You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/asus-rog-claymore-ii-wireless-keyboard.1866/

I’m no stranger to a nice keyboard. Regularly rotating between my favourite mechanical marvels, I find great satisfaction in trying the new and interesting, so could hardly pass up the opportunity to put the ROG Claymore II through its paces.

Now “new and interesting!?” I hear you cry. It’s just another keyboard! And that’s true, entirely so. It’s not split, no weird ergonomics, no standout oddities at a glance. Looking down at it now as I type these very words, it’s remarkably normal-looking. You have a brushed aluminium plate serving as a cool-to-the-touch base with clean black keycaps littered above it. The font is blocky, but not so garish as to lean too hard into the gamer aesthetic of years gone by. Right off the bat though, I was struck by the clarity of the lighting shining through the keycaps. The colours are remarkably vivid through the lettering on the keycaps, with very little light bleeding out from beneath the keys. It’s not something that comes through as well as I’d like in pictures, but it really is quite remarkable. And it set a great tone for what was to follow. 

The Claymore II does hide a few tricks, the most notable being its detachable numpad. By sliding it from its rail, you’re able to transform this full-sized keyboard into a more portable tenkeyless model, which is fantastic for a wireless keyboard you may want to be taking with you. But that’s not where it ends. On top of being able to remove it outright, you’re able to slot it back in place not only on the right, but on the left of the keyboard. Heresy I hear you cry! I’m not going to pretend this is a revolutionary change that completely altered how I use a keyboard. It isn’t. But it’s not to say it doesn’t have its use cases. In MMOs where you may need a significant number of skills bound to keys, you could quite easily map 8456 as your traditional WASD movement, freeing up uninterrupted rows of keys. You could also just have a complete set of macros in easy reach. It’s not something I expect everybody to use, but those who do experiment will likely come to appreciate the options on offer.

Moving onto the star of the show though, it’s time to talk about ROG’s RX optical switches. To cut to the chase, these are without a doubt the most satisfying switches I’ve used in a mechanical keyboard. At a surface level, you might see red and blue variants and simplify the switches to quiet and clicky, just like other reds and blues, but to do so would be such a disservice to the typing experience they provide. With an actuation point of 1.5mm you’ll find every keypress to feel incredibly responsive if you’re used to standard MX switches. For blue switches especially, they’re also surprisingly quiet. You still have the click you’d expect, but that’s really it. My Keychron C2 by comparison, with box white switches installed, has an accompanying thud with each keypress as the key hits the base of the keyboard. While the box whites are the closest point of comparison I have, the RX blues are a world apart. These are supported by a unique hollow square stem that holds the keycaps firmly in place. They’re brilliantly stable, though this design does limit your options if you wanted to swap out the keycaps. It’s also in this we see just how the lighting is so concentrated. With each light sitting completely enclosed by the square switch it shines directly up, in oppose to bursting out all sides. I love it. 

Having recently built a new PC, I decided to give Armoury Crate another go after disappointing results in my Keris review. Thankfully it does work now, and it’s pretty much everything I expected it would be. Using the software, you can keep your device firmware up to date, as well as configure lighting and key values to your preference. The latter of those is particularly great if you decide to attach the numpad to the left side of the keyboard, making it an interesting and easy to reach macro pad as mentioned earlier. The software is remarkably simple to use, with a surprisingly clean aesthetic. The two issues worth mentioning here though are the lack of customisation options for the scroll wheel situated on the numpad, limiting it to volume control exclusively, and the lack of a configurable function layer. Where Roccat has its Easy Shift to give additional functionality to a standard keyboard layout, and the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard has four (it could even be more now with that having received several updates since my original review) configurable layers, the Claymore II feels notably lacking. It’s not so much of a deal-breaker for me, but it is something it lacks in comparison to much of its competition.

