I bet you've never seen an image of armed dudes running around explosions. You're welcome.

Developer CCP has begun accepting registrations for the beta of their upcoming free to play Playstation 3 shooter, Dust 514.

You can register here.

Dust 514 is supposed to let console players fight one another on planets in deep space at the same time that PC players fight, mine, and go about their merry spacey way in EVE Online.

Yes, EVE Online is the crazy persistent online space MMO. How crazy? Well, the game involves player-run corporations with their own deep space mining operations. It’s also worth mentioning that there are some players who are space pirates; oh, and that a group of players began organizing themselves in April 2012 to crash the in-game economy by attacking the economical nerve centre of the galaxy.

The beta will already be under way this week for “select players” of EVE Online and attendees of March 2012′s EVE Fanfest in Iceland, according  to developer CCP.

Check back on Vagary.TV on the week of June 3, 2012, when we’ll have more on Dust 514 when we see it at E3.

Quick Attacks are Vagary.TV’s way of giving you, the reader, a glimpse at a game we are playing. This could be a game we are reviewing in full or just something we picked up for a few days to kill some time but, either way, it will highlight thoughts and impressions from the first hour or two of gameplay. 

In this Quick Attack, we take a look at Awesomenauts for Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

• Awesomenauts, like League of Legends, DOTA, and Demigod before it, is a multiplayer online battle arena game. A what now? Yeah, don’t worry about it. What that means is that you ,some human controlled buddies, and some computer controlled tiny dudes (creeps) have to shoot and blast your way through enemy turrets and a similar troop assortment to destroy the enemy base. Watch the video above for a better idea!
• The six characters are spread out across different specialities and are all extremely well balanced
• The in game currency system is smart. Kills, assists, and healing your buddies gives you money to use on powerful upgrades that change the way your character plays in meaningful ways: One upgrade turns the amphibian brawler Froggy G’s tornado move into a damage reflecting attack that’s great for attacking turrets, while another turns support sniper Yuri’s slow aura into a healing spell for allies. The currency system works both ways, so trying to avoid feeding the enemy money with careless deaths creates a lot of tension and strategic risk vs. reward decisions.
• The two to three player splitscreen online and offline is incredibly easy to set up, even in tandem with friend invites. Unfortunately, there are occasional drops in frame-rate during spawn animations when splitscreen is used.
• The art style is vibrant and visually interesting while making it easy to tell what’s going on in even the most frantic of situations. During our preview at E3 2011, the developers said that much of the art was Bucky O’Hare inspired and it really shows.
• A real-time ping counter on the scoreboard gives you an idea of the connection quality of the match, and host migration works well for the most part. Both of these features are sorely lacking in many online games today, so Kudos to developer Ronimo games for getting it right.

Diablo III is finally here and per the usual Blizzard standards it comes with a superb Collector’s Edition. While you wait for the servers to clear up and let you play, take a look at what goodies come packed inside their giant sized CE.

Please excuse the photo quality, they were taken on an old iPhone. 

Fresh from Amazon, the box itself.

Diablo makes his presence felt once the lid comes off.

Small box inside the box. I wonder what could be inside...

Diablo statue with USB Soulstone containing Diablo II and its expansion.

Diablo assembled. My wife is not happy with its placement in our house... my dresser

Soundtrack CD, Behind the Scenes DVD & Blu-Ray, and a bunch of guest passes.

What we came for, the game itself.

Diablo III artbook.

A look inside the artbook.

Now if you will excuse me, it is time to kill some demons. Look for a Quick Attack on the game followed by a review in the very near future.

Quick Attacks are Vagary.TV’s way of giving you, the reader, a glimpse at a game we are playing. This could be a game we are reviewing in full or just something we picked up for a few days to kill some time but either way it will highlight thoughts and impressions from the first hour or two of gameplay. Opinions could change before our final though.

In this Quick Attack, we look at the first few hours of Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition for the Xbox 360.

