The Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed is Razer’s latest addition to its long line of gaming mice. In the past, its models have proved popular in the community; and its looks like the newest addition won’t be any different.
As its title suggests, Razer has fitted this mouse with its HyperSpeed wireless technology, a faster alternative to Bluetooth. Unlike the Razer Viper Ultimate, this new mouse offers both Bluetooth and HyperSpeed, allowing you to switch the optimisation between battery and performance.
With an RRP of £59.99, it’s one of the better-priced units we’ve tested – and it pack a punch for the money.
Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed design – Super sleek, but additional weight would be welcome
I’m impressed by the Basilisk X HyperSpeed’s looks, especially given its price point. It’s a pretty sleek plastic construction, complete with comfortable side grips which not only offers a more secure hold but also feels high end.
A great freedom comes with a wireless connection, and this is certainly the case with Razer’s latest offering. It’s well made and sturdy, and the smooth acrylics offset the matte plastics nicely.
In addition, there are six programmable buttons that come with preset functions. The Basilisk X HyperSpeed’s scroll wheel is responsive, and the rubberised and recessed coating makes this mouse rather pleasing to use. Mounted on top is a button for changing the DPI to five stages: 800DPI, 1800DPI, 3600DPI, 7200DPI and then 16,000 – which is an awful lot. You can also customise these presets if you fancy.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any additional weights in the box and nor are there any other side panels for those with bigger hands. Additional weights of the type that feature on the Logitech G502 would have been welcome given that, without them, the Basilisk X HyperSpeed feels a little light. Such a feature is usually only offered with mice that cost over £100 admittedely, so it would be cruel to give too harsh a penalty on this omission.
Having an AA battery sitting inside the mouse does give the mouse a bit of heft at least, although something a little heavier wouldn’t have gone amiss.
The Basilisk X HyperSpeed looks sharp and modern
Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed performance – Jump to HyperSpeed
For simple day to day use, the Basilisk’s out-of-the-box DPI settings made it a joy to use, and it must be said that having such a high resolution for the money smashes a lot of the competition.
Let’s make no bones about it, the Basilisk X HyperSpeed is a hugely responsive mouse. Razer claims its HyperSpeed wireless technology makes it 25% faster than anything the competition (including Bluetooth) has to offer, with a performance so good it blurs the lines between wired and wireless performance.
In a few runs of CS:GO, this mouse felt great to use, as I sprung round corners to pick up hostages, fired aimlessly into the distance for the sake of it, or diffused bombs near the end of a round. The main drawbacks of wireless gaming seem to have been eradicated.
One notable bonus feature of this mouse is the ability to use it on multiple devices at once. On the bottom, there’s a button that allows you to switch between the 2.4GHz receiver or Bluetooth. When using it on multiple devices, we found the switching to be seamless and work fantastically.
The battery life is something to shout about, with the normal 2.4GHz connection offering 285 hours of gaming, while the Bluetooth connection goes for a lot longer at 450 hours. This gives users the capability to prioritise performance over battery life and vice versa. Either way, I’m impressed.
The 16,000 DPI sensor present on the Basilisk X HyperSpeed really makes it stand out from the competition
Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed software and lightning – Customisation options to your heart’s content
While the Basilisk X HyperSpeed doesn’t feature Razer’s renown Chroma lighting, the accompanying Razer Synapse software really does unlock unlimited potential for customisation.
There’s an awful lot of customisation and programming ability, with every button on the mouse capable of being configured ranging from applying macros, to unlocking a new layer of commands thanks to Razer’s Hypershift function.
The five different DPI levels on the Basilisk X HyperSpeed are fully adjustable to suit all of your DPI related needs, adding yet another string to the Basilisk’s bow. There’s honestly so much that can be done with this device, it’s unreal, and is a fantastic selling point if you’re thinking of investing.
There are no lighting options, the Basilisk X HyperSpeed offers a lot of features for the money
Should I buy the Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed?
The Basilisk X HyperSpeed mouse includes some fantastic features for the money, but its lightweight design means the lack of additional weights is disappointing.
A threequel nearly two decades in the making, Shenmue 3 once seemed like an impossible dream. Now it’s here… well, nightmare would be hyperbolic, but it’s certainly a disappointment. If you’ve had your nostalgia goggles surgically implanted into your face and you’re just looking for a continuation of the story, then Shenmue 3 will scratch that 18-year itch. But if you’re looking for a good video game then I’ve got bad news for you.
The story picks up right where Shenmue 2 left off, with Ryo and Shenhua in Bailu village. From here, you must investigate the kidnapping of Shenhua’s father and seek out clues to his whereabouts. As with previous titles, the story advances at an utterly glacial pace thanks to its constant goal-post moving. It’s not so much that your princess is in another castle, and more that she’s been to about 400 castles on the way and left you a breadcrumb trail to follow.
This leads into the classic Shenmue experience of talking to random NPCs until you find the one who will advance the plot. This is where Shenmue 3 falls at the first hurdle. The series’ almost legendarily terrible voice acting has been supplanted with something much worse – merely below-average voice acting. Ryo and Shenhua’s returning voice actors are the worst, while the rest of the cast offer spirited attempts to save the material they’re working with. At least in previous titles the voice acting was entertainingly awful, here it’s just sub-par.
Shenmue 3 is faithful to its Dreamcast roots in both its gameplay and mechanics – which is either a blessing or a curse depending on your nostalgia
But even the best voice actors in the world couldn’t save the atrocious dialogue in play. It’s a Japanese game, made by a small Japanese team, so you have to allow some leeway for imperfect translations and cultural differences, but, even so, the writing is shocking. Characters take forever to say nothing – there are entire conversations that could be condensed into a single sentence. Ryo himself is the worst culprit – 90% of his dialogue is just repeating what someone else just said back at them with a question mark on the end.
NPC: “The monks have trained here for centuries.”
Ryo: “Did you say centuries?”
NPC: “Yes, centuries.”
