For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a PC gamer. Back when I was a kid in the early 90s, while friends were plugging in and playing their Master Systems and NESes, I was firing up my Amiga A500+.
Sure, my friends’ consoles would load quickly and could even save their progress thanks to cartridges, while I had to wait for my Amiga to slowly read one (or two, if it was an ambitious game) floppy disks, and I’d need another blank floppy if I wanted to save my game, but deep down we all knew the Amiga was the better machine.
It had better sound and graphics, I could use it to type up my homework, and there was an application in the Workbench operating system that would read out whatever rude words you typed in. It also had better games. My Sega and Nintendo-owning friends might have had Sonic and Mario, but I had Zool.
OK, bad example. But I did have games like Lemmings, Shadow of the Beast, Xenon 2, Monkey Island and many more that offered a complexity in not just graphics and audio, but also gameplay, that consoles couldn’t compete with.
At this point regular readers are probably thinking oh great, I thought he was going to talk about a smartwatch but he’s just banging on about the Amiga again, but bear with me.
The Amiga offered a huge variety of experiences compared to consoles. Along with playing games, we could make artwork in Deluxe Paint and script our own games, leading to a thriving demo scene. It was also overly complex and sometimes a pain in the ass – with some games throwing up indecipherable error messages after you’d patiently waited for it to load. It was the perfect gateway for PC gaming.
By the time I had to juggle 12 floppy disks to play Monkey Island 2, I decided it was time to move on, and switched to a Windows-based ‘Multimedia’ PC that came with an actual hard drive! And a CD-ROM drive! And a floppy drive, of course. Couldn’t quite kick the floppy habit back then.
This gave me access to games like Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Command & Conquer and Theme Hospital. And that was it. The damage was done, and I knew that the life of a PC gamer was for me.
Many PCs, upgrades, Blue Screens of Death, RTS, FPS, RSI and various versions of Windows later, and I’m still a PC gamer at heart. But I didn’t quite understand quite how deeply my PC gameryness (it’s a word) ran until I found the Razer X Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch on my desk and slapped it on my wrist.
Gamer chic
Look at it. It’s beautiful. It’s also ghastly, tacky, over the top… I love it.
I’ve actually been using the Fossil Gen 5 for a few years now. It was my first smartwatch, and it appealed to me as its rounded edges made it look more like a traditional watch (unlike the Apple Watch ), and it would work with my Android smartphone (again, unlike the Apple Watch).
I really liked it, even though battery life wasn’t brilliant, and it got a bit weird when trying to charge sometimes. Still, it was great for quickly checking the weather, going running with, alerting me to messages when my phone wasn’t nearby... oh and telling the time.
I was perfectly happy with it, so when the Razer X Fossil Gen 6 smartwatch launched, I wasn’t that interested. The Fossil Gen 6 didn’t seem like a big enough leap over Gen 5 for me to upgrade, and I had managed to convince myself that the Razer branding was of no interest to me, despite my desk being covered with various Razer products.
A few months later, though, I got my hands on one. Or should that be got one on my hands? Anyway, the design that I had dismissed as ‘gross’ and ‘tacky’ was, well… gross and tacky. But it was, I realised, me . My taste is gross and tacky, and it’s time I embraced it.
With my previous Fossil Gen 5 watch, I used a metal chain to pretend to be all grown up. However, the rubber strap of the Razer X Fossil Gen 6 felt so much more comfortable. The fact that it came with the word RAZER engraved in the buckle, and comes with an even more offensive to the eye-wateringly bright green strap was just the icing on this sickly cake.
The configurable watch faces range from the minimalist to the decadent, most of them plastered with the Razer logo, of course. There’s even a watch face called ‘RGB’ that emulates the – you’ve guessed it – RGB lighting seen in the most degenerate gaming rigs.
As I slipped it on my wrist, I thought to myself am I really going to wear an RGB watch? I glanced about my desk, where my PC spewed out rainbow lights (which were now even more bright since I put a bloody RGB SSD in there a few weeks ago). My keyboard, mouse and gamepad all throbbed like the heartbeat of a dying clown, and my headset glowed in the corner, finding ever more offensive colors to churn through.
Yes , I thought to myself. Yes I will wear an RGB watch .
