Massive Chalice

Modern medicine may have slapped a sticking plaster on the fleetingness of life, but the greatest thematic triumph and most irksome management crisis presented by Double Fine’s homage to XCOM: Enemy Unknown is that it confronts you with human impermanence. Not yours – your essence is undying, bound to the titular Chalice – but you sit on the throne of a kingdom being assaulted by a colourfully lethal threat called the Cadence. Your people’s only hope is for heroes of blessed blood to fend the beasts off for long enough to allow the Chalice to charge up a monster-obliterating wave. The catch? It’s a 300-year process, so generations will pass before you’re done.

Nom Nom Galaxy

Nom Nom Galaxy as a whole would benefit greatly from exercising the same restraint shown in the soup recipes at its core. Too many genres, to corrupt the old adage, spoil the broth. Yet lumped together in Q-Games’ culinary-themed admixture are elements of base building, tower defence, platforming, exploration, combat, resource management and soup creation. Only a handful hold together well.

Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma

Razer are really getting behind their whole Chroma idea, but most of the devices we’ve seen from it are literally just reworked version of what came before. The same could be said for the Blackwidow Tournament Edition Chroma keyboard, which is based on a design that first came out around three years ago. That said, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; the original Blackwidow TE was a great compact keyboard when all is said and done.

Speedlink Jugger 2.1 Subwoofer System

Sound… you can’t play games effectively without it. Or watch movies or listen to music. But let’s stick to gaming for now, shall we? Finding the right audio solution can be tricky, because there are so many options out there. Do you want personal audio, or do you want sound to fill your world? How about stereo or surround sound?

ASRock Z97 Extreme6/3.1

Advances in motherboard technology are often below the hood, and are not immediately obvious (unless you’re doing all kinds of benchmarks). But the recently announced USB 3.1 standard provides not only a performance boost for compatible devices, it adds visual evidence of the changes thanks to the type C port. This rounded port allows for connection of a plug more easily, because it doesn’t have an “up” or “down” idea… no more having to check that your plug is turned the right way. It just plugs in, and provides twice the speed of a USB 3.0 port. That’s pretty fast.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Something creates dinosaurs. Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the Earth

Guerrilla describes Horizon: Zero Dawn as post-post-apocalyptic. It’s quite a studenty way of putting it, but it fits. It’s been over a thousand years since human civilisation, and much of humanity with it, was wiped from the face of the planet. Nature has reclaimed the landscape, resulting in a lush, vibrant world filled with the swaying dynamic foliage that is rapidly replacing the particle shower as this console generation’s calling card. In the intervening millennium, Horizon’s world has been overrun by strange machines modelled on the animal kingdom. Where they came from, what they’re up to, and quite why they’re such a threat to female protagonist Aloy are among the mysteries to which Guerrilla is happy to refer, but declines to explain during the game’s debut demo, which we see behind closed doors in a plush E3 meeting room the day after its unveiling on Sony’s conference stage.

The Last Guardian

Fumito Ueda’s long-absent creature feature emerges from hibernation

Six years is a long time to wait for a game, even one as apparently immune to the ravages of age as The Last Guardian. First shown at E3 2009 for PS3, development of the follow-up to Team Ico’s Shadow Of The Colossus has been so protracted that it’s long been rumoured the game was cancelled. But if the roar of excitement from the audience at its reappearance during Sony’s E3 conference this year – which opened with a single white feather floating down the main screen – is any indication, years of dashed hopes have done little to quash the enthusiasm of those awaiting Fumito Ueda’s next epic.

Palit Jetstream GTX 970 Graphics Card

Thile there are certain brands that get the lion’s share of attention here in South Africa, other brands can prove to be better options. South Africans tend to be brandloyal, though, and for a make like Palit to make the kind of impact it deserves in the GPU market can be difficult. And yet it is a brand that PC gaming enthusiasts really should be paying attention to.

Sharkoon Shark Zone H40 Headset

A new headset that sounds too good to miss

The recently released Sharkoon Shark Zone H40 headset looks to take on the current shelf favourites – Turtle Beach, Roccat and Razer – but does the H40 have what it takes to make an impact? The H40 takes on the visual aesthetic of the rest of the Sharkoon Shark Zone range, a matte-black finish with a helping of bright yellow. In the case of the H40 headset, the flashes of yellow come from the lengthy cable and LED lit ear cups, complete with Sharkoon logo and an LED at the tip of the mic.