Serious gamers will soon have a compact and highly equipped new input device to try — the Logitech Pro X 60 Lightspeed Gaming Keyboard. The Swiss peripherals giant said this week it designed the sleek board with leading gamers.
Drop unveils highly customizable compact mechanical keyboard
Drop, owned by gaming powerhouse Corsair, rolled out the compact new CSTM65, a 65% mechanical keyboard, the company said Wednesday. It allows a high degree of personalization much like the larger, recently released CSTM80.
How video games can help you pick a career path
Believe it or not, a video game you know and love could turn into a fulfilling, lifelong career. And we’re not just talking about esports, where pro gamers compete for cash and prestige. For instance, driving simulator Gran Turismo could set you up for success on a real racetrack. Or factory simulator Satisfactory could prepare you for a role in project management.
What Apple can do to bring a Mac gaming renaissance
The Apple A3 series processors make the latest Macs into powerful gaming machines. And macOS Sonoma includes tools to make porting PC games to Mac much easier. As a gamer myself, these are very welcome moves.
But right now, Apple is taking a “build it and they will come” attitude. History shows there’s an important step needed to turn Mac into a serious competition for PC and gaming consoles: CEO Tim Cook and Co. need to put their money where their mouths are and financially encourage top game developers to bring their products to macOS.
That might even include buying one or more game developers.
Shake it with Samba de Amigo and other new Apple Arcade games
Apple said Tuesday it will add four new games and more than 30 updates and events to Apple Arcade in August.
New games include a revival of Sega’s classic rhythm game Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go, puzzle games Nekograms+ and Kingdoms: Merge & Build, and indie puzzle-remix game finity.
“Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go is coming soon to Apple Arcade with exciting new songs and a series first Story Mode only found on the service,” said Ian Curran, president and chief operating officer of Sega of America.
Razer’s first in-ear monitors give gamers THX-certified sound
Razer, known for gaming gear, sounded off Tuesday with its first in-ear monitors (IEM) — Razer Moray.
Designed for gamers and streamers, the new wired earbuds emphasize THX-certified audio, natural noise isolation and lightweight comfort for long gaming and streaming sessions, the company said.
Apple opens the floodgates for Mac gaming
A stealth announcement at WWDC23 is that Apple has significantly lowered the barrier of entry to port PC games to the Mac. A new Game Porting Toolkit “provides an emulation environment to run your existing, unmodified Windows game,” says Aiswariya Sreenivassan — a GPU, graphics and displays software engineer at Apple.
It’s a big gap to clear, which is why the Mac has been left behind in recent years. PC games are compiled for the Intel x86 architecture that the Mac just finished moving away from. The unified Apple silicon architecture bears little resemblance to the standard gaming PC with discrete graphics cards and memory. Apple’s Metal 3 library is very different from DirectX, Unity, Unreal and Vulkan — the usual suspects across the computing pond.
Apple’s new tools could open the floodgates for Mac ports of popular PC games. According to a game engine programmer I spoke with, the Game Porting Toolkit demo is “really impressive.” If the tools work as well in practice as in Apple’s demo, they “would be incredibly useful,” said the developer, who works for a major game developer and asked to remain anonymous.
6-in-1 USB-C dock powers Steam Deck gaming
Ugreen unveiled its new 6-in-1 USB Steam Deck Dock Thursday, saying it provides gamers with a range of high-speed connectivity, 4K@60Hz output and fast charging.
And it’s on sale at Amazon. See below.
Get more colorful storage with this LED-enhanced external hard drive for gamers
We could all use more space on our devices and a bit more fun and flair for said storage. The Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive combines a massive 2TB of storage with RGB LED lighting, and it’s now on sale for only $69.99 (regularly $104).
Clever side-by-side iPhone game controller has no problem with bulky cases [Review] ★★★★☆
The Gamevice Flex is an iPhone game controller that mimics the design of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con with the controls set on either side of the display. Similar iPhone controllers make you take the case off your handset to play but the Flex wraps around the handset even if it’s in a protective case.
The wired controller includes a full set of buttons, sticks, bumpers, etc. so you can enjoy games like Fortnite from Xbox Cloud Gaming or similar services, or almost anything from Apple Arcade.
I spent quite a few hours testing Gamevice Flex – here’s why I like it.
Steelseries offers first 5.1 surround-sound gaming speakers via USB
Steelseries, known for gaming headsets, has jumped into the desktop speakers pool with a big splash. Its new Arena line of desktop speakers is the company’s first product of that type.
And it includes what the company calls the world’s first 5.1 surround sound speakers you can run with a single USB connection to a Mac, PC, gaming console or TV.
Download these 15 games from Apple Arcade before they’re gone [Updated]
In the very near future Apple Arcade will lose 15 games, according to a new section in the Arcade area of the App Store labeled as “Leaving Arcade Soon.”
