Asus’s latest laptops are getting “maxed out.” With the Strix gaming laptop lineup, configurations will feature Intel’s latest 13th Gen processors, AMD Zen 4 CPUs, and Nvidia’s 40-series mobile GPUs. Along with these next-gen upgrades, the Strix series—along with its updated sister series’—will come with heaps of gaming optimisations, to boot.

At the top of the range sits the Asus Strix Scar. Still essentially the same beastly desktop replacement we tested before, in 2023, it’ll come with either a 16-inch or 18-inch, 16:10 panel and a name to match. 

The Strix Scar 16 and Strix Scar 18’s top config includes Intel’s recently announced Core i9 13980HX (opens in new tab) and a 150W RTX 4090 GPU (175W with dynamic boost). The rest of the spec matches: panels with a max 240Hz refresh, 3ms GtG and 2560 x 1600 resolution, up to 64GB DDR5-4800 RAM, and maybe two 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs if you’re lucky.

The Scar 17 is Asus’s latest AMD offering, touting the Ryzen 9 7945HX, with the same beastly config as its Intel counterparts. The main differences to note between the Intel and AMD models are that the Scar 17 will use vapour chamber cooling instead of the edge-to-edge heatsink solution on Intel models.

These will come with “Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal” on both the CPU and GPU, which Asus claims will give the Strix G16 and Strix G18 5 degrees lower temperatures than previous cocktails of the stuff could. The Scar 17, too, will benefit from this second-generation apparent wonder solution. 

While Asus isn’t the first to experiment with liquid metal, it could be the first to get it right. Only time will tell, and we’ll let you know how that translates in the real world once we get our hands on it.

The RTX 4090/Core i9 13980HX model Strix scar 18 comes in at £3,399, and should be here some time in the first quarter of 2023. We’ll have to wait for Q2 before Asus graces us with the rest of the Strix lineup, the £3,300 Scar 16 and £3,800 Scar 17 included, as well as the upcoming Strix G16, G17, and G18.

Asus’s G series holds the more affordable RTX 4050, RTX 4060, and RTX 4070 models, with the 17-incher again as its AMD offering. These start at £1,499, £1,799 and £2,599, respectively. We’re waiting on US pricing now, and will update when we get hold of the figures.

At CES 2022, Alienware unveiled Concept Nyx, a game streaming platform that lets a household of gamers stream games to multiple TVs simultaneously from a single, powerful gaming PC. At-home streaming from a PC isn’t a new concept (opens in new tab), though Alienware is looking to streamline the experience, starting with the controller. 

I actually got my hands on a Concept Nyx game controller at a recent Alienware event. While I didn’t play any games, I did get to play with many of the controller’s features. 

The first thing you notice about the Nyx controller is that instead of a proper d-pad, it’s got a circular touchpad that acts as a mouse for navigating in-game menus for titles traditionally meant for a keyboard and mouse. In fact, one of the pre-recorded gameplay demos I was shown had the touchpad mapped to skills in Guild Wars 2. I would have loved to see this in action for myself since touchpads can be a bit finicky when they act as buttons and not for movement. I’m looking at you, Steam controller. (opens in new tab) 

Most of the demo was mainly spent tooling around with the controller’s features and learning about its role in the game streaming ecosystem of Nyx. Think of the controller as your hall pass for accessing your games on any TV in the house. You could walk into any room with the Nyx app installed on the TV, which immediately pulls up your gaming profile. The Alienware logo on the center is a thumbprint reader that identifies you, loads up your game library, and even resumes your progress. The idea is that if you’ve been kicked off the TV for whatever reason, you can simply pick up where you left off in a different room. 

My favorite controller feature is the ‘self-adjusting variable resistance thumb sticks.’ This means you can adjust the thumbstick tension on the fly without opening the controller or using a tool. In addition to the thumbsticks setting, you can customize these controllers’ haptics on a per-game basis. All this is controlled by two scroll wheels located at the bottom of the controller. No software is required. 

Multiple Nyx users can even share the screen to play two entirely different games simultaneously side-by-side as long as they have two Nyx controllers. It’s something that sounds cool in theory but could be distracting unless you’re sporting a massive TV in your living room. 

In a press release, Dell and Alienware hope in less than a decade to use the computing power of Concept Nyx outside of gaming for mixed reality experiences and “virtual collaborative spaces” that feature “displays and other tools that remove the need for a VR headset.” 

Of course, the folks at Alienware reiterated that this is a concept, and there are no plans for Concept Nyx to hit the market anytime soon. The way it was explained, it pretty much wanted to see how many “dream features” could be squeezed into a prototype. However, I’d imagine if a controller like this were ever sold, it wouldn’t be cheap.

The company is no stranger to showing off wild concepts to the public that seem like they would have commercial potential, only never to be heard from again, like its version of the Steam Deck, Concept UFO (opens in new tab), a few years ago at CES. 

Here’s the thing: Racing sims lack ambition. Yes, yes, these hyper-detailed recreations of Ferraris are all very nice, but they don’t move me. Watching them zip around Monza and Mugello doesn’t speak to my soul. If only there were a sim that saw beauty in the mundane, that discarded sleek curves for rough function, that shared my bottomless passion for the ice resurfacing vehicle, the shopping trolley, and the Roomba.

Oh wait, there is. It’s Assetto Corsa, the supercar racing sim from Kunos Simulazione.

Thanks to the tireless work of a Japan-based modder named takeyoh (opens in new tab), Assetto Corsa’s library of gorgeous supercars has been joined by far more serious vehicles, including a tricycle (opens in new tab) and Santa’s sleigh (opens in new tab). They’ve also modded in running (opens in new tab), which was pretty much humanity’s first car if you think about it.

Takeyoh has been modding the game for a while—just over half a year, if their YouTube uploads are anything to go by—and they’ve generated such a plethora of absurd content for it that I can’t list it all here. They’ve also uploaded some videos of, you know, actual cars (opens in new tab), but nothing so mundane could ever compare to the sight of a driver splayed out across a Roomba (opens in new tab) like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, zipping under trucks on his inexorable way towards destiny.

The modder gets their inspiration from everyday life. In the description for their ice resurfacer mod (opens in new tab), they say they “went to the skating rink, saw this car, and said, ‘This is next!'” before making it “as soon as possible”. If you can understand Japanese, takeyoh has put out a couple of modding tutorial videos (opens in new tab), which might give you an insight into their creative process.

It’s the first time I’ve ever been tempted to download Assetto Corsa. I mean no slight to the game itself, I’m just not a car guy. Give me a shot at piloting a baby stroller around the Nürburgring, though, and I’m there. I’ve included a video of that below, plus a couple of my other favourite additions from the takeyoh archive.