Live Life on the Razer's Edge

For anyone who has ever dabbled in the PC gaming scene, unless you have stuck to the likes of 'My Little Pony' or indeed 'My Little Pony 2' you would have heard of a company called 'Razer'.


They pride themselves in making high end gaming peripherals for the everyday gamer and professional alike. Their Mices, Mats, Keyboards and Headsets have always been given high reviews from critics and gamers and now Razer have taken a leap of faith and gone where no man has gone before...apart from maybe every other gaming company out there. Razer are going CONSOLE.


Razer are releasing an Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 compatible 5.1 surround headset and an XBOX 360 controller this month. Now, as I see it, their only real competition in the headset arena are from these two well known companies:

Turtle Beach

PX5's (May release)

I actually own the Turtle Beach X41's and a couple of my gaming buddies own the X11's and we love them, sad as it may be, we wonder how we ever gamed without them. The sound clarity is excellent, you can easily pinpoint enemy gunfire or footsteps from any direction. The clarity of voice over Xbox Live is again, very good, especially when the sound of gameplay and voice auto changes to hear both at the same time (a feature I believe the Razer headset does not). A fundamental part of any good gaming headset, is not the sound quality, or build quality or what funky new features the headset has, no, the most important part of ANY headset for me personally, is the comfort factor. Any gamer has I'm sure had a 5-6 hour gaming session, now, imagine gaming for 6 hours using a uncomfy headset - not good. The Turtle Beach headset is light but still feels like a quality product to hold and the ear cups material is a 'mesh' type fabric which allows your ears to breathe and also stops the user from sweating. Turtle Beach knows how to make a good solid product for casual and professional gamers alike.

Tritton

AX PRO's (Out Now)

Now, the Tritton headset has been around since 2008 and is still regarded as a high end 5.1 gaming headset for console (Apart from Wii) and PC. That in itself is a good indicator in showing this is a good quality product as we all know how quick technology moves on, whereas with this Tritton headset, we are 3 years on and its still being compared to the new boys on the block.

Unlike the Turtle Beach headset, the Tritton is not plug and play and requires some setup, this can be seen as a good thing or, as I have found, more of an annoyance - It goes a bit too far in terms of configuration. In terms of sound quality and build quality, it is very much on par with the Turtle Beach headset and another high end gaming headset on the market right now. The only thing that lets it down for me and quite a few people I know agree with me, is the weight of the headset, after only 1hr of gaming, I took a break as I was getting neck ache. Overall, however, this easily holds it own with other headsets on the market.

Now, onto what this post is about...

The Razer Chimaera 5.1 Wireless Gaming Headset for Xbox 360 gives you a true-to-life surround sound experience. Building on their extensive gaming audio expertise from PC gaming, this wireless headset offers pinpoint tournament grade 5.1 positional audio with extra large circumaural ear cups for maximum comfort.

Clearly, the proof will be is the Razer pudding, but this headset is looking to come out fighting and if its anything like its PC brothers, I no doubt believe this will do extremely well.

The next product Razer are releasing in the Razer ONZA, which is exclusively for XBOX 360. If the controller is anything like the mice Razer produce, Microsoft are in trouble...
 

"Resistance is Futile, especially with adjustable analogue sticks"

From looking at the ONZA, there really is no difference to a normal XBOX Controller (that is not a bad thing!) What really makes this stand out from the Microsoft crowd is the adjustable analogue sticks, super sensitive 'action buttons' (A, B, X and Y) and (and this will really get the PC gamers mouths watering, Razer have added two extra buttons below the shoulder buttons that are programmable - at least now we will know why 'L33t247' on COD can outgun me with only a knife and a bootlace!

You can see on the artwork below the buttons which gamers can programme with macros to give them the extra edge on the battlefield - hell, they may even give you an advantage in 'Plants Vs Zombies'

 The only point I will say - and this is very much a personal view, is that the controller is wireless, now, if you are like me, you hate wires and much like with my Turtle Beach's I spent an extra £60 over the standard version just to get away from wires. We live in the 21st century and really the argument that wired controllers are better due to having a 'wire' is really a mute point, especially with the 5.8Ghz controllers and mice out there now.

 The Razer ONZA comes in three flavours, Casual, Tournament and the 'Dragon Age II Tournament edition (literally, the only different is the aesthetics)

Personally, Razer are not a company who do 'Casual' so to release a casual version seems ironic. If I was to buy one of these little gems, I would certainly by one of the Tournament variants.

The controller is released in March and much like its headset cousin, time will tell as to whether this cuts the mustard in the console world.

If I know Razer, using either one of these accessories will be a pleasurable experience that you will not want to end.

Up to four base stations can be connected to create a lag-free, crystal clear voice channel for dedicated team conversations - this will certainly help with lag when your team need crisp precise orders when in the heat of pixel battle.