Despite this being a wireless keyboard, I have to confess I’ve mostly been using it tethered. Being somebody stuck at the same desk with the same PC for most of the day, there’s little need for me to be burdening myself with keeping on top of the battery life of wireless peripherals when they could just be connected. Having said that, I did naturally see what the keyboard had to offer in this department. Connecting to a PC with a 2.4GHz dongle, the wireless experience is no different to the wired one, at least to my eye. The keyboard packs a 4000 mAh battery with an advertised 43 hours of battery life with lighting on and the numpad connected, along with an incredibly handy battery level indicator. While it may seem like a small touch, the indicator being as clear as it is with four distinct bars is a huge positive to me. Too many wireless products resort to obscure means of telling you they need charging, or just don’t altogether, leaving you with a frustrating surprise. It’s great to see that isn’t the case here. While not being used wirelessly, the dongle can also be stowed away in the keyboard, where it’s held in place by magnets in an attempt to keep you from losing it, something else I’m quite fond of.

All in all, the Claymore II has quickly become my favourite keyboard in terms of sheer typing experience thanks in no small part to the RX switches. At £200 it may be a hard sell for some, but with great customisation options, a detachable and moveable number pad, and great wireless support, it goes a long way in justifying itself. This is a keyboard I’m genuinely sad to be returning to Asus after the review, and is something I would consider buying myself should my current stow of keyboards simultaneously break overnight. You won’t regret checking it out.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/roccat-kone-pro-air-wireless-mouse.1860/

Alongside the Roccat keyboard I reviewed a little while ago, I received a mouse. Much like the keyboard, I’ve had a Roccat mouse before too in the Kain 200 AIMO, and it’s actually been my daily driver since writing the review a little over a year ago. It was, and still is, a mouse with an incredibly premium feel to it, but since losing the wireless dongle a few months back, I’ve been eager to look for another. Enter the Kone Pro Air.

Having just finished up a review of Asus’ ROG Keris a week or so ago, I’ve been suitably engrossed in general mousery of late, and it’s been a fun learning experience for me. With my previous mouse being one of Roccat’s, I had a general idea of what to expect as I opened the box. It’s sleek and stylish, it looks the part of a premium mouse, but like the Keris, I was again struck by just how light it is. Though slightly heavier than the Keris at 75g, it does a good job in living up to the air moniker in its name. If you’re used to something heavier, the adjustment period is slightly awkward, but within a day or two, it’ll feel natural.

The shape of the mouse lends itself to right-handed users well. With a textured indent for your thumb to rest in, it feels fantastic to hold and incredibly comfortable to use over extended sessions. All the clicks are satisfying, but one thing that caught my attention in particular was the aluminium scroll wheel. It’s bizarre, and I don’t quite know if I like it. Looking at it from the side, you can see cleanly through it. It’s a fantastic look. I just can’t decide whether it feels nicer than your more standard rubber offerings. I find myself scratching at it with my nail subconsciously and being surprised each time as it feels almost ceramic instead of the softer materials I’ve come to recognise. It’s interesting if nothing else.

As with pretty much every Roccat product of this modern age, the Kone Pro Air effortlessly integrates into AIMO ecosystem, and the way it does so is striking. Where I praised the Keris for its distinct and clear colours shining onto the mouse wheel, Roccat take a completely different approach in shining its lights of many colours through a honeycomb pattern on each mouse click. It’s a brilliantly visual way to illustrate the internal structure of the mouse, with honeycombing mentioned frequently in this kind of light design. Outside of that though, it is genuinely unique and interesting to make the mouse stand out from a lighting perspective. Naturally, if you’re running Roccat’s Swarm software in the background it’ll interact with your other AIMO-enabled peripherals. Seeing a wave transition from your keyboard to your mouse is the weirdest kind of satisfaction.