• Minecraft gives you the option of playing a tutorial and learning the basics of the game or diving right in. Being as I had no clue what I was doing, I took the tutorial option and was quite glad I did. Minecraft can be quite daunting even when knowing how to “play” it but the tutorial at least gives you the basic knowledge you need to survive, including how to navigate the interface.
• Once the tutorial is done, the game lets you continue playing right from the tutorial world. While I messed around a bit with the prefabricated village outside the starting area, I quickly left to create my own world where I would have to create everything.
• What I quickly found out was that Minecraft can be quite brutal. The early game is all about gathering as many materials as you can and creating a shelter before nightfall. I’ll admit I had more than a little trouble early on. Despite having played the tutorial I was still overwhelmed during my first couple attempts. I could not seem to get it together enough to be ready for nightfall and when it gets dark it gets very dark.
• Night is best described as the most game-like part of the game. When darkness comes, so do enemies and it creates an atmosphere reminiscent to the best survival horror games. There is no purpose to the game other than to survive and being unprepared for darkness is a sure fire way to get yourself killed. I know I did multiple times.
• After resetting my world multiple times, I finally got the hang of things and was able to create a solid shelter (of Sandstone), which I have continued to upgrade. I now have furnished the inside with a bed, a chest and my crafting tables as well as have put in a nice wooden deck to the beach and a fenced in garden off the side. There is a great sense of accomplishment when you get your first structure built and now I have the itch to build bigger and better things.
• Once I started surviving the nights I was able to begin the other main aspect of Minecraft, exploration. Minecraft on Xbox 360 is a 1000 X 1000 grid which is immensely large. I have a lot of water in my world and have had to build a boat and go cruising to explore the other islands. The boat controls leave a lot to be desired but still I’ve found myself enjoying my daily exploring excursions.
• I’ve yet to create an actual mine, the idea is somewhat daunting but I know if I want to get the best experience out of the game I am going to have to go underground.
• I’ve also yet to play with anyone else and while multiplayer is obviously a big selling point for the game, and I want to try it out, I have not felt that I’ve been missing anything by not playing with others.

Minecraft is fun but there isn’t much game there and even less direction. It will appeal to players that enjoy being given a sandbox and the tools to play in it, those preferring a more directed experience will want to stay clear. Look for our full review from Tony Odett in the near future.

Eastern Europe has long been known as a hotbed for high creativity mixed with awkward execution. While games like The Witcher 2 have proven that highly polished product can come out of the old communist bloc, most games are still amongst the wonkiest released to retail. So, going into Risen 2: Dark Waters, I knew exactly what to expect and it mostly hits those expectations, but it also has a surprising amount of natural charm that gives clemency to a lot of the nagging issues at play.

Risen 2: Dark Waters is a follow up to developer Piranha Bytes tepidly received roleplaying game, Risen. Having not played Risen, I cannot tell if the story of Dark Waters directly follows the events of the original or not. Regardless it seems that those events are mostly inconsequential as Dark Waters takes the series out of the stock fantasy realm the original was based in, instead taking pirates as the theme. As such, with so many games where players fight generic fantasy monsters, Risen 2 is a breath of fresh air.

Players will take on the role of the nameless hero as he sets out to infiltrate the world of the pirates on a mission to track down the whereabouts of a legendary weapon. Unlike many Western styled roleplaying games, the main quest in Risen 2 is actually well thought out and thoroughly engaging and there is surprisingly some very solid writing with excellent characters in the game.

It is the story, characters and the ability to live out the life of a pirate that define Risen 2 and make it worth playing. Unfortunately, the game takes its sweet time showing these things to players, instead choosing to put its worst foot forward with a sluggishly paced opening and a tutorial area that highlights the worst aspects of the gameplay and progression system.

It seems to be a calling card of games developed in Eastern Europe to make their players suffer before getting any enjoyment out of their products. Risen 2 follows suit and during an extra-long training session, masquerading as a prologue, Risen 2 forces players to do tiresome fetch quests, complete multi-tiered quest lines with no direction, navigate an atrociously designed map, and fight monsters that cannot be defended against. While some of these things are part and parcel with roleplaying games, they generally do not show themselves in the opening act when the game is trying to hook players with a reason to keep playing. And the biggest of these issues is something you will do throughout the game, combat.

Combat in Risen 2 is designed around three different disciplines, sword fighting, gunplay, and voodoo. The default system available is sword fighting and it has major design issues that hinder it from being an all-around effective choice for battle. The biggest issue is that unless combat is against human characters, the intricate defense/parry system is useless. This makes all fights against wildlife and monsters troublesome even on lower difficulty levels. It can be highly frustrating dying repeatedly at the hands of a fire-breathing chicken because it has un-blockable attacks. And it is even more frustrating when you realize that you were mistakenly on the wrong side of an island when it happens.

