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rAge is heading into November with a new identity and some substantial changes planned for the show. I sat down with Michael James and Mettlestate’s Barry Louzada to talk about rAge Nation, what their partnership brings to the event, and how they intend to deal with the heat that dominated conversations after last year’s outing to its new venue at Fourways Mall. The partnership grew out of years of working together at rAge.

There is something wonderfully freeing about realising that you don’t have to keep up. In World of Warcraft: Forever, someone playing forty hours a week is probably going to progress further than someone playing five. And that’s okay. They put the time in. Their character will be stronger, their gear will be better, and they might be clearing content that you haven’t even looked at yet. But that doesn’t make your five hours less valuable.

Steam sales are dangerous at the best of times. Give me a page full of interesting indie games, dramatic discounts and titles I’ve somehow managed to overlook until now, and suddenly my carefully cultivated backlog is no longer looking quite so carefully cultivated.

What an event that was! We kicked off Comic Con Africa 2026 by doing a live broadcast from the Computer Mania stand in Hall 6 at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec, and let me tell you, there was plenty of action happening around the studio desk. Each day was packed with interviews and insights from some of the coolest people in gaming and tech at Comic Con this year.

There are two kinds of LEGO announcements. There are the ones I look at, appreciate, send to Larry with a little “this is cool”, and then move on with my life like a responsible adult. And then there are the announcements that immediately have me staring at our already overcrowded shelves, mentally rearranging everything we own and deciding which treasured possession is about to be evicted. Unfortunately for my wallet, LEGO has been announcing an alarming number of the latter.

DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: Jeffrey Nordin; Caranthos Mori Games What happens when the moon falls, you wander into a mysterious house in the woods, and discover that some rooms only exist when you’re dreaming? Apparently, you start questioning reality and possibly your own intelligence when a puzzle refuses to make sense.

Okay, before we launch into anything here, I need to lay some groundwork. Dragon Age: Origins was not my first Dragon Age game. No, that came a few years later, when I was closer to an adult and could independently choose any game I wanted. Dragon Age 2 had a trailer on a NAG DVD that completely blew my mind. In fact, this is the one that I watched, and to this day it’s still really awesome.

I’ve used some fantastic keyboards recently that I may or may not have deducted a point or two from for being wired. It’s 2026. Surely we solved cables by now? Which could make it awkward for me to be typing out this article… According to market data reported by WIRED, wired headphone sales grew by 10% in the second half of 2025 and by another 20% at the beginning of 2026, after declining over the previous five years. Apparently, the cable is cool again. There’s certainly a fashion element to it.

When I say Small Form Factor PCs, I bet your first thought goes to machines like the Intel NUC, Valve’s Steam Machine and Apple’s Mac Mini. But these machines actually tower over the two “tiny form factor” PCs I have received from MSI. The technical term for these palm-sized PCs is Ultra Compact mini-PCs, and they typically feature chassis volumes less than a litre. Granted, these are not gaming computers, but in the time that I’ve used these two, I’ve found a lot of really handy uses for them.

Comic Con Africa is officially over for another year. The rest of the team’s feet hurt, their voices are gone, and judging by the huge crowds gathered at the Computer Mania stand, there was a good number of competitions happening across the show floor this weekend. Maybe you spoiled yourself with a new purchase. Or maybe you were one of those lucky people who entered a competition, gave it your all, and walked away with some fresh hardware for your gaming setup. Either way, there’s only one problem.