Review
Farpoint
PS4 (Sony)
Don’t worry about setting off a security alert if you order Sony’s Aim Controller through the post. The white-tubed firearm for Sony VR has a glowing tennis ball at the end of the muzzle, and looks more like a bit of plumbing from clown college.

In the virtual world of Farpoint, however, this innocuous accessory turns into a machine gun or shotgun. Cock the device over your shoulder to flick between weapons, and fidget with the controller’s direction button to move your character.
You play a space pilot, stranded on a mysterious planet while tracking down lost colleagues. Crawly face huggers and huge spiders approach from every direction, suggesting the developers went to the Aliens and Starship Troopers school of E.T. design.
After an hour or so, repetition sets in and this virtual world shooting gallery runs out of steam. Nevertheless, it promises great things for the future of PlayStation VR.
6/10

Preview
Wraps headphones
AVOCA
Life has become a sea of tangled wires: a Kafka-esque nightmare in which leads, cables, adapters and extensions create a spaghetti junction like a pit of vipers across the floor.
Wraps headphones eliminate such existential torture through intelligent design. When not listening to music, you can wrap these ear plugs neatly around your wrist. Not only are they comfortable, but they come in a range of colours (blue, green, pink, flint, grey and more) and look good too. Some versions include a microphone for hands-free calls.
Wraps headphones are available exclusively at AVOCA in Ireland and priced from €19.95. For that price, don’t expect pristine audio fidelity or noise cancelling abilities. For an affordable pair of fuss free headphones, though, this brand has the market wrapped up.
7/10

Preview
HP laptops
Cannes Film Festival might be known for its movies, and its Botox, but this year’s event on the French Riviera saw the launch of some red carpet laptops.
HP – the tech firm, not the baked beans makers – launched HP Spectre x2 (€1,599), a stainless steel goliath, built with a kickstand, detachable keyboard, a 12.3” diagonal 3K2K (3000x2000) display, and a smart pen for creating artistic effects on the screen.
HP ENVY 13 (€899) and ENVY 17 laptops (€1,099) feature quad speakers for added ghetto-blasting, UHD displays with over 8 million pixels, and new Intel processers for video-editing. HP ENVY x 360 15.6” (€899) comes with a high precision stylus for bedroom animators.
Today’s generation of indie filmmakers often edit their magnum opuses on laptop suites, and these PCs rival traditional MacBooks with their design abilities.

Review
Impact Winter
PC (Bandai Namco)
Impact Winter’s rushed development time may leave gamers cold. A patch has been introduced to resolve the game’s dodgy controls, but at the time of this review the gameplay was laggy and loading times were lengthy.

On page, Impact Winter is deftly executed. There are eerie environments, icy lakes and abandoned houses, viewed from a top-down perspective, and a brilliant synth soundtrack that recalls ’80s movies such as The Thing. The game is set in the aftermath of an apocalypse in which global warming has become global freezing. A group of survivors are gathered in a church when a mysterious radio transmission promises help.
Venture outside to complete tasks. Call upon specific crew members to solve problems, whether crafting traps, preparing meals, or gathering resources. Much like The Sims, you’ll need to keep your team content, well fed and supplied.
Hopefully the developers can do the same for the players and fix the game’s problems.
4/10