By no means am I an expert audiophile, nor a sound engineer.  I am a gamer and entertainment enthusiast who likes the most realism he can get in sound.   This review is written as such.   If you’re looking for a professional reviewer, look elsewhere.  I will be as objective as possible.

Ever since it was announced last August, I’ve been anticipating the availability of the Creative Labs WoW headset.  Today, I finally received mine.      I ordered mine through Amazon.com on Thursday for a retail of $159.99, and after overnight shipping, it came to $181.95.  Your shipping cost may vary and tax of course, depending on where you live.

So after opening the huge box from Amazon, here’s what I got.

Inside the box, going clockwise from top left we have:  the headset itself,  a storage bag (which has two internal pockets with Velcro to keep them shut, a small flat head screwdriver to pop out and change the lenses (below the screwdriver),  the USB dongle,  a USB charging cable,  a quick-start guide, and the detachable microphone.

Note that there is no driver disk included.  I’m ok with that.  Instead the quick start guide tells you where to download the driver.  That ensures you will always have the latest driver when installing for the first time.   Installation was very simple.  First before I did anything, I plugged in the headset to a free USB port with the charging cable to get that started, like it recommends. (Well, before I did even that, I changed the lenses.  Mine came with the Alliance glyphs installed.  I quickly changed that to Horde.)  Then, after downloading the driver,  I plugged in the USB dongle to another port and did the pairing.  Pairing was easy.  Hold down the connect button for 3 seconds on the headset and release.  The lens should flash blue.  Then press and hold the connect button on the dongle for 3 seconds and release.  The lights should stop flashing then.  After pairing, I installed the driver and then rebooted.  That was it.  All done.

While rebooting, I put them on.  They fit snug, and are very comfortable.  They are a little heavy, but I quickly got used to them.  They cover the ears very well, closing out a lot of outside noise.

So, after that, I went into the Audio Control Panel, and started making adjustments.  First, I set the color of the lenses to red.  They’re cyan by default (or at least it was on mine).  Next I went to the THX section.  There I turned on the various settings.  There are five options:  Crystalizer (Enhance music and movies to make them sound livelier), Surround (Control the level of audio immersion in music, movies, and games), Bass (Enhance the sound quality and bass of any speaker system for a better listening experience), Dialog Plus (Enhance the voices in movies for clearer dialog), and Smart Volume (Adjust the loudness of your audio playback automatically to minimize sudden volume changes) .  I turned them all on, and set them all at middle (50%), which I adjusted later while playing.

Next I checked out Game Audio.  This section allows you to enable VoiceFX (to change your voice) and enable the EQ.  There’s about a dozen presets and you can of course adjust each slider on your own.  It has a few WoW races you can chose from to change your voice to.  I was a tad disappointed there wasn’t a Tauren to chose from, but maybe in a future update (hint hint Creative?).

The last section is for key bindings.  You can set up key bindings to do different things in game with your headset, such as turning on and off the various THX settings, turning on and off RGB color cycling, and so on.  Note that if key binding is enabled,  they will be locked out of other applications.  The warning is also present on the key bindings page.

So, the main reason you’re here is you want to know how they sound.  After all, panels are nice, but sound quality is the key.   Ok, well,  I have to say, I am not disappointed in the least.    I had an eargasm the first time I logged into WoW.  As I walked, I could hear every little sound.  I could litterally hear the grass crunching under my feet.  I could hear the subtleties in the water fountains in Dalaran.  I then went up to Argent Tournament to do a little combat.  I swear, it was like I heard the game correctly for the very first time in the five years I’ve been playing.  I can’t emphasize more how phenomenal this headset sounds.

Now, in game, I had to make a minor change to be able to hear the full 360 degrees of sound.  Under the sound options, I changed it from default sound device to the headset device.  If left to default, I couldn’t hear full surround sound.  That may be because Windows still sees the default headphones as 2 speakers only.

