Gaming

While you should never buy any low-quality components for a computer build, I can't stress enough how important it is to never get a cheap no-name power supply unit. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with saving money, but a chintzy PSU has the potential to not only cause instability, but it could even fry your other components. Heck, it could even cause a fire. Please stick with well-known PSU brands, folks.

One such company that offers quality power supply units is Thermaltake. Today, that manufacturer unveils an absolutely beautiful such offering. Called "Toughpower iRGB PLUS 1250W Titanium TT Premium Edition," it features Japanese capacitors, and as the name indicates, it offers an impressive 1,250 watts of power. The 80 PLUS Titanium certified PSU is fully modular, meaning you only need to connect the cables you need -- good for both appearance and cooling. Its RGB fan has 16.8 million colors, which Thermaltake claims is the first ever on a PSU. It even has a mobile app that can alert you to fan failure -- very cool.

Summer is here, meaning many folks will spend time outdoors at places like the beach, the park, or in the pool. Let's be honest though, not everyone is into going outside. If you are like me, rather than relaxing in the sand or playing in the water, you might choose to play video games, watch movies, or chat on IRC instead. There is no shame, guys.

Now is the time that Steam historically has its PC game sale for the summer, but the company is getting some major competition from Microsoft. The Windows-maker is once again having its own discount celebration called "Ultimate Game Sale." Unlike Steam, which only offers PC game deals, Microsoft is also offering Xbox One title discounts too. In fact, you can even go into a retail Microsoft Store to pick up the games.

If you were like any other human being who grew up with Pokémon video games, cartoons, and trading cards, you've played Pokémon Go within the past year or so. It's essentially a scientific fact. The game was lauded with exorbitant praise as something that encouraged people to go outside, explore, and be active.

That is, except for the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which declared in an ordinance earlier this year that such behavior wasn't welcome around its breweries and cheese factories.

Last year, Nintendo shocked the world with the miniature NES Classic Edition. This game console was a mini replica of the original NES (with comically short controller cables), that came pre-loaded with many classic games. Thanks to both nostalgia and a low price, it became a very popular holiday gift, making it hard to find. Despite the popularity, Nintendo discontinued it, meaning many people couldn't get one even if they wanted it. Many have speculated that the stoppage in manufacturing was due to the fact that the NES Classic Edition was hacked to play additional pirated games.

Today, Nintendo announces yet another such console -- the Super NES Classic Edition. Yes, a mini SNES is coming, and this could prove even more popular than its predecessor. Not only does it come pre-loaded with many classic games from yesteryear, but an unreleased one too -- Star Fox 2! The game can be unlocked by simply beating the first level of the original Star Fox.

When Microsoft revealed that Project Scorpio was the Xbox One X, there was immediate excitement about "the world's most powerful console". But while there is eager anticipation of true 4K gaming, and a wealth of titles to look forward to, there is something of a dark shadow hanging over the upcoming console: that price.

At $499, the Xbox One X is (or will be) the most expensive gaming console on the market and there are understandable questions about why the price is so high. Vice President of Xbox and Windows Gaming VP, Mike Ybarra, has shed some light on the issue revealing that Microsoft simply wasn't willing to compromise.

Thunderbolt 3 is a total game-changer. With the appropriate hardware, you can add desktop-class graphics cards to a svelte laptop. Having the ability to game at home while retaining portability is a godsend.

One of the best examples of this is the Razer Blade Stealth. It leverages Intel graphics when on the go, but by adding the optional Razer Core graphics card adapter, you can use a desktop GPU. In other words, it is only a gaming laptop when paired with an external GPU. The popular notebook has recently received a refresh, moving from a 12.5-inch screen to a more roomy 13.3-inch. The machine gets a 7th-gen Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM by default -- nice!

Move over, Billy Mitchell. There's a new 1980s arcade video game master, and his name is...well, he doesn't have a name. And it's also not a "he" -- it's Microsoft's latest demonstration of artificial intelligence.

The team at Maluuba, a Canadian artificial intelligence firm acquired by Microsoft earlier this year, has managed to program a system that can play the Atari 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man indefinitely without ever being hit by a ghost, allowing it to rack up a score of 999,990 before being reset to zero.

Google has launched a new scheme which sees the company highlighting the very best games and apps to be found in Google Play. This is not simply a list of the most downloaded or, necessarily, the most highly rated titles; Google has a new batch of criteria by which to judge developers' offerings.

The real aim is to heap praise on those apps and games which exude quality, and deliver the best user experiences. Google says that titles which "use many of our best practices, and have great design, technical performance, localization, and device optimization" will also feature in the regularly-updated list.

