After playing Online co-op with Justin on the first day of Halo, it was apparent that I needed a headset in order to communicate back and forth with him. Typing up messages through AIM was simply too slow, and, unfortunately, I could not find Gage's headset anywhere.. even after tearing apart that closet.
So, I ran out to stores real quick and picked up the Halo 3 Limited Edition Wireless Headset.. Oohhh.. It comes with everything you see here:
Yeah, that's it. Just the headset and the recharging cord, all for the high ticket price of $60. This was also the same price as the non-Halo 3 headset. I decided to go with the Halo 3 one because its subtle Halo 3 design wasn't blatant or as ugly as those Halo 3 controllers.
Obviously, the big problem with this thing is the price. The regular wired headset is only $20, and just recently Microsoft released an official Messenger kit, which comes with a mini-keyboard you can hook into your controller, and also comes with a wired headset. That little pack costs $30.
I coulda shoulda woulda picked up one of those two products, except I went to Shopko, rather than Best Buy, Gamestop, and another store that probably would have had a bigger selection. So my choices were a $60 normal set, or a $60 limited edition set. I really just wanted to get back, rather than spend an hour shopping around, so I pushed aside my cheap ass nature, and bit the bullet.
It's probably difficult to manufacture, but this thing should really be $40. Especially when you have the headset and messenger kits far cheaper.
This little thing is actually pretty slick. Once fully charged, you sync up the headset to the 360 like you would with a wireless controller. Once your 360 is on, hit the synchronize button, and then hit the synchronize button on the headset. It'll connect to your 360 and link up with the first available player. You can hit the sync button to cycle through which player the headset is for.
Unfortunately, that means I bought a $60 headset that is proprietary to the Xbox 360 and can't be used for any other devices. It's not a blue-tooth headset, so that means, I can't use it on my phone, I can't use it on my computer, and I can't use it on a PS3 (whenever I get one). That's definitely one advantage the PS3 has over the 360. Use of non-proprietary products all around.
If I want a wireless headset for all these devices of mine, I'll need to drop another bit of cash for one.
Annoying.
I'm pretty sure you could use any regular wired headset with the 360 controller and I don't think those are proprietary.
Despite it's cost, It works incredibly well, for the few hours I was using it yesterday. It didn't pinch my ear and I could easily and clearly hear Justin on the other end, and he said his end was just the same. I don't know if I had the sensitivity too high, but he could hear other things going on in the background too. Like the TV, which I did have kinda loud in the first place.
It'd be rather interesting to test that out..
Overall, I'm not too pissed off how useless it outside of Xbox Live.. It works great. Hopefully they'll be more games I actually want to play on the 360 over Xbox Live for me to take advantage of it.. Otherwise, that $60 really will go to waste.
Perhaps after my gaming schedule clears up, I'll pick up Tenchu Z and play Co-op with Justin online in that.
I wouldn't recommend this thing at all, unless you play A LOT of Xbox Live. Even then, I think you'd be FAR better off picking up that Messenger Kit for $30 which comes with the mini-keyboard and wired headset.