It’s just so bloody tedious and leads to a phenomenally slow pace as you trudge through endless streams of poorly written and woefully delivered dialogue. But that’s not even the worst thing about the dialogue. You see, every line of dialogue – every single line – takes place within a cutscene. So, if Ryo and Shenhua are walking down the path towards the village and someone needs to say something, you get warped into the cutscene dimension. Every. Single. Time. Did I mention that this game is 90% people talking? It’s infuriating.
When you’re not talking to NPCs and being pulled into the shadow realm, Shenmue 3’s other main draw is the combat. Ryo is often tasked with defeating thugs or sparring with kung fu masters to advance the plot. It’s a basic but functional combat system based on combos learned from skill books. You can input combos manually or cycle through moves to be automatically triggered by the R2 button, rendering the entire system pointless but making it more accessible. Fights usually come down to spamming the same combo at foes and hoping they aren’t blocking. You can also train at the dojo to increase Ryo’s health and to improve his damage output.
‘Split some wood’ is either a helpful past-time or an absolutely filthy euphemism
Training takes the form of incredibly basic mini games such as Horse Stance, which is basically a slow, easy, upside-down Flappy Bird. Incidentally, I tried doing Horse Stance in real life and managed about 10 seconds, so fair play to Ryo on some incredible thigh strength. Training can be a little tedious, but you get the sense that’s the point – you’re taking the slow path through the montage and when you’ve levelled up enough to beat whichever goon was giving you trouble, the victory will feel all the sweeter for your effort.
All the usual trappings that Shenmue made its name with are here too. The inexorable advance of time returns, and you’re often forced to wait until the next day to progress the story, which means heading home to bed. You also need to eat to keep your health up as it drains throughout the day, though Shenmue 3 takes the Skyrim approach to food and you’ll need to eat about 40 raw carrots before Ryo is sated. Your health is tied to your stamina too, so you can’t sprint if your health is too low – this can be rage-inducing when you get stuck hobbling your way to the nearest food stand to find a cabbage to scarf down so you can run home.
You’ll also need to pick up a part-time job if you’re going to be able to afford all those raw carrots. There are a variety of activities to choose from, from chopping wood to collecting herbs and fishing. All of these take the form of simple mini games which you’ll need to grind through if you want to buy new moves, food, and even pay your hotel fees later in the game. The iconic forklift driving job also makes a return in the second area in what is probably the highlight of Shenmue 3’s offerings. There’s just something bizarrely cathartic about moving boxes around a warehouse.
Shenmue lovers will be delighted to learn the threequel brings forklifts back with a vengeance
Quick-time events are also scattered throughout your playthrough and they manage to be both infuriatingly difficult and stupidly easy all at once. Call me a crotchety old man with the reflexes of a dead sloth if you want, but I found it almost impossible to hit the QTEs in the brief window before they disappeared. But there’s no consequence for failing them, since the sequence immediately resets and the QTE prompts never change, so you just learn the sequence rather than reacting unless you have the reactions of the Karate Kid. To be fair to Shenmue 3, failing all its QTEs did provide some fantastic slapstick humour and seeing Ryo get beaned with a fire extinguisher gave me a laughing fit.
The story itself advances at an absolute snail’s pace – it took me over 20hrs to finish Shenmue 3 and maybe three things of note happened during that entire time. Every task is so circuitous, so drawn out and padded. You need to find something, so you ask around and someone directs you to someone else that knows about it. Repeat in a chain for another four or five people before you finally find the person who can help you. Also, half of the people in this chain won’t help until you do some tiresome task for them.
As a result of this excessive padding, Shenmue 3’s pacing is a shambles. At one point I had to rescue some dude who was being held hostage by a bunch of thugs, but since I couldn’t beat their leader, I had to learn a new technique from a martial arts master. Of course, the old grouch wouldn’t teach it to me until I did a bunch of nonsense for him to prove my worth. That’s fine, proving yourself to grumpy old masters is martial arts story 101. But the kidnapped dude who was ostensibly in mortal danger was stuck there for like a week in game time while I ran around catching chickens.
Beloved character are back with laughably charming voice-acting in tow
All of these issues, every single thing I’ve just moaned about, were present in the original Shenmue. The difference is that we forgave Shenmue its failings back then because it was an innovator. Shenmue broke new ground and laid the foundations for a lot of gaming’s current staples, so we didn’t mind that it had horrendous dialogue, shoddy voice acting, and a plot that went nowhere. Shenmue 3 is not an innovator; it wallows in nostalgia.
Shenmue 3 hasn’t advanced a single inch from the original game. And the truth is that this review is largely pointless: if you’re at all interested in Shenmue 3, it’s because you played the originals and, in that case, nostalgia will probably carry you through the way it carried me through. I’m glad I played it, I’m happy to see the story of Ryo Hazuki continue and I’ll probably play the planned Shenmue 4, 5 and 6 if series director Yu Suzuki gets his way. But Shenmue 3 is a bad video game and it’s important we recognise that. It’s OK to like bad things sometimes.
Should you buy Shenmue 3?
Shenmue 3 would have been well received in 2003, but we’re 18 years on from the last entry and Shenmue hasn’t budged an inch. If you weld your nostalgia goggles to your face, you’ll be able to slog through the story, but it really is a chore. Poor game design and a complete lack of innovation are the killers, but even the continuation of the story is a meagre offering thanks to ludicrous levels of padding.
The Razer Basilisk Ultimate represents Razer’s newest flagship wireless mouse, ditching the ties for more electronic freedom.
With an RRP of £169.99, the latest addition to Razer’s family of mice is by no means cheap – and being designed to compete with the likes of the Logitech G502 means it has to pack a punch. So, does it deliver? Let’s find out.
Razer Basilisk Ultimate design – Sleek form and premium feel
Like much of the competition, the Basilisk Ultimate is made predominately of plastic that’s nicely offset by patterned rubber grips occupying both sides of the mouse. Rest assured, it’s comfortable in-hand. There’s a premium feel to the overall construction of the Basilisk Ultimate, although that’s to be expected given the price.
There are a whole host of programmable buttons, 11 to be exact. These range from normal mouse buttons to two that sit atop the mouse to control the DPI level, from 800 to the dizzy heights of 20,000; this is the highest I’ve ever used. It smashes Logitech’s Hero sensor out of the park by a whole 4000.
