Tt eSPORTS CONTOUR

The smartphone revolution was huge for gamers. No longer are we chained to a TV or PC monitor to get our gaming fix. And today’s mobile devices are powerful enough to handle PC and console games from just a few years ago. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a major gaming franchise that hasn’t made the leap to smartphones and tablets in one form or another (excluding, of course, first-party Nintendo franchises–we’re still scratching our heads over that missed opportunity). But for those who’re looking for anything more than a casual experience, touchbased controls are oftentimes maddeningly inaccurate and force you to cover the screen with your thumbs.

Aerocool Aero-500

Aerocool is back with another one of its new Aero cases, which are part of the company’s PGS A series. This case, the Aero-500, looks a lot like the Aero-800 (reviewed last month), which looks a lot like the Aero-1000 (reviewed in the June 2015 issue). Now before you convince yourself that you’re seeing triple, realize that the Aero-500 differs from its fellow Aero cases in a few ways, so if the Aero-1000 and Aero-800 weren’t quite what you were looking for, perhaps this impressive case is just what the enthusiast ordered.

Fractal Design Node 202

Nowadays, HTPC cases come in a variety of shapes and sizes. On one hand, you have the tiny, handheld cases that are “big” enough for a computer on a card. On the other, you can go with a case so large that it lets you stuff a full-fledged high-end system inside. Fractal Design’s Node 202 falls somewhere between these two extremes, but one thing is clear as soon as you unbox it: This case looks the part.

MSI Nightblade X2

Many barebones PC kits feature an ultra-compact or exceptionally slim design that doesn’t leave room for full-size graphics cards. The GPU limitations mean that most barebones kits are relegated to home office duty. MSI’s Nightblade X2 is a different breed of barebones kit that supports a dualslot GPU up to 290mm long—enough space to fit a GeForce GTX 980 Ti. With that said, we imagine power users who’ve built their own gaming rigs might question why someone wouldn’t just pick all the off-the-shelf parts for complete control over what goes into the build. MSI designs the Nightblade X2 inside a compact mini-ITX case, so it’s much smaller than a conventional gaming system. MSI also optimizes the layout and cooling to ensure peak performance. Accomplishing the same precision in a DIY build would require lengthy component consideration.

AION Poseidon

Last month, we took an in-depth look at the AION Mars, a mini-ITX system with custom liquid cooling. And while the Poseidon is also a member of the AION lineup, it’s safe to say that this rig is a completely different, much bigger beast. Housed in an In Win 909 (an E-ATX chassis), the Poseidon is capable of quad-SLI and features your choice of Haswell-E processor. Liquid cooling is part of the package too, as is only befitting for a rig named after the god of the sea.

Off The Beaten Track

Gripping character arcs, revolutionary stories, intimate relationships and industry-leading gameplay… Naughty Dog has perfected all this in single-player, but where exactly does that leave Uncharted 4’s multiplayer efforts?

Naughty Dog is a studio invested in the human side of videogames: the human stories, the human animations, the human reactions, the human empathy. It revels in grand drama, Hollywood-inspired characters and narrative arcs that take you on an emotional journey as varied and intense as the physical voyages its characters embark upon. The multiplayer facets of Naughty Dog’s games, therefore, go somewhat unnoticed in the grand scheme of things: rarely are the multiplayer efforts of the studio’s games even reviewed, let alone written about in the many essays that come out about its games.

Detroit: Become Human

Do Quantic dream of electric peeps?

You might remember a tech demo all the way back in 2012 that caused a bit of a fuss. That demo was called Kara and its graphical prowess blew people away (the fact that it now looks rather unspectacular shows how fast technology moves). More than that, though, people were intrigued by the character and the story that the demo hinted at. It showed an android called Kara on the verge of being disassembled by a technician after she showed signs of ‘malfunctioning’. After begging for her life, however, the technician seemed to realise that she might just be selfaware, taking pity on Kara and allowing her to leave the factory on the production line to be sold as originally intended. People wanted to know what would happen next and were disappointed when Quantic Dream insisted that Kara was only intended to show off the capabilities of the PS3.

Gran Turismo Sport

Virtual racing with real rewards

There's a lot of money in eSports these days, which explains why all the big games seem to be pushing the pro gaming angle lately. Anything that can be played to a high level is being played to a high level, with mind-blowing prize pools for the best players to split – everything from Counter-Strike to Rocket League, COD to FIFA and Street Fighter to DOTA 2 has a booming competitive scene. It’s not something that will work for every kind of game, of course (don’t expect a pro Assassin’s Creed scene any time soon…) but you’ll be seeing a greater shift towards the eSports scene in the coming years.

60 PS4 tips, tricks & fixes

Get the most out of your PlayStation 4 by exploiting all of its great new features and best-kept secrets

ORDER YOUR PS4 AROUND

People don’t realise that you can control your PS4 using voice commands. We’re sure a lot of you are regularly playing games with a headset, in which case you’re already set up to start using them. Ensure ‘Operate PS4 With Voice’ is enabled in your system settings, say “PlayStation” to make your PS4 listen, and then you can order it about to make navigation swifter by ordering it to take you to your Library, the Home screen, PES 2016, or whatever else you fancy.