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Omen 34C Monitor

This 34 inch monster of an ultrawide screen clocks in at a perfectly serviceable 1440p resolution with a stunning 160 Hz refresh rate. So at least statistically it's fantastic, but how does it hold up in practice?

First of all, the packaging is nice and minimal but protects the screen well. In the box are the warranty papers, instructions, stand, display port cable and the screen itself. Once assembled it feels sturdy (once the stand is snapped in correctly). It has nice feeling materials and a very small wire clip at the back that helps keep the connections to the monitor neat. In terms of connections, it supports 2 HDMI, 1 Display port and it has a sound output jack for headphones.

The screen image quality out the box is a bit ropey. At 160 Hz it is almost impossible to get it to work without ghosting. VRR is nice but it's Free-sync only so Nvidia users won't get the best experience they can have via G-sync, but the lower response time modes also tend to cause ghosting. Basically it was a big ghosty mess upon first use. After about 10 minutes of fiddling and referencing tweaking guidance online, a sweet spot was found at 120Hz - fast-ish response time and VRR enabled. This seemed to eliminate most of the ghosting and present a clean image.

Once set up it was initially used to produce some notes for the review, and for office work it is a decent monitor. Text was clear and colours were nicely represented. Of course splitting the screen to show two apps at a time was a good idea as it essentially renders two normal monitors. Sometimes the content looks a little weird floating in the void but for website development it offered a valuable look into the world of widescreen design. There are speakers on board too but the sound they provide is very boxy and distorted. Unless there isn't another option, investing in headphones or external speakers for sound is probably worth it.

For gaming this monitor offers a set of awesome features. It supports HDR for one, so colour levels and brightness are enhanced. This isn't a crazily fantastic HDR experience but it did have reasonable impact vs a non-HDR screen. Playing games with the ultra-wide view, where supported, was amazing; it opened up the game in a way a normal monitor can't. Having the extra wide gaming space allows for superior tracking of enemies and it lets environmental scenes present as almost panoramic.

For the reasonable price point there is little to not enjoy on the Omen 34C. The range of gaming features is impressive and the quality of the screen itself (audio aside) is excellent. It looks and feels reasonably premium, but beware the tweaking required for it to provide a clear, un-ghostly image.

HP Omen 17" Gaming Laptop (2024)

This beast of a laptop comes in some very neat packaging, again not much wasted space with minimal branding on the outside. Opening it up it revealed a rather slick black interior with the laptop itself visible in its white protective sleeve. Once removed this hefty device looks sleek and sports some very nice design sensibilities, more on them later. The box also contains the charger and the documentation for the device. The charger is not USB-C so it's vital to make sure it doesn't go missing.

The laptop itself is heavy, made of a nice sturdy plastic and sporting the OMEN logo on the back of the screen. The main connective ports are found at the back of the device, these being the power connector, HDMI and a couple of USB ports including USB-C. On the right and left it has one additional USB port, network connector and a headphone jack. So it's off to a flying start on the connection front, most laptops now rely on USB-C to do it all. 

In terms of technical ability, it sports an AMD Ryzen processor, 16Gb RAM  and an Nvidia 4060 laptop GPU. This means it's more than equipped to play the latest and greatest titles, and even in some instances make use of ray tracing. The screen is 17 inches big, meaning it has a lot of space to work with but only supports up to 1920x1080 resolution. The keyboard and touch pad are well sized and positioned with the added bonus of it being a full keyboard including the number pad. Next to the keyboard is the speaker which, it must be said, offers an excellent sound. It really has a nice range and impact without distorting even at high volumes. It has the usual webcam in the top of the screen but nicely HP have included a privacy cover for it, meaning users can be reassured they aren't being watched. Finally, on the bottom right of the body it has a nice Omen 17 logo which is subtle but sleek.

In terms of productivity this is a fantastic laptop. The clarity of the screen means that text and colours are clear and free of artefacts. The responsiveness of the hardware means productivity apps load fast and saving documents on the 1Tb hard drive is snappy due to it being an SSD. When gaming, this laptop really shines. It offers really excellent performance and seems to be able to keep itself running fairly cool. The big fans can get quite loud when playing more intensive titles like Doom Eternal (with Ray tracing on) but surprisingly it never got uncomfortable.

The performance throughout was fantastic though titles like Alan Wake 2 can bring it to its knees, so it's important to tailor settings to the laptop hardware with an eye to efficiency. As the device is a laptop it also relies on a battery and typically non-gaming use of the laptop shows the battery life is excellent. However, on battery it tends to throttle the gaming performance so it's important to use the AC adapter when playing games, or at least intensive ones.