Next, I tested the headset to watch a movie.  I wanted to chose something that would have a lot of sound effects and dialog, so I chose the new Star Trek movie.  I used a Blu-ray version of the movie with Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 Ultra.  After a couple of minor tweaks in the software to make it play 6 speakers rather than 2,  the movie came to life.  Again, sound quality is phenomenal.  I got so engrossed in the sound, I forgot to stop the movie after a few minutes and ended up watching the entire thing.

After the movie, I put in iTunes and played some of my mp3s.  My music library ranges from hard rock, classic rock, classical, jazz, blues, country, metal, and video game soundtracks.  I played a wide range of my music library to get a good eclectic mix.  Again, the sound quality was impressive.

I only have one real complaint about them.  The wireless range doesn’t seem to go very far.  I can go about maybe 20 feet away before they lose signal.  My kitchen is about 50 feet away from my computer, so I can’t go all the way there to get a beer or soda while playing.   Now, your mileage may vary.  My computer is in the corner of my room, so I have to go past a few walls to get to my kitchen.  You may have better range depending on your home’s layout.

The wireless runs on 2.4GHz, but it doesn’t seem to affect my wireless router.  I imagine it was made to be outside of the range of the 2.4Ghz channels that most routers use.

As for the microphone quality, I got onto Skype with a friend and talked for a little while. She was able to hear me very clearly.  I had to bend the microphone slightly to come closer to my mouth.  The noise cancellation works very well.  She said she couldn’t hear any background noise, not even my fan I have running behind me.  I could hear her very clearly as well, better than I ever could with my old headset.   I played with the VoiceFX for a few minutes, which incited a lot of laughter on her part.

Overall, I have to say this headset exceeds every expectation I have had while waiting.  Of course, I will keep playing with it and if anything changes I will certainly let you all know.  I’m not going to give a number rating, because I think those are bs.  Instead of a number rating, I will say that they are definitely worth the money (If you can’t afford the wireless, the wired version is $119.99).

The maker of Raid Eats made another parody of the popular Good Eats.  Give this one a look.

Bullworth is at it again!
In World of Warcraft food is everything. At least it’s a way to be popular. Chef Bullworth slices into the [Delicious Chocolate Cake] and its happiness-inducing side effects.

Well, I just left the PTR, and it seems Blizzard couldn’t leave things alone.  Those Commendations of Service that used to give 1850 honor points, now only give 185 honor points.  So much for changing out all of our gear after 3.3.3.  Now, when I turn in all of my battleground marks, I’ll have about 54,000 honor instead of 540,000 honor.  Leave it to Blizzard to tease us and now take it away.

Bah,  makes you want to cry in your [Kungaloosh].

OK well, some new thoughts on the latest in 3.3.3.  First of all, no, I have no idea when 3.3.3 is being released.  I’m hoping it isn’t released too soon, as it does need work. I logged into the PTR again yesterday, and a lot of my addons are still broken. 

Logging in to the PTR, I see they finally implemented trading in marks of honor for Commendation of Service.  I’m a little disappointed, in that you can only hold 10 at once, so you have to trade 10 marks, use the Commendations, get more, use them again, lather, rinse, repeat, up until you hit the honor cap of 75,000.  I’m also disappointed they didn’t raise the honor cap.  Also, while the tooltip says you redeem them for 2000 honor, it only yields 1850 honor.  I don’t know if that is intended, or if it’s a bug.  We’ll see. 

Boomkins are getting a buff in 3.3.3…yay!   I’m not going through all the math and numbers, but in a nutshell, [Starfall] and [Nature's Grasp] are changing.  Starfall will  give about 2.5x more damage per star than before, and Nature’s Grasp will now have 3 charges per cast.  What that means is, after it roots someone, if they break out of the roots, it will root them again, up to 2 more times.  This will definitely help us out in PvP, allowing us more chance to make some distance between us and melee.

That’s all for now, I know I’ve been slacking.  I’ll try to do better.

