1. July 2011 19:02
by richard
Maybe it’s a consequence of my getting older but I’m finding more and more that for those late night gaming sessions in front of my PC my eyes are definitely feeling the strain of staring at a bright monitor in a dark room. Okay maybe that’s partly because of my 27” monitor being super bright, even on the lower brightness settings (it’s 3D-capable so they’ve made it brighter than normal to account for the sunglasses effect when using the 3D glasses) but my age probably does have a lot to do with it.
“Turn a light on!” I hear you say; “No!” is my reply because the little niche I’ve carved for myself off the back of my garage that I call my gaming den only has a fluorescent light in it and that’s a tad bright. “Okay, get a smaller light or something!” is your reply, to which I can say, “Yep, I did.” And here they are:
http://www.cyborggaming.com/prod/ambx.htm
Of course, relieving the strain on my eyes is just a side benefit really, albeit a welcome one. The really great thing about these is the way that they bring what’s on your screen out into your gaming space and they work with just about every reasonably modern game that we’ve tried. Stand on the top of the cop car just outside the alleyway on the first level of No Mercy in Left 4 Dead and the walls either side of your monitor are flashing red and blue to match; have a boomer barf on you and they turn an interesting tinge of green. But enough of my Left 4 Dead obsession, they work fantastically well to enhance immersion in anything you play. Pair them up with a game that’s actually been fully amBX-enabled, such as the excellent Age Of Conan and they become fully active, allowing in-game events to be reflected in the colour changes of the lights too. Even the direction (and height) that you’re getting hit from can be displayed by the lights (especially if you add more lights to your setup – amBX is aware of what’s happening in the 360 degrees around the player).
It’s not limited to just games either: installing the software adds a plug-in to Windows Media Player enabling the lights to react to your music – they also work with the visualiser in iTunes too. Finally, if you watch movies using the excellent VLC Player then you’ll get the full benefit there too.
The Cyborg Gaming Lights are available right now from our Gameshark store
7cda1a0b-8a49-42b6-8e2e-9052fb619ce2|7|3.7
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