Chris Talucci is the co-founder of Shield Break Studios, currently working on the Early Access game Bierzerkers. He's got an awesome keyboard he found in a Taiwanese market—a place our hardware editor Wes called "a paradise for PC Gamers"—and a very powerful pre-built machine. Chris was kind enough to show us around his deck setup and tell us about his favorite game, and also how he manages to make Kerbal Space Program even harder. 

What s in your PC?

• Xidax X-5 — I found Xidax when searching for office PCs for some of our guys, and they've pretty much got the best rig for the best price on the planet right now, and have been super friendly with us.
• Geforce GTX 980ti - 6GB GDDR5
• Intel i7-4790K (4 - 4.4GHz)
• 16GB - Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz DDR3 - (2x8GB)

What s the most interesting/unique part of your setup?

My Ducky Shine4 keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches. It was a steal I found at the tech market when I was in Taiwan early this year. It's gloriously good looking and is amazing to type on, like how I'm typing all the answers to these questions right... now... hmmmmm sooo niiiiice.

What s always within arm s reach on your desk?

Scotch/Bourbon/Whiskey. Usually it's Bullet Rye or Makers Mark, but right now it's Single Malt 18-year Shieldaig, which my girlfriend got us to celebrate the launch, along with a Decanter and Shield Break etched whiskey glasses, yeah she's awesome. But no hard liquor before sundown, that's just the rule.

What are you playing right now?

Kerbal Space Program. I am a die hard space nerd who has always enjoyed builder sandbox games, so KSP hits those two fantasies for me. I enjoy playing on what I call "no warp mode." I launch a rocket, set it on course, but instead of warping to get to the next part of the mission I launch a brand new rocket and set this new rocket on its course, and so on with more rockets. After a few iterations I've got 6 or 7 simultaneous missions going and no shortage of important mission events to manage with each of them. It makes me feel like my Kerbals are slowly taking over the entire solar system. I'm secretly hoping that Elon Musk would be proud.

What s your favorite game and why?

Favorite all time has got to be Battlefield 1942, I loved flying in this game. The planes had a great arcade feel but high skill cap for both dog-fighting to take down the other flyers and ground-pounding to support of your fellow infantry-men and tankers. It was my first experience with professional competitive multiplayer gaming as I was recruited by Kindread gaming clan to pilot in 12v12 TWL and CAL matches. Once I got voted pilot MVP for a league [in] the all-star game, and that was pretty much the highlight of my pro-gaming career.

But I think my favorite part about BF1942 was its griefing. Yes, I'd admit I enjoy being a grief-er at times. I'd spend hours as an engineer det-packing spawn points and hiding proximity mines on unattended vehicles. Also, jeep jumping was pretty amazing. Nothing but love for the original '42.