Logging out

Today the newest patch, 3.3.3 went up on the PTR, and there are notes available.  I’m not going to reprint them here, but you can find them here.

I will however touch on some things and give my thoughts.  First of all, the PVP changes.  THANK GOD!  No more of those damn marks of honor to have to collect and have cluttering my currency tab.  I’ve been trying to farm marks for the PVP mounts, and it’s annoying as hell.  Instead of marks of honor, all items will be bought with honor points, like we use now for gear.  To compensate, honor points for Honorable Kills will be doubled, as well as all other honor gains for completing objectives like capturing a base or destroying a tower.  For those not level 80 yet, the honor gains will be offset by halving the amount of XP gained.  Also, honor from completing weekly quests in Wintergrasp will be reduced by 50%, to offset the other honor gains.

Since of course you’ll probably have a ton of leftover marks you can’t use, you’ll be able to turn the marks in to your faction’s pvp quest givers, presumably for honor points, since Blizzard hasn’t elaborated.  Also I am hoping they will raise the honor cap, but I’m not holding my breath.

Also, no longer will you have a specific PVP daily to do.  Instead they are copying the Random Dungeon finder to make the Random Battleground finder.    The notes say that only a group of 5 can queue together.  I’m not sure if that means you have to premake your group, or if it’ll find random players to group you with like the Dungeon finder.

I have some mixed feelings about all of this.  I’m glad they are getting rid of the marks, as they were a pain in the ass, but the new Random Battleground finder could make things more difficult.  We will have to see how it goes. I’m downloading the PTR as we speak, and copied my main over to the PTR.  I’ll check it out and see what is up with the finder tool.

Also, I noticed that the notes say [Titansteel Bar] will no longer have a cooldown.  GREAT news for my hunter/engineer.  Making the [Mechano-hog]  just got a lot easier, of course also that means prices will plummet for titansteel, so the resale prices of those bikes will go down as well.

A couple other things I like.  I like the fact that now they’ve increased the dungeon deserter timer to 30 minutes.  That will hopefully cut back on the people who drop from dungeons prematurely.  I also like that they added the Authenticator input box to the same screen as the main login, instead of the box popping up seperately.  Of course that only happens if you have the authenticator tied to your account.

Well, I’m going to try to get to the PTR and I’ll be able to answer some of the above ambiguities about the PVP.  [EDIT:  After about an hour and a half of downloading and patching, I finally got onto the PTR]

I tested the group queue for Battlegrounds, and it seems that it doesn’t require you to have a group of 5 to queue.  I think it’ll not let you into a BG until you have a group of 5 though.  I don’t know.  Will require further testing.

Also, one very cool thing for us Alchemists (that is, if it stays) Frozo the Renowned in Dalaran  has [Frost Lotus] for sale at a little over 3g per.  Seems to be unlimited.  I don’t know if this will become permanent, but I hope so.

A lot of my addons broke, and I was getting a ton of errors popping up.  Hopefully those will be fixed as well.

Patch 3.3.3 seems like it could be interesting.  It’ll be worth watching out for.

Tonight about an hour ago, Theshat and myself completed [To Honor One's Elders].  We completed the dungeons tonight with some help of a few friends we made back during Brewfest.  Also a friend we made from Hallow’s End helped us with a couple of them.

That’s the fastest we’ve ever completed a meta for a world event.  It took us 4 days, from Sunday to tonight (Wednesday).  Next up is Noblegarden, which I completed last year but will help Theshat complete, then all we have left is Children’s week and Midsummer Fire Festival, and we’ll have completed [What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been].  I’m looking forward to my 310% speed [Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake].  Woohoo!

I got a twitter on this today.  I just had to share it.

If you’re not familiar with Boom De Yada, it’s a lyric from a song called I love the world that the Discovery Channel made and used for their advertising campaign in 2008 and 2009.   People all over started making and posting their own versions on YouTube, and the Discovery Channel encouraged more, and even asked people to post theirs as a video response to their original.

