Turtle Beach Ear Force Z2 - First Impressions

I have to say, this seems like a pretty high quality piece of technology. The durability seems higher than some other others I've used, and the comfort is definitely much higher (although the 'over the ear' design does make my head get kinda hot, haha). The sound quality is better than the $80 TRITTON headset I bought (the AX 180), and considering these are $50 on Amazon and Newegg, I'd say that's a pretty nice perk.

The only problem is, there is no separate volume dial for the game sound and voice sound. Instead, they're just controlled by one general dial. Now, that isn't so bad when the game lets you turn down the volume in the options, but in the case of Halo: Reach which doesn't have that ability, it's pretty damn hard to hear people.

I have yet to figure out how to make it so that the voice sound goes to the headset while the game sound goes to my surround sound, but that would fix the issue. That is what that blasted AX 180 headset did, and yet I don't think its possible with the Z2, sadly. So I might just sell it off to my brother, who needs a headset for more than just voices, as he has no sound system.

Still, all in all, I recommend this headset. It gets my seal of approval.

Halo: Reach - First Impressions

So, Halo: Reach finally came in the mail a couple days ago. I've been playing nothing but the multiplayer as I'm waiting for my brother to get his copy of the game so we can co-op it up in Firefight and the Campaign, but I'm still quite enjoying myself. There are clearly many people who have been playing Halo since the beginning, and I've gotten my ass stomped every now and then as evidence of that. But all in all, I think I'm lucky to have this as my first real Halo experience, as it seems to be the most polished and all around content-heavy of all the games. I am content.

Though it's a bumpy transition between Modern Warfare/Battlefield and Reach. I still keep trying to melee with R3, hurr.

And as a side note, if anyone knows of a weapon locations guide/video, do share. I'm starting to memorize the locations, but a little help would be appreciated. ;P

Recommendation: Demon's Souls (Game)

I love this game. I love it so much that from the day that I bought it I racked up 60 hours of game time in only 6 days. Yep, 10 hours a day. The combat is weighted and visceral, the atmosphere is dark, and the entire experience is as unforgiving as a 'current gen' title comes. If you own a PS3, and aren't a total pansy, you owe it to yourself to check this game out.

Monday Night Lagfest

So, bearing in mind that MNC probably just lost a huge amount of its playerbase thanks to Halo: Reach, I figured I'd throw one more MNC-related blog post out there before its dead. Now, don't get me wrong, I love MNC and have spent a huge amount of time playing it, but man, there are some things in that game that really grind my gears. And I shall now commence bitching about said things--with bulletpoints!

• Lag - As you could tell from the title, I've been dealing with some rather significant latency issues as of late. I'm talking Modern Warfare 2 kind of crappy server lag, and believe me, that's bad.
  
  
• Gunners - Oh-ho, you knew this one was coming. I mean, Gunners aren't unstoppable or anything, I actually quite like making them my target as an Assault since they're so easy to it. But really, let's be honest, all you need is that minigun and your Passive and you're capable of destroying practically everything. Care to tell me what the Gunner's counter is? ...Yeah, think hard on it.
  
  
• Cheaters - From flying to the top of the arena and shooting down at people, to speed-glitching as an Assassin, I'm pretty freakin' tired of this crap.
  
  
• Overtime, And Juice In General - I think we can all agree on this one: juice is too easy to come by, and overtime is a terrible idea. It's like, "Oh hey, you've been trading blows pretty evenly for awhile now, so let's just flip a f***ing coin to decide the winner."
  

i mad

Halo: Reach + Headset = Yay!

OK so, I don't actually have Halo: Reach yet. Infact, it'll probably be a week or two before I get it (damn you Walmart shipping). But I did indeed decide to buy it. Might not seem like a big deal for most, as everyone and their dog is a fan of Halo, but truthfully, this will be my first real Halo experience. I've played the first and the second games, but only after they were way outdated, and never online. Reach will be my introduction to the competitive online play of Halo.

Though I really was unsure as to whether it was worth $60 or not. But the pre-order perk on the Walmart website (as well as Amazon) is a $20 credit, which I can trade someone for actual cash. That plus the pre-order bonus item which I will sell on Ebay for what I estimate to be maybe $10-$15, and I've managed to nab myself a brand new game for about $30, which is exactly what I did with Red Dead Redemption. Yay for being a cheap bastard! 8]

Oh yeah, and I also went ahead and got that headset I was talking about. I'll let you guys know what I think about it. Hopefully Turtle Beach is a little more trustworthy than those TRITTON sonsabitches.

Kinect: It Only Does Nothing

Those of you who keep up with gaming news should know what I'm talking about here, but doesn't it seem like the Kinect is getting more and more hopeless as we learn more about it? I just read recently that there won't be any games that utilize the nifty 'item scanning' feature, at least not anytime soon. Then there's the fact that only a handful of countries' dialects will be recognized by the speech recognition (English, Spanish, and Japanese). Oh yeah, and did I mention that it's quite possible it won't work for people who are sitting down? Yeah... that'll go over real well.

All of this topped onto the fact that most gamers were pretty critical of the device to begin with. It'd be one thing if there were some truly good games coming along with it, but so far all we've seen are Wii Sports knockoffs.

I'm calling it now: it'll be reduced to $50 within the first 5 months.

The Cable Dilema

So after calling numerous stores I have found out that practically the only place to get Turtle Beach's "Talkback Cable" is on the Turtle Beach website. Figuring out that it was simply a 2.5mm Male to 2.5mm Male audio cable, I figured if I called around about that I would surely find what I'm looking for. That was a no-go.

I'm actually quite surprised. Here I thought there was a cable for everything! But apparently you need an adapter, which brings the price above what I'd have to pay if I just bought it from Turtle Beach.


TLDR: If anyone knows of a place to buy a 2.5mm Male to 2.5mm Male audio cable for less than $15 shipped, do let me know!

Possible New Headset: Turtle Beach Ear Force Z2

Whew. That was a mouthful.

So I think I may of found the headset I am looking for. The Ear Force Z2 by Turtle Beach seems to have everything I need: compatability with both the PC and 360; the lack of a static sound during silence (which is something nearly every Turtle Beach headset has, sadly); a price tag of $50 on Newegg. Yep, can't go wrong!

... But just incase, I'll be buying the extended 1-year warranty, too. :P

The only thing that bothers me is that in order to get it to work with the 360 I'll have to buy an optional cable from Turtle Beach's website. It might only be $5, but the shipping is $10... damn them. Looks like I'll be calling up some Best Buys and seeing if I can get it in-store.