Short version: The SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB is a headset for your Xbox 360 (and PC) that lets you separate your online teammates’ voices from the sounds explosions, gunfire, and other assorted bits of mayhem. So, if your team leader is barking orders you can turn down the game’s audio and listen exclusively to the commands.

Features

• Works with both Xbox 360 and PC
• AudioMixer that can separately control the volume of voice and other game audio. Can also be done automatically with LiveMix.
• Retractable microphone. Just want to listen to music? Tuck the mic away.

Pros
• The cans don’t kill your ears, and they’re spaced in such a way that you can actually wear glasses. As a glasses wearer, dear lord thank you.
• Easy to use once everything is set up—just a couple of plugs here and there.
• Separating voice and other audio is pretty handy if you’re someone who actually plays that type of game

Cons
• Most useful only for a specific type of gamer, the guy who plays online games so competitively that they’d benefit from the LiveMixer
• After years of wearing earbuds, wearing cans took some getting used to
• Main cable coming off the headset a little on the shortside, which could make casual use a little tricky
• Not that this is SteelSeries’ fault, but many of the people on Xbox Live are jerks, and this makes it easier to hear them

Full review

Say hello to SteelSeries’ console gaming debut. The company, best known for its professional PC gaming gear, has decided to give the console business a go, and this is the result: the Steelseries Spectrum 5XB, a headset for the Xbox 360 (don’t worry, it’ll work with your PC, too) that’s able to isolate your Xbox Live teammates’ voices from the sound of explosions, gunfire, and all other sorts of mayhem. (There’s also the Spectrum 4XB, which is basically the same headset, but the headband strap isn’t as bendy and you can’t take it apart for when you have to travel.)

I’ve pretty much exclusively worn earbuds for the past six years, so using cans for any amount of time is sorta weird to me. There’s a reason for that: prior to these, every single pair of cans I’ve ever come across have required me to take my glasses off first in order to put them on, and then I had to constantly adjust them just to keep sane. Is that the worst thing in the world? No, of course not, but it’s been enough of an annoyance that I’ve stuck with earbuds. I’m going to assume that SteelSeries has noticed that many gamers wear glasses, so they’ve designed them in such a way (there’s extra empty space where the frames of your glasses sit against your head) that they fit without having to remove your glasses. The SteelSeries people had to point this out to me when I met them a few weeks ago since I’ve been trained, like a dog, to remove my glasses when putting on cans.

No more!

The foam covering the cans and the headband are plenty soft. I sat there this past weekend for a few hours and didn’t once think, “Well, these hurt.”

And lo, the headset works!

I played several rounds of Halo 3 online over the past few weekends(within two seconds of entering my first lobby someone told me to “go fuck” myself. Sigh.) and the entire campaign of Halo: Reach last weekend (my thoughts on the game should go up this afternoon), and I was able to mute the game sounds with the flick of the dial, and yet I could still hear my teammates. Conversely, I could mute my teammates and listen to the game audio just fine.

The headset’s AudioMixer will automatically lower the game audio when your teammates speak provided you have LiveMix turned on. (Steelseries sells the AudioMixer separately if you already have a headset you’re comfortable with.) You might at well leave it on, unless you want to constantly “mix” the different audio levels on your own. Let LiveMix do its thing, I say.

Conclusion

The SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB certainly fits a niche: Xbox 360 gamers who are a little more serious about their online gaming. I mean, SteelSeries’ tagline is “professional gaming gear” for a reason. And clearly SteelSeries sees that more and more “hardcore” online gaming is taking place on the consoles, so they might as well get in on the action. (Just look at what id said a few weeks ago at QuakeCon, essentially that consoles are the future, and for a number of reasons.) As headsets go, the Spectrum 5XBs has everything you’d like to see in a headset. (Well, maybe you’d like to see PS3 compatibility!) They’re comfortable, the mic is clear (I actually used the headset to add narration to my Plex video), and the automatic audio level handling is particularly handy if you play teammate-heavy games.