Well, it’s that time of year again.  Love is in the air!  For the past week I’ve been working with my best friend on the latest world event.  We finished the meta-achievement [Fool For Love] yesterday.  We still haven’t had time to go after the holiday bosses due to some PC issues, but we’ll try soon.  Tomorrow starts yet another world event, overlapping for a week with Love is in the Air, called The Lunar Festival.  That will run for 3 weeks, and we’ll need it.  There’s a lot to do for the meta.  Getting all of the Elders honored is hard enough considering how many there are, but then to have to go into enemy territory to honor theirs is going to be a pain.

So, as you may (or may not) have noticed, I’ve redone the site, and on the sidebar over there, I’ve added an armory feed of my latest achievements.  Last night,  I finally got the next step in [Got My Mind On My Money], at the 10,000 gold level.  It’s going to be one hell of a grind up to 25,000 gold.

Well, that’s all I have for the moment.  It’s time for some coffee.

Well today as anticipated, 3.3.2 has dropped!    Season 8 of Arena has started, Frostwing Halls have opened in Icecrown Citadel, a few buffs and nerfs have been added, and a few bug fixes.  The patch was about 170Mb.  Not too bad.  Took about 8 minutes total to download and install on my connection.

Season 8 of Arena:  As most of you who PvP know, once a new season opens, the last season’s gear becomes available for sale without requiring Arena Rating.  This is good for those of us who like to PvP in battlegrounds, but don’t do arena much.   There’s controversy though about it.  Some say it’s “welfare epics”.  You know what, screw that.  I still work hard for those honor points to buy the gear.  I’m not a raider,  I am casual.  I rarely do dungeons.  I don’t have time to raid every night like some do.  I enjoy the battlegrounds, and so the gear I can get is a good reward for all the time I do put into BG.

Icecrown Citadel:  Recently I did do a random dungeon and landed in Forge of Souls, and had a lot of fun.  I’m really going to try this year to do more dungeons and maybe even some raids.  Now that the final wing of ICC is open maybe I will start doing more randoms and see what happens.  I need to gear up though.

Buffs and nerfs: Lots there, I’ll let you read the notes about that.

The official patch notes are as follows:

——————————————————————————–
- World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.2
——————————————————————————–

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

Dungeons & Raids

-  Halls of Stone
Brann Bronzebeard has been getting into shape and now feels comfortable walking faster when escorted.

-  The Forge of Souls
The Devourer of Souls will now cast Mirrored Souls less often.
The Spell Reflect ability has been altered on several creatures. It now has a cast time, only has 2 charges, and has a 75% chance of reflecting spells.

-  The Nexus
Anomalus will now use the Create Rift ability only once, down from 3 times.

-  The Old Kingdom
Elder Nadox now only gets one Ahn’Kahar Guardian during the encounter.
Jadoga Shadowseeker now only ascends once during the encounter.
Several enemies between the Befouled Terrace and The Desecrated Altar have been removed or had their pathing altered.

-  Pit of Saron
Players can now zone back into the instance if they are dead while encounters with Krick and Ick or Forgemaster Garfrost are in progress.

-  Utgarde Pinnacle
Skadi the Ruthless can now be removed from his drake with 3 harpoon strikes, down from 5.
Svala Sorrowgrave now casts Ritual of the Sword 1 time during the encounter, down from 3.

-  Vault of Archavon
Toravon, the latest boss to join the Vault’s giants and masters of the elements, is now accepting challengers in 10- and 25-player formats.
-  The Violet Hold
The time between a boss being defeated and a new portal opening has been decreased.

PvP

-  Arenas
Season 8 has officially begun featuring all-new rewards!

Druids

-  Talents
-  Balance
Earth and Moon: This talent now increases the druid’s spell damage by 2/4/6%, up from 1/2/3%.