The Basilisk Ultimate is one of the sleekest looking mice on the market
Much like the Basilisk Ultimate’s smaller brother, the Basilisk X Hyperspeed, there’s no additional weights or side panels – which, in my opinion, are a must have in the modern market. Indeed, lower price competitors such as the Logitech G502 and models that are a third of the price such as the Alienware AW959 include these features, so it’s abnormal not to see them here.
The Basilisk Ultimate is also compatible with Razer’s micro-USB powered charging dock, but you’ll need to buy that separately. But considering the micro-USB port contained on the mouse itself, the role of the dock seems somewhat void.
Razer Basilisk Ultimate performance – Focus+ and Hyperspeed tech ensure latency isn’t an issue
When testing the Basilisk Ultimate, it was ultimately a case of seeing if Razer’s Focus+ sensor and Hyperspeed wireless technology works better than that of its competitors. We’re talking here in comparison to Logitech’s renowned Hero sensor and Lightspeed technology.
For day-to-day use, the sheer sensitivity of 20,000 DPI took some getting used to, although once accustomed to it, you can tune your movements to suit perfectly. You also have the ability to change the resistance of the scroll wheel, thanks to a small roller on the bottom of the mouse, which adds yet another element of customisation.
The Basilisk Ultimate’s sensor works on pretty much any surface including glass, which sets it apart from some of the competition. Indeed, it’s also plug-and-play, ensuring it’s painless to use and comes charged out of the box. Its battery life eclipses Logitech’s offerings, offering to up to 100 hours of gaming, without lighting.
The Basilisk Ultimate offers full-on latency-free browsing and gaming with its 20,000 DPI Focus+ sensor and Hyperspeed connection
The Basilisk Ultimate doesn’t make use of the typical 2.4GHz channel used by most devices and instead uses a 4GHz channel. This means there’s practically no interference from any other devices, making the connection when gaming utterly seamless.
The 20,000 DPI sensor proved rather fabulous, packing a significant punch when moving round corners and quickly spinning round to kill enemies in CS:GO. In addition, the optical switches under the main mouse buttons were also rather clicky, compared to some mushy ones I’ve used in the past.
It’s certainly a satisfying gaming experience when using the Basilisk Ultimate, and the Hyperspeed connection more than makes up for the lack of wires. In addition, the Focus+ sensor has to be one of the industry’s best.
Razer Basilisk Ultimate software and lighting – Glow-up gaming
As is always the case with Razer products, they have the ability to blow you away with lighting and software. I’d go as far to say this combination of Synapse 3 and the Basilisk Ultimate is the best on the market today.
The mouse’s backlighting, even on its own, looks fantastic. Featuring 14 different zones of backlighting makes it more vivid than ever before. Razer’s products certainly have the ability to catch your eye, thanks to crisp and clear lighting, smashing a lot of other competitors out of the water.
Within Synapse, there are 11 programmable buttons allowing you to customise until your heart’s content. From remapping to individual system commands to programming macros, Synapse does it all. Razer’s Hypershift function also unlocks a new layer, which only furthers this mouse’s programmability.
The backlighting options are fabulous, and the Chroma lighting engine is really what sets this mouse apart from the crowd. The typical presets of breathing or scrolling through a rainbow of colour are present, but the Basilisk Ultimate also features an audio visualiser, much like Logitech’s G502, which works rather well. It’s song dependent, but on Ringo Starr’s drum solo on The End from Abbey Road, it picks it up pretty much perfectly. That being said, even having the option for the visualiser is pretty quirky.
The Chroma system allows for connection to other devices such as the Phillips Hue home lights, meaning that you can build your RGB kingdom beyond your office or bedroom. The ability to tie the lighting with a whole host of other devices does seem like a cool idea.
Should I buy the Razer Basilisk Ultimate?
Razer’s newest wireless mouse packs a punch, delivering a lot of blows to the opposition. With its 20,000 DPI sensor and latency-free connection, it works an absolute charm; I’d recommend it in a heartbeat. However, with such a hefty price, this is only a worthwhile purchase for serious PC gamers
The Cherry MX Board 1.0 is the German manufacturer’s latest venture in the mechanical keyboard market. While best known for its key switches, which feature in all manner of manufacturers’ products, Cherry has turned its attention to making mechanical keyboards.
Following on from the MX Board 6.0 and the longstanding MX Board 3.0 comes the all-new MX Board 1.0. Retailing at around £80, the MX Board 1.0 butts up against the Alienware AW768 and the Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum, offering some of the market’s most reliable key switches from a recognisable manufacturer.
Cherry MX Board 1.0 design – It may be plastic, but build quality is superb
Like many products at this price, the MX Board 1.0 is mainly of plastic construction, with metal dispersed in between. It sports a two-tone plastic finish: matte black on top and a silver on the underside. Bouncing off that black plastic housing is a nicely applied metal Cherry logo. Being German-made, the MX Board is the cornerstone of reliability, with the plastic body suffering minimal flex. Top marks there.
A wide shot of the MX Board 1.0, showing its robust plastic construction
Cherry has chosen to work with a closed housing, similar to Razer’s new BlackWidow, opting for sharp-looking edges on the casing. There’s a remarkable similarity in style between the MX Board 1.0 and the newest revision of Razer’s own veteran model. Personally, I prefer the simple finish of the Cherry MX Board – although a metal top-plate would have been nice.
In a similar vein to previous efforts from Cherry – the MX Board 6.0, for example – the MX Board 1.0 lacks designated lock lights for Num, Caps and Scroll. Instead, it opts for LEDs that activate when a key is locked. If you’re used to the typical lock lights in the top-right corner then this might take some getting used to, but that’s all down to personal preference.
The keycaps here aren’t two-shot moulded, like we’ve seen previously, and the legends are laser-etched into the plastic. Laser-etching involves the legends being burnt onto the individual keycaps for maximum longevity, and so won’t fade or chip off – even after heavy usage. Keycaps feel nice under finger and the typeface Cherry has used looks somewhat futuristic. I’m a fan.
