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.