I hustled to my local Best Buy today to pick up my XBOX Wireless Headset.
After spending a few hours using them I've come to the conclusion that they are not for me.
Aesthetically I like them. The green accents on the black matte finish just look aces. But what I can't get over in the faux leather material on the ear cuffs. They just feel tacky. And I don't mean like 70s shag carpet tacky. They stick to your skin. Maybe it's the curse of the bald man. Maybe it's just me. But for the price the feature set on these headphones are fantastic. I preordered them the day they were announced because they specs were so nice.
Make sure to check out the video for more details:
I spent some time combing the internet looking for some common questions. These are the ones that popped up the most. All of these answers are backed up with responses from official Microsoft reps.
Q: What is this compatible with?
A: This headset works on Bluetooth 4.2 and will pair wirelessly with your Xbox Series X, series S, and the Xbox One. You can also get it to pair with your PC but that might require additional software updates. Even though this does work on BT it is no designed to work with other consoles. So while you may be able to hack it and hook it up to a Switch or PS5 it's not intended for that.
Q: Are these noise cancelling?
A: No. They provide noise reduction which is different. The microphone is designed to isolate and pick up your voice and eleminate most of your background noise. It is NOT designed to prevent you from hearing background noise. So if you have a gaggle of unrully kids in the background your friends might not hear them but you still will.
Q: Can I pair this with my Xbox and my phone at the same time?
A: Yes. And you can control the mix of each. So if you want to turn down your friends and turn up the RP time in a cut scene you can. God I wish I had these for back in my MMO days.
Q: Can I connect to multiple BT devices at once?
A: Nope.
Q: What size are the drivers:
A: For you audiophiles out there: Speaker size: 40mm Speaker material: Paper composite diaphragm and neodymium magnet Speaker Impedance: 32 ohm Speaker Response: 20Hz - 20kHz
Q: Are the ear cups replaceable?
A: Sadly they are not. If they are damaged Microsoft recommends you send them in for repair. This is a bit of a bummer.
Assassin’s
creed Valhalla is a tremendous commercial success. Outselling it's predecessor,
Odyssey, in the first 4 months by over 50% according to industry tracking site Superdata.
It's fair to say that when it's run is finally done AC:V could end up being the
most successful Assassin's Creeds of all time.
I’ve spent
over 100 hours storming the shores of England as Eivor the VIking, and I’ve
loved a lot of my time looting and pillaging but I still don’t feel like I’ve
“beat” the game much less finished all the content it has available and this
has largely left me feeling unfulfilled.
I've
pacified England
Laid waste
to the Order
Grown my
settlement to rank 6
Found the
locations of all the hidden ones
I've even
walked on Asgard
And while
parts of Valhalla are an excellent game. All of these disparate story lines and
game systems cobbled together make for an overall broken narrative that lacks
any true cohesion and because of this disjointednesswind up detracting from the whole.
I was able
to tie up all of the territorial England Arc's before I wiped out the order and
that effectively culminated at the strategy table with….. Well, a message that
informed me that there is a lot more to see and do. Go check it out! At this
point Sigurd was back at my side even if he was a shell of his former self. And
that betrayal they referenced at the beginning of the game? I never really felt
it. I had learned a bit about the animus, and I did have a confrontation with
Odin's but I didn't realize his arc was over but apparently it was. From that
point I assumed that I just had to kill the order and then I'd end up with a
satisfactory ending.
What was
once a central focus of the series, the order, feels shoehorned in at best. I
had only killed about half the order members before I knew who their leader
was. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything about it, and while that's not really
anything new for the series it felt rather pronounced in this case. This forced
me to kill the remaining members and hunt down the last zealots. Zealots were
an inferior version of Phylakes from Origins and Mercenaries from Odyssey.
Those enemies inspired fear. They always showed up at inopportunity moments
when I was clearing out forts. They'd force me to run or reassess my assault.
They were a severe thorn in my side and the challenge they provided was
welcome. The Zealots were tame in comparison. I never ran into one in the world
on accident. The majority of them I hunted down at the end and killed once I
had completed the story. They were uninteresting, they were never scary, they
provided no tension, and were entirely ineffective at making themselves
anything other than a speedbump in my gameplay at the end. They were utterly
superfluous Then when I was able to confront them the resolution was odd to say
the least to and I was left feeling, is that it? Is the game over? I didn't get
a credit roll, there was no climactic event. I was climbing to a peak but once
I got there it was like? Is this over?
