Si Woodhams, Author at Thumb Culture

19Dec

By Si WoodhamsNo Comments

ThunderX3 TC5 Gaming Chair Review

Take yourself back, it's the start of lockdown and pretty much everyone has been told to work from home. Most, including myself, grabbed themselves the first available desk chair from the office and went on their way. Now nearly 3 years later those chairs, after many hours of holding you up, have worn away. Well thankfully our friends over at Overclockers have got you covered with the ThunderX3 series of gaming chairs. I was lucky enough to be sent the ThunderX3 TC5 Gaming Chair, so let's get it out of the box, built and tell you all about it. If you enjoy this review, check out some of our other hardware reviews right here. Thunder, Thunder, Thunder......X3 TC5 It doesn't quite have the same ring to it as the TV show, but you would be sat in comfort watching it! Now fully built le...

14Dec

By Si WoodhamsNo Comments

Hardware & Tech

RIG 500 Pro HA Headset

We reviewed quite a few items from Nacon over the years, so when they got in touch about a brand new headset we jumped at the chance. What turned up was the brand new RIG 500 Pro HA Gen 2 headset with a price point bang in the mid-range at around £80, would these stand up to the very competitive mid-market? If you are in the market for anything hardware related be sure to check out some of our other hardware reviews right here! Mid-range price, Bold Claims With a price of around £80 the Rig 500 Pro makes some big claims with this headset, the main one being "Competition Grade Gaming Headset" and it is up against tough competition from the likes of Razer, Hyper X, Arctis and others. Unboxing and Design The unboxing of the RIG 500 Pro is not really an event in itself, just a grey ...

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration – PC Review

14Dec

By Si WoodhamsNo Comments

PC Reviews

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration – PC Review

If you were born in the late 70s or into 80s you may have been lucky enough for your parents to have a classic PC in the household, be that an Atari, Commodore or a ZXSpectrum. Now I was one of those lucky children and an Atari ST520 adorned my Dad's office, with my siblings and I fighting over who would get the game time first, before 2 joysticks magically appeared and put a stop to that farse! Atari 50 hopes to bring that all back in the 21st Century! Now in the 2020s Atari has released the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration a broad selection of history and games that span the Atari universe. If you enjoy this review check out my others right here! History Tour or Gaming? Let's start by saying this "game" is huge! I've been playing for quite a while now and barely scratched th...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II – PC Review

28Oct

By Si WoodhamsNo Comments

PC Reviews

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II – PC Review

Another year passes and just like the new moon a new Call of Duty game appears. This time however with the rather confusing title of Modern Warfare II, no not a remake of Modern Warfare 2 from 2009, but a direct sequel to the Modern Warfare reboot of 2019. With a brand new engine from Infinity Ward powering the game there was lots to look forward to, once I had downloaded the required 31.5GB, surprising small for a Call of Duty game! Is this a change that will stay for good or when multiplayer and Warzone 2.0 come along will this file size grow to over 100GB? Who knows! Lets hope not! Anyway enough about file sizes, in this review I will covering just the Campaign element of the game. That is because the lucky souls (that's me!) who pre-ordered/got a review key were able to access th...

19Aug

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News & Updates

Call of Duty: Warzone Last Stand

In what will be the last season of Call of Duty: Warzone, before the release of Warzone 2.0, Last Stand sees a whole host of classic Call of Duty villains come to the islands. Launching on the 24th August, the Last Stand update will be bringing major changes to all three gaming experiences; Warzone, Vanguard Multiplayer and Zombies. Here we are just touching on what is coming to Warzone. The last update removed the flowing rivers from Caldera, well now thanks to some ominous seismic activity, lava is flowing and rocks dropping from the sky. The trailer video released earlier this week showed this was no natural disaster, so is this pointing towards how Warzone will come to end come November? A smaller limited time mode Operation: Last Call sees you battle it out as the lava...

18Aug

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PC Reviews

Arcade Paradise – PC Review

It is finally here! Arcade Paradise, my game of the day from WASD way back at the start of the year, is now available for all you wonderful people to play and in my opinion, you should get it straight away. Developed by Nosebleed Interactive and published by Wired Productions, Arcade Paradise will have you coming back for more and more. Read on to find out why! DON'T FORGET YOUR DAY JOB! Don't let the name fool you straight away, Arcade Paradise isn't just about running your backroom slot machines, you also have a day job running the laundromat to keep track of! Gameplay You take on the role of Ashley, having been given the keys to a run-down Laundromat by your father, the owner of the Grindstone Investments, with him saying that maybe even you can make it a success! After a ...

1Jul

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PC Reviews

Tour de France 22 – PC Review

It's that time of year again when the world's biggest bike race comes to France, or weirdly this year starts in Denmark, just to confuse you. Once again Nacon and Cyanide Studios have teamed up to release Tour de France 22. If you enjoy this review head over to our website to see all our other game and hardware reviews! Race to the Champs Elysees! Now I admit there is only so much you can do with a sports simulation game, as the actual sport doesn't change that much, it's either race to the finish or score more goals than the other team. However where other sports sims have improved have been the graphics and audio, the last few additions of this game have been a copy and paste job of the previous edition so let's dive into the game to find out if it is or not! Gameplay As you woul...

1Jul

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PC Reviews

Pro Cycling Manager 22 – PC Review

Released at the same time as Tour de France 2022, Pro Cycling Manager sees you delve deeper into the data and understanding of what it takes to run a pro cycling team. The game from Nacon and Cyanide Studio goes hand in hand with Tour de France 22. Read on to see what I thought of it and check out the Tour de France review straight afterwards! Searching for marginal gains! If you like football manager and are into cycling then this is definitely the game for you, taking the role of Director Sportive, you make all the decisions to take your team or rider to the top of the sport. Gameplay If you are new to this genre of game then good news there are fantastic tutorial screens to help you through the plethora of menus, and believe me you will need these tips! On starting the game y...

18Jun

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Xbox Reviews

Winter Ember – Xbox Series X Review

As a fan of stealth adventures I was excited when Winter Ember dropped into TC Headquarters inbox. Developed by Sky Machine Studios and published by Blowfish Studios/Gamera Games, from watching the trailer I couldn't wait to get stuck in! Into the Shadows! Winter Ember takes its inspiration from games such as Thief and Dishonored, some big games to live up to! Did it meet them? Read on to find out and if you like this review check out my previous one here! Gameplay Winter Ember, as with most stealth titles is a tale of revenge where you take on the role of Arthur and skulk around in the shadows, looting unsuspecting people and their houses, hiding from enemies and quite frankly anyone else that you don't want to show your face to! The game starts with Arthur escorting ladies bac...

Modern Warfare 2 info and footage released

9Jun

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News & Updates

Modern Warfare 2 info and footage released

Infinity Ward have finally unveiled the trailer and gameplay footage for its next Call of Duty blockbuster, Modern Warfare 2. It will feature a single player campaign, that follows on from the previous game, as well multiplayer and a new tactical co-op mode. Multiplayer will feature both large scale maps and smaller ones designed for 6 vs 6 matches. As well as the Modern Warfare 2 announcement, Infinity Ward also announced some details about the Warzone battle royale title. As mentioned earlier in the year it will be coming to mobile, but not much more detail on how this will differ from PC/Console editions. Warzone 2.0 is also confirmed for later in the year and will be built on the same engine as Modern Warfare 2 and will be an extension of the same universe. Fo...