You know why? Because I’m a PC gamer. ‘Subtle’ isn’t part of our vocabulary. Everything needs to be bigger, faster, more powerful, and ideally brighter than an explosion in a Christmas decoration factory. Looking inside your PC case should be like opening up the Ark of the Covenant. What’s the point of having RAM if it doesn’t come with enough RGB to melt your face? (Please don’t write in, I do actually know what the point of RAM is).
After fully embracing my inner PC gamer, I cracked open a box of Nanoleaf Shapes that I’d been meaning to put up at some point, and plastered my wall with them. Now my house was RGB-enabled.
My wife hated it. But, as I sat basking in the glow of a hundred* burning components and peripherals, my very own rainbow constellation, I didn’t care. I was home .
*this is an exaggeration
Alienware made a concept gaming server to take on PC game streaming at CES 2022
While it seems like many companies spent the last couple of years creating cloud gaming services like Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now , at CES 2022 , Alienware unveiled a new concept that takes things a little closer to home.
The Alienware Project Nyx, if it ever comes out (big if), will essentially be a gaming server that you can use to play games remotely on any device in your home. The whole reason for this is that because all of the processing is done on a centralized device in your home, it would cut down on the latency that plagues cloud gaming platforms.
It is an incredibly cool concept, and I was even able to see it in action in New York, but because it's so early in development and possibly won't ever come out, it's probably best not to get your hopes up for this thing. But that doesn't mean we can't geek out about it a little bit.
We're talking some serious computing power here
One of the use cases Alienware has pitched for Concept Nyx is having everyone playing different games throughout the home on different devices, with the ability to suspend a game and pick it up in another room instantly, and we're not exactly talking light-weight titles here.
Cyberpunk 2077 was used to show this concept off to me, and while you may love or hate it, that game is not exactly easy on system resources. If you're going to have a centralized server that can run a game like Cyberpunk and still have enough leftover juice to run two or three other games simultaneously, you're going to need some incredibly powerful hardware.
Now that is pretty clear when you see the thing in person. It's a giant black obelisk with RGB lighting emitting around it - because of course it has RGB - and it looks like it weighs a good 60lb at least . Alienware obviously wasn't telling us what hardware was in it, but just from getting a look at it, it's nothing to shake a stick at.
The big problem with this would of course be cost. One of the benefits of a service like Google Stadia is that you pay a monthly fee and have access to constantly-updated hardware that can cost thousands of dollars up front - especially these days.
The level of power in Concept Nyx would probably mean an extremely high price tag - likely upwards of $10,000. Of course this is just a concept and there is no official price tag, but there's no way something like this would come cheap.
But it is super cool
So yeah, it's probably not super practical, but that's what these concepts are all about right? Trying to take a look at where PC gaming will be in the future, even if the finished product looks completely different - if it ever comes at all (looking at you Concept UFO).
When Alienware showed this thing off to me, I kept gravitating towards the giant box holding all the components and I want nothing more than to rip it open and see how it works. I wasn't allowed to, of course, but the idea of having hardware that powerful in your home, in order to have a centralized gaming PC your entire family can use at the same time is a neat idea to be sure.
And it's not like it would be without benefit. Because all the processing is done in your home, you wouldn't be reliant on Google, Nvidia or Microsoft to play your games (at least if they're not online-only). Instead, you could have a centralized library at home, and have instant and uninterrupted access to it.
It would be, in essence, the same as an in-home Plex server but for games. The only reason this hasn't happened before is because of the incredible amount of power that it would require. But it looks like Dell and Alienware may have found a way around that.
Still, it'll all depend on whether or not this thing ever comes to market. I'm not holding my breath, but I would absolutely love to take a swing at it.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power trailer: 8 things you may have missed
After months of waiting (and a four-year development cycle), we've finally received our first footage of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The first teaser for Amazon 's big-budget fantasy show is only a minute long, but it's packed with lots of information for us to pour over. There are plenty of callbacks to J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary source material, as you'd expect, as well as several new elements that Amazon Studios has introduced for its live-action prequel series.
We imagine you've watched the teaser multiple times by this point, scouring it for clues as to what The Rings of Power 's story may be about, more on its eclectic mix of characters, Middle-Earth Easter eggs and more. So, allow us to help you work out what's what.
