Hasta La Gadget!

Yes, Corsair is making keyboards now, and they have been for a little while. Their latest creation is called the Vengeance K70, and they just announced it to along with the previously-announced Vengeance headsets. Essentially it’s a fully-mechanical keyboard that comes with customizable backlighting, which in this case means that you can control the lighting for each key independently.

The K70 is a slight upgrade to the K60, and is just a bit on the lower end compared to the company’s beastly K95 keyboard. However, the K70 still sports a lot of nifty features. The WASD and the 1-6 number keys are coated in Cherry MX Red and are textured for maximum grip during the heat of the battle. These keys are also contoured more so than the other keys, that way you can find them quickly without having to look down.

Corsair claims that the K70 sports a fast and accurate response rate at 1,000Hz, and it can support up to 20 keystrokes at once, which is probably overkill in most gaming situations, but it’s a feature that will always be nice to have in case you need it. The chassis of the keyboard is made out of brushed aluminum, so durability should go a long way here.

Other than that, it looks to be the same ole song and dance: multimedia buttons, extra USB ports, and a removable wrist rest. The K70 will be available starting next month for $130, and you’ll be able to choose from two different color schemes; silver with blue backlighting or black with red backlighting.

Corsair announces Vengeance K70 gaming keyboard with customizable backlighting is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As a video game fanatic, I really loved the movie Wreck-it-Ralph. While there were some actual arcade games in the movie, the machines at the center of the story were all imaginary. Perhaps the most iconic game in the movie is Fix It Felix Jr., and pretty soon you’ll be able to actually play the game.

What you’re looking at here is a Fix it Felix Jr. machine, made by Rick Uhlenhopp at Arcade Skin. It looks like a spot-on recreation of the machine from the movie, and even plays a PC version of the game (not Disney’s Flash version). As you can see from the video below, the machine started off as an original Nintendo cabinet, and much of the magic is done with custom made vinyl skins:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O3USX–42U

Here it is playing a version of the game written by SJAAK, but there’s another version by Rick’s buddy BadBoyBills which is going to be installed on the machine before it’s complete.

While you won’t be able to find this machine in an arcade, you’ll be able to see it in person at the Midwest Gaming Classic this weekend. The show runs from tomorrow (3/23) through Sunday (3/24) at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel in Brookfield, WI. I’ll be there, so I can’t wait to check it out up close and personal.

You can check out more details on the build over on the Hyperspin forums.

Now all we need is working versions of Sugar Rush and Hero’s Duty to go alongside it.

[via MGC Facebook page]

There’s no shortage of browser-based games available to casual gamers, but none are as quite unique as a new project called “World Wide Maze.” The game uses actual websites to build 3D mazes in which players can then guide around a small steel ball, similar to the likes of Marble Madness or Super Monkey Ball.

The game builds the 3D mazes dynamically using the HTML elements of the website, and players use their Android smartphones as a controller for the game, which is played on their computer in the Google Chrome web browser. You simply sync the two devices through Chrome using a unique code, then you can fire up the game and go at it.

Players either tilt their mobile devices or use the on-screen controls to guide the steel ball around, and just the Wii U’s gamepad, your Android smartphone’s display can mirror what’s on the computer screen. The video above shows what the game is all about and provides a quick demo so that you can see it in action. It’s in Japanese, but most of the important stuff is all visual anyway.

You’ll need a fairly decent computer to run the game, even if it is purely browser-based. World Wide Maze works uses the WebGL standard, and it requires at least 1GB of RAM and a 256MB graphics card for hardware acceleration. However, most computers nowadays will be able to handle it. While this may not be a game that you’ll spend hours playing, it’s certainly a cool thing to try out, and it could very well be the future of a new type of gaming.

[via Ars Technica]

World Wide Maze turns any website into a 3D maze in Google Chrome is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There’ve been some very cool PC games of launched over the last several months. One of the games that is the most demanding of computer hardware is the recently released Crysis 3. If you want to play that game with all the visual bells and whistles turned on, you need a seriously powerful computer. This is where the Digital Storm Hailstorm II gaming PC steps in.

Digital Storm has recently announced this beast and its specs are incredibly impressive. There are a number of hardware options available and the machine uses liquid cooling and looks really cool to boot. The basic configuration of the system, the Level 1, will set you back $2762(USD). For that much loot you get a Core i7 3770K processor, 16 GB of 1600MHz RAM, a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics card with 2GB memory, a 120GB SSD, a 1 TB hard drive, and a Blu-ray drive.

The most expensive configuration is called the Level 4. This beast will drain $8085 from your bank account, It features a smoking-fast 3.5GHz 6-core Intel Core i7 3970X processor, 16 GB of  1866 MHz RAM, and three insanely powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan SLI graphics cards with 6GB memory each. The machine also has a 240 GB SSD along with a 1 TB hard drive, a liquid cooling system, and a Blu-ray player. I bet that Level 4 machine can run Crysis maxed out on a 30-inch monitor without cracking a sweat.

If you’re a fan of the Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG called Neverwinter, you might not want to venture too far from your computer this weekend. Starting on March 22, which is next Friday, at 12 PM PDT Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios are launching their Beta Weekend 3. During the beta weekend players will be able to experience new content and get the first opportunity to check out the games new PvP combat system.

Players will also have the chance to explore the Pirates’ Skyhold and Icespire Peak zones. During the beta weekend players will also get to play a new player class called the Great Weapon Fighter. For the beta weekend, the game developers also increasing the level cap to 50 along with a bunch of other improvements.

The Beta Weekend 3 ends on Sunday, March 24 at 11:59 PM Pacific. Other features of the special weekend will allow players that are selected to participate to explore new content in the Foundary. Players will also be able to take advantage of new quests and campaigns.

Fans of the game that were not chosen to participate in the beta test can still gain access. Those not chosen to purchase a Neverwinter Founder’s Pack and get guaranteed access to the beta weekend. Two available packs that will get players into the beta weekend include Hero of the North Founder’s Pack or Guardian of Neverwinter Pack.

[via Perefect World]

Neverwinter Beta Weekend 3 starts March 22 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.