Overall this laptop is a great all rounder. The hardware choices make sense for modern gaming and at the price point there is unlikely to be quite as robust a competitor. The added bonus of excellent speakers and the amount of available connections make this a no-brainer for the on-the-go gamer who doesn't want to sacrifice game quality. Even better, pair it with the Omen 34C and this laptop will seamlessly allow for much higher resolution gaming!

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Join Shin-chan and family for another fantastic summer holiday.

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Cubed3 loves a good dose of gaming, but also movies, TV shows and music. It's that season again, as The Warehouse Project rocks Manchester. It's always a good thing to have some variety in life, and with so many crossover projects nowadays, it's increasingly likely to see games made into movies or TV shows transformed into new experiences, and numerous popular artists lending their talents to soundtracks, so the media world becomes one delightful body with a multitude of parts all working together in harmony.

The team here really does love an addictive tune, and some of the hottest music artists descend upon Manchester each year for The Warehouse Project. The new season is here already, and there are many artists to keep your eye on!

Whilst the location may have changed from the classic Store Street arches that were so familiar in the past, but in the new home of Depot Mayfield, it has given more opportunity to expand what is already a landmark annual event in this glorious northern hub. 

This year's schedule for The Warehouse Project is more jam-packed with goodness than ever before, so be sure to set your destination to Manchester between now and the end of the year, and head over to find out the latest news updates and full line-up right now before it's too late!

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Chill Exorcism.

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With a third Mario Party on Switch, do Nintendo's party planners have enough in the tank to keep things fresh?

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When epic scale is not enough.

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Hell hath no yuri like a woman scorned.

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Walking down the aisle to Aerith's theme on my wedding day, it's fair to say that the music of Final Fantasy VII has always played a big part in my and my husband's lives. As such, it was a no-brainer to decide we simply needed to attend the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Orchestra World Tour in London.

As luck would have it, we were granted an interview with Arnie Roth himself a couple of days prior to the show. Arnie Roth started as a violinist, but over time became more and more involved in conducting, directing and producing orchestral performances. Since 2007, he is probably best known to the gaming world as the one in charge of Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy in collaboration with Square Enix. These live orchestra performances of the fantastic soundtracks from the Final Fantasy series have seen sold out concert halls all over the world.

Interview with producer and conductor Arnie Roth

During our interview, we were able to talk to Roth a bit more about his career path to becoming a conductor.

"I was a violinist for a million years. [...] I was doing an awful lot of recording work, national television, radio, as well as records and albums and movies and I started doing more composition and scoring, writing. [...] A lot of the artists that I was working with would ask me for one chart or two charts or a couple of things and eventually full live orchestra shows and they would ask me to come out and conduct these things. [..] One thing led to another where I ended up conducting more things than I ever planned on."

Seeing that Mr Roth was very classically trained, I was interested to hear what the difference between classical music and video game soundtracks, in particular for Final Fantasy, were. Roth replied that he doesn't "really think of them as different at all, actually". He continued to explain:
 

"The scores that we play with Final Fantasy, especially the original scores that Uematsu worked on with the main arranger that he used [...], Hamaguchi, who was just a genius… He did spectacular work. But those are very much classically written. And if you look at Nobuo Uematsu's output, it's very much traditional writing."

In other words, it seemed that thanks to Uematsu-san and Hamaguchi-san, the music was already part way there and only needed a little adjustment to be orchestra-ready.

"It's all about melody and structure. And if you're going to write that way, then it's going to have a certain logic that works in classical music."

Especially important here was how distinct every single track is in Final Fantasy. This really contributes to the music standing out and working particularly well as a live concert.

"But the fact that Uematsu started out in 1987 with the thought that every character was going to have its own theme, every battle, every new world or environment, every new love relationship, every quest. Each one has its own identifiable melody. And that melody is written in a very traditional manner, eight-bar phrases, this kind of thing. And because of that, it works very well in terms of orchestrating these things for a full symphony orchestra.
So, I think you really have to give a lot of credit to, in the case of Final Fantasy, Uematsu setting the template. And we've basically been following that template."

Roth continues to explain how this way of writing music, in particular for video games, is not at all common.

"There are many video game scores and I've played, I've conducted many of them, that are not written [like Final Fantasy]. They're written more about environmental or sound design. Seems to be a bigger concentration than an actual compelling melody that you might walk away from, stuck in your head. And because of that, I would say that's a big difference between the Final Fantasy music and a lot of other video games: that it is so music driven."