There aren’t any additional macro keys on the MX Board 1.0, but in the top-right corner of the keyboard you’ll find four multimedia keys: the Cherry key (which allows for the locking of Windows keys), as well as Skip Backwards, Play/Pause and Skip Forwards buttons. In addition, there are some other functions that can be enabled using the FN key and some of the F keys: Mute, Volume Down, Volume Up.
Additional macros would have been welcome, considering most rivals include them. Nevertheless, their absence won’t be a concern for general day-to-day usage. Cherry doesn’t specifically market this as a “gaming” product, so some of the missing features can be excused.
Bundled in the box with the keyboard is a plastic wrist-rest, which – although a nice touch – is also made of plastic and feels a little “cheap”. The MX 6.0 was also supplied with a wrist-rest, but it was both magnetic and far more comfortable to use.
The 1.8m cable is both fixed and non-braided, but it does come with an illuminated Cherry logo on the end that connects into your PC which looks pretty snazzy.
With an integrated metal plate running through it, the MX Board 1.0 is impressively solid for a plastic-bodied keyboard and, for the price, is outstanding.
Cherry MX Board 1.0 performance – Soft and tactile, these key switches even work well for gaming
With this all-new keyboard, Cherry is offering two variants of its tried-and-tested MX switches: the MX Browns, or the dampened MX Silent Reds. We were supplied an MX Board 1.0 with MX Browns, with an actuation force of 55cN. Heavier than normal linear key switches, they’re also soft and tactile, meaning there’s a small bump halfway down the keystroke.
Cherry’s MX Board 1.0 comes with backlit MX Browns
Having used both switch variants of the MX Board 1.0, I’m a big fan of the MX Browns – and for day-to-day typing, there’s no better switch. In terms of how tactile they are, they’re unrivalled, especially when compared with clones from manufacturers such as Kalih and Gateron. The Kalih variants in particular feel inconsistent compared with the MX Browns here.
Despite not being billed as a full-on gaming product, the new MX Board 1.0 features both full N-Key Rollover and anti-ghosting. This is slightly baffling – but, rest-assured that if you want to use this keyboard for a few runs of Counter-Strike, you can. The Browns worked really well through a few rounds of CS:GO; even with the slightly higher actuation force I was able to gun down counter-terrorists more easily than ever before.
Cherry MX Board 1.0 software and lighting – It isn’t blingtastic; but what’s there works well
Unlike much of the competition, the MX Board 1.0 doesn’t feature any RGB goodness or fancy lighting presets. For some, that will be a deal-breaker; but this isn’t officially a gaming peripheral.
There’s also some sterling white backlighting here on the MX Board 1.0
Instead, there’s a simplistic white LED mounted atop the switch housing. It’s a sharp light and the 100 different levels of brightness can be changed either individually or in ten different increments. That level of freedom puts Logitech’s five stages to shame. The closed housing also means there’s no light seepage.
However, that’s it for lighting, and there’s no accompanying software to go with the MX Board 1.0. This is a shame, since I’m sure there would have been much potential for programming within whatever software Cherry could have bundled with the MX Board 1.0.
Should I buy the Cherry MX Board 1.0?
If you’re wanting something from a manufacturer with a reputation as long as your arm, the MX Board 1.0 ticks all the right boxes. It comes with brilliant key switches and build quality is outstanding. What’s more, it all comes to you at a reasonable price.
The Nvidia Shield TV is an Android streaming box, allowing easy access to a huge library of TV apps such as Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video and more. Since this device is from graphics card manufacturer Nvidia, it shouldn’t come as a shock that it offers a gaming-focused spin on the likes of the Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV ranges.
With GeForce Now – Nvidia’s answer to Google Stadia – available on the Shield TV, you’ll be able to stream games you own on Steam, Origin or uPlay via the cloud. This means the Shield TV’s hardware has no limits on performance, with the speed and reliability of your internet connection the only obstacle to play the latest and greatest video games at max graphics settings.
The 2019 edition of the Shield TV further improves experiences for both gaming and TV, with a Tegra X1+ processor speeding up the performance, Dolby Vision HDR and AI upscaling boosting the picture quality and Dolby Atmos support levelling up your audio to such an extent your local multiplex will turn green with envy.
Nvidia also made sure to remove the perception the Shield TV is exclusively for gamers by ditching the mini console design (at least for the entry-level model) and redesigning the remote so it no longer looks out of place in the living room. Best of all, the Shield TV is launching at its cheapest price, an affordable £149.99. But is that enough for to be champion of the TV streaming boxes?
Nvidia Shield TV design and controller – Radical makeovers
Previous editions of the Shield TV looked like a miniature Xbox. While I’m sure plenty of gamers appreciated this, it also likely turned off many who thought the overbearing design would look jarring in the living. The new entry-level Nvidia Shield TV box is rocking a far more low-profile design – in fact, it’s so low profile you could mistake it for a power brick.
The Nvidia Shield TV is a small, slender black cylinder. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s designed to disappear out of sight behind the television instead of being proudly displayed. While I really love this subtle design approach, it does come with drawbacks, as there’s limited room for ports. There’s only wired connections for power, Ethernet HDMI and storage expansion via MicroSD card.
Don’t worry gamers, the new Pro model of the Shield TV still retains the overt gaming style and USB 3.0 ports for hooking up your gaming keyboard and mouse if those are both crucial features for you – although you’ll have to offer up an extra £50 for the privilege.
The Nvidia Shield TV remote has also seen a massive design overhaul, now looking far more approachable and accessible to non-gamers. Playback control buttons have been added, making it easier to pause, fast forward or alter the volume, while a dedicated Netflix button ensures accessing the world’s most popular streaming service is an absolute doddle. The microphone button remains here too, so you can bring up Google Assistant to take you to your favourite TV show without faffing with menus.
Google Assistant is reasonably accurate, but its functionality is limited with Shield TV. It can easily whip up any film or TV show from Netflix and the Google Play Store at command for example, but it faltered when opening The Apprentice on BBC iPlayer. Google Assistant also refused to acknowledge the existence of GeForce Now, so I had to open up all my games manually – first-world problems ey? The Shield TV also supports Alexa now too, so you still boss the system around if you’re loyal to Amazon’s assistant.
