Editors’ Picks: Digital Discoveries
Bo Moore, hardware lead, and Alan Dexter, executive editor, share their latest tech passions
I have to gush for a minute about the NZXT S340. I know it’s not exactly a new case, and its goodness is already well documented, but recently I actually built a new PC inside one, and I finally understand the hype.
It’s been a while since I fully built a new rig for myself. The last time I did was long before I started working at MaximumPC, and at the time my hardware knowledge was much more limited. The build worked fine and all, but I shudder to think how bad my cable management was back then. (To give you an idea, a few years later, the PC started chugging every time I booted up a game. At first I thought it was the semioutdated graphics card, but it turns out my CPU fan was getting tangled in a stray cable, and thus wasn’t spinning. See what I mean?)
Fast-forward to this S340 build, and I’m in awe at how easy cable management is, from conveniently placed slots in the PSU shroud to handy cable clamps on the backside to help with cable management. I’m no expert builder, but I’m proud of how good my finished build looks, and I know this case helped me get there. $100, www.nzxt.com Magicthe G athering has had a turbulent history with PCs—the Microprose classic was great fun, but very limited; while Magic Online has the core mechanics ( mostly) sorted, albeit in an interface that is about as appealing as a double-entry ledger. This latest attempt at porting what is a brilliant game to the PC deserves to be more successful though, for all the right reasons.
Currently in beta, MagicArena looks like a modern streamer-friendly game, plays smoothly, and, bugs aside, contains all the latest cards. Importantly, it manages to capture the deep complexity of a game that has been around for 25 years, without bogging you down in its more intricate cleverness. It has a modern pricing mode, too, so you can play for free, completing quests to unlock in-game currencies and packs, though you can create more powerful decks much quicker if you throw cash at it.
It isn’t perfect—deck creation is frustrating, and some of the interface design choices aren’t initially obvious (you’ll definitely lose games due to misclicking)— but it’s a significant leap forward. It manages to scratch that itch that Hearthstone can’t quite reach, at the very least. Free, http://magic.wizards.com