Now I’ve not been shy in airing my grievances when it comes to Swarm. It crashed a lot when I reviewed the Vulkan, it crashed a lot when I reviewed the Kain, and it still crashed a lot when I reviewed the Pyro in recent weeks. It’ll be no surprise to anybody reading this that it still crashes a lot! There are a few positives to take away here though. First and foremost, Swarm isn’t required to get the most out of the mouse in the same way it might be for a keyboard. All the configurations done within the software are saved to the mouse and are usable on a machine regardless of whether the software is open, or even installed. Using Roccat’s Easy Shift, you get an extra layer of functionality for each button, allowing me to create a media remote without having to sacrifice any core mouse features. It’s a mouse that just works, and it works incredibly well once you’ve got it set up to suit your preferences. If AIMO lighting does mean a lot to you, I have also recently discovered an app called “Restart on Crash”, and it does exactly what it sounds like it does. It doesn’t necessarily excuse Roccat’s oddly unstable software, but it at least gives you a hassle-free way to keep using it.

Being a fairly premium wireless mouse, the Kone Pro Air has several connectivity options for you to pick between. First and probably most common nowadays is the wireless dongle. This is my go-to when lying on my bed watching things from afar. Thanks to the media configuration I have, I can effortlessly control my PC without the need for a keyboard at my side. It’s entirely plug and play with no kind of pairing process or drivers required. Next up is what I use the majority of the time: wired. Now sure, it might seem a bit counterproductive to be picking up a wireless mouse to just have it tethered to a PC the majority of the time, but for me, a wireless mouse is about options. If I’m in reach of a PC, a wire, especially such a flexible one string-like one as this, isn’t a hassle. Using this primarily also keeps the mouse fully charged for when wireless is preferable. Though I’m no kind of competitive gamer, I didn’t notice a difference in performance between the dongle and the wired setup, though I imagine those more sensitive to intricate movements may pick up on slight discrepancies.

Last but still certainly deserving of a mention is the mouse’s Bluetooth capabilities. This is something I’ve used once or twice in my few weeks of having the Kone Pro Air, and frankly, it’s not something I’m going to be using much in the future either. While it’s a convenient option to have, especially if you’re struggling for USB ports or happen to lose the dongle as I did with the Kain, you do lose out on some of the mouse’s better features. Ultimately, in Bluetooth mode, it’s just a mouse. All your fancy changes are gone and all your settings are standard. It gets the job done and I’m grateful to have it, but with the mouse being able to house its USB dongle in its casing, I doubt there’ll be a repeat of my previous misfortunes.

Looking finally to the sensor, we see Roccat’s variation of the PAW3370 in the Owl-Eye 19K. To the eyes, or I suppose more fittingly, hands, of a plebeian like myself, it’s brilliant. The cursor moves incredibly smoothly across the screen with no noticeable signs of correction or alignment to my inputs. For those wanting to dive deeper into the specs though, I’ll attach them at the end of the review for your perusal.

All in all, Roccat’s Kone Pro Air is a fantastic mouse, and one I can’t help but recommend for those after a heavily customisable and versatile wireless experience. At £120, you are undoubtedly paying a premium for these features, and that isn’t something that should be glossed over. If you’re just wanting something wired and don’t plan on swapping buttons around, there will be better options out there for less money. If however like me, you’re wanting a stylish, comfortable, and versatile mouse to last you, this is one to consider.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/the-nes-endings-compendium-years-1985-1988.1858/

Now I’ve never reviewed a book before, let alone something as bespoke as this. First learning of it thanks to a news post on our own site I was enthralled, and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to have a closer look.

As products go, this is something you understand as soon as you’ve seen a page or two within. This is nothing short of a love letter to an early era of gaming, and this love seeps into every aspect of the book. Before diving into the meat, you’re given a brief letter from the author (@ReyVGM on the forums if you’re curious!). It sets a tone for what you’re about to read, and tells you why such a thing even exists. From here, my awe for the sheer attention to detail was boundless.

