January 29, 2008 by taitlifto.

Yes, the 360 headset sucks.

I loved using my nifty green, Halo 2 edition, Plantronics headset for my XBox 360. How? Simple - a $10 adapter!

Well, technically, you don’t need the adapter to use your old XBox 180 Plantronics headset because you can plug it directly in, but the problem with that is no muting or volume control. The adapter has a mute button and a volume dial and is only $10. I much prefer this over any of the other standard headsets for the 360.

I tried the new 360-colored Plantronics headset and it sucked - hurt my ears, the volume control was in a bad place, etc.

But, I moved to an apartment and noise became an issue so I tried the Tritton True 5.1 surround sound ones (AX360) and they rock - full surround sound, in-line volume control (with additional bonus of separate controls for front speakers, rear speakers, center channel and vibration/bass).

I’ve never tried the X2 Wireless or AXT Wired (pictures below) solutions from Turtle Beach, so I can’t speak to those.

Some others that I have not tried:

XBox 360 Wireless Headset:

Motorola X205 Headset:

Plantronics 360 Earbud:

Obviously, everyone’s ears are different so your experience may vary. But, I can assure you that the Tritton True 5.1 surround sound headset is truly valuable because with true surround sound, I can hear people sneaking up on me without distraction. I know where the enemy is based purely on the sound of movement. This gets my personal recommendation. If you don’t want a headset covering up your ears, I’d recommend to stick with the old Halo 2 Plantronics headset (and if you need a mute mutton/volume control, the $10 Datek adapter)

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October 16, 2006 by taitlifto.

Driving up there wasn’t bad - about 4.5 hours or so. Was going from Plano (Northern suburb of Dallas) to Tulsa. Saw this sign on Turnpike in OK that said “Do not drive into smoke”. I thought that was odd and thought about that sign many times over the weekend. I also saw a sign that said “Drive Friendly”. I decided that they aren’t the boss of me, so I drove in a joking manner. Screw them and their damn signs. When I arrived, I put my stuff in Volt2amp’s room and then went and joined the arrivers at the bar whcih turned out to have pool tables, a dance floor, darts, and a karaoke machine. Proceeded to listen to the most random playlist sung by Oklahoma’s worst singers and watch 40+ year old people show the moves they think they have on the dance floor - freaking hilarious!

After awhile I drifted off to bed to attempt some sleep as preparation for next day’s gaming. Next morning, I did my usual trip to Starbucks followed by McDonald’s (I never eat at McDonald’s, except for when they do the Monopoly game. I’m horrible - I just have to play Monopoly. I’ll gain, like 5 pounds, just playing Monopoly. Stupid.) then back to the hotel for gaming. Wow - did they ever cram a lot of heat-generating equipment into a tiny one-vent room, then throw in a bunch of heat generating gamers and - it must’ve been 135 degrees in there. Well, maybe not, but after a couple of hours of playing I started feeling a little light headed. And not just because I was trying to game on an XBox 180 with an unfamiliar Pelican controller on a TV that I was sitting way to close to - but because of the beer. I took frequent breaks, going off to my room to read and cool off. At one point, I realized I hadn’t eaten in 8 hours so I took off alone and ended up at Bennigan’s - spent like an hour and a half at dinner then went back to the gaming room. Got tossed on a “team” to take someone’s place and was seen as a ringer when we won our first 2 games and the other team forfeited game 3 to us. I think I was called a “monster” by someone. AFter that, it was time for “straws” with XS Ice, Brother Dustin and wrstGamerEver. Fun times - highlight of the night. We played until close to 2am, then shot pool, then tried to chat while avoiding throwing up. Lol - good times. See more in my blog posted earlier today that details “Straws”…

Sunday morning, got up, packed and left! It POURED rain on the way back =- so bad that sometimes I couldn’t see the road. But, I made it home safely, and that’s what counts.

Just for the record, Oklahoma is OK.

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October 16, 2006 by taitlifto.

Had a great time in Tulsa (I swear, I never thought that sentence would come from me!). The highlight, as with all LANs that I attend, had nothing to do with an XBox. Yup, a fast frenetic game of “straws”. It was an original title, thank you, based on the popular game of “spoons” with some tiny tweaks: since we didn’t have spoons, we used coffee stir straws and because that’s too much to say when you’ve been drinking, we shortened it to just “straws”.

Oh, yeah, “we”: the entire OMM clan at the LAN which consisted of me, Brother Dustin and XS Crazy Ice. But then, we added wrstPLAYERevr to the group and that’s when we threw in another rule: if you didn’t get a straw, you took a drink. I’m pretty sure that the rest of the table doesn’t remember clearly what happened from there as they lost frequently….

wrstPLAYERevr was a lot of fun and I learned that he does NOT appear to be drunk - he holds his liquor well. I didn’t believe that he was drunk, in fact, until he started puking… I don’t have any pictures of that.

Anyway, I forgot to get into the photo thing this past weekend, so all I have are a couple shots from my phone, but you can check it out for yourself at:

www.splashblog.com/tait

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