Gaming is a competitive sport, and every serious gamer needs every advantage they can get. Anyone who wants to be the best needs an edge. Apart from requiring the best satellite internet for gaming, a fibre optic or a cable connection, there’s always a gaming peripheral to boost the skills of every serious gamer to get over the top.

Tech is a competitive market, and knowing what to buy to optimise your performance is hard. You need to figure out what will best suit your play style, your choice of game and the edge you need because everyone else is going for one.

So here are some of the best gaming devices, and what exactly they’re good for.

Best Gaming Devices You Must Try Out

Wireless Gaming Mouse

My Recommendation. Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum

Do I really need to tell you that a high performance wireless gaming mouse is a good idea for you? It’s the first weapon in any gamer’s arsenal. A highly responsive, customisable and comfortable mouse is a must if you want to boost your reaction speed and work with your personal sense of timing and play style. Playing comfortably and at your speed is essential.

Even the smallest boost in exact accuracy, speed and comfort will buy you that extra few seconds for the essential headshot.

PcMag recommends the Logitech Proteus Spectrum because everything about it is adjustable. Don’t like the button configuration? Change it. Don’t like how the buttons are mapped? Rearrange them, don’t’ like the feeling in your hand? You can even add or remove weights to keep you at your optimum speed.

It’s one of the best gaming devices on the market, and it’s about half the price as any other mouse with the same performance. The spectrum can also be tuned to any surface, so you don’t have to worry about where you’re playing.

Racing Wheel

My Recommendation. Thrustmaster T300 RS

There are many gaming devices, but a racing wheel is a must-have for any racing gamer worth the name. Trying to race with a controller is a complete waste of time if your opponent is using a real racing wheel. They deliver a more realistic experience, makes the game more fun and lets you put your real-life driving skills to the test as a racing gamer.

If you’ve never felt a force feedback wheel you don’t know how steering in a racing game really works. If you’re wondering how the guy in front of you could make that turn? It’s because he had the better gear.

The Thrustmaster is one of the best racing wheel out there. It’s responsive, has a full range of rotation and a force feedback that lets you know when your turning is off, when your back end is losing grip and other details you’re going to need if you want to win.

It’s also perfectly mapped and optimised for the PS4. It also works for the PC and you don’t need to fear the early adopter issues, as force feedback heels hold value and functionality for a long time.

Gaming Pedal

My recommendation. Fanatec ClubSport V2

Mixing and matching is the priority when it comes to gaming, brand loyalty is for newbies and the real gamer knows you use whatever you have to, in order to get the edge. For a racer who is used to driving a car, and needs to manage their speed this will do that, and give a realistic feel to racing.

Not only will this boost your reactions to keep you ahead, it will also give you a more immersive experience, letting you feel like a real racer. Sure, some wheels may come with a pedal of their own, but it’s likely to be a piece of junk. Once again, my recommendation is going to be based on the single principle that the best gaming peripheral is the one you make just for you.

The Fanatec is intimately tweakable, allowing you to change the pressure to acceleration ratio to suit your style. That will help if you have feather touch, or lead foot problems. The brake is also of the hydraulic variety, and the clutch has a similar feel to that of a real car.

Gaming Keyboard

My recommendation Logitech G Pro Keyboard

I mean, come on. You don’t really need to know why you need a good keyboard do you? Still, there is a massive difference between a run of the mill keyboard and a top of the line gaming model. Responsiveness, comfort, reach, keyboard optimization and bindings are essential if you want to play virtually any PC game.

Having anything placed just for you, responsive to your pressure and feeling just right is such a great experience that once you’ve got your own, playing on anyone else’s is going to feel somehow wrong.

The Logitech G Pro is a compact, convenient performance device designed for esports professionals. It has a low actuation distance and low actuation force means only a light touch will recognise, and the speed of processing makes the G one of the most responsive devices on the market.

With a streamlined look, a board built just for us gamers. It also has some amazing software control, you can program your own keys, as well as the lighting schemes to give you quick visual cues, or just build the mood. Whatever you need.

Gaming Joystick

My recommendation Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog.

For the simmer community nothing is quite like the Joystick. A real simmer will quickly find that anything, but a top of the line joystick interferes with performance, speed, time, and immersion. If it doesn’t feel exactly right, a real simmer just doesn’t want it.

For the best performance and realism. If you need to feel like a real pilot, and really, what’s the point of a flight game otherwise? You’re going to need a top of the line joystick. Ideally, you want the same layout as a real jet, with the extra responsiveness and customisation that being a gamer can get you.

The reason I picked the Thrustmaster was straight up and simple, testing. The warthog has been tested among the development team, the simmer community and users around the world and come back positive.

This model, with its hefty weight, metal make and precision response this is modelled to be an exact replica of the control panel of a U.S Air Force A10-C attack aircraft. It even requires pressures identical to an actual airplane, which is a first. 