So if you subscribe to Apple Arcade or think you might — it’s $4.99 a month — consider downloading those games before they’re gone.
And according to new information about the situation, some games may return, but Apple Arcade subscribers who had them will have to re-download them.
Affordable new Xbox streaming device could mean trouble for Apple TV
Microsoft confirmed Friday it’s developing a low-cost streaming device that would allow users to play Xbox games and stream media without needing a full console. That could directly compete with Apple TV.
Meanwhile, Apple’s product — sometimes criticized as overpriced — may see a less-expensive iteration later this year, according to analysts.
This clip-on controller is the secret to better iPhone gaming [Review]
Clip the Backbone One to your iPhone to get the physical buttons and sticks you’ve been missing. It has a lot in common with an Xbox controller, while being designed specifically for iPhone gaming. And a Lightning connector makes hookups easy.
I spent many hours testing the Backbone One. Here’s why I completely love it, especially for cloud gaming.
Nvidia GeForce Now gaming service gains native support for M1 Macs
Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, GeForce Now, is getting native support for Macs with Apple silicon (M1) chips in the current app update, the company said Thursday.
Klipsch brings the brawn with new desktop speaker set
Klipsch likes to draw on it lengthy history when it rolls out new speakers, and the ProMedia Heritage 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System is no different. But the fabric-covered speakers and subwoofer, designed to recall the company’s Heresy speakers from the 1970s, also pack 220 watts of peak power.
That’ll blow the room away, whether you’re cranking tunes, enjoying your home theater or playing games.
Unreal Engine’s free Core game creation tool comes to macOS and iOS
Core is a free tool for creating games that runs on Unreal Engine, which is only available on PC. But as part of its one-year anniversary, developer Manticore Games said Friday that Core is coming to macOS and iOS in summer 2022.
When Mac, iPhone and iPad get Core, gamers will be able to cross-play between versions with Windows gamers, Manticore said. And developers can start playing with Core for iOS on Friday.
Elgato’s new video capture card handles variable refresh rates
Recently acquired by gaming maven Corsair, Elgato rolled out a new USB-C-based capture card on Wednesday called the HD60 X. It’s an upgrade to the HD60 S+ capture card, popular with gamers and content creators. The new one’s biggest addition is the ability to smoothly capture and record video footage with variable refresh rates.
And it works with M1 Macs, Windows machines and popular streaming tools and gaming consoles.
Apple puts iPhone game controller on the drawing board
Apple is showing interest in making a clip-on iPhone or iPad game controller. It filed a patent application for various permutations of exactly that sort of accessory on Thursday.
This would be a new product category for the company. But it could be a boon for Apple Arcade subscribers.
Get your game on with BenQ’s pricey new projector
BenQ is known for making quality displays and monitor lights, but it also makes projectors. Its latest offering, the BenQ X3000i, can handle blazing-fast gaming at a refresh rate up to 240Hz, but it comes at quite a price — about two grand.
JBL has a new party in a box and lots of other big plans for your ears
Every year Samsung subsidiary JBL rolls out a tempting raft of updated or new audio products at CES, but you can’t get them right away. CES 2022, held in Las Vegas earlier this month, was no different. The company showed its new JBL PartyBox Encore and a slew of other Bluetooth speakers, earbuds and headphones. We’ll round them up below. Some are coming in spring and others in summer.
Razer’s colorful cooling fan keeps iPhone cool when the gaming gets hot
The Razer Phone Cooler Chroma is a fan designed to cool smartphones that heat up when playing demanding games. And it has colorful LEDs to make it look even cooler.
An iPhone version uses MagSafe. There’s also one for handsets without built-in magnets.
Level up your iPhone gaming with Rotor Riot Lightning controller [Review]
Playing serious games on an iPhone touchscreen can be crazy frustrating. Don’t throw your iPhone across the room — get a game controller like RiotPwr’s Rotor Riot RR1852. This mimics the design of Microsoft’s Xbox controller but with a Lightning cable and an iPhone mount.
I fully tested this updated version of the Rotor Riot Lightning-enabled game controller. And I like it a lot. And apparently so does Apple because you can find it in the Apple Store, both online and brick-and-mortar locations.
New MacBook Pros prove surprisingly good at gaming
Apple’s M1 Pro and M1 Max processors in the new MacBook Pro offer powerful graphic performance. That’s intended for artists rendering video and other professional tasks, but tests show that it translates to excellent gaming performance.
Of course, that doesn’t remedy the lack of high-end games for Mac.
M1 Max chip could deliver even greater graphics than PlayStation 5
MacBook Pro’s mind-blowing M1 Max chip could deliver even greater graphics than Sony’s newest PlayStation 5 console, according to early estimates. It has even more raw GPU power, at least on paper, with up to 32 graphics cores.
Apple already promised that it would offer “similar performance” to a “high-performance discrete GPU” in competing laptops. But whether Mac users actually get similar gaming experiences is another matter.