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The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are officially available to preorder at T-Mobile today and, as expected, the carrier has some great discounts for prospective upgraders.
Firstly is perhaps the most impressive deal. It's a promotion for new customers specifically - one that lets you include an iPhone 18 Pro alongside a new line on the carrier's Experience Beyond 2.0 plan. Impressively, no trade-ins are required here, which makes this a potentially good option if you're coming in fresh from another carrier without a decent phone ready to hand over.
The other discount, and one that's eligible for existing customers, is a trade-in rebate of up to $1,200 off. That covers both the iPhone 18 Pro and the 18 Pro Max, so it's possible to get a significant discount on either device. As you'd imagine, however, you will need the associated plan here; in this case, a line on either the Experience Beyond 2.0 plan or the legacy Go5G Next plan.
iPhone 18 Pro now available to preorder at T-MobileiPhone 18 Pro: included with a new line, or with an eligible trade-in at T-Mobile
T-Mobile's opening iPhone 18 Pro deal is exactly what I was expecting; it's a very competitive deal indeed. Firstly, new customers can get a standard iPhone 18 Pro included if they switch over from another carrier and pick up a device on the Experience Beyond 2.0 plan. The other option at the carrier is a trade-in rebate of up to $1,200 off, which is a good option for upgraders. That's also eligible on the Experience Beyond plan, but according to the T&Cs, it's also eligible for existing customers on the older Go5G Next plan too. View Deal
It's roughly in line with what the carrier's offered on the high-end iPhones in the past couple of months. That said, it's a little better than usual simply because the iPhone 18 Pro is $100 more expensive than the previous generation. It's kind of 'adjusted for inflation' so to speak, which is welcome when you're paying so much for a plan.
Of the two deals, the switching offer is definitely a highlight, as several other carriers still require trade-in criteria to be eligible for a similar discount. By comparison, the trade-in rebate is much more 'standard fare', but it is roughly equivilent with what the other major carriers are offering right now, so it's still a very good deal.
If you'd like to read more about the iPhone 18 Pro, I'd highly recommend checking out our hands-on feature from this year's Apple event, which includes specs, features, and our initial thoughts on the device. Our review will be following shortly, so stay tuned.
It proved to be a popular deal last time I wrote about it, and now the Shokz OpenRun Pro are back on sale for $109.95 at Amazon. That may be $10 more than the price I spotted a couple of months ago, but this is still an excellent offer for some of the best bone conduction headphones you can buy.
Even though this is the last-generation model as well, they still offer all the key features you want from a pair of running and fitness headphones. You get impressive audio quality, a light and comfortable design, and a respectable battery life of up to 10 hours on a single charge.
The newer OpenRun Pro 2 does offer upgrades to the sound, a slightly longer battery life, and a more modern suite of charging options, but if you're a casual user or aren't sure if you'll be a fan of the tech, this is a good way to try while the headphones are significantly cheaper.
Today's best bone conduction headphones dealIf you've never tried bone conduction headphones before, now's a good time to buy while there's a solid $70 discount on the Shokz OpenRun Pro. This may be the older model, but you still get excellent audio quality, a comfortable and slim fit, and good battery life of up to 10 hours. If you're a runner or fitness enthusiast who wants to avoid in-ear options or be aware of your surroundings, these are a great budget buy.View Deal
Our Shokz OpenRun Pro review called them "the best bone conduction headphones you can buy" when we originally tested them at launch. Newer models have launched in the last couple of years that have developed the tech further, but these still remain an excellent option for the budget-conscious.
There have been improvements to audio quality, quality-of-life features such as USB-C charging, and better battery life in the current-gen version of the OpenRun Pro, but I wouldn't say there's anything fundamentally important that requires you to skip this older (and cheaper) model.
If you want to compare more pairs before making your purchase, be sure to read through our guide to all of the best bone conduction headphones, which features our expert tester's thoughts on tech from top brands including Shokz, H2O, and Nank.
"Lyrics are where people find meaning in music."
So says Marco Paglia, Chief Product Officer at Musixmatch - the platform delivering time-synced lyrics and translations across all major music streaming services.
At a time when passive background streaming feels like it dominates the landscape, I spoke to Marco to find out how lyrics are changing the game for musicians and their listeners.