Below, we've covered eight things that you may have missed from the Prime Video TV show 's first trailer. Bear in mind, though, that we'll be delving into potential spoiler territory for The Rings of Power . Turn back now if you'd prefer not to know anything about the series before its release later this year.
1. Welcome to Númenor
The teaser opens on the beautiful but ultimately doomed island of Númenor, i the kingdom of the long-living and wise Númenorians. This is the kingdom of Men from whom the Dúnedain descended, including Aragorn, the eventual King of Gondor.
Númenor was expected to feature in The Rings of Power – the show is set in the Second Age, which is when Númenor still existed – so it's pleasing to see that we'll be visiting it at some point.
How do we know it's Númenor? Well, there are two big giveaways. The first is the giant stone statue that's carved out of a cliff. Many fans believe that the statue is of Elros Tar-Minytaur, the half-elven founder of Númenor who becomes the island nation's first king. Given his importance to Númenor, then, it seems that this is the most logical fit.
The second giveaway is that we see the flat-topped mountain of Meneltarma in the background. The sacred mountain was the location for numerous special Númenorian gatherings until the isle sank.
2. Historic hobbits
The Rings of Power is likely to focus on the races of elves, dwarves and men for large parts of its narrative. We do know, though, that we'll also be seeing the ancestors of the hobbits in the series, too.
Lenny Henry (Doctor Who) had already confirmed he'd be portraying a harfoot, one of three pre-hobbit races, in the show. Thanks to this teaser, we know that Markella Kavenagh (The Cry) will also play a Harfoot, too, as she appears as one at the 0:15 mark.
We see Kavenagh's unnamed harfoot appear later in the trailer as well with an unidentified man, but we'll discuss that in more detail below.
3. An icy climb through Helcaraxë?
The next snippet of footage shows Morfydd Clark's Galadriel climbing a giant, icy wall. To the untrained eye, this may just appear to be a large, physical obstacle for the young elven warrior to overcome.
But there's far more to it than that. And, based on fan disputes online, it seems that nobody can agree on the exact location of this particular scene or sequence.
On the surface, it seems that Galadriel is traversing a region known as the Helcaraxë. In Tolkien's extensive literature, the Helcaraxë is an icy region that separates the lands of Aman – home to three elven kinfolk – and Middle-Earth. It seems, then, that Galadriel is travelling across the Helcaraxë to get to Middle-Earth.
Some fans, though, aren't convinced. On Reddit, users claim that there shouldn't be any sunlight in this region, hence why it's covered in vast sheets of ice. If it isn't Helcaraxë, then, where is it? Other Redditors believe it's Forodwaith, a cold wasteland that exists to the north of the Iron Mountains. And, based on a Vanity Fair trailer breakdown article , that seems to be the correct assumption.
With Galadriel pursuing the remains of Morgoth and Sauron's forces at the start of The Rings of Power, Forodwaith would make more sense. After all, it's located near to Morgoth's former stronghold of Utumno, so it seems logical that Galadriel would explore this region to snuff out any of Morgoth and Sauron's remaining allies.
4. A Middle-Earth meteor
Okay, nobody will have missed the meteor that streaks across the sky in the trailer. What makes this fiery piece or rock important, though, is its potential ties to Sauron.
Why does it hint at the Dark Lord's return? Well, the 'before the ring' writing that pops up on the screen, milliseconds before the meteor appears, can't be a mere coincidence. Sauron is the one behind the creation of the Rings of Power, so it would be a clever move on Amazon's part to tie the 'before the rings' line with his potential re-emergence.
If it is Sauron who returns in the meteor, it does beg the question of why he's using such a method to reappear. Clearly, it's not the most discreet way to return, but there may be some logic behind it. Again, we'll hold off on revealing why until further down the page, as it appears that Kavenagh's harfoot has a role to play in all of this...
5. We're so Gil-galad to meet you
Ahead of the trailer's arrival, we'd received confirmation (via a Vanity Fair article ) about some of The Rings of Power's key players. Now, the teaser has revealed another iconic character will be part of the show's line up.