With so many NES games released between 1985 and 1988, the book is split into various eras: 1985 to 1986, 1987, 1988, and the games that don’t quite have an ending worth talking about. I love this. What this ends up doing is telling a story in itself, showing how game narratives to a larger scale developed over time. If I had to find fault, it’d be in the fact the contents page is sorted alphabetically in oppose to chronologically. It would’ve been nice to have had a larger timeline to better contextualise the games, with an index page serving the purpose of alphabetical sorting, but this is largely a personal preference.

Looking to the games themselves, you have a mixed bag of layouts, largely coming down to how much there is to talk about with the game in question. Especially with your ‘endless’ games, you might find as many as five squeezed onto a page with a brief comment and a screenshot to explain why there’s not more. Where this book shines however is in its luscious double or even quadruple-page spreads on some of the hottest titles. Not only do you have incredible detail and personal insight, you also have completely themed surroundings. It’s not just one or two screenshots haphazardly thrown onto a page, instead following design principles closest to publications like Nintendo Power, EGM, or even the Official Nintendo Magazine if you’re in the UK like myself. Reading through its pages brings with it an intense sense of nostalgia not only for the games, but for this style of presentation. It’s baffling just how well they managed to nail this look and feel, but damn did they do it well.

The two physical versions of this book both offer up something unique. Available as both a hardback and paperback edition, there’s a a degree of decision-making to be done based on what you want out of it. On one hand, the hardback edition seems more fitting of a collector. Sturdier and likely looking better on a shelf, it seems the better pick for those wanting something to display and pick up once in a while. On the other hand, the paperback version plays into the same sense of nostalgia previously mentioned. It doesn’t feel like some premium product to be horded and shelved. It takes me back to my own days of reading the Official Nintendo Magazine. There’s a joy that comes with flipping through the pages that I can’t quite explain, and yet one that I’m certain anybody who has enjoyed these publications will surely understand. While I may have preferred a hardback copy to display, I can’t help but feel it’d lose a certain personal touch I felt here.

The NES Endings Compendium, the first volume of what I hope will be many, is a book I can’t help but recommend. Given my young age, I can’t claim any nostalgia for the system at hand, and if I’m being completely honest, I don’t believe many of the games hold up nowadays. Even so, I’m sat here reading, smiling, living the passionate experiences of another person, and I’m in love with it. I want to read the next volume. I want to see this grow, I want to read about SNES games, N64 games. This is a book I so hope does well for no reason beyond wanting to read more, and I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out. Whichever version you choose to pick up, you won’t be disappointed.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/asus-rog-keris-wired-gaming-mouse.1849/

As gaming kit goes, I’m somewhat saddened to say mice have never caught my attention. I want something reliable, and something that’s comfortable. Beyond that though, what really makes a mouse great? Is it its precision? The sensor? The lighting? The customisation options? Provided with the opportunity to give Asus’ wired ROG Keris a go, I’ll be diving into this mousey world to give you my thoughts and feelings.

Out of the box, there’s one thing that’s impossible to overlook: the weight. Coming in at just 62g, the Keris is by far the lightest mouse I’ve used to date, and in the beginning at least, it left me with somewhat mixed thoughts. It’s designed to be light, so it’s difficult to hold it against the mouse, but coming from beefier mice and only really having light things in schools or offices, I had mentally associated the feeling with low quality items. After a day or so of use though, the weight just felt natural.

The mouse itself looks incredibly plain, which could be a positive to some. It’s a sleek black design made for use with the right hand with an accommodating form factor. The shape is nothing that’d necessarily prevent a left-handed user from holding the mouse, but it’d be far from an optimal experience. Looking to lighting it’s again somewhat plain. All you’ll get is the ROG icon where your palm sits and the scroll wheel. What I will say here is that it is some of the most defined and clear lighting I’ve seen on a mouse to date. The colour shines through the wheel magnificently without pulling attention too much as to be a distraction.

