STACK #184 Feb 2020

GAMING FEATURE

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GETTING GAME AT Words Amy Flower CES 2020 The annual Consumer Electronics Show – or CES – in Las Vegas isn’t generally used to showcase much in the way of gaming tech, as that sort of thing is usually saved for E3 in June. Still, that didn’t stop a few interesting announcements – and the odd cheeky one – from being made during the event. Here’s a look at a handful of our highlights.

Razer Kishi Razer arrived at CES 2020 with a different take on portable gaming with their Kishi, a broader-appeal update on their previous release in the space, the Junglecat. Designed to bring more of a console experience to mobile gaming, it’s a one-piece universal gaming controller designed to fit most Android or iPhone devices, and it’s compatible with cloud gaming. Replicating the familiar Xbox game controller layout, the Kishi includes two clickable analogue thumbsticks, which share the face with a D-pad and four microswitch buttons. As the device connects directly to the phone’s USB-C or Lightning charging port, Razer are promising that it will deliver ultra-low latency gameplay without the slight delay that Bluetooth connections can introduce to proceedings. Oh, and there’s a passthrough for the charging port if you’re down for a serious gaming session, too. The Razer Kishi is set to release “early in 2020”.

Alienware Concept UFO The biggest splash in gaming at this year’s CES was made by Alienware, as they unveiled their Concept UFO portable gaming machine prototype. At first glance it brings to mind Nintendo’s Switch – a

central screen with detachable controllers either side, a dock for those controllers, a kickstand – and it can be used as a handheld or on a tabletop. As you’d expect, there’s also a HDMI port for output on a monitor or television. The illuminated thumbsticks are a nice touch, and with its angular design we couldn’t help thinking of Elon Musk’s marvellously bonkers Cybertruck. But maybe that’s just us. The Concept UFO is a Windows 10 machine,

so that instantly means access to some tens of thousands of games that could be played on the go. Hardware-wise, the unit packs an 8” screen, with a 10th generation Intel Core processor inside. The GPU hasn’t been specified, beyond hints that it packs Intel’s latest graphics tech. Very much still in the conceptual stage, we hope that Alienware pursue the Concept UFO – or whatever it ends up being called – to

market, as we doubt that we’re alone in anticipating the ease of portability it would bring to our PC gaming.

PlayStation 5 We all know that the PS5 is on its way this year, and if you’re at all like us you’ll be champing at the bit to get your hands on more info about it. So, when we heard that Sony’s PlayStation president Jim Ryan was appearing at Sony’s keynote event, we got excited. Could this be a big unveiling of the console? Could we get some more hot details? Uh, no. Instead, the official logo was unveiled – yes, the exact same one that everybody expected to see in the current generation PS4 logo updated to have a ‘5’ replacing the ‘4’. Promising “the biggest and best in content," Ryan reiterated features of the unit that we already know about – a speedy SSD, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive, hardware-based ray tracing, controllers with haptic feedback, and the somewhat tautological “3D audio sound” – and that we can expect to be able to get our eager hands upon the PS5 come the next “holiday season”.

MSI MEG Aegis Ti5 We couldn’t finish up without mentioning this wild desktop PC beastie from MSI. Come on, who wouldn’t love having a PC on their desk that looks like it was lopped off the top of a robot? Complete with round OLED information screen and 5G support, with an Intel Core i9 processor, Nvidia GPU, 128GB of RAM and three SSDs inside, the MEG Aegis Ti5 is expected to hit late in 2020.

68 FEBRUARY 2020

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