Design

Of course, an 18-inch powerhouse is always going to be big. The MSI Titan 18 HX measures in at 3.17 x 40.38 x 30.48cm and weighs 3.59kg. That’s right in the middle of other 18-inch machines; it’s heavier than the Razer Blade 18 and Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (both 3.1kg) but keeps things light compared to the Alienware M18 (4.23kg). It is, however, significantly thicker than the M18 at 3.17cm vs 2.66cm, making for a more unwieldy device overall. Add the extra length from the additional cooling shelf at the back (translating to between 1cm and 2cm larger footprint compared to Asus and Razer’s 18-inch models), and the MSI Titan is living up to its moniker.  

I don’t expect many to be actually lugging this machine around, though. Most 18-inch gaming laptops are designed to sit on a desk and stay there, with the option to close up that clamshell and relocate every now and then. If you’re considering taking this big-screen experience on the go regularly, though, I’d have to point you towards a slightly smaller model. As it stands, these dimensions won’t fit into a regular laptop backpack and after carrying it in a modified sling pouch for about 15 minutes I can confidently recommend nobody does the same.  

The overall aesthetic keeps things simple and subdued, though. A matte black lid with silver accents running across an industrially-styled cooling shelf (think that anti-slip metal flooring you’ll find on fairground rides) ensures a low profile - broken only by an RGB lit MSI logo in the centre of the lid. The solid construction and lack of any real flex in the lid means this looks and feels like a luxury design, though it’s not quite as slick as Razer’s classic CNC milled brick nor as RGB-friendly as Asus’s blaze of glory. There’s a little flex to the main keyboard, but only when explicitly feeling for it - everyday typing is immune. The whole device is solid, though, with no creaking or rattling, and a sturdy, dependable feel.  

Inside, I was initially met with a surprise. No trackpad? Of course, there is a pad here - it’s just fully haptic-based with no cutout from the main deck. That means it’s only visible via RGB lighting when the laptop is switched on, otherwise settling flush with the rest of the glass surface. What seemed cool at first, though, quickly became annoying. With no border to the trackpad itself I was constantly straying off to the side of the main deck during testing, a frustrating recurrence only made more frequent by the fact that this is a slightly smaller pad than you’ll usually find on an 18-inch model. The vast majority of users are likely going to be plugging a separate gaming mouse in, but it’s still finicky for quicker everyday use. 

Underneath, you’ll find a set of fairly high-rise rubber stilts used to keep plenty of space for airflow around the large number of vents. This is also where you’ll find a small blue accent running through the aesthetic, repeated towards the rear of the device as well. 

My unit came with some slight wear around one of the screws connecting the bottom panel. While it’s true that this is not a box-fresh device, and has likely been shipped around the country before heading my way, this could be a point of weakness during future use, especially if you’re opening up the rig regularly.

Features

This is a tricked out rig. Under the hood, you’ll find an RTX 4090 GPU running at its full 175W TDP, an Intel 14th generation i9-14900HX blazing through 24 cores and 32 threads, an overkill 128GB RAM, and split 2TB SSDs forming 4TB total storage. In theory, you can expand up to four memory slots. That’s an insane spec, one that the vast majority of players wouldn’t need to touch with a $5K barge pole, but if you’re going big with your next investment this is certainly where you’ll need to be looking.

Those kinds of specs mean the Titan 18 HX is going to be able to handle pretty much any computing task you could throw at it - and with a 4K Mini LED display that also includes content creation. The 120Hz panel does suffer for speed in favor of clarity and resolution, but it still offers up a gorgeous display. Gamers will benefit from extraordinary detail (though you’re dropping a little motion accuracy to get there, compared to machines using 165Hz or 240Hz panels) while creators will be able to view images in full resolution with excellent color reproduction. Local dimming means HDR content absolutely shines, with fantastic contrast ratios and a brightness that will put the OLED on the Razer Blade 16 to shame. Unfortunately, you’re out of luck if you do want to sacrifice that high-resolution quality for extra speed. The MSI Titan 18 HX only ships with this top-shelf display. 

There’s another flagship favorite here as well, one that I’ve only seen on the best Alienware laptops in the past, a full mechanical keyboard from Cherry and SteelSeries. The switches underneath offer a tactile feel with a satisfying clack and energetic movement. However, the actuation bump used in here does make repeat presses a little harder - spamming ‘E’ was a little slower on this deck than a regular chiclet style keyboard during my testing. I also noticed some ping running around the main deck when typing, usually the result of echo-y switches in a board that hasn’t been through the same sound dampening processes you’ll find in the best gaming keyboards these days. I came to this deck from gaming laptops with reduced layouts, so I was initially struggling to place my hands correctly when starting each session. Each key does feel a little more separated on this model, which could also explain some of the inaccuracy I felt - though this would be rectified with time and muscle memory.

18-inch gaming laptops want to completely replace your desktop, often without the need for an external hub or dock. That means you can expect a good range of ports, and the MSI Titan 18 HX delivers. The left panel houses the SD card reader and two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports with a third situated on the right side. Joining it are two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 options with one offering power delivery. I was pleased to find a few ports to the rear of the machine. This placement does wonders for cable management, keeping the sides of the machine free from a tangle of wires when placed on a desk. MSI, however, has limited these rear ports to connections you’ll only need to set and forget; power, HDMI 2.1, and Ethernet. Everything else remains flexible at the sides, even if that does mean a little sprawling. Personally, I prefer to keep everything to the back (Alienware generally keeps most of its connections hidden) - but if you’re constantly switching peripherals this is a more versatile arrangement. 

The Alienware M18 offers a similar array, though with older Gen 1 USB-A ports, but adds a Mini DisplayPort into the mix. However, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is far behind here, only offering two USB-A connections and a single Thunderbolt 4 option among its two USB-C ports. It’s worth noting that the original Razer Blade 18 posted a single Thunderbolt 4 as well, though the 2024 version packs Thunderbolt 5 for the first time. In the real world, that means you’ll be able to run three 4K 144Hz monitors off a single port on the Blade 18, with the MSI Titan being limited to two. It also makes for more powerful charging - though neither of these machines are going to realistically be relying on USB-C power for much of their lives. I’ve never felt the need to run the MSI Titan 18 HX off a single Thunderbolt cable alone when it’s set up in full glory on my desk top. 