In an era of passive streaming, why are lyrics still an important tool for turning casual listeners into diehard fans?A playlist plays at you, while lyrics make you lean in, follow the words and recognise something about yourself.
Lyrics represent one of the few moments in streaming when the listener stops being passive. A playlist plays at you, while lyrics make you lean in, follow the words and recognise something about yourself in what an artist is saying. That moment of connection is often where a casual listener starts to become a fan.
This experience has changed significantly over the last few decades. Lyrics used to be a souvenir: you bought the CD, pulled out the booklet, and read along. Now they are a fundamental part of the listening journey itself - time synced, translated and available immediately on screen as the song plays.
The scale of that behaviour is significant, with 88% of premium subscribers actively using lyrics. People read along, search for a chorus to find a track, share a line on Instagram or TikTok and print it on shirts.
Lyrics are where people find meaning in music. We see that reflected in listening behaviour too: tracks with lyrics generate 3.5x more saves, one of the clearest signals that someone wants to come back to a track. None of that is passive.
Ultimately, that’s why lyrics are such a powerful connective tissue between a song, an artist and the people who become invested in it.
On social media, a track can blow up in 24 hours. How much momentum does an artist lose if their lyrics aren’t synced on day one?If there is no lyric card to screenshot, no sticker, no karaoke moment, you’re leaving fan engagement on the table right as curiosity peaks.
More than most artists realise, and that loss isn’t recoverable! The first few days of a release are a unique window: attention is at its highest, fans are actively searching for the track, and the moments that shape its trajectory are starting to build. Once that window passes, you can’t recreate it.
There are three things happening all at once in that initial period. Firstly, discovery: 81% of listeners search for lyrics online, so if a track’s lyrics aren’t available, it risks missing people actively trying to find it through words they’ve heard.
Secondly, algorithmic weighting: days one to seven are when saves and completion count most, and lyrics drive both of these things.
Thirdly, social engagement: lyrics give fans something to interact with and share. If there is no lyric card to screenshot, no sticker, no karaoke moment, you’re leaving fan engagement on the table right as curiosity peaks.
Then the window closes. Add lyrics on day eight and the opportunity to capture that initial release-week momentum has already passed. At that point, the focus shifts to longer-term discovery - and there’s no way to recreate that first week.
That’s exactly why we built Pre-Release, which means lyrics, sync and translations can all be in place and live from the moment a track drops.
For example, when the Rolling Stones released their latest album it launched fully covered, with lyrics, sync and translations in eight languages. Day-one lyrics aren’t a nice-to-have. They have to be part of the release itself.
How much manual effort is actually required from an artist or manager to get their lyrics and metadata release-ready across all platforms?Historically an enormous amount, and almost all of it is invisible, unglamorous work: transcribing, time-syncing line by line.
Historically an enormous amount, and almost all of it is invisible, unglamorous work: transcribing, time-syncing line by line, getting the structure and credits right.
Our job is to collapse that process. Customers can get verified in one step, we then pull their catalogue automatically from distributor data and audit it against what’s live on every Digital Service Provider (DSP). That produces a coverage report showing exactly where lyrics are missing, and prioritising the tracks where filling those gaps will have the greatest impact.
From there, customers can use our AI tools to transcribe and sync lyrics, or hand it to our expert curators. Our transcription engine is built specifically for the singing voice, and is more than twice as accurate as general speech tools.
That technology is backed by a global curator network that can help with proofreading across 100+ languages. Once everything is ready, it can be distributed to 25+ platforms simultaneously, with live status tracking. What could have taken months, now takes days.
There’s another part of this that catalogue managers sometimes underestimate: the same process can power the campaign around a release. Once the lyrics are ready ahead of release day, that file can also produce the vertical video loops for TikTok, Instagram, Spotify Canvas assets, and the YouTube lyric videos ready to go live alongside the track. One deliverable, every surface, no video shoot.
You describe Music Lens as ‘the world’s first Music Agent’. What does that mean in practice, who benefits and how?It analyses meaning, but it doesn’t write songs.
Music Lens allows users to stop querying a database and to have a conversation with their catalogue. In practice, that means four things.