It seems that because the Final Fantasy music is written in such a distinct way, it just works well in concert.

"There's plenty of other types of video game music concerts, ones that involve an arranger's fantasy on themes, right? And that happens a lot… Zelda, Sonic, Elden Ring… But again, there's as much about the arranger in there as there is the original conductor. They're taking a theme and working it into sometimes very wonderful arrangements, but that's very different from the Final Fantasy concert that we present.
Not just this one, VII Rebirth, but all the Distant Worlds Final Fantasy concerts. Because we're trying to present the music as close to the way as fans have heard it in the game. And then second of all, when we do orchestrate things that were originally eight-bit, we're trying to be very faithful to what was originally written. And I think this is something that makes these concerts stand apart from a lot of the other ones."

Roth also talked a bit about the history of how video game concerts came about to be, starting out with movies and live orchestras until finally culminating in what we were able to visit today: a full on concert themed around the Final Fantasy soundtrack.

"When I first started doing work with Final Fantasy and Square Enix, there literally were no video game music concerts anywhere outside of Japan. I'm talking about 2004, 2005. So, at that time they were just starting the whole idea of live orchestra with movies and they were just thinking about things.
They tried the Wizard of Oz with orchestra, those kinds of things. And there was some success. Now, of course, it's blossomed into a huge industry. And the reason is that you're able to bring in a lot, many more new fans that might not normally be going to orchestra concerts and they're getting exposed. So, I think it's a very valuable thing from that standpoint."

Now, how does one organise such a massive concert tour? Roth explained some of the issues he faces when organising a tour like this.

"One of the issues is that it's always a very expensive proposition. You're talking about 100 musicians on stage, plus a video screen and some production stuff.
We often look for… either there's a critical venue that's available or a combination of a great orchestra and a venue, because it's not like a rock tour where we can string together… Let's say, we'll do all the UK cities, or Irish and UK cities and Scottish, just in one big tour… You can't really do it that way."

In other words, organising these concerts is a lot trickier than it seems. It is not for lack of wanting or trying - sometimes the pieces simply don't fall into place. However, Roth does explain that it is most definitely not for a lack of wanting to play in other areas. Scotland and Ireland especially seem to be on the radar here!

"But the good news is, there are plenty of places that we haven't played, even though Distant Worlds has been around for a long time, and we certainly want to do dates in Scotland, dates in Ireland."

One of the most burning questions may be whether Roth himself has played any of Final Fantasy titles himself. With a chuckle, he answered:

"I've got it right here on my phone. Final Fantasy VII, the original, is right here on my phone. That's my official answer. The reality is, that they're very difficult games. And they take a lot of time. And I mean, I don't really have the time for all those games. 
I do reference them, and I do work directly with all the composers of Final Fantasy, and Square Enix directly. And I get the official clips of music that I'm working on so I can understand how it's being used in the game. But yeah, I hate to say that I'm not really a gamer per se, but I have tried."

Considering the precision with which he manages to catch the feeling of every song he brings to the stage, it is fair to say he knows what he is doing, even without having played the games. After all, he is not wrong: each and every Final Fantasy title is a long and, at times, difficult game to play!
Asking about Roth's favourite song was apparently very difficult to answer! It must be hard to choose between so many fantastic songs.

"You're asking all the most difficult questions. Even Nobuo and I, when we get these questions, he has the same reaction. It's impossible. You know, too, he will tell you maybe what his favourite game is… And I can say the same thing: Do I love doing the opera from Final Fantasy VI? Yes! Do I love doing "Dancing Mad" from Final Fantasy VI? Yes! Do I love doing some of the new [Final Fantasy] XIV scores with Soken? Yes, absolutely! And [Final Fantasy] XVI. But just as well, I can appreciate the stuff that Sakimoto did in [Final Fantasy] XII. 
And I love working with Hamauzu. His score is not just in [Final Fantasy] XIII, but he has a tremendous amount of scores in Remake and Rebirth. He's one of the main composers they're using in there. We're playing several of his on the concert this weekend. 
So yeah, there's just there's so many, you know, so many great battle themes, so many great great great songs too, actually."

It seems to be a difficult choice, but Roth does mention again that especially the music from Final Fantasy VI is great to play for an orchestra. However, he continues to talk about how every game's soundtrack translates really well into an orchestra score, thanks to Uematsu.