Navigation in Risen 2 is troublesome to say the least. In all my time with the game I was never able to get the quest marker system to work properly with the map and without a waypoint to aim for there is a lot of aimless wandering. I will fully admit that maybe I missed the instructions for how to utilize the map but even so, it is not intuitive.

Worst of all the awkward design decisions though might be the progression system. Leveling revolves around two things, glory points (experience points) and gold. Glory points, awarded for doing just about everything in the game world, can be used to buy levels in the game’s core proficiencies like sword fighting or gunplay but each proficiency has skills that can also be leveled up. However, all this sub leveling is done through meeting trainers in the game world and paying them large amounts of gold to train these skills. Being as gold is hard to come by for over half of the game, leveling can be somewhat of a chore.

As someone that generally gets turned off by a noticeable lack of polish, sticking with Risen, despite its issues, rewarded me with a very unique gaming experience and a charming story that captivated me and made me want to continue playing. The fact that it is noticeably different in setting from every other roleplaying game out there also helps it quite a bit. In the end though, these issues may not be enough for some players to overcome but that is alright, Risen 2 is after all a janky game and will not be for everyone. If you are however, in the mood for sailing the high seas with a bottle of rum, this game will scratch your itch quite well.

Pros

• Engaging main quest
• Solid writing
• Charming story and characters

Cons

• Combat is unbalanced
• Navigation can be a chore
• Progression is frustrating
• Weird animation issues and clipping problems

3 / 5

Once upon a time, I took part in a sacred video game tradition: the midnight release.  I was young and able to stay awake.  Nowadays, I’m lucky if I’m up past 10 o’clock at night.  It’s actually kind of sad.  What makes the midnight release so cool?  Why would anyone want to stay up so late just for a video game?

Midnight releases evoke a certain excitement that doesn’t exist when you waltz into a GameStop at 10 in the morning, and are judged for not having a real job by the soccer mom going into the Old Navy next door.  There is a nervous anticipation in the air as people shuffle about in line, watching the clock tick down to that mystical minute after midnight.  And trust me when I say that minute is taken very seriously.  There will be no sale until those 60 seconds are up.  The buzz in the air is palpable.  Some places even have activities or giveaways for the faithful gamers.

The crowd that midnight releases draw is of a totally different caliber as well.  There isn’t the occasional group of kids or that one fool who acts like he knows what he’s talking about but just sounds foolish when he’s vomiting false information.  You know the one I’m talking about.  He struts in with his nose in the air, goes up to the counter, starts talking to the GameStop employee and asks for “that new Madden game.”  Then he turns to you and tells you all about how he’s excited for the new Call of Duty game that actually came out last year.  We’ve all seen this guy and it takes everything in our power not to laugh in his face.  But, I digress.  The crowd at the midnight release is made of fans, real fans.  You’ll even get the cosplayers.  These are the people who know what they buying and why they’re buying it.

I’ve tried to go to a few midnight releases recently and realized it just isn’t worth it anymore.  First, I’m already exhausted after a long day at work.  Then, I’ll get the game or system and get home.  By this time it’s half past midnight.  I have to go to work the next day. So, essentially, I’m losing sleep to get a game I won’t even be able to play.  But, that’s the price of growing up.

Getting a game at midnight is a sweet perk if you aren’t in the same situation I’m in, or if it comes out on the weekend.  There’s a certain coolness to having a game before the “normal” people who have patience.  The atmosphere, the environment, and the people make it a cool experience.  And really, who needs sleep?  We’ll sleep plenty when we’re dead, right?

Just In Bailey –an homage to the secret code from Metroid, which allowed you to play as Samus Aran without her suit– is an editorial column at Vagary.TV brought to you by Joey Alesia. What started as an alternate perspective on different parts of video games has since become a more wide-ranged look at the gaming industry from a gamer’s perspective with over 25 years of gaming knowledge and a twisted sense of humor.  Follow Joey on Twitter (@wrkngclsswrtr) or email him at Joey.Alesia@Vagary.tv.

Mature gaming is often a strong misnomer. The word “mature” is often substituted for “graphic,” “visceral” or “violent.” Actually maturity is demonstrated through portrayal of events that are adult, substantive and consequential. Mortal Kombat, for example, is often considered a mature game, but really, its simplistic nature doesn’t convey maturity so much as horrific maiming and violence.  The fact is that there are relatively few games that portray actual maturity. They attempt to imply maturity and consequence through arbitrary morality systems, glossing over and gamifying maturity. It is the classic failure you see in lesser works in many genres: showing instead of telling. And let’s face it: human beings are complex. Rare indeed is the individual who is completely saintly or utterly evil. The vast majority of human beings exist somewhere within that spectrum, yet games tend to force us towards one extreme or the other.