It can match a catalogue to a creative brief, it turns global trends into readable insight so you can see a breakthrough moment while it’s still happening, it gives clear visibility into royalties, splits and DSP performance (market by market), and it generates campaign-ready visuals from songs in seconds.
I like to think of it as an agent that develops through four stages: first, a musicologist, reading lyrics and extracting meaning, moods and themes. Then a DJ, enabling search by feeling, rather than simply based on the artist or title. Then it becomes a music expert, reasoning through a brand brief in the way a human sync agent would. Finally, it is an analyst, mapping how an artist's themes evolve and identifying patterns across countries and genres.
The biggest beneficiaries are publishers and labels with catalogues too large to know intimately, sync teams doing the matching process from memory, and independent artists who’ve never had this class of analysis available to them at all.
And the part I care most about is that it’s non-generative: it analyses meaning, but it doesn’t write songs. It’s built on derived data, meaning new information created by processing a catalogue of over 100 million works. It’s permission-based, with no scraping, no unlicensed content and no raw lyric ever surfaces in the output. That was a hard licensing constraint and it shaped every architectural decision downstream.
Do platforms like this level the playing field for artists to build a career without needing the support of a major label?Now the words travel with the music.
We give independent artists access to the tools and the infrastructure that historically were much harder to access without the support of a major label. We can offer reach across every platform, control over metadata, professional-grade catalogue intelligence, a merchandising operation, and the one people often forget: translation.
For example, an independent artist can verify their profile, own their lyrics, sync them for free, distribute them to 25+ platforms, ask Music Lens which of their songs has untapped potential, turn a lyric into merchandise, and reach fans in their own language on day one.
More than 1.5 million artists already use Musixmatch Pro to do exactly this. Ten years ago, much of that capability would have sat behind a label services deal.
Translation is the most underrated part of that shift. An artist making music in a bedroom in Bologna with listeners in São Paulo used to have no way to close that gap. Now the words travel with the music.
There are of course elements of labels that we don’t replace, and which are still a real advantage, such as capital, generating radio and playlist relationships and dedicated teams focused on building an artist’s career.
But we have certainly helped level the playing field by putting more information, tools and infrastructure directly into the hands of independent artists.
Beyond backend metadata and licensing, how do you plan to turn your platform into an active community and a richer experience for fans?The part I find most interesting is what happens when an artist opens that experience up to their fans.
Musixmatch has always been a community, a large one, made of people who care enough about a song to get its words right. That passion is our asset. What we’re building now is the layer where fans and artists actually meet.
Translation is one of the most powerful examples. Most people know lyrics in languages they don’t speak, and translation turns that from a novelty into belonging.
Last November, we powered Spotify’s first global rollout of lyric translations on Rosalía’s LUX: 14 languages on one record, 23 translations synced for release day. It became the most-streamed album in a single day by a Spanish-speaking female artist. When language stops being a barrier, fandom stops being local.
Merchandise, and specifically fan-personalised merchandise, is another opportunity. Our Lyrics Merch tool allows an artist to turn a lyric into something a fan wears: designed, printed and sold through us, with the artist keeping 100% of sales. But the part I find most interesting is what happens when an artist opens that experience up to their fans.
If they want to offer it, the fan can choose their own favourite line from the song and have that printed on a shirt. It’s a completely different relationship from buying tour merch. The fan isn’t picking from what the artist decided to print, they’re telling the artist which words mattered most to them. Every shirt becomes a small piece of feedback about which lyric actually landed, and the fan ends up wearing a line they chose themselves.
Finally, there’s participation. We have a global community made up of music lovers, who transcribe, sync and translate lyrics. Our curators help us to ensure lyrics are accurate, properly synced and accessible to fans around the world. The more credit and better tools we give them, the better the data gets, which improves the experience for everyone.
The American engineer Mark Cooper is considered one of the leading pioneers of the wireless communications industry, envisioning a world in which people would communicate wherever they were and not from fixed locations. Without his work in the mid-20th century, the mobile communications industry would arguably be non-existent.
Hello MotoOn the 38th anniversary of the first cell phone call, journalist Bob Greene wrote an article for CNN commemorating Cooper's pioneering work. During this interview, he recounted the way that Cooper explained the thinking behind the concept of the mobile phone.
Quote of the dayThis article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here.