All that power needs some serious cooling, and that’s where MSI’s vapor chamber comes in. The system uses two fans with four exhausts and those aforementioned stilts to keep everything running smoothly. I never noticed temperatures creeping to uncomfortable levels during my testing, and both CPU and GPU performance never suggested any kind of thermal throttling. The fans themselves can certainly rev, though. It’s by no means as deafening as something like the Alienware machines of yore, but you’ll still need a gaming headset when playing at full whack. 

And MSI can go to full whack. The Titan 18 HX features the brand’s Overboost Ultra tech - a fancy way of saying you can set the performance to max and keep everything running off the dedicated GPU. All of this is done in MSI Center, a refreshingly non-gamer vibing piece of software that houses all your performance stats and AI offerings. I’m not a massive fan of this suite - it seems to hide certain features under different user scenarios, some of which feel at odds with the functions they hide. It meant I was regularly digging through unintuitive menus during my testing, simply to swap between fan states. 

You’ll find the AI Engine housed here, though, a mode that allows the system to automatically apply certain performance settings and allocate more resource towards certain processes during individual tasks. There are four scenarios currently recognized by the laptop itself, meetings, work, gaming, and entertainment. This is a minor feature in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a set-and-forget function that can come in particularly handy when running through different tasks regularly. It’s often the quieter features that you don’t have to notice that make the best rigs. For all my MSI Center frustrations, I was menu-free when swapping between writing and gaming - and that’s not something I could have said last year. It’s another nod to the holistic approach the Titan is taking, aiming squarely at a small (but willing-to-pay) market of professionals looking for a content creation and gaming desktop replacement. 

That target means the Titan also houses a solid FHD webcam, bright and detailed enough for work calls by not quite broadcast-worthy, and a responsive microphone system. The ‘desktop replacement’ part of that market also means that the battery is just awful. MSI never really expected this to be a portable machine, so it’s understandable that I was only able to draw about an hour of work across Google Chrome and a few image editing programs out of a full charge. Judging this laptop based on its battery life would be like judging an F1 car on its subwoofer, though - it’s just not designed to use it. 

Performance

Nobody’s questioning whether or not the MSI Titan 18 HX can perform. With guts like this, someone would have seriously messed up if framerates weren’t through the roof. It’s no surprise, then, that this is - on the whole - the most powerful rig I’ve tested to date. That glory was previously awarded to the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (both the 2023 and 2024 versions), but the Titan has just nudged the edge in here. It didn’t hit the top of the pack in every test, sometimes the Alienware M18 or Scar 18 would sneak ahead, but it outperformed both models far more often than not.  

The first test I always run is 3D Mark’s suite of graphical benchmarks. Time Spy is the go-to for a QHD benchmark, testing the system’s GPU, CPU, and RAM across a synthetic process to reveal a final score. RTX 4090 GPUs have averaged a score of around 17,000 here in my testing to date. The MSI Titan 18 HX hit 20,491 - beating the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18’s 20,132 position but just missing the 2024 model’s 20,666 score. 

Fire Strike is an easier run, giving 1080p performance more space especially in a 4K-designed 18-inch rig like this. As expected, the MSI Titan 18 HX posted the highest score I’ve seen here yet, with a 36,083 final figure dominating over the 2023 and 2024 Strix Scar 18’s 34,507 and 33,092 respective results. 

Real-world testing in-game revealed the MSI Titan 18 HX’s prowess in older games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War: Three Kingdoms, where the system just managed to close out the winnings across my full 18-inch comparison suite. While the former is a relatively Nvidia-friendly title, and generally the easiest to run of all the benchmarked games, Total War can still be a slog despite its age. 

However, the Titan did fall on Returnal. I repeated these tests frequently, using the same parameters I always set up for laptop benchmarks, and couldn’t get anywhere near other machine’s results. Whether this is an issue software-side, or an interaction with another function within the MSI’s ecosystem remains, but it doesn’t feel like a faithful representation of the power on offer here. 

Unfortunately, The Talos Principle 2 is a benchmark I’ve only just started using and so I don’t have data for the Alienware M18 or either Strix Scar model. Instead, you’ll find the next best thing, a Razer Blade 16 recently tested with an RTX 4090 GPU, and an Alienware M16 R2 with an RTX 4070 for pricing scale.

We’ve come a long way since gaming laptops first started to consider 4K resolutions. It certainly wasn’t within reach back then, but it might just be now. This is the first time I’ve comfortably played faster titles in UHD resolution without any graphical tweaks and not been stuck under 60fps. High settings are more than runnable here, with three-figure 4K framerates on Shadow of the Tomb Raider and a comfortable 60+fps in more demanding titles as well. Bumping things up to ultra settings did land me underneath that 60fps threshold, but with the help of DLSS 3 I was able to bench 68fps in The Talos Principle 3 at 4K Ultra. It might take a few workarounds, but speedy 4K gaming is a real possibility here - and that’s not something I’ve written about a gaming laptop before.

Should you buy the MSI Titan 18 HX?

The MSI Titan 18 HX is true feat. An overpowered juggernaut as pricey as it is powerful, this is a specialized piece of kit no doubt. It’s just not going to make sense for the vast majority of players, though. I don’t know of too many people looking to drop a cool $5K on a gaming laptop these days - but there’s one crowd that’s going to go nuts for this tech. Content creators with a penchant for high-end gaming should be going all out here - this is as good as it’s going to get and if you’ve got the cash I can’t think of a better place to put it. 

For the rest of us, the MSI Titan 18 HX’s price point only solidifies just how good of a deal the Alienware M18 is. Of course, you’re going to be dropping some frames, picking up some older ports, and that screen won’t get you nearly as far, but for performance value the M18 remains my favorite 18-inch model on the market. 

How I tested the MSI Titan 18 HX

I used the MSI Titan 18 HX for all work and play over the course of three weeks, using the machine standalone and connected to a monitor via a dock. During that time I benchmarked across synthetic tests Geekbench 6, PC Mark 10, 3D Mark’s Time Spy, Fire Strike, and Steel Nomad, and Cinebench R24. I also took real-world benchmarks from Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Returnal, and The Talos Principle 2 in FHD, QHD+, and UHD+ resolutions and varying graphical settings. I also used the laptop for everyday play across Octopath Traveler, Fall Guys, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. For more information on how we test gaming laptops, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy. 

