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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1234839
magnetic design without being tethered to your tower. ioGear www.iogear.com ioGear had a fairly robust setup at PA X East this year, with every thing a streamer needs to be up and running from the comfort of their own home or hotel room. Key to that experience is the newly launched Upstream Pro Video Production Switch. The Upstream is a one stop shop for capturing, monitoring, and publishing your streaming video. The device is meant to be used with an iPad (not included) and get professional streaming results without the need for a dedicated streaming computer setup next to your console or gaming rig. It has all the ports you need to plug in and pass through your console or PC games, as well as additional inputs for cameras and other gear. The Upstream presents all your relevant streams on a single screen on your iPad, from where you can add, move, and adjust overlays, control transitions, micro- manage audio levels, and every thing else that aspiring streamers should be aiming to perfect. The hardware also includes dedicated buttons for jumping between scene setups, and a satisfying slider for manually controlling your transitions (alternatively, free up your hands and let the Upstream Pro manage the transitions for you). In addition to the complex but robust Upstream, ioGear was also demonstrating its Keymander switch, which lets gamers use any controller with any platform (think using a mouse and keyboard on your Xbox, or your PS4 controller to easily control your PC games). If you're looking to get the jump on your competitors, or just have a fierce loyalty to controllers, check it out! Tabletop Electronics weren't the only 'hardware' on the floor at PAX East. As with years past, there was a significant showing of tabletop games, with vendors and demos creeping more and more into the general show floor and out of the dedicated tabletop space. Breaking Games www.breakinggames.com Breaking Games distributes a huge selection of games, and if you've ever been to a 'game night' at a friend's house, you're bound to recognize at least one of the titles on their shelves. With We're Doomed, however, Breaking Games is publishing one of their own designs. This new experience fits perfectly at the aforementioned game nights, and accommodates a huge crowd of players, keeping them involved and attentive throughout the timed experience. That's right, unlike most games of this nature, We're Doomed comes with a timer. Think of it like the Doom Clock, counting down the seconds (or grains of sand, in this case) until the apocalypse. There is only one timer that applies to everyone playing, which forces some cooperation early on in the game. Players go around the table taking their individual turn, making resource decisions—hopefully quickly. Situation cards are thrown in at the end of each round, which soak up valuable time and add a wrench to the gears that you've been plotting in your head. Eventually, the cooperative tones will flip, as you and your fellow players vie to earn one of the limited seats on humanity's last rocket off of this doomed planet. Even in my single play session with eight strangers, We're Doomed produced several memorable moments, including some back-stabbing and a last