The concept for the "personal telephone", as Cooper described it, came from shifting the concept of a telephone number from something that was fixed to a location or infrastructure to something that represented an individual.
This notion, which broke away from the absolute necessity of being tethered to a copper wire, gave individuals (initially working professionals) absolute mobility and freedom to communicate from wherever they were.
Call me maybeCooper headed Motorola's communications systems division in the 1970s and conceived of the first portable cellular phone in 1973, which began a 10-year process of bringing the device to market.
He was the lead inventor named on the 'radio telephone system' patent filed in October 1973, but several months earlier he had demonstrated to the press the first handheld cellular phone call in public. He used a prototype DynaTAC device, which he used to call a base station that had been installed on the rooftop of the then-Burlington House in New York.
It's now impossible to envisage how the business world could have been shaped without his pioneering work, with hundreds of millions of units shipping each year. Indeed, this capability to communicate from anywhere – and anytime – has led to immeasurable productivity benefits over the last few decades.
A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, September 12 (game #1189).
Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.
What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Connections today (game #1190) - today's words(Image credit: New York Times)Today's NYT Connections words are…
- PORRIDGE
- GARFIELD
- DROOPY
- EMPTY
- HEATHCLIFF
- EXCESS
- GRANT
- SLACK
- ODIE
- PARAMOUNT
- SAGGING
- MADISON
- FLACCID
- KEWPIE
- CLEVELAND
- DOUBLESPEAK
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: Squishy
- GREEN: American leaders
- BLUE: Double characters
- PURPLE: Geographical endings
Need more clues?
We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections today (game #1190) - hint #2 - group answersWhat are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: LACKING IN FIRMNESS
- GREEN: U.S. PRESIDENTS
- BLUE: WORDS THAT SOUND LIKE TWO LETTERS
- PURPLE: ENDING IN ELEVATED LANDFORMS
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #1190) - the answers(Image credit: New York Times)The answers to today's Connections, game #1190, are…
- YELLOW: LACKING IN FIRMNESS: DROOPY, FLACCID, SAGGING, SLACK
- GREEN: U.S. PRESIDENTS: CLEVELAND, GARFIELD, GRANT, MADISON
- BLUE: WORDS THAT SOUND LIKE TWO LETTERS: EMPTY, EXCESS, KEWPIE, ODIE
- PURPLE: ENDING IN ELEVATED LANDFORMS: DOUBLESPEAK, HEATHCLIFF, PARAMOUNT, PORRIDGE
- My rating: Hard
- My score: 1 mistake
Not being as knowledgeable about US presidents as I should be, it took me until I had just eight tiles left to connect CLEVELAND, GARFIELD, GRANT, and MADISON.
Earlier, I had assumed the GARFIELD in question was the cartoon cat and we were looking for a quartet of comic strip felines — HEATHCLIFF is another and I took a punt on DROOPY and CLEVELAND.
The silver lining to my error was that it made me notice “cliff” at the end of HEATHCLIFF and I was able to spot the four tiles that made up ENDING IN ELEVATED LANDFORMS, thus snagging a relatively early purple group.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Saturday, September 12, 2026, game #1189)- YELLOW: WAYS TO PERSONALIZE A CAR: BUMPER STICKER, FUZZY DICE, HOOD ORNAMENT, VANITY PLATE
- GREEN: PEOPLE IN AN ONLINE FORUM: LURKER, POSTER, SPAMMER, TROLL
- BLUE: THINGS THAT BLINK: CURSOR, EYELIDS, SMOKE DETECTOR, TURN SIGNAL
- PURPLE: ______ ALERT: NERD, RED, SPOILER, WEATHER
NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.
It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.
It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Saturday, September 12 (game #1692).
Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #1 — VowelsHow many different vowels are in Quordle today?• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #2 — repeated lettersDo any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.
Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #3 — uncommon lettersDo the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.
Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #4 — starting letters (1)Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.
If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:
Quordle today (game #1693) — hint #5 — starting letters (2)What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?• L
• S
• M
• E
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #1693) — the answers(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)The answers to today's Quordle, game #1693, are…
- LUCID
- SPRAY
- MANGE
Despite playing Quordle hundreds of times I’m still making silly mistakes — like today guessing “anime” when the letter 'I' had already been ruled out.