Nvidia has introduced additional nifty extra features to the remote too, including a motion-activated backlight, IR control for your TV and video/equipment and a lost-remote locator. These may sound insignificant on paper, but every one of these features helps to eradicate all the faff and stress when settling down to watch TV.
The remote also uses 2x AAA batteries (provided in the box) which apparently last six months of use before requiring replacements. This is a welcome change from using disc, batteries which were an absolute pain to replace, so kudos to Nvidia for listening to customer feedback.
Overall, I’m a big fan of the remote. The toblerone shape and miniature size ensure its comfortable to hold, while Bluetooth connectivity means you don’t have to accurately point at the device for your commands to be registered. In terms of upgrades from the previous generation Shield TV, the controller redesign is certainly among the best.
The Shield gamepad no longer comes bundled with the Shield TV. Instead, Nvidia has allowed you to hook up your own Bluetooth controllers, which includes pads from both the PS4 and Xbox One, or even your old Shield controller. Pairing them is a very simple – following some quick fiddling in the settings, and you’re good to go. I’m a big fan of Nvidia letting users pick their own pad of choice, while not forcing their own in a bundle helps to keep the cost down.
Nvidia Shield TV – Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and AI Upscaling
The Nvidia Shield TV is a premium streaming TV box, allowing you to watch content in 4K via the likes of Netflix, Prime Video and even the upcoming Disney Plus. The new iteration goes several steps further, also enabling support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
Dolby Vision is a high dynamic range (HDR) video format, which helps to increase the range of colours displayed on screen while also boosting the brightness, resulting in a drastically improved picture. The only issue here is Dolby Vision content is limited, with only select modern films (Avengers Infinity War and Solo: A Star Wars Story etc) and Netflix originals (Stranger Things, Altered Carbon and more) supporting the technology.
Provided by Nvidia
Dolby Atmos, meanwhile, is a surround-sound technology which proves to be a big step up from what you get with 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound. The major improvement here is that sound occupies a more vertical space, as its blasted from the ceiling and floor and gives the illusion that a whirring helicopter or roaring dinosaur is directly above you. Again, Dolby Atmos support isn’t plentiful, with a very limited Netflix Originals library – restricted to the likes of The Haunting of Hill House, nature documentary Our Planet and Breaking Bad movie El Camino – taking advantage of it. Dolby Atmos really does offer a cinema-esque experience to the living room though, providing a level of immersion I didn’t think possible in the living room.
Another limitation for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos is the hardware required. You’ll need a Dolby Atmos-compatible TV and Dolby Atmos certified sound system for the technology to work, and neither of them come cheap. Both technologies are of course very welcome additions, but unless you have the required hardware, it’s probably not worth upgrading to the new Shield TV.
There is another exciting feature with the new Shield TV which doesn’t require such an extravagant setup: AI upscaling. This technology allows you to convert 720p and 1080p content to 4K, making images look sharper and more detailed. While upscaling is nothing new, Nvidia claims the computing power of the Tegra Z1+ chip allows for a more enhanced upscaling process. The final picture won’t look quite as good as native 4K content, but it still often results in a remarkably improved picture.
Provided by Nvidia
Nvidia demonstrated the power of AI upscaling with an episode of Game of Thrones. Since only season one currently supports 4K, it was a marvel to see the larger pixel count finally give Westeros the extra shine it truly merits. With AI enhanced, the medieval clothing suddenly looked more textured, while background scenery looked noticeably less blurry.
After taking the Shield TV home, I soon realised AI Upscaling can be hit and miss. It actually made Lord of the Rings look worse, with the artificial intelligence making the film look more grainy. Nvidia acknowledge the upscaling technology won’t make every film look better, and so does allow you to turn the feature off with a single press of a button.
I found animated films to be one of the biggest benefactors of AI upscaling, with the likes of Shrek and Coco looking significantly sharper. With most content though, I really had to squint to see the difference. AI Upscaling, then, is certainly a good addition for the Nvidia Shield TV, although I’m unconvinced it provides enough of a difference to merit an upgrade from an older Shield device.
Elsewhere, the Shield TV retains the same high quality of its predecessors. There’s a massive library of TV apps here, including the classics such as Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube and BBC iPlayer, while also boasting more obscure cult favourite options such as Crunchyroll, Rakuten Viki and Ted Talks. With even Disney Plus confirmed, its future proofed for entrainment too. The only significant omission I could find was Now TV, but I did have the option to cast the Now TV mobile app to the Shield TV, so it’s not a massive issue.
There are also many non-TV streaming services available through the Google Play Store, such as Spotify, Twitch and Plex. Even NordVPN is here, which I imagine will you let you access the US Netflix from British soil, although the VPN’s recent hacking scandal does make that option less attractive.
The interface remains the same as previously too. I think it’s fine, with the Android software organising your streaming services and games into separate rows. It’s all customisable too, so you can pin your most used apps to the top for easy access. Navigating Google Play for new apps can be a pain though, especially since it prompts you to use voice commands for search which isn’t always reliable. Nvidia assured me it will continue to regularly update the Shield TV though, so don’t rule out an improved interface further down the line.
Nvidia Shield TV Gaming – GeForce Now and GameStream
The Shield TV is a fantastic device for streaming films and TV, but there’s no doubt its greatest ace card is its gaming credentials. You’ve the option to play Android games locally, stream games from your own PC or use cloud streaming via GeForce Now. Not one of these features are new or exclusive for the 2019 edition of the Shield TV, but there’s no doubt Nvidia has made huge strides in the gaming department since the previous Shield TV device first launched.
Nvidia’s GeForce Now allows you to play AAA video games without the need for high-end hardware. This means you’ll be able to play GPU-demanding games on the low-powered Shield TV, putting your PlayStation and Xbox to shame. This cloud-streaming service is very similar to what Google Stadia offers, but instead of being forced to buy games directly from Nvidia, you can instead port titles over from over online game stores such as Stream, EA Origin and Uplay.
