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How the PC Master Race Won at CES 2016

How the PC Master Race Won at CES 2016

CES 2016 is officially underway and all sorts of technology news is making its way to readers everywhere. The show, which is positively gigantic, can be a bit intimidating at times. There are drones, cars, law-enforcement technology… the list goes on. For gamers, this poses the problem of sloshing through a lot of information to find the stuff they care about. I’ll try to streamline the process a bit for you here.

First, there’s the Oculus; a virtual reality headset that is actually poised to make virtual reality finally appeal to consumers. Lines at the show are huge, and, according to CNET, a sign in front of the line warns that the experience could be a rough ride. The sign probably conveys some truth as the device really does trick the senses and offers a pretty visceral experience. The hardware is going to be selling for $599, which is much higher than original estimates. It does, however, come with two free games: Lucky’s Tale and EVE: Valkyrie.

Then there is the gorgeous gaming machine, The Razer Blade Steal by Razer. It’s slimmer than other ultrabooks we’ve seen and contains the latest Core i7 processors in it. It also sports 3 USB ports, one of which is the Thunderbolt USB Type-C. The backlit keys are also customizable with various colors and effects. On the go, the specs aren’t the most impressive, though. It’ll be good for casual gaming or medium settings, but Razer still manages to position this laptop as a gaming PC thanks to the Core accessory. This device can house most PCI Express graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia, allowing gamers to upgrade their laptop and use it as a primary gaming PC.

How the PC Master Race Won at CES 2016

Tobii’s eye-tracker was also present. It is a gaming accessory used in Assassin’s Creed Rogue . Now it will be appearing in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Tom Clancy’s The Division. What it does is track gamers’ eyes, allowing them to aim and interact with the game through their gaze. People who have tried it report it being a fun experience, but it’s hard to imagine using it. Maybe it’s a try it to believe it type of experience.

There was little at the conference from the big gaming publishers like Microsoft or Sony, at least as it pertains to gaming. Sony even skipped over talking about PlayStation VR in their conference, which was a bit surprising considering the hype around the Oculus. Maybe they are waiting for their own moment to shine, or perhaps are going to see how the pricing of the Oculus affects consumer demand. Either way, CES 2016 seems to have been full of good news for PC gamers. That’s ok, though, since console gamers have their own onslaught of news every summer at E3. Obviously, CheatCC will be here to cover that in depth when the time rolls around.

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