Sometimes I just get a word in my head and have to put it down.
Oh well, at least it wasn’t costly as I soon came to my senses and guessed MANGE.
Daily Sequence today (game #1693) — the answers(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1693, are…
- THEME
- CAMEL
- AWARD
- PROSE
- Quordle #1692, Saturday, 12 September: SUPER, BRUSH, RESET, SOWER
- Quordle #1691, Friday, 11 September: PLUSH, PAINT, RIVAL, AFOUL
- Quordle #1690, Thursday, 10 September: AGENT, EXILE, TITAN, PUREE
- Quordle #1689, Wednesday, 9 September: HAPPY, GONER, SMACK, MOTIF
- Quordle #1688, Tuesday, 8 September: FLUNG, DIARY, HALVE, BERTH
- Quordle #1687, Monday, 7 September: VISIT, CLANK, FEVER, OCEAN
- Quordle #1686, Sunday, 6 September: PILOT, HONOR, BOWEL, TAUNT
- Quordle #1685, Saturday, 5 September: GNASH, GEEKY, WHELP, PUTTY
- Quordle #1684, Friday, 4 September: QUICK, BEEFY, TRUCK, SNAIL
- Quordle #1683, Thursday, 3 September: SIGMA, ESSAY, MERRY, LLAMA
- Quordle #1682, Wednesday, 2 September: INCUR, FELLA, TITAN, FROZE
- Quordle #1681, Tuesday, 1 September: NASAL, ROUTE, ANKLE, MIGHT
- Quordle #1680, Monday, 31 August: ALIVE, LOUSE, ABOVE, MOSSY
- Quordle #1679, Sunday, 30 August: USING, SORRY, FILET, PIPER
- Quordle #1678, Saturday, 29 August: OVINE, ALLOY, VOICE, CARVE
- Quordle #1677, Friday, 28 August: WAIST, EDICT, BONUS, DEUCE
- Quordle #1676, Thursday, 27 August: SHEEN, TRICE, WAGON, BEVEL
- Quordle #1675, Wednesday, 26 August: OPIUM, EPOCH, BESET, FINER
- Quordle #1674, Tuesday, 25 August: BLESS, FELON, PORCH, CHOSE
- Quordle #1673, Monday, 24 August: MAJOR, VERGE, CRUSH, SCOFF
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, September 12 (game #923).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #924) - hint #1 - today's themeWhat is the theme of today's NYT Strands?• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Top secret
NYT Strands today (game #924) - hint #2 - clue wordsPlay any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
- TEARS
- STEAR
- VAST
- CRATE
- CRAVEN
- GRANTED
- STOLE
• Spangram has 10 letters
NYT Strands today (game #924) - hint #4 - spangram positionWhat are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?• First side: left, 4th row
• Last side: right, 4th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #924) - the answers(Image credit: New York Times)The answers to today's Strands, game #924, are…
- MOLE
- AGENT
- ASSET
- PLANT
- COUNTERSPY
- OPERATIVE
- SPANGRAM: UNDERCOVER
- My rating: Hard
- My score: 2 hints
The theme was an obvious one, but I still found it difficult to locate any game words.
Fortunately, finding non-game words was less tricky, so I took a couple of hints to get going.
This left me with three long words, including a spangram that I really should have seen from the start. I’d like to think that this was a deliberately well hidden set of words but human error is far more likely an explanation for my performance.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, September 12, game #923)- LIBERATE
- FREE
- RELEASE
- DETACH
- UNLOOSE
- SPANGRAM: LETITGO
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.
- Diablo 5 developers confirm that Sanctuary is overrun by hell in the upcoming game and has become an "outpost of hell"
- Humanity has fallen and "some humans have been corrupted or raised to become dread commanders"
- Diablo 5 was revealed at BlizzCon 2026 with a Spring 2029 release window
After the reveal of Diablo 5 in the BlizzCon 2026 opening presentation, developers of the upcoming action role-playing game took to the stage to discuss several aspects of the game. The picture of Sanctuary that the devs painted in this Diablo 5 — Forging the Next Era panel that we watched live at BlizzCon 2026 was not cheery at all.