If you thought the concept of a sound card was dead, you'd be wrong, but I wouldn't blame you for thinking it. After all, on-board motherboard sound is often excellent, and many people will choose a USB DAC nowadays as an upgrade.

Today, Creative unveils a new PCIe sound card that will get you excited. Called "Sound BlasterX AE-5," it is chock full of features and impressive specs. While overkill for most, it features an insane 32-bit/384kHz DAC. It offers connectivity for a 5.1 speaker setup. Since this is a gaming product in 2017, it of course has RGB lighting -- it comes with attachable RGB light strips to illuminate your case. While this card is designed for gamers, it will also be ideal for audiophiles listening to music.

At its annual laser-laden, pyrotechnics-padded, 110-minute trailer fest, also known as the Xbox E3 2017 briefing, Microsoft showcased dozens of titles that will be coming to the Xbox One (and Xbox One S/Xbox One X) over the next several months. But developer Mojang also made some news during the event. It announced that its incredibly popular game Minecraft will be playable online across multiple devices and multiple platforms.

You may have heard terms like "cross-platform" in various descriptions and releases of Mincecraft titles, but until now that term has confusingly and incompletely been used for very specific platform integrations. For example, those playing the Windows 10 edition of the game can play alongside those who are playing on an iPad or Android tablet. However, Xbox One players -- for now -- can only interact with Xbox One players.

You might have thought that mousemats had been consigned to the history books, but Logitech has other ideas. Designed with the needs of gamers high on the list of priorities, Logitech's new POWERPLAY mousemat not only ensures great control, it also wirelessly charges mice to avoid the problem of running out of juice at an inopportune moment.

Of course, you need a POWERPLAY-compatible mouse in order to take advantage of this feature, and Logitech has also launched two new mice. The G903 and G703 are the latest addition to the company's high-end wireless gaming mouse range, and they work with the charging pad.

After a long time of hearing the code name "Project Scorpio" for Microsoft's next console, we finally have an official product name -- Xbox One X. The 4K/60-focused gaming system launches on November 7, just in time for the 2017 holiday shopping season. Parents will appreciate the backwards compatibility -- it can run all Xbox One games and works with all existing accessories too. In other words, you don't need to start the library anew.

The Xbox One X has an AMD-designed octa-core CPU clocked at 2.3GHz, a 6-teraflop Radeon GPU, and 12GB of GDDR5 memory with an impressive 326GB/sec memory bandwidth. For storage, it will come with a 1TB hard drive -- no more 500GB. It once again features a 4K Blu-ray drive too. This new console easily beats the PlayStation 4 Pro, which should give Sony some concern. While the PS4 has many great exclusives, so too will the Xbox One/S/X -- Microsoft announces 22 such games being shown at E3.

Microsoft is due to hold a press conference at E3 2017 today. The topic is the future of Xbox, and we should hear more about Project Scorpio, the latest version of the Xbox One which is expected to feature VR and 4K support.

The price of the Xbox One S has just been reduced by $50 as Microsoft has done in the past before the launch of a new version of the console. If you're keen to find out what's new, you can watch the Twitch stream live, here at 5PM ET / 2PM PT / 10PM BST. As well as learning about the specs of the machine, we may also have the rumored price of $499 confirmed.

Later today at E3, Microsoft is expected to reveal all about its latest gaming console -- currently known as Project Scorpio. Ahead of this, and as has happened in the past before the launch of a new console, the company is reducing the price of the Xbox One S.

While the $50 saving is hardly earth-shattering, it does equate to essentially getting a free game with the console. But before you get too excited, it's important to note that not every Xbox One S will be reduced in price, but there is still quite a choice.

PC gaming is exploding in popularity. Not only are people playing games, but they are watching other people play on services like Twitch. Heck, even eSports is being more accepted as a legitimate spectator sport -- you can watch such competitions on television. Crazy times, eh?

With PC gaming growing, so too are the number of products -- mice, keyboard, headsets and more. One of the most important things a gamer can buy is a quality monitor. Today, Samsung unveils two new displays (CHG70 and CHG90) with jaw-dropping features. Both models feature QLED Quantum Dot technology and the all-new Radeon FreeSync 2, which is AMD's solution for reducing screen-tearing. The 49-inch CHG90 is the most exciting of the bunch, however, as it features a neat resolution of 3840x1080. It is like putting two 1080p monitors side-by-side! The 27- and 31.5-inch CHG70 monitors have a resolution of 2560x1440.