I’ve also had my hands on all the best Razer laptops and the best Asus gaming laptops. Or, for something even more portable, check out the best handhelds on the market.  

The new season kicks off six years after the season 3 finale, and sees the Hargreeves – mostly – fully adjusted to a life without powers. Viktor (Elliot Page) is managing a bar and breaking hearts in Nova Scotia, but the rest of the family is living in the same nondescript, unidentified US town. Now-married Diego (David Castañeda) and Lila (Ritu Arya) are a delivery driver and stay-at-home mom, respectively, Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) is acting in commercials, Luther (Tom Hopper) is an astronaut stripper, Klaus (Robert Sheehan) is three years sober, and Ben (Justin H. Min) is fresh out of jail after orchestrating a cryptocurrency scam. Only Five (Aidan Gallagher) is up to the same old tricks with a job at the CIA. 

Back in business

It's not all paychecks and childcare, though. When dry cleaning salesman Sy Grossman (David Cross) enlists their help after a family reunion to find his missing daughter Jennifer, domestic not-quite-bliss quickly turns into more regular Umbrella fare: guns, violence, and the imminent threat of apocalyptic doom. 

The season gets off to an intriguing start, but, even with its shortened six-episode run (seasons 1-3 clocked in at 10 episodes apiece), it feels a little loose around the edges rather than fitting like a glove around the new plotlines. 

For one thing, it feels like the show doesn't know what to do with fan-favorite Klaus. This season, he's off on another side quest away from his siblings. This isn't new ground for the character, but this time his shenanigans don't just seem irrelevant until they're not – they really don't have any bearing on the wider plot. His relationship with his niece, Allison's daughter Claire, is an interesting addition to the season, but it comes at the expense of her and Allison's mother-daughter dynamic. We don't see the pair interact very much, which somewhat cheapens season 3's big showdown. Allison's husband Ray is also out of the picture, which makes her willingness to sacrifice her siblings' lives last season feel kind of pointless.

New faces

A new strength, however, comes in the form of the show's latest additions. Former Parks and Recreation co-stars and real-life spouses Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are evidently having a blast as married gun-toting cult leaders Gene and Jean, who head up a conspiracy theorist group known as the Keepers, and it's infectious to watch. David Cross also makes an impact, despite more limited screentime, as dry cleaning salesman Sy Grossman. 

The show continues to be at its best when the siblings are all together. Lila is also given space to shine this season, particularly during an arc with Five. While this particular story thread (that we won't spoil here) may feel like it comes a little out of left field, it arrives at the right time: at the start of the season, both Diego and Lila are flattened to fit into oblivious husband and long-suffering wife archetypes, so it feels necessary to see Lila get to come into her own as the episodes progress. 

The finale (which, again, we won't spoil here) is a twist ending we didn't see coming, but it falls a little flat. While enough questions are answered to satisfy viewers (and enough are left unanswered to avoid the feeling of being spoon-fed logical conclusions), there are one too many plot threads seemingly forgotten, dismissed, or left by the wayside to carry through the emotional weight of previous seasons. Still, like any good family reunion, most frustrations can be waved away, at least in the moment. It's just good to get together – and to save the world. 

All episodes of The Umbrella Academy season 4 are streaming now on Netflix. For more, check out our guides to The Umbrella Academy season 4 ending explained and The Umbrella Academy season 4 post-credits scene.

When you're done, check out our guide to the other best Netflix shows to add to your watch list.

Somewhere on this off-world 'shithole' lies a secret vault containing priceless artefacts left by a lost civilization of aliens. The quest to locate it, alas, is a tortuous and draining one that tests the viewer’s patience just as much as it squanders the talents of its slumming ensemble of A-listers. 

As bounty hunter Lilith, a soldier of fortune initially hired by corporate magnate Atlas (Edgar Ramírez) to rescue his kidnapped daughter Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), Cate Blanchett sports a crimson quiff, a gunslinger’s holster, and a permanent rictus of disdain. As reformed mercenary Roland, meanwhile, Kevin Hart strives with little success to reinvent himself as an ass-kicking action hero.

Jamie Lee Curtis pops up along the way as an oddball 'xenoarchaeologist', while Jack Black literally phones it in as the voice of a hugely annoying robot named Claptrap. Try as they may, however, the chemistry that made Guardians of the Galaxy’s group of similarly mismatched misfits gel so entertainingly proves conspicuously and jarringly absent. 

This band of outlaws just aren’t much fun to be around, making it tough for us to care whether they prevail against Ramírez’s goons, Pandora’s beasties, or the Slipknot-masked crazies they encounter during a lengthy sojourn underground. And while Gina Gershon beguiles as Mae West-inspired nightclub owner Moxxi, she gets so little screen time it barely counts as a cameo.

Eli Roth’s caper has taken three years to reach us, had its reshoots entrusted to another director (Deadpool’s Tim Miller), and has a co-writer in Joe Crombie who appears to have no other credits. Small wonder it feels so messily chaotic, with cheap-looking FX and dodgy matte work adding to its woes. "Feel free to applaud" Hart quips at one point after driving an APC through the skull of a gargantuan, tentacled monster. Sorry Kevin, but the only applause Borderlands deserves is a slow handclap of derision.

Borderlands is released in UK cinemas on August 8 and in US theaters on August 9. 

For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming video game movies.

While Lively’s Lily is deeply taken by Doctor Ryle’s bedside manner, warning signs blare like klaxons. The first time they meet, for example, he is furiously kicking a chair. Fortunately for her she has a white knight in Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), the homeless kid she took a shine to back when they were high schoolers (portrayed by Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter) in Maine.

With its glam couture and sumptuously curated interiors, and a high-end mentality that extends from Lily’s fancy flower shop to Atlas’s upscale restaurant, Baldoni’s lush melodrama has a surface superficiality that is all too mockable. When it comes to the assaults its heroine endures though, it is admirably astute, not least in its depiction of partner abuse as a pattern of behavior passed down through generations.