"All of it [Sanctuary] has been overrun. It's become an outpost of hell," said Joe Shely, game director. "There are hardly any humans who haven't bowed or become cultists." But wait, it gets worse, as "some powerful humans have been corrupted and raised to become dread commanders. They have the power of the Dukes of Hell, and anyone who has resisted gets put into a soul cage or pulled into the terror realm."
Make no mistake, the narrative and setting for Diablo 5 isn't one that's built around the risk of the forces of evil entering Sanctuary, or the danger of the spread of evil: Sanctuary has fallen, and everything is on fire.
The official Blizzard blog post describes the world further by saying, "This is not Sanctuary waiting for the apocalypse. It is already living through one. In Diablo V, humanity has fallen into ruin," and that it's a "haunting, desolate land shaped by despair, resilience, and the few survivors fighting to endure another day."
This full embrace of defeat, darkness, loss, and misery as the starting point for Diablo 5 is really interesting, and extends the aforementioned doubling down on the darkness of Diablo 4, and makes for a deeply compelling setting, and one I can't wait to explore when it releases in Spring 2029.
- Diablo 5's player character is the Heir of Westmarch, a fugitive from the forces of hell
- Not much is know about them apart them having a "unique bond with Diablo"
- This bond will apparently give us an "insight" into the big bad Diablo
During the Diablo 5 — Forging the Next Era panel, which we watched at the conference, Diablo 5 devs revealed a couple of key details about the player character.
Instead of stepping into the shoes of another Wanderer or similar protagonist archetype, we now know you'll play as a character known as the Heir of Westmarch.
Not much is known about the Heir, aside from them being a fugitive on the run from the forces of hell, but what is particularly interesting and exciting is that the Heir will have a "unique bond with Diablo that you find out over the course of the game, why and how it came to be", according to Jennifer Hepler, narrative director.
This will allow the Heir of Westmarch to have some form of "insight into him [Diablo], but also a unique vulnerability to what he can do to you," which will apparently give us the chance to "spend the game defining yourself in opposition to the Lord of Terror." Does this imply there's some sort of mental connection between Diablo and our hero? Or some kind of means of direct communication or even control?
To make it even more intriguing, and provide possible insight into the closeness of this connection, Hepler added, "Can you resist his influence? Can you turn his powers against him? That's what the story and the gameplay are going to let you answer." Color me curious.
Also, according to Hepler, "the story really begins when you find out that you can enter the terror realm and survive."
This paints the portrait for a really interesting starting point for the player character, and I can't wait to find out more in the run-up to the game's release window of Spring 2029.
- Total War: Warhammer 40,000 battle product owner Dave Petry says it was important to implement player customization in the game
- He says it was a "big deal" to bring those customization options from the hobby forward to the game
- Petry adds that it was "awesome" to bring in the "core" features from the hobby
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 offers plenty of player customization options, which Creative Assembly has now revealed was an essential feature it wanted in the game from the start.
In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, battle product owner Dave Petry, alongside lead designer Joy Dey, said player customization in all aspects was always a "must-have," as the studio wanted to simulate the same experience for fans of the tabletop Warhammer game and beloved hobby.
"The second we picked this up, we knew we had to make a big deal of being able to tell your own story within this universe to bring in your own identity and get to be part of all of it," Petry said.
The developer also told TechRadar Gaming that it worked closely with Games Workshop to ensure the player experience was as "authentic" to the tabletop game as possible. This included simulating the tabletop's combat the way that fans are familiar with.
"We're trying to create an authentic sense of the lore and the kind of combat that's there, but the love for the tabletop absolutely is present," Petry said.
As for customization, Petry told us that it was "awesome" to bring in the "core" features from the hobby, and teased aesthetic unit personalization, loadout customization, and late-game progression.
Petry also confirmed that the game will feature the actual real-life paint colors used by Games Workshop too, so fans will be able to use the same ones they know and love and recreate their real-life armies or favorites in the game.
"In terms of what you can do, not just the aesthetic customization, colors, etc, etc," he went on, "but being able to specialize your units throughout a campaign and, over that campaign, take your intercessors, specialize them towards using, say, like bolt rifle, auto bolt rifles, or stalkers, leveling them up, kitting them out in different ways, and you know potentially ultimately getting them to be like stern guards.
"All of that sort of stuff is absolutely part of that core hobby that you experience this way."
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 launches in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.