I couldn't
believe it.
I was in
shock.
So I went
back to my camp and worked on finishing all the rest of the quests.
I had a
quest from the seer that at first I just assumed was a side quest. But now I
was convinced that maybe I had to complete it as well.
I also had
the hidden one's quest line open. Maybe that needed completing too.
When I
collected the materials for the seer and began the Asgard storyline it felt to
me at this point like DLC when in fact it was an excellent allegory for what
was going on in Eivor's life that would have enriched my experience had I
played it in parallel with Eivor pacifying England. However, the game never
really nudged me to go back and participate in these two questlines at the same
time. Had it been more intertwined it would have been much more impactful. Once
I completed the troubles in Asgard I felt that this story arc had reached a
meaningful conclusion, however, this wasn't the main focus of the game. Upon
entering Asgard for the first time I finally became male Eivor. Which, I
thought it was pretty weird. I had spent the first 90 hours of the game so far
as female Eivor. I did choose to let the game auto select my gender for me the
parts it thought was most appropriate. Apparently playing the game as a mortal
I should be a lady, but when I'm Odin I should be a dude.
But
I can't stress enough just how good the Jotunheim region is. With the magic and shifting
environments this is the most engaging and fantastical content in the game.
Mythological fantasy buffs are gonna love it, and I almost missed it.
Finally I
made my way to uncover the remaining 3 hidden ones locations. There was a lot
of lore in this missions as you uncovered the missives and it was nice to hear
Bayek's voice again considering he is my all time favorite Assassin's Creed
character. But once again, when I completed this quest, it was just done.
Sigurd's
Arc, Asgard, Order Arc, Conquer of England Arc. There were a lot of Arc's but
none of them really felt like they received a proper ending. Like you beat this
game. Now have fun running around England and reaping your rewards and
discovering the secrets you have yet to uncover.
I also
really don’t like the fact they nerfed the bird. He used to be majestic and
grand. A flying eagle that was a warrior and could help attack your prey. Now
it's just a flying periscope. They did you wrong crow.
It's not
all doom and gloom though. The moment to moment game play is tremendously fun.
Combat is as visceral as ever. Eivor has enough fatalities and brutalities to
make a Mortal Kombat fighter blush.
The new
point of interest location system on the map worked out really well for me. You
could always look out into the horizon and see that there was plenty to do.
Valhalla
is also a great Tomb Raider hunting down Britain artifacts. You'll know them on
the map because their markers look like Tomb Stones but the puzzles these
contain are fun and engaging and different then most of the puzzles you'll find
in villages or outposts.
The world
that was built for AC: Valhalla was also beautiful with little secrets
sprinkled everywhere to find. On top of one hill I ran into a town that had
fallen prey to a cult and there were burning man symbols everywhere littered
with corpses and bad juju symbols.
There is a
huge amount of content in this game and that's wonderful. You without a doubt
get your money's worth. This isn't a case of the developer being lazy, This is
not an inconsequential amount of content Ubisoft has delivered. This is
thousands of people hours of work we are talking about. They did not take the
easy way out. They've just over encumbered themselves by trying to consistently
outdo themselves.
I'd like
for the next game in the franchise to take a step back and put the order back
as a primary focus of the story. I think it's great Ubisoft has put less and
less emphasis on the modern day storyline tied to the animus because frankly at
this point I don't think 99% of the people even care. I know I don't. While
assassin’s creed origins was not the first game in the series it was in effect
a soft reboot for the franchise and a fresh place for new players to jump in as
the game switched focus from adventure to full fledged open world RPG. Over the
next two games the developers began to weave a story of benevolent assassins
pushing back against the order. But they still pulled in context from the
current time via the animus. This most recent addition the animus could’ve just
been left out. It's another arc that just abruptly ends. I keep expecting to
see my modern day player character but she hasn't made an appearance in a long
time.
Keep the
combat, keep the order, tighten up the story, and you'll have a better game.
