Tetsuya Nomura wears various hats at Japanese game maker Square Enix. He designs games, he produces them, he directs them—he also designs characters! His artwork is perhaps the most influential of the Final Fantasy series. But it's sometimes easy to forget his pure artistic talent, and sometimes easier to get lost in his resume, whether that's the games he's made or is making.

The Final Fantasy 25th Ultimania art book has a good refresher, showing off some Tetsuya Nomura sketches of Final Fantasy XIII characters. The man is an artist and has talent to spare—and then some. For more sketches, have a look at FinalFantasyFXN.net (link below). Great stuff.

---

FF XIII Character Sketches from FF 25th Ultamania [FinalFantasyFXN]

---

It's a double-feature PC hardware review this evening, as I take a look at not one but two of Roccat's latest offerings, the ISKU FX kedyboard and the Savu gaming mouse.

One, I liked. The other, not so much.

THE SPECS

ISKU FX Gaming Keyboard

1000Hz polling rate
2m USB cable
5x Macro keys
3x "Thumbster" Macro keys
Customisable lighting

SAVU Gaming Mouse

400-4000DPI
2x programmable buttons
Customisable lighting

---

WHAT I LIKED

ISKU FX Gaming Keyboard

Rough - On the whole, it's built real tough. It's weird that there's a point on the box saying it's got "battle-ready stability", but it really does. Once you put this thing down, it takes a lot of work to budge it. Most of the keyboard feels strong and well-made as well.

Colours - If you hate lights and colours on your keyboard, that's fine. If you like the effect, though, the ISKU lets you customise the bejesus out of it, running the entire colour spectrum. Just in case you enjoy your evening sessions to be a nice light pink.

SAVU Gaming Mouse

Finish - I love the materials used on it. The matte material on the top is comfortable and smooth, but the "no sweat" side grips are even better. They don't literally stop you sweating, but what they do stop is that slick grime you accumulate on smoother surfaces.

Tough - Aside from some slightly cheap "easy shift" buttons on the side, the main parts of the mouse—the build quality, the primary buttons and the wheel—felt "heavy".

Sharp - Roccat says it's the world's only 4000dpi mouse. I don't know if mice needed to go that high, but I do know this thing is fast, and it's precise.

---

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

ISKU FX Gaming Keyboard

MIA - At $90, the fact this isn't a mechanical keyboard hurts its prospects as a serious gaming keyboard. As does the fact it's missing features like external USB ports and audio jacks.

Wrists - The ISKU FX ships with an enormous wristguard. Which you can't remove. It constantly hung over the edge of my desk while testing, which got real annoying real fast.

SAVU Gaming Mouse

Light - This is totally a preference thing, I know, but I found the SAVU to be a little on the light side. If you like a "floating" feeling, then disregard, but since you can't customise the weight of this thing be warned that if you need a little more heft, this isn't for you.

---

MY FINAL WORD

The ISKU suffers from being stuck in the awkward spot between budget gear and more serious hardware, in terms of both its price and its features. Yes, it's got lighting options and a ton of macro keys, but at $90 you're getting close to gear like Corsair's excellent K60, which as just one example of a mechanical keyboard is I think a much better option for a serious gamer.

The SAVU is much better. At $70, it gets the balance right, trading fluff like extra buttons for strong build quality and excellent performance. It may not be as sexy as other gaming mice, but for a no-frills gamer it's a good option.

Because... somebody wills it, Volkswagen's Mexican branch will soon be selling a limited edition Beetle based on the Xbox 360.

With branded stripes down the side and a colour range that (mostly) matches that of Xbox 360 consoles, it's certainly a thing.

Strangely, there's no Xbox 360 integration in the car (sorry, this isn't Pimp My Ride), and just as strangely, to register your interest in getting more information you must submit your gamertag.

To make up for the fact you don't get one built into the car, purchasers will get an Xbox 360 with a copy of Forza 4.

Weird, but then, I guess those without an Xbox 360 won't exactly be lining up for one of these.

Limited Edition Xbox Beetle [VW, thanks Alfredo!]