Hoover’s novel drew on her personal experience of watching her father ill-treat her mother, so it’s hardly surprising this element carries a ring of emotional truth. For the most part, however, screenwriter Christy Hall is rather too content to wallow in consumerist fantasy – a foible most apparent in the scene where Lily strides into an equestrian-themed birthday party thrown by her boyfriend’s scatty sister (Jenny Slate) in a pair of sequin-studded heeled boots.

It Ends With Us is released in UK cinemas and US theaters on August 9. 

For more on what is coming out this year, check out our guide to the upcoming movies you need to know about.

Calling the Ayaneo Flip DS unique feels a little silly, especially since it borrows its design from one of the best gaming handhelds ever. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not remotely a bad thing, as it’s no different than when Nintendo revived its Game and Watch format to create the original DS. The point I’m making is that breaking away from the portable PC blueprint used by the likes of the Steam Deck OLED is well worth doing, and while I can think of a few examples of innovation backfiring in recent years, the Flip DS isn’t one of them.

With prices starting at $946 / £743 ($845 / £664 if you take advantage of Indiegogo early bird discounts), it’d be wild to tell every player to pick up a Flip DS. As a company, Ayaneo tends to avoid the ‘one size fits all approach’ in favor of making a variety of portable devices with different use cases. Simply put, if you have no emotional attachment to the NDS/3DS era of handheld gaming and you’d rather use a cheaper Android emulation device, this isn’t the portable for you. Looking to experiment and put that secondary screen to good use? Well, you’re in for a treat.

Specs

The specific Ayaneo Flip DS version I’ll be using for this review comes armed with 64GB RAM, a 2TB SSD, and an AMD Ryzen 7840U APU. Those specs are pretty ridiculous, especially since my main PC only has 32GB memory and a 1TB drive at its disposal. Naturally, you can dial things right down to a more reasonable 16GB/512GB combo if you’re not looking for monstrous specs, and you can also choose to invest in a beefier 8840U chip if you’re more fussed about frame rates. 

Just like the Ayaneo 2S, the Flip DS maintains a premium vibe throughout its entire spec sheet. I’d say the most “normal” aspect of this handheld is potentially its screen, as we’re dealing with a 1080p 120Hz display that matches the Asus ROG Ally. Of course, that’s likely due to the presence of that additional 3.5-inch touchscreen, which does function as a secondary display on Windows 11. 

Other nice-to-have traits include a double helping of USB-C ports (one of which is USB 4 compatible), an Oculink port, an optical finger sensor trackpad, hall-effect thumbsticks/triggers, and a six-axis gyroscope. All of that is packed into a 650g package that’s actually lighter than the new Asus ROG Ally X, but we are talking about a 45Wh battery instead of a beastly 80Wh setup. 

Design

I’m tempted to say it looks like a hulked-out Nintendo 3DS and leave it at that, but there’s quite a lot going on with Ayaneo’s design here. Keep in mind that the Flip DS is supposed to be a fully-fledged Windows 11 machine as well as a handheld gaming PC, so working that around something that caters to 3DS-style play is no mean feat. Thankfully, the handheld pulls it off with minimal caveats, especially since it avoids committing the same unbalanced sins as the Lenovo Legion Go.

First off, let’s chat controls, as fitting a full PC controller into a clamshell handheld is a little preposterous. Ayaneo makes it work for the most part, with flatter buttons and recessed thumbsticks leaving plenty of room for the lid to close. As someone with larger, battle-worn thumbs, I’m not 100% satisfied with how the buried sticks feel, but they’re nowhere near as bad as I thought they be, not to mention full-sized thumbsticks will beat the 3DS’s pathetic thumbslider any day of the week. 

As for the buttons, each input feels satisfyingly clicky, something that helps feel every press that bit more accurate. The D-pad also benefits from this, but its inherent flatness does put it at a disadvantage. These low-profile trade-offs are mandatory when making a device like this, so I don’t think they’re a dealbreaker by any means. But, if you are particularly sensitive to different controls, or you’ve just spent too much time playing retro consoles with better gamepads, you’ll want to take note.

Shifting onto ergonomics, I’m honestly surprised with how nice the Ayaneo Flip DS feels in the hand. The handheld’s back triggers are easy to reach and provide plenty of depth despite their size, and the back shell features a subtle curve with textured grips. Does it feel as comfortable as holding a Steam Deck? Not at all, but you can only expect so much from a clamshell device with two screens.

This is obviously subjective, but I think the Ayaneo Flip DS is a bit of a looker. It’s serving the exact kind of mix between odd and contemporary I look for in modern devices, which I guess makes sense from a modern device cosplaying as a 3DS. The part that impresses me most is that this thicc handheld manages to distract you from its chonk using a thinner screen on top while stowing everything else away in the bottom half – resulting in something that looks a lot sleeker than it actually is at a glance. 

Ayaneo has also pulled off fitting both the full 1080p display and its 3.5-inch counterpart into the handheld without any weirdness. By that, I mean both panels fit flush within the device and feature ordinary-sized bezels. I’m at peace with the fact this device misses out on the bezel-less illusion used by the Ayaneo 2S, and the black borders feel anything but intrusive. Keep in mind I’m using the black version, as the white model’s top display might feel a bit smaller due to its contrasting border.

Before I move on, I want to point out that the Flip DS doesn’t wear any RGB lighting. Considering most handheld makers act like it's a mandatory feature, it’s nice to see that Ayaneo hasn’t tried to shoehorn it in. Leaving it out means less distractions from the old-school NDS vibes it provides, and while you could just leave lighting off to achieve the same, I respect the optimization on show here regardless.

Features

In many ways, the dual-screen properties of the Flip DS serve as multiple features, especially when you throw the functionality of Ayaspace 2.0 into the mix. Ayaneo’s management software has come an incredibly long way since I first started testing the maker’s handhelds, and the software ultimately turns the device’s 3.5-inch panel into a Swiss-army touchscreen. 

Before we chat about using the dual screens to play excellent Nintendo capers, I want to dive into the functionality side of things. As I mentioned previously, the 3.5-inch display works just like any other secondary monitor on Windows 11, so you can use it to display virtually anything you’d like. In practice, trying to do that manually is a pain, which is why the handheld comes with Ayaspace functions that help automatically display things on the screen as well as provide quick access to performance monitoring and settings, not unlike the Ayaneo Mini PC AM02. 

