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Typically gaming phones differentiate themselves with faster displays and high-end processors, but many of those features are finding their way to the latest flagship Android phones.  This year Asus is throwing everything it has at the wall to make the ROG Phone 5 stand out from the pack.

Featuring an even bigger screen, smaller bezels, plus higher refresh rates and responsiveness than most mainstream handsets, the display is easily the most eye-popping thing about the ROG Phone 5. Aside from that, Asus has packed in as much value as it can with more virtual and physical controls, louder speakers, a DAC-powered headphone jack, better cooling, twin batteries for faster charging, and much more.

But does it all add up to a smartphone that’s worth $1,545? Find out below.

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Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate Edition  – Designs and Features

Despite the ROG Phone 5’s aspirations to be the ultimate gaming phone, it’s actually the least gamer-looking handset Asus has put out thus far.

This is especially true of the phone’s Ultimate Edition, which features a stark white paint job, matte finish, and angular silver streaks, giving it the look of a futuristic building or space station. The only real gaming flare here is an azure blue tab on the side with the acronym GLHF etched into it. There’s also a small monochromatic OLED screen on the back. By default, it cycles through a ROG logo animation, but you can customize it to display any image or animation of your choosing.

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Interestingly, Asus has removed the ROG Phone 5’s cooling vent. Instead, this handset features two layers of graphene sheets and a restructured thermal layout to help keep it and your hands cool. The main processor has also moved to the middle of the device to help keep heat away from your digits as you play.

The front of the phone doesn’t look dramatically different from its predecessor. The main difference is even slimmer bezels, measuring only 7mm thick. This is largely thanks to the front-firing speaker being reduced to only a sliver in thickness.

Don’t think they’re any less powerful though. These thin speakers still pack a wallop, as is especially evident in the boisterous, electronic unsheathing sound effect that plays every time you turn on the phone. That’s not to say the speakers sound unpleasant though. In fact, they have a surprisingly nuanced sound when playing music while offering plenty of bass for games full of gunfire and explosions.

The headphone jack has made a triumphant return, and this time it comes with a HyperStream II Quad DAC. In other words, not only will you be able to pull your wired headphones and earbuds out of storage, but you’ll also get premium Hi-Res audio out of them.

The screen is bigger than last year’s offering, now measuring at 6.78 inches instead of 6.59 inches. Asus has also moved up to a Samsung E4 OLED panel, which is capable of a 1080 x 2448 resolution with 800 nits of peak brightness and HDR10+.

In real life, it’s a dramatically good-looking display with deep blacks and colors that pop off the glass. The smoothness is also exceptional thanks to the display’s maximum 144Hz refresh rate. Unlike most phones that automatically turn the refresh rate up or down depending on what you’re doing, you can set the refresh rate to always be 144Hz, 120Hz, or 60Hz. This means you can finally scroll through Instagram and Twitter with maximum smoothness, though be warned that locking to a high refresh rate will mean sacrificing some battery life.

The shoulder-mounted Air-Triggers make a return, while the Pro and Ultimate Editions also get two additional capacitive rear sensors to act as virtual buttons, similar to the rear touch buttons from the PS Vita. Mapping two extra rear touch controls is great, but to actually use them you have to uncomfortably pin the phone between your palms since your fingers can’t cradle it from the back anymore.

Another major change on the ROG Phone 5 is the accessory port on the side of the handset. Whereas the previous three generations of Asus gaming phones have used two USB-C ports, this latest model trades one out for a pogo pin interface.

The new pogo pin system is a big improvement as it frees up the other USB-C port for charging the phone, even while holding the device in landscape mode. The first accessory to go with the new system is the AeroActive 5 cooler, which also features two new physical buttons you can use like the paddles on an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. Compared to the rear touch buttons, these physical buttons are much more comfortable to use, with a much preferable tactile feel.

