They’ll Foxtrot you up your Bravo – with force – but at least you’ll have some quality gaming audio.
Turtle Beach, a company known for manufacturing sound devices such as audio cards and headphones, are relatively unknown in the Australian market; they're aiming to change this with the launch of four special edition Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 headsets.
The headsets all fall under the 'Ear Force' umbrella, and will undoubtedly enhance the strength of your eardrums as they strain under the booming gunshots and explosions of one of the year's most anticipated titles.
Turtle Beach are announcing details of the four gaming headsets on their site – the Delta, Charlie, Bravo and Foxtrot – though the Delta and Bravo pages will be updated with actual information over the next few days
Of the two that are already updated at time of writing, the Foxtrot is a 2.0 headset sporting 40mm drivers with a decent freq range which requires a single USB port for power and a 3.5mm headphone jack for audio. The Charlie is a 5.1 headset with the same 40mm driver used as a subwoofer, with three additional 30mm drivers in each cup used for Center, Front and Surround, requiring USB for power and three 3.5mm jacks for audio.
Both Foxtrot and Charlie are designed for the PC, but should be compatible with the Xbox 360 and PS3 – though the Charlie is not listed as being compatible with the latter console, possibly due to USB compatibility.
The two remaining headsets, the Delta and Bravo, will be wireless and powered by a battery (whose charging or power source is unclear and as yet unannounced), and also come with a hard plastic case to lug them around safely when gaming away from home.
One of the more interesting parts of this announcement is that Turtle Beach have been working closely with the Modern Warfare 3 developers to create "settings [that are] specific to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and come stored in the headsets right out of the box."
Aside from listening to the game in a way recommended by those who created it, the headsets built-in control box will talk at you in the voice of "Lt. Col. Hank Keirsey (ret.). Army Ranger, master parachutist and decorated combat veteran... [who] now serves as the principal military advisor for Call of Duty."
As an extra layer of icing on this cake, each CoD: MW3 headset will come with a "Field Supplies card" that unlocks exclusive Turtle Beach DLC – whether this is restricted to the artwork and discounts listed on the website, or includes special in-game content, has not been explicitly described.
The headsets are slated for a launch sometime in October at prices that are not announced in the press release; though the website indicates US$99 and US$129 for the wired 2.0 and 5.1 headsets. We extrapolate this to roughly $120 and $150 when launched in our market, which is purely guesswork.
We hope to give the headsets a full run-through in the magazine when they are available to see if they're worth the asking price.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012