I like to moan a lot about the compatibility gap inherent to Windows 11 handhelds, but this dual-screen approach actually helps build more of a bridge than any other device out there, making the experience much less aggravating. Did you forget to toggle the portable PC from power-saving mode to extreme? You’ll be able to do it without minimizing anything. Can’t get the on-screen keyboard to pop up? There’s a button in the quick menu for that. 

Essentially, Ayaneo’s software and the secondary screen will save you from having to navigate through annoying apps to tweak or fix settings, and I think I’d struggle to use Windows 11 on the go without it. You’ll still be able to dive into Ayaspace 2.0 either from the desktop or using the dedicated button for more complex options, but you won’t have to think about that 99% of the time. 

Performance

Alright, I’ve kept you waiting long enough – let’s talk about playing games on the Ayaneo Flip DS. It feels only right to start with the 3DS side of things, as it’s the thing that could help you decide between this handheld and other options. As a spoiler, let me just say that replaying some of my favorites on this extremely premium portable is incredible, and I’ll struggle to go back to using my faithful original. 

For my tests, I selected a few 3DS games from my collection and ran them through Citra – a reliable emulator. I eased the Flip DS gently into the road test by going with Bravely Default first, as the RPG is rated ‘perfect’ for compatibility by users. Without a hitch, I was able to launch into the Square Enix adventure and easily assign the touchscreen to the secondary display, all while automatically scaling the resolution up to match the handheld. 

As I anticipated, the role-playing romp managed to maintain full speed thanks to its compatibility and the sheer horsepower of Ayaneo’s handheld. A fantastic result by any means, but I figured I should try and make the portable PC sweat with something a little less optimized. I took that as the perfect excuse to finally replay The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds – a game that is seemingly just “great” when using Citra.

Occasional momentary stutters aside, Link’s 3D adventure felt solid on the Flip DS, and being able to easily mimic the OG console’s touchscreen helped me forget I was even emulating the adventure. This exact sensation is what I was hoping Ayaneo’s portable would provide; fool me into believing that we somehow got a new 3DS in 2024 with the same high-spec feature you’d find in a handheld gaming PC. 

There are a few examples of games that aren’t Citra-friendly, and using the emulator’s rating system can provide a heads-up. Rather than jumping too far down that rabbit hole, I dipped into Rayman 3D for a sense of how the Flip DS handles an “okay” rated adventure. The game is actually perfectly playable, and most of the disruption was tied to audio glitches and emulation quirks rather than frame drops. In other words, I think you’ve got as good a chance of running problematic entries to your library using Ayaneo’s handheld than any.

I do have some slightly heart-breaking news when it comes to original Nintendo DS emulation, but the Flip DS isn’t at fault. For whatever reason, emulators like DeSmuME for Windows won’t allow you to split primary and secondary screens, meaning Ayaneo’s handheld can’t separate them. You can weirdly split things up on Mac, but the emulator simply displays two joined-together boxes on Windows 11. If I manage to get some time in with a workaround, I’ll update you all on how NDS games fair on the device.

It’s time to remove our heads from the retro clouds and talk about PC performance. After all, we are talking about a handheld with a powerhouse Ryzen APU and a bucketload of RAM. For those unfamiliar with my benchmarking routine, I use the same collection of games to test portable PCs every time, which is handy since it gives us a direct comparison to the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and the Ayaneo 2S. 

The latter uses the same AMD Ryzen 7840U chipset as the Flip DS, with the exception being that it runs at 28W max rather than a 33W TDP. Not a huge power difference, and while that was somewhat reflected in my final benchmarks, I even managed to gain a few frames in unexpected places. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 managed to boost fps ever so slightly, while Hitman 3 was down a tad with low settings enabled. 

That’s enough for me to conclude that performance will be on par with Ayaneo’s other 7840U handhelds, and that translates to far punchier performance than the Steam Deck. Not entirely surprising considering the price difference, but it also means it edges just slightly ahead of the ROG Ally’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip. Put it this way, you should see largely the same frame rates using something like the Ally X as you would the Flip DS across most games.

Where things get really spicy is with battery life, as I was only able to get about an an hour and a half out of the Flip DS when running newer releases. I was able to stretch that to 2.5 hours with Indies like Another Crab's Treasure, but we're still faced with the same short-lived play sessions as the Steam Deck and OG ROG Ally. It hammers home why the Ally X opted for a 80Wh battery, and it's something more handheld makers will need to consider with new models.

Should you buy the Ayaneo Flip DS? 

If the Nintendo 3DS is your favorite console, and you just so happen to be in the market for a handheld gaming PC, then picking up the Ayaneo Flip DS is a no-brainer. It’ll make your bank account weep with its premium price tag, and other portable systems can match the 7840U version on performance. What most rivals can’t really pull off is simulating the hardware experience of playing Ninty’s dual-screen games using an emulator, and that’s something worth investing in.

This might be a hot take, but I honestly think Nintendo should take notes for the Switch 2, as the handheld’s successor could draw influence from the Ayaneo Flip DS by adding a secondary screen and premium features like hall-effect sticks to its next console.  

How I tested the Ayaneo Flip DS

For two months, I used the Ayaneo Flip DS as my main handheld gaming PC for both Steam and Epic Game Store games. In that time, I used Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Returnal to test the device’s frame rate capabilities, but I also used the 3DS emulator Citra to play a selection of my collection on the device to test its dual-screen capabilities. 

Throughout my time using the Flip DS, I also carefully assessed the handheld’s controls against other handhelds like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally. Doing so helped me assess the experience it provides in terms of portable gaming and whether its unique clamshell form factor comes with any caveats. 

For more information on how we test gaming handhelds and other portable devices, take a peek at our GamesRadar+ hardware policy. 

Already got Valve’s handheld? Check out the best Steam Deck accessories and best Steam Deck dock. Alternatively, swing by the best gaming monitor if you need a new screen for at home. 

In Trap, '90s heart-throb Josh Hartnett returns to the screen as long-suffering dad Cooper to teen daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue). The two are attending an arena concert by pop star Lady Raven (M. Night’s daughter Saleka Shyamalan) when Hartnett’s secret serial killer dad slowly realizes the entire concert is a ruse by the FBI to nab him. He spends the majority of the concert trying to find some way out, while ensuring his daughter still has the best night ever. 

