A couple of months ago one of our readers emailed me and asked about high end gaming audio headsets. He mentioned that most gamers don’t have the opportunity to try most of the products used on the Pro Gaming tours, and most don’t even have a presence in mainstream retail. He asked about a specific product, the Tritton AX Pro, and if I could perhaps do a head to head review comparing it to the Astro A40. Well, here at GN, we aim to please.

Between wedding planning and now preparing for a mid-summer move to the east coast, I’ve been a little behind, but aside from my BlackBerry, the AX Pro is probably the thing I’ve used the most the past few days. For me, stress requires gaming, music, or both. And what could be better than a Dolby Digital Surround Sound headset to cover both of those needs?

 

This is just my first impressions, and I’m saving most of my head to head comparisons to the other headsets I’ve reviewed for the final review, but I do some high and low points I want to cover in basic.

 

First, the construction and form factor. The AX Pro is really light, but at the same time is built solidly. In fact, of the high end headsets I’ve reviewed (and I think I’ve covered them all now), this one is easily the sturdiest. It even looks more rugged than the others.

 

The cords are thick but not obnoxiously so, and even with a lot of options (which I’ll leave the details of to the review), the headset and decoder are easy to assemble, configure and attach to PC, 360, and even my iPod (for grins).

 

One of the cool features I like that the integrated volume control on the headphone cord uses color LED backlighting  to display the relative volume level of each pair of drivers. This is particularly awesome in the dark and matches nicely with my Saitek Cyborg keyboard.

 

And those drivers…. The sound from this thing is REALLY FREAKING GOOD. It’s sometimes difficult when you’re playing a game, or listening to music to really tell the difference between one headset and the next. But for units like the A40 or the AX Pro, it’s obvious they are heads and shoulders above most headsets in the marketplace. Left 4 Dead in particular took advantage of the surround sound.

 

The two negatives I have so far are in regards to configuration. The first is that the unit requires 2 power adapters to use the headset and the decoder box. In the age of green technologies and high energy costs, this is not something I would have expected.  Second, it doesn’t have a battery option for the decoder. Other units may eat the batteries for breakfast, but I’ve found this feature to be very useful, as you can just unplug without untangling from the headset.

I’ve spent the better part of this past weekend running Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II through its paces, and so far I’m liking what I’ve seen. For the most part, I’ve been focusing on the single-player aspect of the game, which is much more RPG-like than I was expecting. It’s a pleasant surprise, and Relic seems to be doing things right, since I’m having a blast working my way through it. I’m much more of a single-player kind of guy when it comes to RTS games, so it’s refreshing when developers put more than just an afterthought toward this half of their games.

In the campaign, players control a small group of Space Marine hero units, supported by their accompanying squads. There are no bases to build or defend, no techs to research, and no resources to gather. It’s pretty much just an RPG with RTS trappings. Heroes gain experience and undergo a basic level-up stat and ability boost, allowing players to tailor their squads in various ways. Equipment drops, both random and scripted, allow for further hero development and some replayability in the campaign. A semi-branching storyline also makes for some interesting choices.

Gameplay is smooth and solid. Controlling the small number of units was quite simple, even later in the campaign when each hero sports several different powers and abilities. Pathfinding seems solid thus far, although without a base to worry about I hardly ever stopped babysitting my units. The game looks great, and captures Warhammer 40,000’s gritty feel extremely well. Overall I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen. I’ll finish the campaign soon and give the skirmishes a whirl, and hopefully have a full review shortly.

I was perusing a few movie sites and saw that the action figures for the new GI Joe movie has been shown. Now, here we have two pictures of what the new Cobra figures look like.

 

 

Gee, where have I seen something like this before? I can't put my finger on it... Let me think for a sec.. Maybe...