Unfortunately, this new pogo pin-based connector also means most existing side-mounted ROG Phone accessories – such as the Twin View Dock 3 and Mobile Desktop Dock – won’t work with this new phone.

At the same time, Asus has only introduced a small family of gaming accessories for the ROG Phone 5. In total there are four accessories including the aforementioned AeroActive 5 cooler: the Kunia 3 controller – which is actually a holdover from the ROG Phone 3 – the ROG Gaming Clip, which lets you mount the phone to an Xbox, DualShock, or Stadia controller, and lastly the Professional Dock, that’s basically a USB-C Dock with an HDMI and two USB ports.

Overall the limited number of accessories and lack of backward compatibility with older attachments is a bit of a letdown. One of the big things that drew me to the ROG Phone over other gaming phones was its large ecosystem of accessories. The new accessories work well enough, but it’s unfortunate that existing users will have to jettison their current hardware if they upgrade to the ROG Phone 5.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate Edition – Gaming and Performance

The ROG Phone 5 comes running with the same Snapdragon 888 processor you’ve probably seen in most flagship Android phones. Unlike years past, this gaming phone isn’t running a Plus version of the mainline processor, so it won’t have any extra power over a high-end handset like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

What it does have over other Android phones is faster memory and storage, with 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM (specifically on the Ultimate Edition) and 512GB UFS3.1 SSD storage, respectively. Those graphene sheets and the improved cooling system I mentioned earlier also mean the ROG Phone 5 can run at full tilt for longer while remaining cooler than other devices.

Compared to most standard smartphones, the screen is much more tuned to gaming with a 144Hz refresh rate and a 300Hz touch sampling rate. That means the touchscreen reports your touch inputs three times every second, giving you a distinct edge of response time and accuracy over other players on regular phones.

Turning on X-Mode, which is activated by squeezing the sides of the phone, also tells the device to max out and prioritize CPU clocks, GPU power, network speeds, and memory for gaming. While you’re gaming you can also slide out the Game Genie interface to quickly adjust settings such as refresh rate and disable notifications. This is also where you map the Air Triggers, Rear Touch, and the Kunai 3 controls.

While there’s been a growing market of phone controllers, nothing allows you to map physical buttons to every on-screen control quite like this. The only thing I don’t like is Asus still has yet to add an option to invert the thumbstick controls.

Of course, the best thing of all about having a controller that connects directly with the Asus ROG Phone 5 is it’s a fantastic combo for streaming games on Stadia or GeForce Now. The layout of a standard controller perfectly lines up with that of the Kunai 3, and the hardwired connection with the handset helps reduce any input lag as you play games streaming from the cloud.

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Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate Edition – Camera

When it comes to cameras, there’s nothing new compared to the ROG Phone 3. Spec for spec, you’re looking at the same exact camera setup as last year’s model.

• 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.73″, 0.8µm, PDAF
• 13 MP, f/2.4, 11mm, 125˚ (ultrawide)
• 5 MP, f/2.0, (macro)
• 24 MP, f/2.5, 27mm (wide-selfie), 0.9µm

The good news is the ROG Phone 3 basically has every camera option you would need on even a mainstream Android phone, let alone one so focused on gaming.

The ROG Phone 5 takes sharp, highly detailed photos, but colors can often look washed out. Oddly enough, I think the extra processing put on night mode images actually makes them look better than any pictures taken in daylight and good lighting.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate Edition – Battery Life

The Asus ROG Phone 5 comes equipped with two 3,000mAh batteries for a total of 6,000mAh of battery capacity. Twin battery setups like this are becoming the norm with smartphones because it allows them to charge at faster rates without sacrificing capacity or getting too hot.

With a fast-charging rate of 65W, the ROG Phone 5 was able to get back up to 45% battery capacity after just 30 minutes and then 75% capacity after a full hour of charging.