Granted, the Lady Raven sequences go on for a bit too long - M. Night is clearly enamored with his daughter’s talent as a pop singer - but other than that minor indulgence, this is a taught thriller that slowly ties a rope around Hartnett’s throat and squeezes as the gig rolls on. 

M. Night himself cameos as a concert promoter that picks Riley to join Lady Raven on-stage, providing Cooper with a window to escape the police. Hartnett makes a surprisingly effective villain, barely suppressing his sociopathic rage to assure his daughter has the best-night-ever. Donoghue wins the day, however, vacillating between teenage elation over meeting her idol and absolute terror when she finds out her father is a stone-cold killer. 

Trap is in US theaters now and is released in UK cinemas on August 9. 

For more films to watch out for, check out our guide to the upcoming movies of 2024.

Whether you'll be happy with your younger Lego builders wielding this set unsupervised is certainly a question I'm not qualified to answer. It isn't one of the best Lego sets of all time, either. But it's certainly going to create some fun storylines as you put Sonic up against his age-old nemesis Dr. Eggman in this set. 

Features & design

• Features a robot, minifigs, & accessories
• Relatively small in size
• Fun interactive touches

The Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot set is only 615 pieces but feels like a lot more because you're building lots of smaller elements to round out this imaginative set. I personally find the fact it's not contained within one build a bit frustrating purely for display purposes, but this set is laser-targeted at kids who are going to play and get creative with this set. 

There are so many little nods to the original Sonic games with this set, from the little lab where animals can be turned into Dr. Eggman's bots to the golden ring floating on a see-through plinth, that this makes for a great set for the entire family to enjoy too. Not necessarily one of the best Lego sets, but fun nonetheless.

Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot (76993) build

• Takes around 2.5 hours
• Fairly straightforward build
• Some more complex elements

Because there are so many smaller elements of the Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot set to build alongside the larger, more complex Death Egg Robot, it makes this a wonderfully varied build. I particularly liked that there's a variety in pace to proceedings, starting with the smaller bits as almost a warm-up to the main event, which is definitely the mech itself. 

What's interesting about that part of the build though is the fact you build smaller sections at a time and then click them onto the mech. It keeps things feeling fun, and keeps you guessing as to how it's all going to fit together. The working weaponry is also fascinating from a mechanical point of view too.

I'm still not entirely sure how successful the middle portion of the mech actually is though. The build book outlines that you should be able to slam the back portion in to cause the front panel to fly off and ideally into the incoming Sonic, but no matter how hard I try (and I even got my partner involved) that front section isn't budging for me. I've even ensured that I've actually put everything together correctly and rebuilt it again, but to no avail. If I'm not strong enough - or potentially smart enough - to figure it out then I doubt little builders will have any chance. 

One other odd little quirk was that the build instructions stated the turtle and second bird were in bag three, but were actually in bag five. That's not a huge deal, but I did worry that they'd been lost as I emptied the bags onto my coffee table. 

Design

• Plenty of interactive elements
• No way to cohesively store all the elements
• Mech is seriously cool

I was delighted to discover how many little characters you get with the Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot set. The Sonic minifig is an excellent rendition of the Blue Blur, but then you also get the heavily mustachioed Dr. Eggman, and there's also the surprise addition of building a quirky robot minion for him too. The trio of critters makes for cute bonus friends for this set as well.

The best thing about the Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot set is how creative you can get with the storytelling. Sonic in his speed sphere can be launched directly at Dr. Eggman in his robot mech suit, via the spikes and ramps that are also included as part of the build. Then the Death Egg Robot itself is armed to the teeth, with a working minigun-esque arm that fires out studs with alarming speed and range. Seriously, they could take an eye out, which may well be a concern for parents. It does work impressively well though, and certainly adds to the drama of the boss battle this set creates. 

As mentioned before, the Death Egg Robot also comes with a mechanism that lets you push away incoming attacks, but despite it all being built correctly, I just can't get it to function properly, which is frustrating – and would no doubt be more so for kids. 

Of course, there are also the added extras with this set outside of Sonic and Dr. Eggman. There's also a little sciencey montage where you can let Dr. Eggman turn Sonic's little pals - an adorable turtle and duo of birds - into robots. Or you could, of course, let Sonic turn them back into critters again. All those features, plus the added elements, including a gold ring, make this set really interactive and I could imagine kids having hours of fun building a story around the battle that's about to ensue. 

Should you buy Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot (76993)?

Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot set ticks a lot of boxes. It's a nostalgic build for the whole family. The attention to detail is a fantastic celebration for Sonic fans, while the interactivity makes it a great joy for all kinds of Lego enthusiasts to enjoy. It might not be the most display-worthy set in full, but there's something for everyone with this action-packed build.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot (76993)

I built the Lego Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman's Death Egg Robot set on one rainy Saturday afternoon watching the Handmaid's Tale - I know, what a juxtaposition. I assessed the ease of the build, how straightforward the instructions were, and how satisfying the build was overall to complete.

For more information on our process, check out our guide on how we test products.

Finally the tide has turned for the blacks. The House of the Dragon season 2 finale begins with the dragonseeds now embedded in palace life and turning the numbers decidedly in Rhaenyra’s favor. But this leaves the queen with a choice: either she must hope that her collection of dragons is enough of a deterrent or she must strike now on King’s Landing to try and take her kingdom back. 

It’s an intriguing moral quandary that sees the Dragon Queen navigating many of the same questions her future relative Daenerys Targaryen will - can she sentence thousands of innocents to death in the name of the greater good? Emma D’Arcy is wonderful at steering this breadth of feeling for Rhaenyra, who now finally feels as confident as her season 1 self. Yet, even they can’t solve the problem that the finale wastes its entire 69-minute runtime with her contemplating her choice, rather than acting on it.

This, as we’ve discussed throughout the season 2 run, is nothing new. The pacing has been the biggest victim of the cut-down sophomore season, which has often felt sluggish and repetitive. The finale continues the pattern, with its first half plodding along with new storylines before its superior second half rattles through the fascinating threads. Ultimately the unbalanced narrative results in an ending that’s all set-up and no conclusion. 

