The Best PC Game of All Time

Headset supplied free of charge by Sennheiser for review. Sennheiser have built themselves a sterling reputation over the years, and in doing so have become a name many people are familiar with. Their headphones and headsets and earphones (is there a consensus on the correct terms, yet?)  range from cheap and cheerful to eye-wateringly expensive, so today I’m checking out something on the more expensive side; the GSP 600’s, Sennheiser’s so-called “professional” gaming headset that will set you back a scary £220 or so. They certainly get the unboxing part right. Once you lift off the lid the box looks like a display case designed to show off Sennheiser’s work. The only thing missing is some mist flowing over the sides into the table. But, well, um, you see, Sennheiser have created a frankly ugly set of headphones here. Every time I picked them up I was certain they were going to transform into a Decepticon and begin a rampage through my home of Scotland, leaving a trail of Micheal ...

Review sample provided free of charge by Roccat. The wonderful thing about a fantastic headset is that lovely comforting feel it can provide, the sense that you’re isolated from the hustle and bustle of the outside world, able to ignore all the yelling and shouting and screaming and stabbing and gunshots going on behind you. Wait. That’s not right. What the hell are my family doing? Yes, a good set of cans can be a wonderful, and Roccat have already impressed me with their Khan Pro. Now, though, they’re aiming for 7.1 virtual surround sound and shiny lights with the Khan Aimo, So let’s just jump into this, shall we? In terms of build quality and its overall looks, there’s not much to separate the Khan Pro than I reviewed not so long ago and the Khan Aimo that I’m reviewing now as they’re both essentially the same. Once again we’ve got a nicely padded headband made of a soft, squishy memory foam, the very same material found on the earcups. It’s not particularly breathable so your h...

Review unit on loan from Roccat. Audio is something long looked over by all except the die-hards, but now we’re finally starting to see some appreciation for sound with digital streaming companies slowly but surely abandoning the horribly low quality 256kbps compression methods, while the introduction of Blu-ray and now 4k Blu-ray discs has resulted in a marked improvement for films and games. The reason I mention this is that the Roccat Khan claims to be the world’s first “Hi-Res Audio” headset, something usually defined as being 16 bit / 44.1KHz. It’s a meaningless statement for most consumers while audiophiles are all too used to dealing with how to get the best audio possible. As such the Japanese Audio Society (JAS) and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) have created a certification for what they deem to be Hi-Res Audio, and the Roccat Khan meets the criteria. That’s all very well, but how does it sound? Well, for testing I hooked it up to my SoundBlasterZ internal sound...

  Oh little black box of witchcraft, how do you work? Despite how much I appreciate amazing audio the mechanics behind it all are akin to black magic in my eyes. All I know is that sound is something that often gets overlooked from a gaming and filmgoing perspective, and spending the money to get something deliver that sound can change that perspective. It’s not until you splurge on a good set of headphones or a speaker system that you can appreciate how much you weren’t hearing. These days motherboards, even the cheap ones, provide surprisingly good audio to the point where the average person doesn’t need to worry about it. You can plug in any decent set of headphones or speakers and get pleasing results. But there are folk like me who just want better because we’re greedy like that.  With that said while I love getting the best quality I can I’m not an audiophile by most definitions, so this isn’t going to be a review filled with complex terms. No, this is a review from an average...

Provided free of charge by SteelSeries for review. Damn, but do I love me a good headset! Don’t get me wrong, I adore my speaker system, but there’s something awesome about slipping on a headset and tuning the outside world out, revelling in the sense of isolation that padded ear cups can provide. Not to mention a good pair of cans can help you appreciate one of the most under-appreciated aspects of videogames – the sound design. So today we’re tackling the SteelSeries Arctis 5, the middle-child that sits between the Arctis 3, which doesn’t come with the small controller for balancing in-game audio and chat, and the wireless Arctis 7. Currently sitting at £85 this headset arguably sits in the sweet spot of performance vs cost, and has a hell of a lot of competition. Indeed, near the start of the year I reviewed the HyperX Cloud Revolver and declared them the best stereo cans I’d tested. Steelseries have gone for an understated design for the Arctis lineup. There are no extraneous a...