As for longevity, the 6,000mAh battery is plenty big enough to get you through a long day. Without the least bit of restraint, I played games and streamed videos for hours, took photos, browsed the web and social media all day long, and yet I still ended the day with 48% battery capacity still in the tank. This phone can definitely see you through a long day and then some.

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In 1999, my next-door neighbor got Pokémon Snap for his Nintendo 64 and invited me over to play. Before then, I had only ever known Pokémon as static, pixelated images on a Game Boy screen that could be captured and used to train and fight.

Then, moments after I was dropped onto a tropical beach, a Doduo burst out of the bushes to my left with a mocking squawk as it ran to the water. A Pikachu cheerfully considered a thrown apple. In the distance, Lapras serenely arose from the waves. And my entire view of the Pokémon world was transformed.

New Pokémon Snap arrives over two decades after its immediate predecessor and has those many years’ worth of thoughts, feelings, and visions of the Pokémon world to reckon with — plus, like, almost 800 more Pokémon. Since its predecessor, the mainline games have moved solidly into 3D and we now see wild Pokémon roaming open fields as a matter of course. We’ve also watched them co-exist with humans in fanciful ideas of a true Pokémon world in Detective Pikachu and other media, and even snapped our own goofy AR interactions with Pokémon through Pokémon Go. So surely, by this time, the magic of seeing Pokémon living their lives in a more natural, lifelike setting has worn off, right?

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Having seen a 30-minute virtual, hands-off preview of New Pokémon Snap, I can say firmly: no, oh my God no, seeing Pokémon in the wild is still really cool.

My tour of New Pokémon Snap took me through its beach level twice — first during the day, and then again at night, when different Pokémon appear. It is in many ways a clear homage to the similar opening biome of the original. Crabrawlers laze about near the water, Exeggutors lumber along among palm trees, and Bellossoms lurk in tropical foliage, easily lured out with a Fluffruit or a bit of music. I saw returning faces too, like a cheerful Pikachu trotting across the sand and a dreamy Lapras in the distance.

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Despite having seen the same level at two different times a day, it seems like I haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s in it. For one thing, the beach had a branching path midway through that I wasn’t allowed to see an entire side of, and I’m sure there were Pokémon lurking in the water or bushes that we didn’t get around to luring out. And there are curious secrets dotted about, too, like mysterious Crystabloom flowers that seem to hold some interest for wild Pokémon.

New Pokémon Snap seems to know well the joy I once felt at seeing these fantastic, funny monsters in their natural habitats in its predecessor, and is prepared to go all-out to make sure I feel that way again. Much of its gameplay revolves around trying to elicit interesting reactions from the Pokémon you can encounter, all the better to snap exciting photos.

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That means not only tossing out your arsenal of tools — such as the aforementioned music and Fluffruit or Illumina Orbs, which will light up Pokémon — pell-mell. It also means searching for ways to lure Pokémon into clever situations or interactions, such as when the presenter awoke a Sandyghast from slumber and startled a nearby Octillary. Or when the presenter used the new Scan feature (which details Pokémon names and genders as well as identifies other interesting environmental objects) to attract the attention of a Corsola and a Pukumuku, causing them both to cheer and wave excitedly as we passed by. Or when I learned through visual aid exactly how a completely flat Stunfisk apparently consumes large pieces of food thrown directly atop its body.

Every Pokémon interaction I saw — and there were quite a few in this short stretch of a single level — was simply stuffed with personality, and so many evoked genuine laughter or cheers from me when I saw them react in a surprising, cute, or ridiculous way to whatever stimuli were thrown out. I’m re-watching the footage now, even, puzzling over the different things I want to try to encourage new responses.

While I feel that all of these Pokémon being delightful could be an end in and of itself, it’s not of course. The goal is to take photos, then submit them to Professor Mirror to aid his research. Points are awarded for the Pokémon’s pose, size, the direction they’re facing, their placement in the photo, the background, and whether or not there are other Pokémon around. Your goal is to eventually fill out a Photodex of every Pokémon in the Lental region, including up to four possible actions each individual Pokémon can be found doing. These actions are graded according to how challenging it is to entice the Pokémon to do it — effectively adding an extra level of challenge and puzzle beyond just seeking out every Pokémon you can find.