Storytelling

There are a fair amount of fresh elements to juggle in episode 8, which begins with the introduction of new characters in Essos. Tyland Lannister is aiming to land a new ally in the fun sequence that plays out throughout the final episode, featuring mud fights and quips about wives. Meanwhile, the dragonseeds are adjusting to their new responsibilities with mixed results. Ulf has no respect for authority, while the thorny nature of parentage weighs heavily on Jacerys too. 

The tensions heighten in King’s Landing too. Aemond, realizing he’s on the back foot acts rashly, destroying Sharp Point to ash. Alicent, fresh from her lake dip, is plotting her escape while her ailing son Aegon (and Larys Strong) do similarly, devising how they can flee before they face the dragon fire once again.

With the stakes higher than ever, there are some really poignant moments for each of the characters. Aemond and Helaena in particular get a wonderfully tense sequence as the pretender tries to convince his sister to mount Dreamfyre and join them in the fight. Often overlooked as mad, Helaena actually sees the most sense and it’s genuinely chilling to watch her tell her brother that she knows he burned Aegon on purpose. “I could have you killed,” Aemond tells her with tears shining in his eye, before she calmly bats back, “It wouldn’t change anything.”

Another stand-out moment comes between Daemon and Rhaenyra, as he finally bends the knee to his queen. It’s such a shame these two have been separated for almost the entirety of season 2, as when they’re together, they’re electric. Their exchanges of fealty in High Valyrian are countered with an easy banter in the wonderfully written scene. 

Similar currents spark through the final reunion between Rhaenyra and Alicent - another addition to George R. R. Martin's book that works very well. House of the Dragon has always been at its heart about these two women, thrust unwillingly onto either side of this war. Naturally then, sparks fly when that dynamic is brought together once again. 

Alicent, notably in her blue colored robes rather than green, calls on Rhaenyra to try and navigate the end of this war. Olivia Cooke is magnificent playing the Queen Dowager as she faces an impossible choice that her son must die for this to happen. “History will paint you a villain,” Rhaenyra warns her. “I am at last myself,” Alicent concludes, in a moment of reckoning.

Thorny legacy

The finale is at its best when it looks at its own place in the Game of Thrones legacy. There are callouts throughout to the nature of stories and how these figures will be remembered in history to come. Whether it’s Rhaenyra telling Alicent about how the archives will view her, or Daemon's repeated references to the nature of “stories”.

This notion is best explored through his vision in the Godswood - an elegiac, emotional moment where he sees all that is yet to pass. The White Walkers appear, Daenerys emerges from the fire with her newly hatched dragons, and we see the Iron Thone calling.  “It’s all a story and you’re but one part in it,” Helaena tells Daemon as he realizes that winter is coming.

Yet, the fact that this episode is so focused on the future, and what will come to pass, is also its downfall. It’s hard not to compare it to the season 1 finale, which ended with fire in its eyes. The heartstopping sequence where Vhagar kills young Lucerys was terrifying – and provided just the right amount of drama to make for a brutal, bloody ending. 

Season 2 goes along a different tact. Focusing on the war of words between Rhaenyra and Alicent, meaning that the final moments are all anticipation. We see the dragonseeds suiting up as all corners of Westeros prepare for a huge battle, but just as the rest of season 2 has felt slow-paced and building, its ending is no different. We’ve spent a season suiting up for battle, and it seems we’ll still be waiting years for it to finally happen.

For more on House of the Dragon season 2, check out our guides to House of the Dragon season 2 ending explained and our breakdown of Daemon's vision in the House of the Dragon finale.

I’ve been a big fan of the Backbone controller ever since its release. It felt like it was designed specifically for my situation, and for a lot of people, it’s the best mobile controller for that reason. However, it’s hard to deny that it lacks certain appealing features that other big hitters have taken a swing at. GameSir’s G8 Galileo is more ergonomic and has two back buttons, which helped it earn our title of the “backbone breaker.”

The GameSir X4 Aileron takes that same swing in a more portable form factor and produces a controller that says “Anything you can do, I can do better”.  It does so at $99.99/£99.99, which puts it exactly even with Backbone’s signature controller.

Design

My biggest issue with the Backbone One controller and most mobile controllers I have tested is how small they feel in hand, leading me to give up on gaming sessions much quicker than I would if I were playing on a console. However, I’ve not found that to be the case for the GameSir X4 Aileron. This is in large part due to the more substantial size given to the grips which are formed to fit perfectly into the palm of your hand. Not only that but they feature a textured plastic coating meaning that you’re unlikely to have the controller slip out of your hands. 

When it comes to mobile controllers you will often struggle to find full-sized, or close to full-size, thumbsticks. Generally, you’ll find something half the size, like the Backbone’s tiny nubs. So you don’t have to be locked into only one stick size, GameSir provides you with three different options in Alieron’s box. It comes default with a smaller-than-regular Xbox-style thumbstick but in its very handy travel case, you’ll also find the options for full-sized Xbox-style sticks as well as the Backbone-style ones. I tested all three and found the full-size ones to be the most comfortable and the most appealing for long gaming sessions. Regardless of which thumbstick style you choose, you’ll be using GameSir’s Hall Effect sticks when gaming, something which you’d expect to find on the best PC controllers, so it’s nice to have here. 

GameSir has gone for the seemingly industry-standard layout of offset thumbsticks. I’m not always a fan of this as it can often lead to cramps and a sore thumb on a smaller controller, especially in games that require heavy use of the camera controls.

Features

You’ll find Xbox layout face buttons which can be customized and swapped very easily to the Switch layout thanks to their magnetic attachment. Regardless of which layout you choose, you’ll feel a very satisfying click from them due to them being tactile micro-switch buttons. This goes for the D-pad and the bumpers too. Additionally, at the rear of the controller, you’ll feel two mappable buttons perfectly placed where your middle fingers should lie when using the controller. 

The GameSir X4 Aileron bucks the trend of having a spine that holds both halves of the controller together. Instead, GameSir has opted for a more Nintendo Switch Joy-Con-style design. Two halves magnetically clip together for storage and charging, which can be done so via the USB-C port at the base of the left controller, and pull apart for you to attach to your phone.

