Razer makes a noise at Gamescom

Gamescom 2010: The elite Blackwidow keyboard is announced, and we get hands on time with Razer's Starcraft peripherals and pro Xbox controller.

We got to go hands on with a mess of Razer products at Gamescom, though we're still waiting for a spin of its new Blackwidow - which we at least saw the big launch event for.

But more on that later.

We did however, get a good look at - and quite a few good pics of - Razer's Starcraft II branded gear, and its impressive new Xbox controller.

Spawn more... Spectres?
The Starcraft II gear is a truly pleasant surprise. It's a complete range, consisting of the Spectre mouse, Marauder keyboard and Banshee headset. Observant types will notice the SCII unit names.

Razer's clevar like that.

But Razer's also gone a step beyond in the design of the gear. The Spectre is a smaller than usual gaming mouse, made from the ground up to SCII requirements. Its ergonomic design is meant to complement the light fingered and twitchy gameplay of SCII, especially the thumb and little finger grip used by most high-end players.

It's typically symmetrical, too, but the real unique thing on offer is a switch that sets the sensitivity of right and left mouse-buttons - a great touch for those with a... well, light touch.

There's top, side and bottom lighting as well, and as it's powered by three LEDs, you can set millions of colours. You can even tie it into in-game warnings, such as changing colour as you ramp up actions-per-minute, or to flash red when your base is under attack.

The Marauder keyboard shares a similar lighting set-up, and features a very new look and feel for Razer keyboards. The membrane-based key mechanism is much lighter than other Razer models, and the angular design mimics the ethos of the Starcraft game. It's got on the fly macro-programming, and the ability to switch on a 'game mode' that disables the Windows key.

It's also got a very narrow footprint, but still features a full-size keyboard. The key response is nice enough to make this a good choice for any game, with a deep travel for good key feedback, and it certainly feels better than any Razer keyboard before it. As an added bonus, there's only one driver for all the SCII peripherals - handy.

The Banshee headset's still bit of a mystery. It looks the part, but we're waiting on more hands-on testing before we make a final verdict. It is very sturdy, however, and comfy to wear, with a removable mic boom.