Though this is a wired mouse, I was somewhat disappointed to see the cable was not detachable. To the cable’s credit, it is the least cable-like cable I’ve seen attached to any product. ROG’s paracord takes a braided cable to the next level. It just doesn’t bend or kink. It flows. If you can imagine a centimetre-or-so-thick piece of string attached to your mouse, that about sums it up. With a wireless Keris available with this very cable being detachable, it’s a huge shame to see it tethered this way, especially when such consideration is placed into longevity elsewhere. With the quality of the cable, I have no doubt it’ll last, but being able to identify such stress points always puts me on edge.

Perhaps the flagship feature for the Keris, the ability to swap out the switches lurking beneath each main button was what initially interested me about the mouse. It’s an incredibly simple operation to swap out the switches, which makes for a really interesting design. Pop out a few rubber caps, remove two screws, and pull away the case. From there, it really is just pulling the switches out and putting new ones in. Even somebody as inept as myself when it comes to tinkering could do it, though I did face some issues lining up the case and putting it back together. I got there in the end. On top of the added longevity of being able to swap out parts should they reach the end of their life, the doors are opened to customisation based on your preference, even if mouse switches aren’t quite as commonplace as their keyboard counterparts.

Switch swapping isn’t where the Keris stops in terms of cool features though. A bit of an underdog in the feature set, I really came to appreciate the on-the-fly DPI customisation. Where other mice I’ve used allow you to save profiles with set DPI configurations that can be swapped between on the press of a button, the Keris goes further in letting you just use the scroll wheel while holding a button on the bottom of the mouse. With this, you can tweak and finetune the DPI to your liking all without software. You can also just press the button for the more traditional profile swapping to go between in-built presets.

Of course, Asus have their own software too if you want to go to the trouble of making your own presets. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me. I have a somewhat jaded history with this kind of driver software, with Roccat’s Swarm being the most recent featured area of misery. Where Swarm crashed, Asus’ Armoury Crate just doesn’t detect my hardware at all. For my curiosity, I also gave it a shot with the Claymore II keyboard I had handy for a separate review, but that wasn’t detected either. I will concede it’s likely a fault with my PC, but with this being the only one available to me, I wasn’t able to check as thoroughly as I’d have otherwise liked. Looking to the software without having a chance to use it though, it seems to tick all your usual boxes. You can configure lighting, mess with calibration settings, and map buttons. If you’ve used Roccat’s Swarm or Razer’s Synapse before, you’ll generally know the range of options to hand.

Now the part I saved for last is by far the area I’m least knowledgeable in, and I’m completely open to admitting that. The sensor. For your enthusiasts, it really can be the make or break of a great mouse. With specific tests, I frankly wouldn’t know where to start, but I can at the very least provide the basic details. The PMW3389 under the hood is a flawless sensor, this basically meaning it doesn’t have any kind of forced modifiers to how it performs. This means no mouse acceleration, no jitter, no interpolation, and no kind of prediction or correction to your inputs. Though a lot of these things can often be configured using software (and perhaps can be configured using Armoury Crate!), the key thing is that they aren’t built into the hardware. I won’t go much further into detail here, but I can say I had absolutely no issues with using the mouse, and after the initial adjustment of switching to a mouse where you forget the DPI settings you had on your previous mouse, I was well on my way and enjoying the Keris. If you are interested in learning more about mouse sensors, I found the information at sensor.fyi incredibly useful.

All in all, the Keris is a fantastic mouse. Even without the configuration of Armoury Crate handy to me, it’s a simple by the books design with a few hidden niceties to make it subtly stand out. With my biggest issue stemming from the non-detachable albeit fantastic cable, I might recommend picking up its wireless counterpart over the one I reviewed. With the wired model retailing for £57.95 and the wireless model coming in at £89.99, you’re paying a slight premium for the flexibility a wireless mouse offers, as well as the peace of mind a detachable cable brings with it. Wired or not though, the Keris is a great choice.