Fnatic, an esports organization that sometimes dabbles in computer peripheral design, launched the REACT gaming headset right at the end of 2019. They promised it would be a new take on a “back-to-basics” design, with all the things professional gamers need and nothing they don’t. The result is an awkward, muddled copy of HyperX’s popular industrial designs, with a sound tuning that’s suitable for only a narrow type of listening, and a poor level of fit and finish that had my pair show up splashed with adhesive.

The headset sells for between $55 and $75 depending on what discounts are…

When I first reviewed the Kaira Pro last year, it was the best Xbox headset I had tested so far. It has Razer’s awesome new TriForce drivers, Bluetooth functionality, and full RGB support, which I believe is a first for an Xbox product. But Turtle Beach also refreshed their iconic Stealth series last fall, and as I found in my recent review, it’s a juggernaut. The Stealth 700 Gen 2 packs in numerous upgrades, including features that used to be reserved solely for the company’s premium Elite series of headsets.

Both of these headsets sell for a retail price of…

Colonists who are the last survivors from a ravaged Earth. A mysterious alien planet with secrets that probes didn’t pick up. Evil black goop that turns living beings into monsters. Freak storms that sometimes kill things and other times imbue them with powers, alongside visions of the future. A benevolent female character introduced in voiceover who might be good or evil. A future war between two competing factions with trenches and high-contrast Terminator-style lighting and smoke. Trucks that magically break down right when the plot needs them to, then magically work right when the plot needs them to. …

Yesterday, Kingston Technology announced that they’ve agreed to sell their HyperX division to HP.

When I first saw this, I was surprised. Kingston built the HyperX brand from the ground-up over the last 18 years, and also changed the way modern gaming headsets were designed. The HyperX Cloud combined a popular headphone, the Takstar Pro 80, with a microphone. It was the brainchild of a company called Qpad originally, but HyperX licensed that concept and then ran with it.

They expanded and iterated on that concept across several generations of excellent products, and created many new in-house designs, including the…

As a huge fan of hack- and- slash action RPG games, Diablo III and the Dynasty Warriors franchise are both on my regular playlist. These games provide dozens of hours of fast-paced action fun, and keep players engaged for months with a combination of experience points, skill trees, and a massive pile of new weapons to find.

If you want some exciting new content, you never have to wait long with the Warriors series. Koei Tecmo, and their internal development team Omega Force, clearly have game production honed down to a science. Between the core games and licensed spin-offs, a…

Razer helped define the early path of the “gaming headset sound” with their original Kraken series. Bold colors and large highly-padded ear cups delivered powerful bass into the ears of gamers everywhere, and won the company an early lead in the market.

Eventually, the bass-heavy sound of the first gaming headsets faded out of popularity. Gamers constantly demand more performance as time goes on, and now want detail, clarity, and soundstage depth to go along with the fun rumbles.

The Razer audio gear lineup has grown up along with the times. They released one of the best-sounding Bluetooth headphones I’ve…

Way back at the end of 2016, HyperX changed the budget gaming headset market forever by releasing the original Cloud Stinger. This $50 model packed many of the design features from their higher-end products into a price category dominated by cheap simple plastic options.

It was no longer good enough for a budget gaming headset to be made of plastic and spit out some sound. Now, it needed to have premium touches. A whole new wave of competition emerged, and now the lower end of the market is packed with solid choices.

Roccat has always built their products on value…

The mainstream gaming headset market is packed with good, competitive choices, and the wireless space is where most of the innovation and focus is right now. Five years ago, it was almost impossible to get a good-sounding wireless gaming headset at a reasonable price, but now the sub-$150 market is riddled with options.

My two favorite wireless headsets in this price category are the HyperX Cloud II Wireless, and the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air, both of which released last year. The Cloud II sells for $150, and offers a sterling blend of build and sound for that price. The Elo…