier tropical island settings despite the shared DNA. Character progression through the skill card system gave real room to build a personal combat style, whether that meant leaning into elemental weapon effects, crowd control, or straightforward melee damage.

Buying the Deluxe bundle upfront, rather than the base game alone with the intention of grabbing the expansion pass later, turned out to be the financially smarter move: bundled together, the combined price undercuts what buying both pieces separately at full price down the line would have cost, a fairly rare case of a “deluxe” tier actually representing straightforward savings rather than just cosmetic upselling.

The expansions themselves (covered in more depth in their own post in this series) landed as solid, if not essential, extra content, which does put a small dent in the overall value proposition of the bundle, but the core game alone was strong enough to make this purchase worthwhile even setting the expansions aside entirely.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely satisfying, weighty melee combat
  • Distinct, well-realized setting
  • Bundled pricing meaningfully undercuts buying the pieces separately later
  • Flexible skill card system supports different playstyles

What I Didn’t

  • Included expansions are decent rather than essential, slightly softening the bundle’s overall value
  • Open-world structure occasionally repeats itself across the map’s different districts

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Buying the Deluxe bundle upfront was the smarter financial call versus buying the base game and expansion pass separately later at full price, and the core game’s combat and setting hold up well enough on their own to justify the purchase regardless.

Where to Buy

Sony’s PSVR2: A Genuinely Great Headset Tethered to a Genuinely Annoying Cable

Hardware · Purchased February 22, 2023 · $918.27 via EbGames

Sony PlayStation VR2
Photo: GameStop

The Setup

Launch day. I lined up a PSVR2 the moment EbGames opened on February 22nd, and immediately followed it with a small pile of launch titles (more on those in separate posts). The headset has dual OLED panels, eye tracking, inside-out tracking with no external cameras needed, and the Sense controllers with adaptive triggers and haptics.

The Review

The display is sharp enough that I stopped noticing the screen-door effect within an hour, and the eye tracking genuinely changes how some games render and play. The Sense controllers with their adaptive triggers are the best VR controllers I’ve used. The single tether cable, though, is a constant low-grade annoyance — there’s no wireless option, and I’ve caught it on my chair more than once mid-session.

What I Liked

  • Sharp OLED panels with strong HDR
  • No external tracking cameras to set up
  • Eye tracking enables genuinely novel gameplay
  • Sense controllers feel excellent

What I Didn’t

  • Wired only — no wireless option
  • Can feel front-heavy on long sessions
  • Smaller launch library than I’d like

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Where to Buy

Sony WF-1000XM4: Import-Priced Earbuds That Still Justify the Premium

Hardware Review · Purchased June 20, 2022 · $358.39 CAD via Amazon.ca

Sony WF-1000XM4 true wireless earbuds
Sony WF-1000XM4. Photo: Crutchfield

The Setup

Sony’s flagship true wireless earbuds, built around a 6mm driver and the Integrated Processor V1 chip for noise cancellation, with LDAC hi-res audio and 360 Reality Audio support. Mine is the “International Version” — a grey-market import SKU with the same hardware as the retail version, just without region-specific packaging or the standard local warranty path.

The Review

The noise cancellation is the headline feature and it lives up to the reputation — genuinely class-leading for a true wireless earbud, helped considerably by the memory-foam tips forming a much better passive seal than the silicone tips most competitors ship with. LDAC support is a nice bonus if you’ve got hi-res audio sources to feed it, and the Qi wireless charging case is smaller and more pocketable than the previous XM3 generation’s case.

The out-of-box tuning leans bass-forward enough that I ended up reaching for Sony’s EQ app to balance things out, and call quality in windy or noisy environments is a genuine weak point — the ANC that makes music so good works against the microphones during calls. Battery life is merely average for the class, which is a little disappointing given how good everything else about the ANC implementation is. Buying the international version saved some money over full retail pricing, with the only real downside being a murkier warranty situation if anything goes wrong.

What I Liked

  • Class-leading active noise cancellation
  • Memory-foam tips give a noticeably better passive seal than typical silicone tips
  • LDAC hi-res audio and 360 Reality Audio support
  • Compact Qi wireless charging case, smaller than the previous generation

What I Didn’t

  • Bass-forward tuning out of the box needed EQ adjustment
  • Weak microphone quality in windy or noisy environments during calls
  • Battery life is average for the class despite the excellent ANC
  • International version carries a murkier warranty path than retail units

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Still one of the best-sounding, best-ANC true wireless earbuds around — the import savings were worth the warranty trade-off.

Where to Buy