Opinion: What exactly are "gaming" peripherals?

Gaming is a big industry, there's no doubt.  At a cost of around $260 million to make (that's 260,000,000, or 26 with 7 zeros), GTA-V is the most expensive videogame of all time and the second most expensive media production behind only Pirates of the Carribean IV.  But having the software and the hardware to run it is not the entire equation - you also need the means to control it.

But just what exactly differentiates a "Gaming" controller from a normal one, and what should?

Windows 8 in daily life (Part 2: Actually using it!)

So my last post on Windows 8 didn't really come across as the positive experience I made it out to be with the introduction.  I'll admit, I got side-tracked - and I like to think it's pretty easy to understand how and why.  Where with my reviews I take my time and stick to a format, the rest of my posts are largely written off-the-cuff and it certainly shows.

But this time I promise there's good news for people who may be stuck with Microsoft's latest offering.

Review: Razer Sabertooth Elite Gaming Controller for Xbox 360

QUICK SUMMARY

A premium gaming control pad.  It appears to have been designed to almost exactly replicate the Xbox 360 controller while trying to add a few extra features.  Noteable design elements include an additional 8 buttons and onboard, electronic control of button configuration and analogue sensitivity and a small OLED (green) screen.

In all there are 19 push-buttons (4 of which are removable in pairs), 2 analogue sticks, 2 analogue triggers and a digital D-pad.  The onboard configuration allows for adjustment of the sensitivity of the analogue sticks and re-assignment of 6 of the additional buttons.  2 profiles can be stored on-board with separate configurations for all the adjustable controls.  Backlighting can be disabled, but will turn on when the OLED interface is used.

For further details, please visit the Razer website.

Windows 8 in daily life (Part 1: Getting it to work)

Like it or hate it, Windows 8 looks to slowly become the dominant OS over the next few years.  Much like there was resistance to Windows 7, Windows XP before that and even a little to Windows 95, almost all Windows users will inevitably migrate - some enthusiastically, some less-so.  But is all the negative publicity justified?  Should people be apprehensive about this tablet-centric OS?

After having used it for a while, I honestly believe the answer to both is: No, with a "but."

Spreading the Word: Samsung's Service

I've heard you should tell at least two people about good service.  I'm not sure where I heard that, and for all I know I heard it from inside the depths of my own head, but it seems like reasonable advice and I'll only have to tell one more person after my entire audience reads this post.

Allow me to start at the beginning...

Review: Razer Nostromo Expert Gaming Keypad

QUICK SUMMARY

A premium gaming keypad.  It appears to have been designed to allow minimal learning time from traditional keyboard gaming functions while still allowing convenient access to more controls in a rather ergonomic form factor.  Noteable design elements include a D-pad, scroll wheel, adjustable palm rest and backlighting.

In all there are 17 push-buttons, a scroll wheel and a 4-way, digital D-pad which can be configured in both 4- and 8-way setups.  The software allows for every single one of these functions to be re-assigned, including setting the scroll wheel as two separate keypresses which repeat with each indentation.  The software also allows for each key to be bound to a macro, which can be of "infinite" length (limited, presumably, by the medium storing the macro as it has no on-board memory) and up to 8 Keymaps to be toggled through at a time either by holding down a key or pressing a key to cycle them with the active Keymap indicated by way of three coloured lights.  A total of 20 profiles, each with 8 Keymaps, can be used in all with manual and task-sensitive switching.

For further details, please visit the Razer website.

Tech Tip: Handbrake part 2

After over a hundred hours of testing, retesting, sleeping, then testing some more, I've finally come up with a configuration for Handbrake that I'm ready to share.  In the interest of full disclosure, however, I will say that I'm not entirely happy with the settings that I've found but I'll explain more about that later.

And, without much more ado, I shall begin part 2 of my Handbrake guide.

Tech tip: Getting the most from the least with Handbrake

It's a simple fact of life that all of us have videos on our home PC.  They could be of cats falling into puddles, instructional videos for heavy machinery, home movies, feature films and just about everything in between.  Some videos we're supposed to have, some we're not, but regardless they all have one thing in common: They all take up space, and chances are they're taking up more space than they need to.

That's where Handbrake and the x264 codec come in.

Update: It has been brought to my attention that these settings introduce what's known as "Ringing" to the output.  Ringing is essentially a visual artefact which causes the visible edges of objects to distort the surrounding detail significantly and unpleasantly.  Though the effect is minimal (to the point I didn't really know what I was looking at) with FHD source material, as the resolution decreases the effect becomes substantially more obvious.  As such, I will be going back to the drawing board and posting an update later based on my findings. 

The new settings are, unfortunately, quite a bit slower - early runs are suggesting no real increase in output size but that is offset by taking between 10% and 100% longer.

Review: Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse

QUICK SUMMARY

A high-end gaming mouse primarily aimed at the online RPG player.  It appears to have been designed in such a way as to feel as "natural" as possible to mouse users while expanding on traditional functionality.  Noteable design elements include no less than 20 "buttons", user-customizable lighting for the side cluster and onboard memory for a base profile to be assigned.

In all there are 18 push-buttons and a two-position momentary switch (2 more buttons).  Directly accessible software configuration allows for all 20 buttons to be reassigned.  Any button can also be assigned to the "G-Shift" function which allows two functions per button to be used, while another button can be assigned to Mode Switch to cycle (albeit one way) through the three avaialble Modes allowed per profile, making for a maximum of 111 unique momentary configurations.  Up to 5 separate, user-defined sensitivity settings can be assigned and then accessed using appropriately configured buttons - including a momentary "DPI Shift" function as well as a default sensitivity.

For further details, please visit the Logitech website.