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Following Mirror’s grading, you can go back to previously-taken photos and edit them using the Re-Snap feature before sharing them with friends. This includes zooming in and out and adjusting the photo in case you want a better angle on a cute Pokemon pose, applying filters, stickers, and other effects. This system appears decently robust if still (perhaps wisely) limited to keep people from drawing or writing heinous things on top of Pokémon. I cannot wait to see what ridiculous snaps people flood social media with on launch day. You can put dumb-looking hats and bow-ties on Machamps. People will surely use this power responsibly.

Having loved the first Pokémon Snap, New Pokémon Snap is immediately an easy sell for the same reasons the original was: Pokémon are still cute, and taking photos of them is still an original and exciting way to interact with them. But there’s a specific care clearly being taken here by Bandai Namco to present the Pokémon in its photo safari as real, personable, lovable, and alive. I’m very optimistic that this consideration will bear out in New Pokémon Snap’s other levels, and can’t wait to start flinging Fluffruit in every nook and cranny myself, just to see what surprising friends pop out to say hi.

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Two months after launch, Hitman 3 players now have news of new, globe-trotting DLC. But this will be far more than a one-off episode. In fact, it’s a whole lot more.

Greed, the first chapter of Hitman 3’s Seven Deadly Sins seven-part-expansion series, will be released on March 30 and will be followed by several future installments that can be purchased individually for $5 each or $30 for the entire collection on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Stadia, Switch, and PC.

In the first contract, Agent 47 will tackle the Greed Enumeration Escalation mission, which will unlock the Rapacious Suit, Devil’s Cane, and Greedy Little Coin once completed. Greed will be followed by six more themed chapters, titled Pride, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, and Envy.

Developer IO Interactive previously mentioned that while Hitman 3 likely wouldn’t receive any new levels, the studio was looking to support the game by using existing locations and reimagining them in a more twisted fashion.

Hitman 3’s current March roadmap of content is winding down, and has so offered a new escalation mission that can be completed to unlock a straitjacket, the Taunton dart gun, and the straitjacket belt. Players still have until March 29 to track down The Stowaway elusive target on the Isle of Sgail, and from March 30 until April 12 there’ll an Easter seasonal event where you can guide Agent 47 through an egg hunt in the Berlin level.

If you’re just starting out in Hitman 3, be sure to check out our extensive Hitman 3 guide roundup, which includes a full walkthrough, assassination guides, tips, and more.

Michael Keaton has indicated that he hasn’t yet committed to reprising his Batman role for The Flash because of his busy schedule and concerns over the current COVID situation in the UK.

In an interview with Deadline, Keaton appeared to cast some doubt over whether he would be suiting up to play Batman in the upcoming DC superhero film, opposite Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen. The actor acknowledged that he is “fortunate and blessed” to be busy with work at the moment, though he also cited his packed schedule and COVID concerns as two major considerations for taking on new projects.

“I am needing a minute to think about it because I’m so fortunate and blessed, I got so much going on now,” Keaton explained. “I’m really into work right now. I don’t know why, but I am, and so, yeah, I mean, you know, to tell you the truth, somewhere on my iPad is an iteration of the whole Flash thing that I haven’t had time yet.

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“I called them and said, I have to be honest with you. I can’t look at anything right now. I’m so deep into this thing I’m doing. Also, I’m prepping a thing I’m producing and getting ready to do down the road in the fall that I’ll be in, and I feel responsible to that. So, yeah, there is that. I’m not being cute or coy. If I talked about it, I’ll be just bulls***ting you. I don’t really know. I have to look at the last draft.”