With a purchase of a Shield TV, you also get access to 42 games via GeForce Now for free. Most of these titles are admittedly pretty old, but there are still some fantastic picks including Batman: Arkham City, BioShock Remastered and Borderlands.
I installed Hitman 2 from my Steam library to test out GeForce now, and was shocked to see how smooth the performance was – I didn’t notice any performance lag or frame rate drop once. Of course, your internet connection is detrimental for the performance of GeForce Now, but my 35mbps broadband coped just fine.
There are teething problems with the service though. For example, despite prompting me to use a gamepad to play Fortnite, I couldn’t log into the game without a keyboard. Since the entry-level Shield TV doesn’t have USB ports, it’s impossible to play the battle-royale shooter without using a Bluetooth keyboard, which is very odd.
It’s also worth noting that while GeForce Now is currently free, this could change once the public beta ends and the service officially launches. I suspect Nvidia will offer a free subscription tier like Google Stadia though, limiting the performance to Full HD at 60fps, but it’s impossible to know for sure. If Nvidia gets it right, GeForce Now really does have the potential to blow Google Stadia out of the water and make the Shield TV a viable alternative to the PS5 and Xbox 2.
The Shield TV also allows you to directly stream titles from your own gaming PC. This makes it possible to play games on the Shield TV which are stored on your gaming PC, which comes in handy if you want to swap from your monitor to your living room’s ultra-wide television. You’ll need to have an Nvidia GeForce graphics card and a reliable internet connection for this to work though.
Just in case you don’t have good internet, the Shield TV also allows you to buy and play Android games locally too. These are made up mostly of indie and mobile titles, but there are a couple of gems here such as Super Meat Boy, Star Wars: KOTOR and a number of old Final Fantasy entries.
The Shield TV Pro edition has access to an even larger library of Android games such as Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Resident Evil 5, Tomb Raider and more. This is thanks to the system’s greater 3GB RAM, but with GeForce Now already offering access to these titles on the standard Shield TV (provided you’re subscribed to the service) I personally think you’re better off saving the £50, unless you really want to use a wired keyboard and mouse with Shield.
The new Nvidia Shield TV has a number of improvements over the previous generation model, with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support being the most prevalent. However, unless you have the high-end hardware to enable such technology, I really don’t think there’s enough here to justify an upgrade from an old Shield TV device.
If you’re new to Shield though, it’s another matter entirely. With 4K HDR streaming capabilities, an abundance of apps and a more affordable £149 price, the Shield TV has a great shouting of being the very best Android TV box on its streaming skills alone.
If you’re a gamer who would take advantage of the GeForce Now cloud-streaming service though, the Shield TV becomes a no brainer. Being able to play all my Steam, Uplay and Origin video games with no need for a high-end hardware is mind boggling, and I’m still struggling to fathom how smooth the performance is. With GeForce Now still in beta, there are still a lot of questions hanging over the service, including subscription costs and game support.
If Nvidia gets it right with GeForce Now though, then the Shield TV will not only be the best of the best for TV streaming, but could well usurp Google Stadia as the go-to cloud-streaming console king too.
Verdict
The Nvidia Shield TV is among the very best premium Android streaming boxes thanks to support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, while still offering users the capability to stream 4K content from popular streaming services. Add in its incredible Stadia-rivalling cloud-streaming gaming potential, and this becomes a no-brainer box for gamers.
The Razer Viper Ultimate is a new wireless mouse aimed at e-sports, with Razer claiming its new HyperSpeed wireless technology is a significantly superior alternative to Bluetooth in terms of speed, reliability and accuracy.
Razer also claims the Razer Viper Ultimate offers a similar performance to its previously released wired counterpart: the standard Razer Viper. This marks a significant milestone for wireless technology, with the Razer Viper Ultimate arguably among the first gaming mice to offer a performance high enough to be considered for competitive e-sports tournaments.
The Razer Viper Ultimate also comes with a slew of new features including smart tracking, asymmetric cut-off and motion sync, while borrowing other successful innovations from other Razer peripherals such as optical switches.
Designed especially for e-sport players, the Viper Ultimate sees the same streamlined form as the wired Razer Viper, cutting off any excess fat or buttons to see the weight fall to a feather-light 74 grams. Factor in an impressive 70-hour battery life, and the Viper Ultimate is shaping up to be an extremely good wireless option for competitive gamers.
I went hands-on with the new peripheral to see whether those incredible specs can equate to an incredible performance.
Razer Viper Ultimate Price – How much will it cost?
The Razer Viper Ultimate retails for £149.99 in the UK, €159.99 in Europe and $149.99 in USA. You also get the Razer Mouse Dock bundled in the box – a docking station equipped with RGB Chroma that can recharge the wireless mouse.
Razer Viper Ultimate Release Date – When can I buy it?
The Razer Viper Ultimate is available to buy right now from the official Razer store online, as well as authorised resellers.
The Razer Viper Ultimate sports a simplistic design, prioritising performance over fashion. In fact, it looks pretty much like a traditional gaming mouse, with the green Razer logo slapped on for good measure.
You could accuse the Viper Ultimate of looking somewhat plain, but there’s a good reason for this. Razer has chopped away all the needless plastic to make its e-sports focused peripheral as light as possible.
The Razer Viper Ultimate weighs 74 grams, which admittedly doesn’t make it the lightest gaming wireless mouse, but it at least undercuts the the 121g heft of the Viper Ultimate’s closest rival, the Logitech G Pro Wireless.
Importantly, the Viper Ultimate feels really comfortable in my hand, and not having a cable connected is as freeing as ever. The casing is made out of plastic, but certainly still feels premium. This mouse flaunts class in every department.
There are eight programmable buttons on the Viper Ultimate – two optical switches up top, two extra buttons on each side and the DPI switcher underneath. Razer representatives explained the DPI switch has been moved to the bottom to prevent accidental knocks mid-game, which I think is a very sensible move and looks to be growing trend across the market.
Razer Chroma RGB lighting is of course still present, boasting 16.8 million colours, but is far more understated than consumer-level gaming mice. It’s only the Razer Logo that glows, and even that can be turned off via the Razer Synapse app if users find it distracting.