The likes of Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Medal of Honor are either just around the corner or have just been released. So if you’ll be in the market for a headset in anticipation of the release of these games, well, she ain’t bad at all.

SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB ($89)

SteelSeries Spectrum 4XB ($59)

Spectrum Audio Mixer ($39)

It comes with not only a 120GB Xbox 360 Elite, and a controller, but also Halo 3: ODST, Halo 3, and access to the Halo: Reach beta. All that only costs €280 in continental Europe (USD$410). Sure, the bundle doesn’t save you a bunch of money, but at least it’s a one-stop-shop.

Attention Halo nerds-

Pre-order Halo 3: ODST now and get a token to unlock UNSC Sgt. Johnson as a playable character in Firefight. ODST drops on September 22 for $60 or $100 for the Collector’s Pack that comes with a special edition wireless controller. Oh, you also get an exclusive beta invite to Halo: Reach when you pre-order ODST.

Halo 3: ODST Collector Pack GameStop Exclusive – with Bonus! [Gamestop]
Halo 3: ODST – with Bonus! [Gamestop]

[PSGallery=7glo6i5p610]

Listen up rookies! “Halo 3: ODST” drops on September 22, but will you and your team have what it takes to survive the Covenant onslaught in the new cooperative multiplayer mode, Firefight? Firefight will put you to the test as you and your friends assume the role of an ODST squad and fight together to take on increasingly challenging waves of enemies. It’s where new “Halo” heroes will be born, and an opportunity to step into the boots of a legend. If you pre-order “Halo 3: ODST” at participating retailers, you will receive a token to unlock grizzled UNSC hero Sgt. Johnson as a playable character in Firefight.

Fan favorite and “Halo” series stalwart Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson is a tough-as-nails career Marine who has been in more life or death battles than you’ve had hot meals. He’s survived more infectious Flood outbreaks, greased more Covenant bad guys, and earned more medals than any other twenty soldiers. And now you get to walk a mile in his shoes.

New campaign
Developed exclusively for Xbox 360 by acclaimed developer Bungie, “Halo 3: ODST” is a new game in the “Halo” saga that lets people experience events leading up to the epic story told in “Halo 3” through the eyes of an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), as they search for clues leading to the whereabouts of their scattered squad and the motivations behind the Covenant’s invasion of New Mombasa.

New cooperative multiplayer experience
In addition to a brand new campaign, “Halo 3: ODST” introduces a new cooperative multiplayer mode called Firefight which allows “Halo” fans to experience co-operative gaming in a whole new way: they will be fighting as members of an ODST squad against waves of increasingly challenging enemies across a variety of battlefields. This experience is made even more intense with the integration of “Halo 3’s” “skulls,” which progressively activate as time goes on to alter the gameplay and up the challenge. Players will battle through wave after wave in search of high scores, Achievements and bragging rights.

The complete “Halo 3” competitive multiplayer collection
“Halo 3: ODST” also includes a second standalone disc with three new “Halo 3” multiplayer maps, all original “Halo 3” maps, as well as the “Legendary,” “Heroic,” and “Mythic” Map packs for a total of 24 maps.

Ensure your place in the “Halo: Reach” beta
Purchasing “Halo 3: ODST” will ensure “Halo” fans get access to the “Halo: Reach” multiplayer beta when the beta goes live in the future. Announced at E3 2009, “Halo: Reach” is the prequel to the blockbuster “Halo” trilogy and is scheduled for release in fall of 2010.

“Halo 3: ODST” is available for pre-order in both a standard package and a “Halo 3: ODST Collector’s Pack” which includes the game and an exclusive, laser etched Wireless Controller. The “Halo 3: ODST Collector’s Pack” is available for pre-order in the US exclusively at GameStop, and is available worldwide at other participating retailers. “Halo 3: ODST” will have a suggested retail price of $59.99 USD and the Collector’s Pack will have a suggested retail price of $99.99 USD. “Halo 3: ODST” is rated “M” for Mature by the ESRB and PEGI 16+.

