The Importance of a Good Headset

Like it or not Gaming is competitive, and looks set to become an even bigger stage for waging war between fellow Gamers with pride, glory and now even large sums of cash all on the line! Competition in terms of gaming has come along way from being solely about setting the high scores in Space Invaders or Time Crisis down in the local arcade. Now we have gamers constantly thrash talking to each other in lobbies about how they just ‘pwned your ass’ and leader-boards in games are contested down to almost every waking second of free time with the top gamers having racked in unimaginable amounts of hours in their favourite games. That however isn’t even the height of how competitive gaming has become, it has evolved beyond clans waging wars of attrition in forums and games, it has now become an electronic sport of sorts. Just look at the likes of Major League Gaming, single gamers or groups are now even getting sponsorship deals from gaming icons such as Razor, just his year Edge and Virgin Gaming announced a huge Killzone 3 3v3 Tournament with a staggering $40,000 up for grabs! With more of these competitions being held solely online, now is the time, if your serious, about getting a leg up on the competition.

The Competition, It is Fierce...

Gaining the Edge

Serious Stuff!

Now onto the real purpose of this article, the importance of a good headset and how it will help you get a leg up on your fellow gamers. Now like all competitions, people always try to get a hands-up on their competitors, gaming in this aspect is no different, however cheaters should be shunned (i.e Auto-fire controllers, hackers, glitchers etc…)! Now in terms of PC gaming the advantage that one gamer can hold is huge from the performance of their machine, to their monitor, mouse, keyboard and their sound set-up, all can be modified to your heart’s content and your wallets. However I don’t have a great deal of experience with online gamer bar the occasional bout of Team Fortress 2, so I shall stick to the more straight-forward console gaming, which I am more familiar with.

Fortunately console gaming is a much fairer platform to play on, everyone essentially has the same basic machine whether it be PS3 or 360 (Wii Doesn’t count for obvious reasons). The majority of people also have HD T.V’s to play them on, and with little visual advantages between different T.V’s this isn’t a real problem. The main area where gamers can take advantage on consoles is sound. Now the speakers of most telly’s are adequate, Surround sound systems are about are the next step up, but if you want the best advantage a good quality Gaming Headset is the best way. And when I say headset I don’t mean a little Blue tooth dongle that only carries your voice, I mean a proper one, that takes all the sound direct from your console to your ears and vice-versa with your own voice, something like these bad boys.

The Advantages

Headsets offer several advantages over sound systems, one is that sweet FA exterior noise can be heard, this leads to less distracting noises such as flat mates music or animals outside creating a choir of confusion, fewer distractions allow more focus to be allocated to the task at hand whether it be pillaging cities or conquering land. Another is that all the sound is focused solely towards your ears, so essentially no interference can be heard, this also allows the smaller details in sound to be heard such as footsteps of enemy players and trust me, from my own experience this is a virtual life saver! The sound quality is pretty immense, everything sounds better with a good headset on, there also great for just sitting back and listening to some Epic Explosions or some great music scores. Adjustable controls are another great aspect, with a flick of your thumb being able to reduce the game volume, to heighten the sound of your teammates frustration or to simply mute yourself if anyone walks in for a chat. A good headset will be able to be used on most consoles and your PC, hell if their in close proximity to each other there are enough wires supplied with most to connect to all simultaneously and there’s usually a switch that allows the connection to be transferred from console to PC and vice-versa without changing any wires around. The Mic quality is also a key component of any good headset, most mic pieces are adjustable and can be taken out with ease too. In those down times when you’re not playing games you can use your headset to listen to music on your PC/Laptop, the sound quality is still top-notch too! And lets face it, most headsets just look awesome.

Personal Experience

Now I wouldn’t be able to write or justify this article if I hadn’t my own headset to base my opinions on. The headset I’m currently using is a Tritton AX 180,  an analog stereo headset, and is considered a low-end headset,  even though it set me back €70. Even with it considered a budget headset, I think its brilliant. All the advantages listed above, have I experienced them all? Hell Yeah, playing Battlefield:BC2 with them on is immense, the sound of the building your holed up in being torn to shreds by enemy tanks or the clinking sound heard after getting a direct headshot, it simply puts shame to the sound coming from the Bravia to shame and lets not forget the sound of footsteps, it’s saved my ass on numerous occasions from people trying to shank me, that extra second or two is all you need! The Build quality is great, it’s all leather padded so its  very comfortable and even after long gaming sessions they begin to feel like an extension of my head rather than a pain in the ass. Its one of few headsets that boasts the ability of being a universal headset, allowing it to be connected to all home consoles. They’ve stood me well so far, my KD ratio has risen in both BF:BC2 and KZ3 and once again being able to torture my fellow gamers with my unwarranted frustration and tactical advice is great. They are also great for blocking out noise, people literally have to stand beside me and shout for me to even take notice of them, and they double up as great replacements for my speaker set on my laptop and the music sounds all the better for it. One of my best purchases this year, Hands Down!

Now while Headsets are largely great pieces of kit they do have some small disadvantages. They are expensive, even my headset which is considered a low-end set cost €70, the high-end models can be in the midst of €300, depending on whether you want stereo, 5.1 or even 7.1 digital sound

Hardcore!

to adorn your ears, wireless connections are also an option. They require a power source, so most will always occupy a USB port, the higher end models often need a wall socket all to themselves. Most headsets are a maze of wires, not that I’ve had a real problem with it, but it may be an annoyance and unsightly for some. These are small annoyances more than anything else, for me the advantages outweigh the disadvantages by a considerable margin.

So do you need one?

Well the answer is completely down to you. You need to see  how competitive you are in terms of gaming and how much you care about the quality of sound you’re getting from your games, films and music, but a home theater set is an option for the sound. Do I recommend purchasing a headset? Yes, hell if you’re as keen on gaming as I am, then I insist you buy one. My original Sony head-piece broke and I decided to take the jump to the next level and I haven’t looked back since, hopefully my Trittons last a long time, then I may even step up to the higher end, permitting funds of course. So Yeah, if you want one or are on the fence about buying one, just go for it, you wont regret it.

And this is it, hopefully this has helped some of you out there and I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading it. One day we shall all bask in our headset assisted victories together as Brothers!

Forward to Glory Brothers!

Posted by Conor for Zomg How

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