It is into the want of actually mature storytelling that The Witcher 2: The Assassin of Kings  steps. Sure, Geralt of Rivia will hack off limbs, cover himself in the blood of his foes, and have wild sexual escapades. But he will also exist in a real sense, a character in a complex world making decisions that vary from self-serving, self-interested to protecting the very fabric of his world. It is refreshing to see a character participating in epic events only as they relate to his own personal struggles. Geralt is not motivated to save nations out of a sense of duty. He is simply endeavoring to survive in the world, to make his way and build a life of his own. Sadly, Geralt is swept away in events beyond his control, and finds himself used as a weapon in a conflict not of his choosing. Geralt has abilities, and everyone has need of what he has to offer. He wishes peace, but is destined to be a pawn of war.

Early game will see Geralt wandering about during the sacking of a town. This is the result.

Fantastic writing and voice acting weave a first rate adventure (though the use of the amnesia trope is unfortunate- the writing here in all other areas is so good, they could have done better). The tale strikes an excellent balance between linearity and player choice. Each chapter provides significant opportunity for open world exploration, which can easily be ignored in favor of pursuing the main story. That story provides plentiful opportunity for choice as well, and those choices will guide the narrative, make enemies and friends, and significantly affect what portions of the game you play. Decision will, as they often do in real life, close off some opportunities forever, while opening other doors.

The level of maturity extends to the combat. Each encounter is a deadly event, and, much like real life, precautions must be taken prior to the event. That classic RPG mechanic of quaffing heath potions repeatedly whenever you’re in trouble won’t work here, for a couple of reasons. First, you can only take potions when you’re outside of combat situations. Secondly, each potion is, to a degree, toxic—drink too many potions, and Geralt will meet an untimely demise. Preparation also includes the harvest of the proper ingredients to make potions, and the crafting of strong armor. Searching for potion recipes and blueprints for weapons, armor, traps and bombs are key to success on the battlefield.

You have a sword for monster and one for humans. Pull the right one.

The thoughtfulness you apply to preparation extends to the combat itself. Enemies will work to surround you, striking you from multiple directions at once. Strategy, proper use of magic, well timed blocking, traps and items will get you through your battles, but take note: combat is tough. Success is built upon identifying and exploiting your opponents’ weaknesses. Assessing your situation is just as important as your ability to hit the X button with lightning speed.  Battles may be won with the casting of the right spell or the toss of the right item. Popping up the spell wheel or the items list in combat will slow down time to a crawl. It’s not a Mass Effect-style pause, but merely a slow down, given you precious time to cast a defensive sign in the nick of time or plant a throwing dagger in your opponent’s forehead. It’s an interesting stylistic choice, giving that Matrix-effect to key moments, and allowing you to experience the supernatural speed for which a witcher is known.  Though the battles are difficult (and on higher difficultly settings, a real rite of passage for the strategic gamer), the tools Geralt possesses make matchups compelling and fun, provided you are willing to truly think them through.

The Witcher 2 offers a refreshing look at the RPG genre. In an era where story driven RPGs are being pushed aside in favor of open-world experience, this effort reaches between the two and fines a happy medium. With a multitude of high fantasy games on the market, this is a unique endeavor, and one which would be appreciated by any gamer looking for a truly mature effort.  There are few true thinking man’s games available on console, games with tough, strategic combat and complex, compelling and adult content. The Witcher 2 fills that void with skill and intellect, and is a must play effort for all true fans of the RPG genre.

Huge massive creature? He's mine.

Pros

• Skillful, interesting combat
• Excellent writing, dialogue, and voice acting
• Interesting upgrade systems and crafting mechanics

Cons

• Jarringly difficult tutorial could scare off newcomers
• Not the game to play without all your wits about you

5 / 5

Let me preface this review with the fact that I am NOT a gamer. I have no idea how to use a controller with more than an A and B button, and I have almost no desire to learn. This is probably why I really enjoy the Kinect; I never have to touch a controller I can just move a around and the machine does what I want – most of the time. While I have played a variety of Kinect games with my kids I enjoy the dancing games the most. Mostly because they are easy enough for me to master and it is fun to dance around like fool with my family and friends. This brings me to the latest dance release: Country Dance All Stars.