Starting in May, a new Xbox 360 bundle will hit retail shelves dubbed the “Game of the Year” (or is it “Games of the Year”?) bundle. With such a moniker, we’d assume it’ll be an annual type of thing, but we’ll wait to see how this one does. This limited edition bundle comes with Halo 3, Fable II and an Elite Xbox 360 (120GB) for just $400. Righteous.

Update: Wondering if you can get his limited edition bundle in your region? Let’s ask Major Nelson.

I have confirmed that this bundle will be available in all regions that Xbox 360 is sold except those in Europe.

via MJ

At some point you have to ask Microsoft, “Hey, guys, are you done milking Halo yet?” Then again, I’d have to ask the good people out there, “Aren’t you guys tired of Halo yet?” That, despite the fact that I know the answers to both of those questions: “no” and “no.” Given this, the news that Microsoft is working on another Halo game, based on some Halo comic book about Orbital Drop Shock Troopers—slow clap—,should not surprise me. But it does, as does the fact that someone higher-up at Microsoft just told USA Today that he “doubt[s] we have seen the last of Master Chief.”

The first game, to be fair, was announced last fall. It’s called Halo 3: ODST, and can be seen as an expansion pack to Halo 3. “Seen” but apparently not “wholly described,” since Microsoft’s Frank O’Connor, who’s in charge of Halo such and such, says it’s “significantly more than an add-on…. It’s kind of a detective story. But it’s much more action-packed than that.” Oh, good, because here I was concerned that Halo wouldn’t be an action game; I had assumed Microsoft had decided to turn it into a puzzle game.

So, a Halo 3 expansion pack, not starring Master Chief. Fine, fair enough. But another game after that? Just let Master Chief retire with some dignity already. I fully expect him in the next game to have snappy, burned-out solider dialog like, “Man, I’m too old for this,” and to call his subordinates things like “rookie” and “kid.” /me shakes head

Looks like there’s a “best of” Halo Xbox 360 bundle on the way, which coincides with the upcoming Halo Wars. Too bad that it looks to be Europe-only. (Trivia: tt was first discovered on a Swedish Web site.) That’s how it looks right now, that is.

The bundle includes a 60GB Xbox 360, Halo 3 and Halo Wars. Oh, and you get one month of free Xbox Live Gold access. So that’s nice.

Total price for this wünderbündle? (Yes, I know Swedish doesn’t use the umlaut.) Try Kr. 2,795, or, right now, around $343.

Again, nothing about any possible North American release.

A console RTS, you say? Good luck.

The new expansion will pit you as an ODST marine aka New Hero and will serve as a prequel to Halo 3. We’ll have the teaser trailer up soon and box art.

Update: Trailer after the jump.
Update 2: Luke posted this snippit over at NeoGaf.

The word “stealth” here isn’t really a great word. This isn’t a stealth action game like a Splinter Cell game. This is a Bungie-made Halo game where you will play as an ODST, which of course, is different (and no, I’m not talking about how it’s different ;b) than playing as a Spartan super soldier. This isn’t Halo Cell, Ghost Recon: Halo, Republic Commandalo or whatever.

Edit: Forgot Call of Halo and Gears of Halo.

Details from the Xbox page.

To the delight of devoted fans across the world, at the Tokyo Game Show Microsoft debuted Halo 3: Recon, developed exclusively for Xbox 360® by acclaimed developer Bungie. This new chapter in the Halo saga lets you experience events leading up to the epic story told in Halo 3 through the eyes of a new hero in the Halo universe.