Beyond scheduling, Keaton raised concerns about the ongoing COVID situation, especially in the UK where The Flash is filming. The actor admitted that COVID had become one of his greatest worries when deciding whether to take on new projects, and that he regularly monitors the ever-changing to situation to help him determine whether it’s safe for him to accept the work.

“I keep my eye more on the Covid situation in the UK than anything,” Keaton said. “That will determine everything, and so that’s why I’m living outside the city here on 17 acres, staying away from everybody, because the Covid thing has got me really concerned. So, that’s my first thing about all projects. I look at it and go, is this thing going to kill me, literally? And you know, if it doesn’t, then we talk.”

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With Ben Affleck’s Batman already confirmed to have a “very substantial part” in The Flash, Keaton previously joked that all “127” previous “Batmen” will be making an appearance in the movie, which is expected to deal with the DC multiverse and offer its own take on the iconic Flashpoint storyline that inspired elements of The Flash TV series and 2013’s Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Despite Nintendo’s plan to remove Super Mario 3D All-Stars from Nintendo Switch’s eShop and to cease production of physical copies on March 31, the company has confirmed that retail download codes will still be valid past that date.

As reported by VGC, Nintendo’s Japan HQ confirmed that these codes will be redeemable “after April,” and it would be safe to assume this would be the same for Western markets as well.

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It’s a small bit of good news for those who have yet to purchase Super Mario 3D All-Stars, but those interested shouldn’t waste time picking up the game if they wish to as March 31 is only seven days away.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars’ release was part of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. on the NES. When the Mario party ends on March 31 – the day the internet has dubbed “The Day Mario Dies” – Super Mario 3D All-Stars will be gone alongside the battle royale-esque Super Mario Bros. 35., the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. device, and themed merchandise.

If you’ve been waiting to purchase this collection that includes Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo has supported it with updates like adding inverted camera controls and GameCube controller support for Super Mario Sunshine.

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For more on Super Mario 3D All-Stars, check out our full analysis to see how some of the best Mario games of all time perform on the Nintendo Switch.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Sony has patented the ability to add trophies to older, emulated games, potentially allowing the rewards to be added to titles that pre-date the Trophy system.

The patent was published on March 18 and spotted by the Bartman013 on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit. The patent is described as a “Method and apparatus for awarding trophies,” and describes how an emulated game could still trigger trophies “by comparing a memory value of the emulated game to a predetermined value and assigning the one or more trophies to the user based on the detected trophy trigger.”

The patent’s description talks about how the technology will allow Sony to award trophies in “previously released or sold video games, without modifying the original game.” Essentially, this could allow for older titles to be retrofitted with trophies, so players can earn them in games that pre-date the feature, which was introduced with the PlayStation 3.

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It also mentions how the system would perform validity checks on the code of older games to determine if criteria has been met to award players with trophies, by tracking disk access in-game and monitoring strings and frames. It also mentions Cloud computing, suggesting this technology could interface with the PlayStation Now service.

One of the most interesting parts of the patent is a section which talks about physical rewards. In describing the trophy awarding process, the patent says the following: “This may be done by transmitting an electronic trophy or sending a notification that a physical award, such as a T-shirt, accessory or other physical merchandise, has been earned by the player.”

This isn’t the first time Sony has produced a patent for this kind of thing – as far back as 2013, we saw patents that could add Trophies to PS1 and PS2 games, although those were specifically for disk-based games. Given that that tech never emerged, it may be that this new filing is simply an update to that original idea. As always, patents don’t necessarily mean a feature is on the way, but do offer us a glimpse at what companies are considering behind the scenes.

In and of itself, the mention of PlayStation game emulation will be of interest to many, after unconfirmed rumours suggested that the PS3, Vita and PSP stores could be permanently closed in a few months, potentially cutting off access to many older games.

In other PlayStation news, Sony recently acquired the Evolution Champion Series, the world’s largest fighting game tournament. We also learned that Assassin’s Creed creator Jade Raymond will be making a new game for PlayStation, and got a first look at PSVR 2’s brand-new controllers.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid has detailed the extent of the brutality in the R-rated reboot of the film series, which is set to debut in theaters and on HBO Max in April.

