Avalanche

Rick Lane parachutes into the tech behind the spectacular Just Cause open-world sandbox games

When it was released back in 2010, Just Cause 2’s virtual island archipelago of Panau was one of the largest true-3D open worlds ever created. Its landscapes ranged from rugged mountain ranges to thick tropical jungles and even a sprawling metropolis.

Eclipse i7 Liquid Vengeance

Corsair’s Graphite range of cases is finding favour among loads of enthusiasts and system builders at the moment. Eclipse is the latest firm to deploy the glass-panelled Graphite 760T in its i7 Liquid Vengeance PC, and it’s easy to see why. Those swinging glass not only look great, but they’re also practical, being much easier to unclip than conventional thumbscrews.

Eclipse has chosen the black version, making the Liquid Vengeance a big, dark, brooding machine, which makes the flashes of red stand out more. The power button is ringed with crimson, the two 140mm fans in the front panel are red, and Eclipse has fitted a pair of red 140mm fans to the Corsair liquid cooler. Even the logo on the Corsair cooler’s waterblock/pump unit glows red.

PC Specialist Ignis

PC Specialist’s Ignis stands out with its use of a Parvum case, made from 5mm acrylic rather than metal. There are obvious differences between the Parvum Veer 1.0 and more conventional cases deployed in other mini-ITX chassis. The matt black material throughout is divided by red acrylic that looks especially impressive when it catches sunlight and its smart, layered design is augmented by good-looking touches.

Transcend MTS800 M.2

Although most storage firms are moving towards higher SSD capacities, chopping even 128GB flavours from their line-ups, Transcend is clearly still keen to cater for those users who absolutely don’t care about huge amounts of flash memory storage. Accordingly, the SATA-based MTS800 M.2 series is available in five capacities, including just 32GB, a capacity that could only be useful in extremely cheap laptops.

Plextor M6e Black Edition 256GB

Whenever a new disruptive product is launched that seriously outclasses its competition, it instantly alters the landscape of that market. It doesn’t mean alternative products cease to become a worthwhile purchase, but it often forces them to compete in terms of pricing and value for money rather than performance. Anything that costs more money than the new killer product, or even costs the same amount, without any inherent advantage, instantly becomes uncompetitive. With SSDs, that new product is Samsung’s 950 Pro, so Plextor’s M6e Black Edition, with its price of £220 inc VAT, is now up against some serious competition.