"But I think some of the greatest achievements from the games that work on the concert hall stage, I would have to point to those Final Fantasy VI items: the opera and "Dancing Mad", in terms of an achievement that is so perfect for the concert situation. A lot of the other ones, we're doing an adaptation.
What the composers do these days is, they tend to use a certain amount of prerecorded elements along with their orchestration. So there's an orchestra along with some kind of a pre-laid synthesiser or an electronic track of some sort that's going with it. 
So, we present those tracks completely live with the orchestra, but again you have to do some orchestration to get close to what that is and make it sound exactly right. And so I'm saying there's always some adjustment that happens with that. 
[...] It's kind of amazing to look at all the music from Final Fantasy I through VII and see how easily all that stuff translates into full orchestra charts. This is again a big compliment to Uematsu; that his music translated so well to concert arrangements."

Another big question for Roth was whether there were any other video game soundtracks he enjoyed. Indeed, he does like music from the Legend of Zelda and Elden Ring!

"I love a lot of the Zelda music. There's a couple of other ones… I'm looking at Elden Ring."

Roth continues with another little known fact of how he was involved with Halo!

"I worked on the original Halo. It's a little known fact, but I actually helped with the arrangement and I actually recorded the original Halo theme, the very first Halo one because the two composers [...] Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori were based in Chicago, where I'm based, and so we worked on that with them."

Another soundtrack I personally really love is Octopath Traveler, and so I simply had to ask if Roth had heard about it. His answer sure surprised me!

"That's funny! There's now maybe about five people that have specifically said that title to me. I think you're all plotting or something here!
It's really interesting because that specific game… I was just in Japan just a few weeks ago doing these concerts, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and one of the Square Enix people actually brought that up to me, Octopath. And then, whether it's coincidence or a plot here, a couple of fans in different places like Singapore, Toronto last week… they're all mentioning Octopath and here you are! So, clearly there is something there. 
I mean, [Square Enix are] sending me all the music to check out and see what kind of production… if we can do anything with it. I don't know if we can, but we're going to look at it."

If this isn't exciting, I don't know what is!

Finally, does the Final Fantasy music play differently from classical Western-style music? Roth says No, and that is because of his friend and colleague Nobuo Uematsu, who incorporates a Western style of music in his own writing.

"No, as a matter of fact I find that it is again, if you're talking about Uematsu specifically, if one is talking about that, it's actually very traditional.  And if you know Nobuo at all, I mean, I'm close with him, good friends and colleagues… It's very famous that he listened to all kinds of 80s pop, rock stuff, a big Elton John fan and all that kind of stuff. But he's a huge fan of Tchaikovsky, of Prokofiev, of Brahms. These are all melody and structure driven."

In other words, this style of writing, melody and structure driven, is what makes the music from Final Fantasy so memorable, and it is not much different from the famous classical composers.

While talking to Arnie Roth, I could not help but think how friendly and down-to-earth he is. It is very clear that his true passion is music and as fans of Final Fantasy, we can count ourselves lucky that he is in charge of bringing the soundtrack onto the stage for us.

The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Orchestra World Tour

Moving on to the concert itself, which took place in the Royal Albert Hall in London. The hall has been around for a very, very long time (since 1871 actually!), and has seen a huge number of big names perform. After going through security and having our bags checked, we immediately queued for the merch stand, in a queue that was sufficiently long. There wasn't a whole lot available: a tour booklet, a t-shirt, the official orchestra recording on CD, additional Distant Worlds media (such as CDs and Vinyls), a small, light-up Buster sword… It was all quite expensive but it was a special day, so walking away with a couple of CDs and a t-shirt was a bit of a must. As it turned out, merch stands in other parts of the building also offered Moogles and Cactuar plushies, and it was a bit weird that these weren't available at all merch stands.

Looking around, there was many a Final Fantasy t-shirt or other accessory to be seen, but also a whole lot of cosplayers, all of which did a fantastic job with their cosplay. It was truly a sight to behold.
We then moved on upwards to find our seats and grab a drink before the show. Getting lucky, we had managed to book two seats in a four-seat box on the balcony, and our seats were the two in the front. The view was fantastic, the box offered sufficient private space to put down our bags and relax. There was even an offer to receive food and drinks in there!

Right on time, the musicians appeared on stage and started tuning their instruments - the show was about to begin. Arnie Roth appeared on stage, a round of applause welcoming him, and the first song was played. The huge monitor behind the stage showed clips of the game while the music played. Most of the time they followed the theming of the songs but occasionally there was a mismatch. For example, slow music was sometimes accompanied by action footage, or vice versa. For the majority of the concert, however, the clips were well chosen.