Malaysian artist Amirul Hafiz looks to Grand Theft Auto V for inspiration in this Mario piece. He's got the colours almost perfect.

GRAND THEFT MARIO KART [DeviantArt, via it 8-bit]

Henry Fong is a former senior character designer at Ubisoft who, after leaving the publisher a few years back, has been working in the motion picture business on projects like Pacific Rim and the upcoming Spider-Man sequel.

Fong actually enjoyed two stints at Ubisoft; his first saw him working on series like Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia and Far Cry, while his second ended in 2009.

You can see more of Henry's art at his personal site.

---

---

---

Images below used in the Bot Colony video game by North Side Inc. (c) North Side Inc.

Rockstar's 2002 classic Vice City remains so popular today as much for its bottling of mid-80s culture and excess as it does the actual game.

The game's soundtrack rightly gets a lot of credit for this, as does the colour palette, but have you ever wondered which movies served as the inspiration for the neon-infused Vice City itself? I mean, beyond Scarface?

Well, here you go. Rockstar has shared thirteen films it says "served as perfect inspiration for the stories, characters and scenery that drove the world and vibe of Vice City".

The link below contains explanations just why they inspired the development team, while the gallery above features the thirteen films and their trailers.

A Totally Rad Roundup of 80s Flicks in Honor of Vice City [Rockstar]

Less Than Zero (1987)

The Long Good Friday (1980)

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

Manhunter (1986)

First Blood (1982)

Road Warrior (1981)

Aliens (1986)

Sudden Impact (1983)

Top Gun (1986)

Body Double (1984)

Rocky IV (1985)

Over The Top (1987)

Scarface (1983)

Hasbro, perhaps after a sharp blow to the head, have decided a good way to get people interested in Monopoly again is to launch a campaign where one of the game's iconic pieces is killed off.

Not only are they messing with a tradition that didn't need to be messed with, they're handling it in a fairly obnoxious way by putting it to a vote.

On February 5, the original piece (wheelbarrow, shoe, top hat, thimble, iron, dog, car or battleship) with the lowest votes will be gone, replaced by a... toy robot, helicopter, cat, guitar or diamond ring.

Sigh.

(Though, OK, the robot is pretty great, since you can pretend you're in a Japanese monster movie. Take THAT, Pall Mall. Rargh).

Token change for 'Monopoly' to replace an iconic piece [USA Today]

Photographer Sergey Semonov is responsible for the above image that makes the heart of New York City look like a spline that's just been reticulated.

It's not technically a single photo; instead, it's a composite of a number of photos taken during a helicopter ride. Sergey presents it as a stunning interactive panorama on his site, but the image above—which has won Epson's Pano Award for photography—has been flattened.

You can see the complete panorama at Sergey's website, while there's a higher resolution shot available here.

Day view of Manhattan, New York, USA [Site, via The Verge]

You say the words "laser turret", and you think strategy games. Maybe shooters. They're as clichéd a defensive tool that science fiction stories can get, but now, thanks to German scientists, they're real.

While ground-to-laser technology has existed for a while now, this pair of weapons is really something else, boasting a twin-barrel casing that houses a 30-kw and a 20-kw laser beam, which when paired can track and shoot down drones flying at 50 metres per second.

Or, if the target isn't moving, they can cut through steel girders from a mile away.

If that doesn't sound powerful enough, the weapon's manufacturers, Rheinmetall, say that lasers twice as powerful should be available within 3-5 years.

Seems a bit silly that Black Ops II went to all the trouble of making you shoot down drones with fighter jets, when they could have just parked a few of these outside LA, sat back and watched the rain.

Rheinmetall demos laser that can shoot down drones [BBC, via Motherboard]

Kevin, Jake and Stewie of website Hungercraft are to thank for this incredible recreation of BioShock's Rapture in Minecraft, captured perfectly not just in block form, but in a fantastic trailer as well.

If you're over Minecraft recreations, imagine it's LEGO BioShock. That'll get you there.

The map recreating the underwater metropolis will be released on January 19.

Bioshock in Minecraft [FPS General, via VentureBeat]