Keyboards

Roccat Sova revealed, a mouse and keyboard solution for Steam Machines

Cory Banks at

Back in January, Evan expressed his doubts in the Steam Controller. No matter how hard Valve tries, it simply cannot replace the mouse and keyboard (though its recent delay indicates that Valve certainly wants to try). "An innovative controller can’t and won’t replace the decades-long relationship PC gamers have with WASD," he wrote, "because PC gamers don’t like compromise." And he's absolutely right.

Roccat agrees with us, and has developed a solution that it says can put the control of a mouse and keyboard setup into the living room (say, with a Steam Machine). The company today unveiled that solution to PC Gamer, a lapboard it calls the Roccat Sova.

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Corsair announces the Vengeance K70 fully-mechanical keyboard

Tyler Wilde at

Mechanical keyboards! They're great! Unless you don't like the click-clack, but even if you don't like the click-clack, they're great! They feel so good to use, really, and Corsair's new Vengeance K70 might become a contender. "It's more mechanical" says Corsair, meaning it uses Cherry MX Red switches (which actually aren't too clacky) under every key. It's also got lovely customizable backlighting and contoured WASD keys "so you can find them fast." Well, I think finding WASD is a skill most PC gamers don't need help with, but maybe it's more comfortable.

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Mad Catz tease Strike 5 keyboard with glowing eye and "full 16 million color RGB backlighting"

Tom Senior at

Mad Catz specialise in creating keyboards that look like they've been assimilated by the Borg. The Strike 7 divided opinion when it was released a few months back. If you were tempted, but put off by the $300 price point then you might be interested in the Strike 5, a $200 alternative that replaces the touchscreen pop-up module with a terrifying glowing doom-eye and some analogue buttons.

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Microsoft Surface has pressure sensitive keys, could be perfect for stealth games

Tom Hatfield at

When Microsoft unveiled the Surface, its new tablet PC, one curious detail managed to slip beneath the radar. The tablet's integrated keyboard boasts pressure sensitive keys which, as Ars Technica have pointed out, could finally offer PC gamers the chance to control the speed of their movement.

I love my mouse and keyboard like tiny, mechanical brothers, but there are some things they don't do well. I'm secretly envious of our console playing brethren's ability to walk at whatever speed they choose, all dictated by the nuanced tilt of a game pad's analogue thumb stick. Our mice may be precision pointers of death, and our keyboards may offer us more buttons than a joypad owner's wet dream, but when it comes to movement we either walk very slowly, or run full tilt.

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Corsair gets into keyboards and mice

Adam Oxford at

Hard drive and case manufacturer Corsair has announced that it's launching its first ever range of gaming keyboards and mice today, with two separate lines dedicated to MMO and FPS gaming.

The K90 MMO keyboard and K90 MMO mouse, along with the FPS friendly K60 and M60 keyboard and mouse have been developed under the auspices of Ruben Mookerjee, who in a previous incarnatiuon oversaw the launch of Logitech's G-series of gear.

Mookerjee takes his new role at Corsair seriously. For some people, he says, getting the right peripherals "is a matter of life or death. At Corsair, we say it's more important than that."

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Win a SteelSeries Shift keyboard (US only)

PC Gamer at

Tired of games that won't let you remap the controls however you like? The sleek and sexy Shift Gaming Keyboard from SteelSeries will solve all your problems, including problems you didn't know you had. Every single key is completely programmable, letting you fool your games into thinking you're pushing M when you're really pushing Q, and turn the Windows key from a game-minimizing nuisance into the button you push when you want to break someone's face with your fist (in the game). It's also backward-compatible with the Z-board's removable keysets, so you can swap in (for example) a specialized World of Warcraft set when you're ready to play.

We've got 10 of these suckers to hand out to lucky readers, so read on to find out how to enter!

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