The sound was fantastic, which is probably in part due to the ideal layout of the hall. The musicians, including the choir, did an amazing job, and the whole concert felt absolutely magical. It almost felt as though the 30 minute intermission, though an important break, was too long - we wanted more!

It is absolutely fair to say that for a couple of songs, tears were shed due to the sheer beauty of the arrangements. Arnie Roth did a stunning job here. When he left the stage towards the end of the concert, it seemed it was over too soon - but luckily, he returned for a final two songs.

The very last song was truly emotional, and here and there people discreetly wiped away a tear or two. The beauty of the music, the clips of the game and the credits that started rolling, as well as the knowledge that it was already over… who could blame us?

The whole show was absolutely fantastic, and well worth the visit!

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From the outset, the Lisboa laptop sleeve pushes the quality aesthetic. Working on the premise that the sleeve will be carried by itself as well as providing protection in a larger bag, all aspects of the design ensure this will not look out of place in the most professional of working environments.  Materials are of a high quality and feel good to the touch, essential if carrying this in hand is the chosen method of transport.

Most importantly for a product like this is of course, the protection provided. A well-padded inside layer fits snugly with little room for unnecessary movement. Although not willing to risk the drop test myself, this will certainly protect from the occasional accident and day to day knock. The main drawback, but a familiar one looking at other alternatives on the market, is the lack of extra storage. Yes, we are fast approaching the digital-only age where trees will thrive under the prospect of paper being obsolete, but the stark truth is that currently the majority of high flyers will still carry the odd document or report around with them from meeting to meeting. Although totally understandable that a laptop sleeve should only do exactly as it says on the tin, a document pocket accompanying the design would certainly elevate this above its competitors in this reviewers' eyes. Nevertheless the quality of the product itself in terms of its aesthetics does put the heating right up there with some of its pricier competitors.

With multiple size and colour options (our review sample was the sleeve, sized at 16") there should be an option to fit whatever machine and external bag you are working used to travelling with as well as matching your other stationary and equipment colour wise. The quality of the build should also ensure that paying that initial, competitive price, will provide a long-lasting sleeve without too much wear and tear with minimal care.

With very little to over analyse due to the nature of the product, it's a welcome sight to see all the basics done right. Great build quality and aesthetics at a competitive price point. With a few tweaks, (mainly some kind of additional storage space for any additional documentation) any future iteration of the Lisboa laptop sleeve is sure to be in the running as the go-to option.

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It is Princess Zelda's time to adventure at last!

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Classic Doom, in modern wrapping.

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At first glance, the Stealth 500 offers little by way of aesthetic impression. The silhouette is fairly standard with the exception of the floating headband — an elasticated band that sits below the plastic arch of the headphones. The floating design has an interesting adjustment mechanism that will be hit or miss. Instead of pulling the ear cups down to extend the fit, the band stretches to accommodate the user's head, and can be expanded or reduced by removing it and clipping it onto notched intervals. It's a design choice that makes sense in theory, but it feels quite strange when coming from a more traditional headphone design.

Alongside the memory foam ear cups and elasticated headband, the Stealth 500 deploys a very lightweight plastic frame, which retains a 'budget' feeling without giving the impression of being cheap. The flip-to-mute microphone is snappy and easy to manoeuvre, and the control buttons are all centred on the underside of the left ear cup. This is perhaps the most frustrating thing about this design, as the myriad buttons and wheels feel awfully cluttered at first and take some getting used to.

When it comes to the all-important sound factor, this reviewer is pleased to report that the Stealth 500 adheres to the Turtle Bay norm of offering insane 'bang for your buck'. This is where these headphones best outperform their price tag, with clear audio that offers the dynamic range required for high-octane experiences. There's a reason why Turtle Beach dominate both the low-budget and high-tier gaming headset space alike: the audio quality is never an issue, and the Stealth 500 is no exception.

The Stealth 500 offers battery life of up to 40 hours and charges rather quickly to ensure minimal downtime between uses. On the whole, this is a gaming headset that is very difficult to fault; the audio quality is fantastic, the fit is comfortable and the design quality is in line with price range expectations. The few frustrations there are — namely in the adjustability of the headset's fit and the cluttered controls — can be forgiven within this price range, making the Stealth 500 a viable choice for those who want a top entry level or low-budget pick.

The Stealth 500 wireless headset offers the familiar Turtle Beach stamp of quality: great sound, reliable battery life and a very comfortable fit for this price range. Even though the floating headband will be a matter of taste and the controls take some getting used to, this is a fantastic choice for players who want to explore the best sound that the low-budget range of gaming headsets can offer.

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