This game was a lot of fun to play; with a variety of country hits from traditional to current popular songs there is something for everyone who enjoy country music in the slightest. Additionally, the game includes the lyrics at the bottom of the screen karaoke style, allowing for additional fun for those who enjoy sing-a-longs (The Honkytonk Badonkadonk had us in stitches). The dance moves also range from simple to complex allowing for a even the least talented dancers to have a moderate degree of success. While the game was entertaining and I had an excellent time dancing around the living room, the graphics and ease of use leave something to be desired.

When you begin playing the game it jumps right into the song menu and you can immediately begin playing, you have to access a separate menu to practice the moves included in each dance. While this seems like it might be fun it is actually a bit frustrating; having to go to a separate menu to get practice moves encourages you to skip that part so the first go round of every song is a disaster. Other dance titles have practice built into the game play and that set-up makes for much more fluid play.  There is traditional dance mode and a freeze dance mode which is interesting; the player dances along until the freeze icon appears then you need to be still or the game will deduct points from you score. We could not figure out how to master this mode but it did add an element of variety to the game.

In addition to the weird set up the controls and background graphics also present some problems. To operate the menu you have to grab an imaginary dot and move your arm up and down which as a little confusing for my children. Also once you begin operating the menu screen you cannot switch out players because it will not read the new players – imagine trying to walk a four-year old through the menu screen so she can play when she cannot read, it was frustrating to say the least.  Then there are the graphics, which are distracting, at best and downright irritating at worst. It is difficult to describe but the patterns on the clothes the dancers are wearing appear to be stationary with the outline of the dancers moving across them – it is very tough on the eyes. However, these complaints aside I would recommend this game to country music fans. If you are looking for a party game to share with friends for a fun night in, Country Dance All Stars will do the trick – if you can master the controls and get past the strange graphics.

Pros

• Excellent song list
• Family friendly fun
• Karaoke sing-along

Cons

• Cumbersome interface issues
• Practice modes are tiresome to access
• Awkward graphical choices

3 / 5

Every time Sony has some sort of event going on in Toronto, I always try my best to attend because you get personal hands on time with amazing games that are yet to hit store shelves. This year, Sony’s theme was ‘Playstation <3 Canada’ where most of the games that were shown were being made by Canadian developers. Most of the games I played were extremely fun and I can’t wait to get my hands on the final copy of these games when they release this spring and summer.

Soundshapes

I’m a huge fan of games that blend music with gameplay. Soundshapes for the Playstation Vita is something I can’t wait to play when it comes out. The animation is really smooth and looks great on the Vita.

As you make your way through a level, your actions will make small pieces of music that will continue to build as you progress. It’s really fun to make music within a video game and I think more developers should explore it.

Lights! Camera! Party!

Looking at the crowd gathering around the people currently playing a round, I instantly saw that it was a different twist on party games. The first thing that came to mind was that it kind of had a Mario Party vibe, yet it didn’t have a giant board game to walk around and had no die to roll.

Being a Playstation Move title, I can definitely see people making good use of the controller which needs a little more titles under its belt. There were a lot of different mini-games to play in the game’s current build and most of the game’s charm was because of the humorous touchesin those mini-games; they used crazy little monkeys that had you doing everything from beating your chest using the move controller to painting an outhouse door to give the monkey a little bit of privacy as he sits on the toilet shouting at you. I laughed. Things like these make game party games worth playing.

Retro City Rampage

First of all, I have to say that this 8-bit open world game looks amazing on the Vita.

As soon as the Vita was given to me I was on a bus in the game. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, so I drove around the area until I accidentally hit a few pedestrians moments later. It gave me a lot of points so I decided to cause a little bit more mayhem by driving the school bus through a park, killing everyone I saw, which gave me a chain combo which brought a smile to my face. What happened next was hilarious. A few police cars started chasing me around the city but I didn’t let that stop me. I quickly did a U-turn and smashed into three of the police cruisers following me. I figured out how to get out the bus and things just got better. Apparently I was equipped with a bazooka so I did what anyone else would (in a game of course) and I blew them to smithereens until the game told me I had acquired a silver metal.