Gil-galad, the last High King of the Ñoldor and ruler of Lindon, will appear in Amazon's Lord of the Rings show. We get a brief shot of him staring up at the sky – at something other than the meteor, despite the clever editing used in the trailer – and it seems we know which actor is portraying him, too. According to the Fellowship of Fans Twitter account , Benjamin Walker (Jessica Jones, The Underground Railroad) will play Gil-galad. So, now we've received as good a confirmation as any for who 10 of the series' stacked cast are playing.
6. Elrond in Moria
We don't get much in the way of footage containing dwarves in the teaser, but what is in there is pretty important nonetheless.
Yes, we get glimpses of Owain Arthur's Durin IV and Sophia Nomvete's Disa. But the biggest takeaway from these moments concerns Robert Aramayo's Elrond, who visits the dwarven kingdom of Moria on behalf of the elves. That's according to Vanity Fair's trailer breakdown piece, which suggests that Elrond heads to Moria (not Khazad-dûm) to repair the elves' relationship with the predominantly underground race.
It's unclear why Elrond looks so moody, but maybe he's been tasked with taking on Durin IV in a rock-breaking contest to prove his worth? He's kneeling next to a giant boulder and has his hand on a dwarven axe, and we see Durin IV smash a similar-looking boulder a few seconds later. Maybe Elrond has to best Durin IV in order for talks to take place, but we'll have to wait for the show's arrival to be sure.
7. The fall of Finrod?
Despite only running for 60 seconds, the first trailer has enough time to tease an almighty battle that'll form part of The Rings of Power's plot. It isn't the Last Alliance between elves and men that stops Sauron at the end of the Second Age, however, but a First Age battle that Finrod Felagund (as seemingly confirmed by Fellowship of Fans ) takes part in.
"Wait, who's Finrod?", we hear you cry. In Tolkien's mythology, Finrod was an Aman-born Noldorian elf and Galadriel's brother who took part in the Battle of the Sudden Flame. Also known as Dagor Bragollach, this fierce fight between Morgoth's forces, and an earlier alliance of elves and men, saw Morgoth claim victory during the long War of the Jewels.
Finrod doesn't die during the battle – he's saved by a man called Barahir – but Amazon could alter his backstory for the show. We know that Galadriel is hunting Morgoth and Sauron's remaining forces in retaliation for the deaths of her loved ones in the show, and Finrod could be among that number.
Galadriel's other two brothers, Angrod and Aegnor, perish during the fight in Tolkien's famous works, but could Amazon revise this narrative and have all three brothers fall during the bout? Given that Amazon is telling an original story (albeit one that's based on Middle-Earth mythology) in its prequel series, it's possible. It would give Galadriel a bigger incentive to go after Morgoth and Sauron's forces and, according to Vanity Fair's trailer breakdown article , Finrod's death is what drives her to pursue this endeavour. Either way, get some tissues ready as it's bound to be an emotional moment.
8. Who is Meteor Man?
While fans have been able to confidently predict (or even reveal) the identities of key characters in the trailer, there's one mystery that most can't solve.
Remember that meteor we mentioned earlier? Well, it turns out that there's someone inside it. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment around the 0:46 mark, we see Markella Kavenagh's harfoot trying to help a naked man escape the burning wreckage of the meteor's impact site.
So, who is he? Well, nobody knows. The Fellowship of Fans reports that Daniel Weyman (Gentleman Jack) is playing the character simply known as 'Meteor Man', but it hasn't hinted at their real identity.
It seems, then, that the mystery surrounding 'Meteor Man' will be a huge plot point in The Rings of Power's overarching narrative. If this character is of vital importance to the show's story, some fans have posited that it's Sauron – disguising himself as a man – who emerges from the meteor. Using his magic, he may be able to alter his appearance if he visits the the elves, dwarves and kingdoms of men to ensure that the rings are created, and then delivered, to them later in the series.
That, though, sounds like a stretch to other Tolkien fans. Some believe that 'Meteor Man' will end up being an Istari, the first Wizards to arrive in Middle-Earth. This theory seems to hold more weight, what with him likely befriending Kavenagh's harfoot. Vanity Fair's own trailer breakdown article doesn't provide any clues, so it seems that we'll have to wait to see who 'Meteor Man' turns out to be.
Hopefully, it won't be too long of a wait. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power launches exclusively on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.