Attaching is very simple, you place the phone inside the green GameSir clips which turns on the controller and connects it via Bluetooth to start your gaming session. However, this is not compatible with phone cases and certain handsets will either be too large or too thin - I used a Samsung Galaxy S21 and found the controller to feel flimsy and very loose despite the added rubber padding that GameSir provides. Despite being Bluetooth, I was unable to connect the device to my iPhone 14 Pro Max and have it register as a game device. In fairness, it is advertised as an Android-only device so that is expected, but it is strange that there isn’t iPhone compatibility at all.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a nifty piece of gaming tech if it didn’t feature some form of RGB. As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of it, I wasn’t offended by it here. Each thumbstick is surrounded by a ring of RGB which actually adds a nice finish to the controller.

Performance

As previously mentioned, the GameSir X4 Aileron features two rear mappable buttons which is a feature that I’ve been wanting for a long time on a mobile controller - you find them on all the best Xbox Series X controllers, and even on the best PS5 controllers, so why not for mobile gaming? This was probably my favorite feature of the controller. It really brought together my mobile gaming sessions, making them more comfortable and more like a console experience. Despite sitting almost perfectly where your middle finger sits when holding the controller, I did find them to be a little small, and in high-stress situations in FPS games I did struggle to find them occasionally, this is despite the slight texturing they have. 

The buttons themselves are mappable via the on-board ‘M’ button and are very straightforward. This feature I used extensively to change up my tactics on the fly in games to allow me to have the most comfortable experience. While playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora via Amazon Luna, I would assign each back button the corresponding Thumbstick click input, so I had my sprint and melee controls within reach at all times - clicking thumbsticks in is something I find very difficult on mobile controllers, so this was the solution.

Hall Effect, full-sized thumbsticks on a mobile controller are a great addition and really make this pad stand out compared to its biggest rivals including the Backbone One. I often find hall sticks very sensitive and the same went for here, but that was very easy to tweak in-game settings or the GameSir app which allowed me to tweak their deadzones. The biggest downside for me was the offset design. I'm someone with slightly larger hands and I found it to be uncomfortable for long gaming sessions, especially as the right stick is placed so low on the right pad that my thumb would hurt after a while. I understand why they would target that design, especially when it's seemingly industry standard, and with the device aimed at Xbox Cloud Gaming, you want a layout that is familiar for those players. It just didn’t work for me.

Alongside cramp, I found because of where it was placed my palm would often nudge the stick when trying to click face buttons. It’s a small annoyance but one that did cost me a couple of times in FPS games such as Call of Duty Mobile as my camera was not pointing where I wanted it to be.

Going into testing the GameSir X4 Aileron, my biggest concern was latency. This controller does not connect to your phone via USB-C and instead, it’s all done via Bluetooth. Thankfully, it was seemingly indistinguishable 99% of the time for both native and cloud gaming. My inputs were received perfectly and in very quick fashion, so much so I couldn’t measure any input lag at all. Aside from one situation when playing The Crew MotorFest via Amazon Luna, I found that controlling the car to have a slight delay but I believe this to be internet/server issues as I went and tried it on my Backbone One controller straight after and I experienced the same lag there.

I’m someone who absolutely adores the Backbone controller, it was a revelation when I purchased it, and it allowed me to take my gaming on the go while not compromising on the experience, I thought it couldn’t get better than that. However, it’s clear that after spending time with the GameSir X4 Aileron, it does get better and mobile controllers are going from strength to strength.

Should you buy the GameSir X4 Aileron? 

As I said, I loved the Backbone One but it’s hard to deny it now lacks key features that you should find in the best controllers on the market. All of those key features can be found on the GameSir X4 Aileron, making me ask myself if I’ll ever go back to the Backbone.

My biggest issue with that, however, is that the GameSir X4 Aileron has no support for the iPhone despite it being a Bluetooth connection - perhaps this will change in the future but it doesn’t look like it'll come anytime soon. If you’re an Android user and are looking for a change or a larger controller at the same price as a Backbone then I’d recommend it. If you have slightly smaller hands than normal and don’t mind the offset sticks then I’d suggest you purchase it.

However, if you want the best possible mobile controller that gives you the closest experience to playing on a console as one can, you might want to check out the GameSir G8 Galileo, or the Razer Kishi Ultra. Either way, the GameSir X4 Aileron is one of the best mobile gaming experiences on the market and is worth your money.

 How we tested the GameSir X4 Aileron 

I tested the GameSir X4 Aileron for roughly a month and used it as my primary way to play games for a week and a half of that time while using a Samsung Galaxy S21. I played through the first 12 hours of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora via Amazon Luna exclusively using the GameSir X4 Aileron while also playing Forza Horizon 5 for approximately 5 hours via Xbox Cloud Gaming. Alongside cloud gaming, I extensively played Call of Duty Mobile natively on the phone.

Throughout my testing, I often compared it directly to the Backbone One controller due to it being one of the market leaders.

For more on how we test the latest gaming gear, check out our Hardware Policy.

To get more platform-specific, check out the best PS5 controllers, the best Xbox Series X controllers, and the best Nintendo Switch controllers.

Taking place during local elections, the robbery leaves bodies everywhere when a stand-off goes wrong. Worse is to come, as Rory and his associate Cobby (Casey Affleck) steal a bracelet belonging to the mayor (Ron Perlman), who desperately wants it back. Soon, everyone from Paul Walter Hauser’s thug to Ving Rhames’ special-ops unit cop are coming after them.

Co-scripted with real panache by Affleck and Chuck MacLean, the film nods towards Trumpian politics as Perlman’s crooked mayor refuses to concede when he loses the election early on. But this is just an added layer to the intoxicating blend of comedy and action, something Liman has traditionally done so well in films like American Made.

From hair-raising gas explosions to car chases cut to Petula Clark’s 'Downtown' and riots scored to House of Pain’s 'Jump Around', there’s a visceral quality to The Instigators, yet the action is secondary to the character-building and down-at-heel laughs. With its nicely realized blue-collar world proving the ideal backdrop, the result is a whole heap of fun.

The Instigators streams on Apple TV+ from August 9. 

For more, stay up to date with our guide to the upcoming movies to watch out for.