Razer Viper Ultimate Wireless Performance – What is it like to use?
Razer has concentrated its efforts into making the Viper Ultimate the absolute best performing gaming mouse in the e-sports market, and on first impressions, it’s done an outstanding job.
There’s a couple of headline specs and features here, but the most noteworthy is Razer’s new HyperSpeed technology. Gaming manufacturers have realised Bluetooth has been throttling the performance of gaming mice, with the latency and accuracy not quite high enough to compete with wired peripherals.
In order to overcome this hindrance, Logitech developed its own ‘Lightspeed’ wireless innovation, gifting its peripherals a massive advantage over competitors. Razer has finally hit back with it own wireless solution, introducing ‘HyperSpeed’ to the Viper Ultimate.
Razer suggests HyperSpeed is 25% faster than other wireless technologies – a bold claim given the success of Logitech’s Lightspeed. HyperSpeed connectivity gives the Viper Ultimate an excellent and stable 998Hz polling rate, which effectively means the mouse is reporting its position to the computer every millisecond for pin-point accuracy.
Razer demonstrated (with benchmark software it had developed itself, admittedly) that HyperSpeed boasts an even more stable performance than a wired Logitech rival. Razer did admit the difference was so negligible a human wouldn’t notice the difference, but it’s still remarkable to see its mouse offering a wireless performance equivalent to a wired connection.
Playing a few rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it was genuinely difficult to tell the difference between the Viper Ultimate and a wired mouse – I even found myself winning more 50/50 shootout duels than usual. So, you’re not sacrificing performance at all by cutting the cord.
HyperSpeed is also claimed to offer the lowest click latency and fastest transmission speeds found in any other gaming mouse. Couple that with the optical switches underneath the right and left clickers, which are apparently three times faster than the mechanical counterparts you usually find in gaming mice, and the Razer Viper Ultimate is a supremely responsive device.
Razer Viper Ultimate Sensor – What is Razer Focus+?
The Razer Viper Ultimate also has the privilege of being the first gaming mouse to own Razer’s new optical sensor, the Focus+. The benefits this brings to Razer’s mouse include the industry’s highest DPI sensitivity and inches per second performance.
With a whopping 20,000 DPI (dots per inch), the Viper Ultimate is the world’s most sensitive gaming mouse. This is an impressive record, but by Razer’s own admission, this isn’t as big of a game-changer as you might expect, with the ideal sensitivity level for gamers said to be around 800-1600. I suppose it’s nice to have the option though, even if 20,000 is very much overkill.
The Focus+ 650 IPS (inches per second) score will be far more influential on your gaming performance, referring to the maximum speed you can move the mouse before the sensor’s tracking ability starts to suffer. Razer claims this is the best IPS figure you’ll currently see in a gaming mouse, with the second best alternative limited to 450 IPS. In real-time performance, this means you’ll be able to make quick, sudden movements – such as rapidly turning your sniper rifle for a perfect headshot – without fail.
Razer’s new Focus+ sensor also allows for some super-smart features. The first is smart tracking, which eradicates the need for calibration every time you switch surfaces (mouse mats, hard desk, etc), as the Viper Ultimate can detect what type of surface it is sitting on and ensure lift-off distance and accuracy remains consistent.
Razer now gives you the option of manually changing the lift-off distance too, so you can decide exactly how close (between 1mm and 3mm) you want the sensor to be able to detect the surface. Ideally, you’ll want this to be at its absolute lowest point, preventing accidental movement when adjusting the position of the mouse. With on-board storage for up to five profiles, the Viper Ultimate can save all your settings too, so you don’t need to dive back into Synapse everytime you switch PC.
The final feature provided by the Focus+ sensor is Motion-Sync. Razer says this improves tracking accuracy by ensuring the information sent from the mouse to PC is relayed at the correct intervals. Razer presented a diagram showing the Focus+ flaunts better accuracy than Logitech’s Hero sensor. Again, the difference is marginal to say the least, but Razer was keen to remind me every little advantage counts when it comes to competitive gaming.
Razer Viper Ultimate Battery – What is the battery life like?
Razer claims the Razer Viper battery life can last up to 70 hours – that’s with the RGB lighting turned off though, so expect the figure to be noticeably smaller if you’re unwilling to sacrifice the lightshow.
I was unable to test how accurate Razer’s battery claim is, since I was only given a few hours with the peripheral at Razer’s HQ office. I already have a review sample though, so watch out for our final review and verdict soon.
The Razer Viper Ultimate comes bundled with a Razer Mouse Dock. This plugs into your computer via USB, and allows you to slot the mouse on top for a recharge. You obviously won’t be able to play with the mouse when it’s docked, but it’s also possible to plug in a charging cable if you really don’t want to stop gaming.
The Razer Mouse Dock also offers a passthrough port to slot the mouse’s USB dongle. It’s a subtle feature, but ensures the Viper Ultimate never has to occupy two of your systems ports simultaneously.
The dock looks really cool and stations the mouse securely via magnets. The bottom rim of the dock features RGB lighting, and changes colour to reflect the battery status of the mouse. It’s a neat feature, and a good compromise for those who don’t want an on-mouse colour alert to displace their carefully curated RGB light profiles, but still desire updates on how much juice is left in the tank.
Razer Viper Ultimate – Early verdict
Having played a few rounds of Counter-Strike and seeing several performance demonstrations from Razer, I’ve got extremely high hopes for the Razer Viper Ultimate. If Razer’s bold claims for its new optical sensor and HyperSpeed wireless technology are true, then this mouse looks to be the best performing option for e-sports with seemingly no sacrifices made at all to go cordless.
Factors such as battery life, durability and performance consistency need to be judged before a final verdict can be made whether the Viper Ultimate merits its steep price, but the spec sheet and feature list certainly suggests the Razer Viper Ultimate could be the very best wireless gaming mouse for competitive gaming. With a review unit in hand already, expect our final verdict very soon.
As Destiny 2 enters its third year since launch, changes are afoot. With its departure from Activision/Blizzard, developer Bungie has revised its content release schedule and restructured Destiny 2’s very core with its latest expansion – Shadowkeep.