VR Headset

My Recommendation. HTC Vive

If your opponent has a VR headset for the same game and you don’t, two things are certain.

1, they’re going to be having more fun playing than you are and 2, their reactions and understanding of what’s going on are going to be better than yours.

A VR headset is one of the coolest gaming devices to have now and it allows you to be in the game, taking full advantage of such things as peripheral vision and situational awareness. Feeling like you’re really, part of the game is an experience you’ll find it difficult to come back from once you’ve started.

The HTC Vive is designed to give you a complete and total immersion experience. It combines existing desktop VR with room-scale motion. This gives you a full experience suitable for new and old players alike.

Not only are the controllers that come with it responsive, and the sense of immersion as good as it can be on the market it is also directly created by SteamVR, which makes it one of the most supported gaming peripherals. Anything steam makes, it will be making directly for the Vive.

Motion Controller

My Recommendation Razer Hydra

Motion control is another part of that immersion is a full experience, and being part of the game makes you better at it’ features. While the market has been messing around with them for years, they’ve finally reached the technological point where motion control no longer feels awkward, and makes you feel like a part of things.

By following simple movements, you can bridge the gap between playing a game’ and doing the activity you’re simulating’ allowing you to be just invested enough without actually having to go outside and learn.

The Razer Hydra is the most sensible and refined motion control system we have on the market so far, with a pair of nunchuck controllers and a magnetic orb that tracks your movement. These are motion controls designed for hard core gamers, no more messing around or restricting motion control titles to kid stuff. You can really get into the game.

Gaming Cockpit

My Recommendation. Fanatec ClubSport

If nothing but the absolute cutting edge will suit you, if you’re one of the most hardcore of racing gamers who want nothing more than to feel like part of the action and pinpoint performance in your driving games then you’re going to need a cockpit. With emplacements for your wheel, your pedals and any other gear you might need your gaming cockpit will put you right into the experience.

Providing easy, high quality mounts that you can adjust to put yourself in the action and give yourself the edge in comfort and responsiveness that can only come with having the right gear. The Fanatec ClubSport cockpit is an easily adjustable, customizable and compatible device that will allow you to entirely immerse yourself in the roll of the driver, playing in the comfort of knowing that your exact setup is provided for.

Gaming from the exact right position, with the optimum setup for you will let you play your way. Double your performance with the optimum equipment and watch your lap times drop like a rock.

Mechanical Switch Gaming Keypad

My Recommendation. Razer Orbweaver Chroma

A gaming keypad is designed for optimum comfort and streamlining in your playstyle. It’s built for the kind of games and gamers for which every second is key. For the kind of titles and matches where every nanosecond is key, and you don’t have time to reach or even think. Split second command speed and complete understanding of your control scheme will get you what you need, after all, this will be a control scheme mapped out by you, for you.

The extra frames it saves can be the difference between a win and a loss when it comes to esports, and the line between the hardcore and the truly hardcore is getting slimmer by the day. A keypad might be just what you need to get you to that next level.

So, when you feel like getting serious about your equipment, take a look. With the ultimate in comfort and customization, the Razer Orbweaver Chroma is the only real recommendation for a keypad. With the razer’s full range of programmable commands, profile options, hand palm and thumb rests to allow maximum comfort. You can customize every detail of how you play. The Razer Synapse system is the latest in keypad tech, allowing infinite customization. You can play with your exact layout, no matter which game you pick up. Also, it looks cool.

Gaming Projector

My Recommendation. BenQ HT2150ST

It’s a whole new world for gamers, and we are no longer limited by our screens. Ever wanted to play Overwatch on a movie screen? Well we’ve got that for you right here. With high-fidelity graphic technology, you can get the exact same picture quality from this as you can from a screen, only much bigger.

With surround sound and optimization, you can surround yourself with the sights and sounds of whatever you’re playing and as I’ve said, nothing builds skills quite like immersion.

Gaming projectors are a device for the type of gamer who doesn’t view games a part of life, but a way of life. And for the rest of you? Ever wanted to see that killstreak when the enemies are the size of real people? With the BenQ HT215OST you can lock yourself in and go for it. With low fan noise, minimal input lag and amazing image fidelity you can ensure yourself the best experience possible.

You don’t have to hang it from a special frame or anything, put it on a coffee table or portable stand and play from behind it. Full native 1080p resolution will give you a total spectacle experience. With a variety of game modes, you can run through and find what experience is best for you. A gaming projector is definitely one of the coolest gaming devices for hardcore gamers.

Conclusion

You can build your abilities only so far without the right equipment. With everything in place, you can optimise your experience, build your skills, be better and feel better. Whether you want spectacle or immersion, responsiveness or customization, choosing the right gaming device for your play style is the only way to get ahead.