Speaking to SFX Magazine via GamesRadar, McQuoid discussed how his upcoming Mortal Kombat movie lives up to its ultraviolent roots in order to deliver a faithful adaptation that brings the blood and gore strongly associated with the series to the big screen in a way that pushes the limits of the MPAA’s R rating without completely overstepping the boundaries.

“We wanted to push the [blood, gore, and fatalities] right to the limit,” McQuoid explained, speaking about the fatality-filled flick. “Obviously, there’s a point where the film becomes unreleasable if you push it too far, and that would be a very unwise return on investment for the studio but from day one it’s been, ‘Okay, we’re doing this and we’re going to do it properly.'”

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According to the MPAA, Mortal Kombat has been rated R for “strong bloody violence and language throughout, and some crude references.” Producer Todd Garner said that the movie’s R rating had been one of their top priorities from the very beginning. In fact, he revealed that he addressed it in his first meeting with studio executives, though they quickly assured him that there would be “no other way.”

McQuoid previously spoke to IGN about the execution of the fight scenes, saying, “We didn’t have to hold back on the fights. If there was a fight going on, someone got stamped through the head, blood probably would burst out the back, and we could do that. New Line deserves a lot of credit because they always wanted to do it justice as well.”

Warner Bros. will release the new James Wan-produced live-action adaptation of Mortal Kombat to theaters and HBO Max simultaneously on April 16, 2021. The movie’s distribution plan was reconsidered due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has impacted several studios and their release calendars over the past year.

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For more Mortal Kombat action, check out our deep-dive into the history of its bizarre movie and TV adaptations and read more about how the upcoming movie will be grounded in realism.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Fan favorite ex-Bethesda Director Ikumi Nakamura has announced that she is opening her own indie studio, and is developing a new game.

A short documentary from GameSpark and Archipel (which is available on YouTube) follows Nakamura as she tours abandoned buildings in Japan. Nakamura revealed that she left Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks due to health troubles. “I started wondering whether there wasn’t a way for me to make games while feeling better,” she says. “I took the decision to quit before it was too late.” After leaving, Nakamura received over 2000 messages on LinkedIn offering studio visits and support. She used these opportunities to understand “what made a good working environment.”

“I decided to use that experience to open my own small studio and build my IP,” Nakamura says. Later in the documentary, Nakamura adds that she wants to build a diverse team, noting that after her E3 presentation, 80% of the messages she received were from women “happy to see a female game creator getting on stage and showing her game.” Nakamura rounds off the documentary by adding that she wants to make a game “full of dark jokes,” and compares herself to Deadpool.

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Ikumi Nakamura left Tango Gameworks in September of 2019 after nine years as a creative director, her last project being Ghostwire: Tokyo. This came shortly after Nakamura stole Bethesda’s E3 show with an on-stage presentation of the upcoming game at E3 2019. Nakamura says that she initially thought that her talk had gone badly, but a colleague later showed her how the presentation was blowing up on Twitter and in the media. “I realised how important it was, to be honest to oneself,” Nakamura says.

Nakamura also talks about the games that motivated her to pursue a career in the games industry such as Devil May Cry and provides an overview of her career so far. Describing Ghostwire: Tokyo, Nakamura says “I really like urban legends and everything that touches the occult. Fringe science as well, using science to solve ghost mystery series. There was the ‘Fringe’ series as well, which I liked a lot. I was thinking that we could make a game that was mixing all of these.”

Ghostwire: Tokyo is aiming to arrive for PS5 and PC in October, and will remain a timed console exclusive, despite Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda and, by association, Tango Gameworks. In June 2020, Nakamura told IGN Japan that she has plans to pitch a new Okami game to Capcom, after teasing a potential collaboration with PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya in October of 2019.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.