Shamans

-  Talents
-  Elemental Combat
Shamanism: This talent now provides 4/8/12/16/20% extra spell damage to Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning, up from 3/6/9/12/15%, and 5/10/15/20/25% to Lava Burst, up from 4/8/12/16/20%.

Warlocks

-  Talents
-  Affliction
Shadow Embrace: This effect can now stack up to 3 times, up from 2. However, the periodic healing reduction effect has been reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10% per application.
-  Demonology
Demonic Pact: The damage bonus granted the warlock by this talent has been increased from 1/2/3/4/5% to 2/4/6/8/10%. The buff granted to a raid or party by this talent remains unchanged.
-  Destruction
Conflagrate: The damage-over-time effect of Conflagrate has been increased to 40% of the spell’s total damage, up from 20%.
Empowered Imp: The pet bonus damage provided by this talent has been increased to 10/20/30%, up from 5/10/15%.
Improved Shadow Bolt: Damage done by Shadow Bolt increased by 2/4/6/8/10%, up from 1/2/3/4/5%.

Warriors

-  Talents
-  Protection
Shield Slam: The damage scaling from block value for this ability now diminishes faster and diminishes starting at a lower block value. The difference should be negligible for players in high-end tanking armor. In addition, the threat caused by Shield Slam has been increased by 30%.
Warbringer: This talent no longer allows Charge and Intercept to break roots or snares. Intervene remains unaffected.

User Interface

-  The party leader is now referred to as Guide in chat when a group is formed via the Dungeon Finder.
-  Fixed a bug where players with Raid Assist capabilities were unable to perform a Ready Check.
-  Fixed a bug where the first couple of tutorials were not displaying upon logging into the game.

Items

- New strength-based melee DPS rings are now available from representatives of the Ashen Verdict.
- Tier-9 Sets: The Aspirant vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds have worked out a deal with merchants in Dalaran so that all item level 232 set pieces will now be available on armor vendors in the city. Set pieces which require trophies will still be available for purchase only from vendors at the Argent Tournament grounds.
- Tier-10 Balance Druid 4-Piece Bonus: Fixed a bug to allow for this bonus to properly trigger.
- Tier-10 Elemental Shaman 4-Piece Set Bonus: Redesigned. Successful Lava Burst casts now increase the duration of Flame Shock on the target by 6 seconds.
- Tier-10 Tank Sets: The gloves and chest pieces for warrior, death knight, and paladin tanks have had their stats adjusted slightly to provide additional armor value.
- Tier-10 Warlock 4-Piece Bonus: This bonus should now correctly be applied to the warlock’s pet.

Technical Support

- The cvar ‘processAffinityMask’ controls which CPU cores are available for the World of Warcraft client to use. Previously the game client was limited to 2 cores as a default which players could override in the configuration file. In the past this provided a performance boost on some CPUs and operating systems. We have identified several systems that are experiencing severe performance issues with this restriction and have removed it. Players who would like to restore the old behavior can do so by updating the Config.WTF file by adding: SET processAffinityMask “3″.

Wow just became fun again and less of a chore.  Ed (AKA Theshat) and I have discovered battlegrounds.  Until Monday night, I had never stepped foot into a battleground.  As it turns out, we needed to get some PvP honor kills for an achievement for Hallow’s End, so we decided the fastest way to rack it up is to go into a BG.  Testing the waters, we went into Warsong Gulch, a simple Capture The Flag type.  Well we lost that first battle, but we decided to go in a second time, and that time we won.  We started getting hooked.  I needed to go into some BG’s for my final cooking achievement, so we went into several more, and won all of those.

Tonight, we went in again, and didn’t do so well.  We lost all of the battles, but we still got a lot of honor kills, and honor points.  I went back in tonight for a while.  I never got much into PvP before until now, but now I’m hooked on BG.    Granted, you win some, you lose some, but it’s still fun to pwn someone’s face.

FOR THE HORDE!