The World of Warcraft-themed gaming headsets from Creative announced at Blizzcon 09 are now available for preorder for a mere 160 Darkwater Clams.
Last year at Blizzcon, Creative unveiled a headset designed specifically for use by World of Warcraft raiders, or anyone who wants to stay connected to Azeroth in style. There is no word from Creative on when these headsets will ship, but the product website states that it will be soon after preorders are available. With that option now available via Amazon, that hopefully means the headsets will ship soon.
The headset has almost too many features to list, but here are some of the ones that caught my eye. You can kit out the translucent lenses on the earcups in either Alliance or Horde out of the box. There are LEDs which are programmable in 16 million colors, and there is a custom in-game addon to set this up, as well as the other options. The mic is noise-cancelling and detaches for easy portability. The wireless headset offers THX TruStudio sound and is rechargeable via USB. There’s even a voice-modulation application which can alter your voice to sound like a female orc, or a blood elf male, which was ostensibly added to hide the fact that you’re main healer is a 9 year old girl.
The only problem, as fellow editor John Funk pointed out, is the distinctive Frostmourne runes visible in the detailing around the earcup. “I don’t want no Lich King runes on my leet gaming headgear,” Funk said and I’m inclined to agree.
With Creative being the default sound card supplier for most PCs, it’s no surprise that these headsets are designed to deliver audio quality turned up to 11. But what is this TruStudio surround, is it better than the previous standards? Creative tells us:
THX TruStudio PC is built from the ground up to enhance gaming, music and movies. It definitely pulls from our X-Fi experience but it isn’t just a rehash of the tech. We’ve employed different methods and refined many things. The Surround portion is particularly impressive. CMSS-3D is hands down the best headset/headphone surround out there right now.
All in all, the headset does indeed look impressive, it’s just that $160 pricetag that’s giving me pause. I barely have that kind of dough to drop on gaming accessories, and I don’t know how many other gamers do.