Papo & Yo

I’ll admit that I haven’t heard a lot about this game but, after  just watching someone play it for three minutes, I can’t wait to play it in the comfort of my own home. I have to say from what I saw in the demo that this game is incredibly unique. In Papo & Yo, a PSN exclusive, you take control of a young boy adventuring through the streets of South America solving puzzles to continue. My favourite part of the game was when the guy who was playing the demo wasn’t sure what he was doing or what he was supposed to do and there was a box on the floor in-game that said “hint.” Obviously I thought it would bring up some sort of menu or text would appear on screen giving you a little bump to get the puzzle completed, but nope, none of the above. The character put the box over his head and there were hand drawn clues in the box. I thought it was funny and really creative. You could even move the box around to get more clues and I just loved that.

Dyad

Dyad was the second musical game at the showcase. I was excited because it was the only game that had some crazy visuals that were always flashing, moving, and spinning. At first I wasn’t sure what the object of the game was, but after they explained it to me, it was pie. The only way to move through the level was to grab flashing lights to pull yourself along. On your own you don’t move at all and trying to pull on enemies will slow you down.

Sorcery

Sony is finally making a game that will put the Move controller to good use with what seems to be a pretty big title. I didn’t have enough time to try it myself but from what I saw there is going to be a lot of mixing different spells together to make more powerful ones such as fire. You can also swing your arm in the air to make whirlwinds to send at your enemies. This game is looking a lot better than what it used to look like when I saw it around E3 2011. They’ve added a lot more detail. I do think, however, that this game isn’t exactly for people looking for an approachable pick up and play Move title. I’m sure a game of this kind is definitely going to need to have a training mode. Either way, if you want to make good use of your Move controller, Sorcery is it.

Mad Catz has recently released a Ghost Recon: Future Soldier-branded headset for Playstation 3, X360, and PC. With so many options on the market, it’s best to shop around to find what fits your needs. This universal surround sound headset will fill the gaps for most gamers needing a new earpiece.

There is no doubt about it, the aethetics of this piece of hardware are fantastic. Being a Ghost Recon fan helps, but even the skull art could be considered “universal” and anyone could appreciate it. The cable to this wired headset is a matching blue and the lights in the ear cups light up the artwork for anyone to see – or if you set your headset on the bed and need to find them again.

In terms of sound, the quality is both exceptional and customizable, complete with Dolby Digital 7.1. While any surround sound set-up is exponentially better than listening through your TV, I felt completely engulfed in my games while wearing this headset. A small remote links into the cable and allows you to adjust both the game and mic volume on the fly. It also features a very-accessible mute switch. It’s all incredibly easy to adjust while in the game, too, as I generally had the game volume cranked up and had to turn it down once I hopped online with friends.

If you are upgrading from a TV/earpiece set-up and play a lot of online games, you are in for a surprising treat. While playing games like Battlefield 3 or even the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier beta, you hear things that you just can’t hear from a TV. Everything had a rich and crisp sound to it.

During extended-play sessions, comfort was never an issue. Once the headset was in place, I became oblivious to my surroundings and actually forgot I had them on. The mic can be completely removed, but it also bends so I generally just bent it out of the way when I didn’t need it. My only problem with this piece of hardware was that it made my ears sweat a little after a few hours of playing. It wasn’t a major issue though, and the benefit of enveloping myself with such immersive sound was fully worth it.

It is a common problem to talk louder while having headphones on, but with the optional Selective Voice Monitoring, you can hear yourself as your teammates do. The fear of waking everyone in the house while playing because you’re immersed is completely diminished.

Everything is included to hook up to your PS3 or X360 and it’s just as easy to hook into your PC. While switching rooms is a pain, if all of your systems are in the same room it is as simple as unhooking the optical cable and USB cable and switching it to the other system. There is also an additional cable to hook into the X360 controller. The quality through my computer was exceptional, too, and it just plugs in via the USB cable. The drivers self-installed and off I was, chatting on Skype with a much clearer tone than through the old mic/speakers set-up I was accustomed to (or worse, Skype over a smartphone).

This Tritton-built headset (it’s essentially a prettier AX720) offers the performance of a quality headset you would expect from Tritton, but with a much more eye-pleasing aesthetic to it. For someone that uses more than one system (consoles or PC), I couldn’t recommend this piece of hardware more; it’s one of the best upgrades you could treat yourself to.

Pros:

• Beautiful art work, lighting and color coordination
• Superior sound and comfort
• Universal – so no need for multiple headsets

Cons:

• Can leave your ears a little sweaty after long-periods of time

Score: 5/5