The stand-alone expansion, set to release in fall 2009, extends the award-winning Halo® 3 experience with hours of new campaign excursions and multiplayer gameplay. In addition, attendees were given an all-new glimpse of the Xbox 360 exclusive strategy game Halo Wars from Ensemble Studios. The campaign mode provided a thrilling taste of the revolutionary gameplay and new perspective of the Halo universe. Enjoy the full experience when Halo Wars hits retailers in early 2009.
Game Details

This new chapter in the Halo universe includes the following:

* All-new campaign content: The Halo 3: Recon campaign is an intriguing side story that takes place during the terrifying events leading up to the Master Chief’s return to New Mombasa in Halo 3. Experience the fate of Earth from the brand-new perspective of a special forces ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), adding a unique outlook and new gameplay elements to the events that unfold in the trilogy’s finale. While the feel of this new chapter greatly resembles that of previous Halo experiences, Halo 3: Recon will require you to employ more elements of stealth and cunning than ever before.
* Prepare to drop: Known for their courage, valor and, at times, insanity, ODSTs are among the fiercest UNSC soldiers, priding themselves on being the first unit deployed into hostile situations. While not as large or supernaturally gifted as their Spartan comrades, these “Hell Jumpers” more than compensate with their ferocious attitudes and unwavering nerve.
* Expanded multiplayer collection:No Halo experience would be complete without groundbreaking multiplayer content, and Halo 3: Recon gives fans more of what they love. With exclusive new maps and expanded Forge options, Xbox LIVE® Gold members will find more multiplayer content than ever before with Halo 3: Recon.
* Ever-growing community options: Enjoy all the great Halo 3 technological innovations, including Saved Films, screenshots, Campaign Scoring, and four-player co-op. All of the new multiplayer maps fully support the Forge editor, offering endless gameplay customization possibilities.

We at CrunchGear posit that the music from Halo 3 will add nobility and gravitas to the most mundane of tasks. We tested it, with mixed results.

After 12 hours of anticipation, the countdown that hit Bungie’s front page last night has finally clicked its way down to zero.

Once finished, the standard front page was replaced, with a news item linking to “Teaser Trailer“. And man, does it tease.

It begins by flashing through a series of what appear to be security camera (Superintendent) views of an earth city. (One of the security camera’s is labeled Mbaraki, which is a location in the real world Mombasa in Kenya. A return to New Mombasa?) Something tears through the atmosphere, smashing into the city. The Halo 3 logo pops up, followed by “Prepare to Drop”.

I’m still hedging my bets on singleplayer DLC for Halo 3. Update: Yep. If you check out the video’s description on the Xbox Live Marketplace, it outright says “High action and deep mystery await players in this new halo 3 campaign experience. Prepare to drop!”.

When TU2 goes live next week we fully expect a crazy period in Matchmaking. See, there will be a period after TU2 goes live where not everyone will have the Title Update for a number of weird reasons like: You left your box on and the TU came out so folks who turn their boxes on are getting the new patch and you’re playing the previous version of the game; Your Xbox doesn’t recognize a new patch (clear your boxes’ cache – Go to the System blade and select Memory. Press Y on the HD symbol and then press X, X, LB, RB, X, X. If you did this properly a message will appear saying: Do you want to perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage device. Selet the “yes” equivalent and then boot up Halo 3) or any number of other weird issues like the host has TU2 and the client doesn’t or the client has TU2 and the host is on TU1, it’s going to be a bit like the end of Ghostbusters, but we promise, that even though it seems like Matchmaking has fallen into the gaping maw of cement cracks – it will climb out.

We expect all of these issues to resolve within four or five hours of TU2 going live. We will be watching it closely.

There’s a bunch of other stats-y things coming along at Bungie.net as well, so hop on over if you’re really interested in all of it.

Honestly, who still plays Halo 3? A few more tidbits about the Assembly Map Pack after the jump, which Luke says might not come out till the Halo 3 anniversary (That’s only 17 days from now).

Title Update 2

Like we’ve said previously, there’s a bunch of under-the-hood changes in TU2 that will be largely invisible to players. Things like rare occurrences of crashes, server-side support for data collection, making more data available and consumable for internal use – you know, the sort of bullet points that warm engineering loins and sing the rest of us a lullaby.