Shadowkeep takes players back to the Moon, a locale adored by many during Destiny’s original reign as the king of console pseudo-MMOs, to experience its spookiest story yet. Eris Morn returns to the galaxy, warning players about a coming Hive Invasion and kicks the story into gear with an onslaught against a mysterious Scarlett Keep that has appeared on the Moon.
From here, the story continues to build as you literally confront ghosts from your past, a few of which will assuredly send a chill down even the most veteran of Guardian spines. This dedication to the franchises’ past is wonderful, but can be a problem for newcomers. Almost everything in Shadowkeep calls back to the first game, so many of these stellar moments don’t always land the same across the board.
While I loved revisiting some long forgotten foes, it also felt like I wasn’t really participating in “new content”, instead cruising through a highlight reel of all the big baddies I’d already seen and bested all those years ago.
After my third completion of Shadowkeep’s campaign, I was exhausted with the enemies. Even the underlying mystery of the Pyramid wasn’t enough to keep me scouring for lore. In fact, you never really reach the story’s end thanks to the Vex Invasion of the Moon and other content additions set to debut in the coming weeks and months.
In true Destiny 2 fashion, you are edged out of the story surrounding the Nightmare enemies and the Scarlet Keep by another bigger bad – the Vex – before truly experiencing a climax akin to that of its predecessor. It’s Bungie’s greatest strength and its biggest weakness, constantly upping the stakes and moving your focus to another threat.
But what a threat it is, the Vex invasion on the Moon and accompanying Vex Offensive activity is insanely fun to participate in. The Moon becomes swarmed by the metallic monsters, with these specific Vex boasting a mossy look that differentiates them from the boring old Vex of previous games. As a six Guardian activity, the Vex Offensive event doubles down on this overwhelming feeling of truly being invaded.
There’s hundred-upon-hundreds of Vex that emerge in an instant from an eerie puff of smoke befitting of Shadowkeep’s overall atmosphere. There’s no time to react – they are in your face before you know it –and that’s only the start of your time with the Vex.
As Shadowkeep’s accompanying raid, the Garden of Salvation, is predominantly based on the Vex and their Black Garden, you’ll find the overwhelming feeling of powerlessness accompanying the invasion reaches its peak in this encounter.
This is the pinnacle event in Destiny 2, only the most hardened player will be able to complete it, but it’s something everyone should at least try. All four phases of the raid felt natural and mastering their mechanics was incredibly rewarding, more so than previous raids that often felt needlessly obscure.
No matter what content you are digesting, each and every new area is to die for. The Moon is exactly how you remember it, but more realised. The recreation of Destiny’s first mission is now part of every new player’s experience, meaning you get to actually play in small sections of Earth that were once only referenced in small nuggets of lore.
The Vex Offensive and Garden of Salvation areas are absolutely gorgeous arenas draped in luminous flora, rusty metallic objects, and the revision of the Vex you fight in each really reflects that they were long abandoned, left behind by Guardians who went elsewhere.
Underscoring it all is a wonderfully eerie soundtrack that quietly accentuates the overall atmosphere. It’s quiet when most needed, loud when critical encounters amp up, and rich in rhythm. It fits perfectly within the overall OST to boot. You can even hear some sporadic vocals that are fittingly haunting as they cut through the bullets flying overhead.
But Shadowkeep isn’t just about new content. Bungie have finally looked under the hood and revised how armour, mods, and the fabric of how Destiny 2 functions. The first, and by far the most significant, is Armor 2.0. Previously, Destiny 2 was all about finding multiple pieces of armour, building them up with single use mods, and then hoarding countless varieties for each weapon you might want to use.
It was so rigid that your vault was often crowded and the progress made could be lost in an instant, thanks to whatever flavour-of-the-week weapon you used being nerfed. Now, Armor 2.0 encourages players to dedicate themselves to individual pieces of armour, making mods a one-off discovery that can be placed in various slots.
In turn, levelling that armour can be a bit more time consuming, but the overall result is that you have a piece of armour that you like to look of that can be adjusted to fit nearly every occasion, so long as the elemental type of the armour matches that of your mod.
The content stream doesn’t stop there, Bungie has also promised a more steady flow of content throughout the season, too. With every copy of Shadowkeep, players also received a season pass for the Season of the Undying. This is a commitment from Bungie to continue to update and grow Shadowkeep’s story as the months pass by.
Within the season pass players receive a ‘Seasonal Artifact’, which will be included in all seasons, that adds specific mods to your collection offering new functions for your weapons. In the Season of the Undying these mods are focussed on destroying new enemy types, specifically those with with special barriers or unstoppable enemies that need their energy disrupted to be defeated.
Previously, the gain of XP past level 30 felt irrelevant. You’d occasionally get a Bright Engram and the rewards were negligible. Now you have something to focus on – obtaining a level 100 pass within the season. On top of that, this ‘Seasonal Artifact’ has its own power level that’s shared across all of your characters – adding an additional level of value not seen before.
It can’t be stated enough that Bungie has really tried to create a more living feel to Destiny 2’s content schedule. There’s even new Strike and Crucible maps, on top of everything else – all of which bolsters each and every activity in Destiny 2.
There’s just so much going on in Shadowkeep, and the Season of the Undying, that listing nearly every additional component and tweak would end up boring you to death. To put it simply, Shadowkeep is the overhaul Destiny 2 needed.
Returning players have a renewed purpose to continue playing throughout the season, while new players have a more streamlined and clearer route to progression without a massive barrier to entry (largely due to Bungie raising every player’s base power level to 750, and removing the initial requirement to level to Level 30). And underneath it all is the stellar shooting Bungie is renowned for.
Verdict
If you were ever curious about Destiny 2, Shadowkeep is the perfect entry point. If you are a reneged player that struggled with content doubts, there’s no better time to come back. And if you are neither of the aforementioned, you probably should be. Shadowkeep is everything every player wanted from Destiny 2 and in true Bungie fashion it was delivered with a bang – which presumably emanated from the servers as they exploded on launch night.