There are also some “peace of mind” changes that should improve player experiences online in Halo 3. We’ve done a bunch of work to increase our ability to detect cheating. The numbers of bans on the banhammer threads ebb and flow, but not a day goes by sans bans. These changes will make that science even more exact than it already is.

Title Update 2 will also introduce a brand new type of ban. This is one Shishka and I are super excited for. It’s harsh, it’s metered fairly and most of all, when it hits you, it hurts so bad. This new spike on the banhammer will soon drip wet with the blood of jerks and the innards of sinners.

Another thing we’d file under the “peace of mind” changes portion of TU2 is that we’ll be taking a much closer look at habitual quitters and their contribution to the Halo 3 population. It’s no secret that players quitting out of a game makes a suboptimal experience for those left behind, from black screen host migrations, to the general sour-taste losing while down-a-man actually leaves. For the purposes of this week’s update, this isn’t a “don’t quit or you’ll be banned” threat – but instead, a courteous notification that this is something we’re investigating and intend to continue investigating in the coming months.

The most visible change coming to Halo 3 in TU2 is the in-game addition of Playlist Ratings. We’ve talked about Playlist Ratings before, but here’s a quick recap:

Playlist Ratings are the playlist-level decoupling of Trueskill values (the in-game number next to your name) from Experience (the icon next to your name).
You will now have a separate military rating (based purely on EXP) in each playlist. When TU2 goes live, everyone will begin at 0 EXP. This means that being a General in a Playlist is based on how many games you’ve won in the Playlist, not based on the Trueskill number next to your name.
Your Trueskill values have not been reset. If someone checks your Service Record they will still see your Highest Skill.

via Kotaku

As mentioned earlier, Bungie had one level from their upcoming “Mythic” map pack on display at PAX 08. Called “Assembly”, it’s a very Midship-esque Covenant themed map. I gave it a quick run through earlier today, trying to get as much of the level on video as possible while attempting to avoid firefights — not an easy task. Beside the sneak peak, Bungie had little else to say about the map pack.

Live from the floor of PAX 08: Bungie is demoing a new Halo 3 map called Assembly; the picture above shows the title “Halo 3 Mythic,” which the Bungie guy said was just a placeholder name for the map pack. He said he “doesn’t know how it’s going to manifest itself to the public,” whatever that means.

More on this as we get it.

After Bungie’s acceptance video for an EDGE magazine award dropped ambiguous hints as to what they may have in the works, the Halo 3 community exploded with theories. While just about everyone had ideas of their own, one of the more popular beliefs was that Bungie was planning to add AI bots to the multiplayer aspect of the game.

Not a chance, says Bungie. Luke Smith, Bungie’s community rep, on the matter: “There will be no insertion of Campaign objects, enemies or friendlies via the Forge as folks have speculated. There will be no “bots” added to the game. [...] Do consider this issue a closed one. Calm yourselves down, pump the brakes, and take a breath. “

Looks like whiny, dirty mouthed pre-teens will be about as close as we get to artificial intelligence in Halo 3. Oh, and if we’re still taking bets: I’m guessing it’s single player campaign DLC of the parallel running side-story variety.

I have no idea if the guy doing all the product pitching works for any of the companies mentioned in any of the videos, but he is freaking hilarious. I can’t stop laughing. The Gatorade video is probably the funniest one of all. I hope companies don’t plan on advertising like this in the future. Maybe the guy was smoking some herb or crack.

I bought my Xbox 360 just to play Halo 3, I’ll admit it. I love that game and I love playing it online. I love the terrains and maps, and the new maps for download look great. Here’s a video preview of the badass-looking Ghost Town map that I want to play ASAP.

Want to see how it’ll look on your TV? Check out the HD version if you have a decent connection.

Bungie’s Legendary Map pack is slated for an April 15th launch for 800 MS points and that means the Heroic Map pack will be free to download this Tuesday, the 25th of March at 2AM PST.