Sane

40 minutes ago, SteveH said:

@Sane Yep, I have both pairs (Xbox and PS5) I love them that much. So comfortable to wear for hours as you say. 

I actually don't mind the touch controls, but on the Xbox at least, it is easy to bring up the menu and go down to sound settings, as that volume slider is controlling the headphones directly and not any kind of Xbox output. 

 It's a shame that only the PS version allows connection with the console and Bluetooth simultaneously. And the Xbox ones eats through the battery compared to the PS ones despite identical batteries. Xbox lasts me around 10 hours-ish, but the PS are getting on close for double that. Whatever protocol MS use, it needs much more power.  

Interesting to hear about the battery life. It's good enough for me not to worry about it usually, I just charge it once a week or so.

The bluetooth/xbox simultaneous thing is another downside indeed. not sure why they couldn't manage it. I don't really have a use for it but for a headset like this it should really be included.

I'd say it really depends on how much you value sound quality and looks. From what I heard the official Xbox headset is very good and if you're mainly going to use it for gaming I reckon it will be a great choice.

6 hours ago, Strafe said:

I’d be tempted for those B&O ones if they had one model that worked on both systems.

Yeah they really should've gone that way. If you have both consoles that would be really annoying. 

28 minutes ago, SteveH said:

It's a shame the U.K store doesn't have the same sale as Canada as those Portals were on sale at a ridiculously low $199 cad.

That's a great deal. I paid 350 euro for mine. But I did feel it was worth it because I literally use them all day. At work for teams meetings and music listening and at home for gaming and watching TV.  Before I had 2 different headsets to be able to do all that (Going on Teams with my Arctis 9x didn't feel very nice ) .

6 hours ago, dataDave said:

  

 

^ I bet they're the absolute dog's bollocks.

In terms of sound quality I think they are hard to beat. Before I used wired Beoplay H6's with an LG V50 phone for music listening. And while it doesn't equal that it comes surprisingly close. I wouldn't have thought that was possible on a wireless signal. The Portals support Aptx adaptive Bluetooth, which means it chooses a codec based on what you are doing: higher bitrate for media, low latency for gaming. Unfortunately I have no devices that have aptx adaptive (apple, Samsung and Google phones don't support it sadly), but my Pixel 7 does support aptx HD, and the Portals also support that. It's a big step up from normal aptx and I think the headphones are tuned to sound nice with a digital signal, so the end result sounds surprisingly natural without that compressed feeling you often get when using Bluetooth. 

What's also great about them is they are extremely comfortable and light. It sounds like a cliché but I can wear them for hours on end and sometimes I really forget they are there. 

The only thing I don't like about them are the touch controls though, they're just rubbish. Buttons would be much better. 

Edit: one other thing that could be better is the volume of your own voice. It's too low even on the maximum setting. Which feels a little weird, like talking while holding your hands on your ears (not quite as bad as that but to give an idea). You do get used to it, but my jabra evolve2 65's do this much better so I still kinda prefer to use them for long days of meetings. It's a shame because they should be able to fix this easily but feedback about it hasn't had any results so far. 

1 hour ago, dataDave said:

My advice is to buy headphones that don't have the term "gaming" anywhere near the title or marketing.

The downside of this is that you will be stuck using Bluetooth, which is less than ideal. In fact I think it's not even possible on Xbox (not sure about Ps5) to use Bluetooth headsets. Headsets that are made for use with Xbox use the 2.4ghz signal that the controllers use as well, which is much less laggy than Bluetooth. 

That said, if you dislike gaming esthetics and greatly value sound quality, I can recommend the Beoplay Portal. Made by B&O so very expensive but they are proper 'normal' headphones that look great, sound amazing AND are made to be used with Xbox (there's versions for Ps5 too). 

Went to buy Circe, found out I already have it AND Song of Achilles . I will move them to the top of my reading list! 

I really wish DMC5 let you choose which character to play as because I really dislike playing as V. 

Hats off to CD Project Red .  They support and improve their games far beyond what's the norm and what you'd expect in other cases. 

6 hours ago, Gavin said:

 

The process is explained here in clear steps... https://www.thegamer.com/game-share-xbox-one-series-s-x-consoles/#:~:text=How To Set Up Game Share On An,Select 'add new' to add the other account.

 

👍

 

It's not bragged about on official Microsoft sites or help pages because, God forbid, they might miss out on a few more quid 🙄

Thanks!

On 21/11/2022 at 13:49, Sane said:

Boring accounts question:

 

I have a series x, my nephews bought a series s. I have gamepass on my account. Can I set up my account on their Xbox, set it as the home console and install games on it so that they can play them on their own accounts? 

Sorry to bump my own question but I'd love to confirm this is possible, otherwise I'll have to buy some xbox live gold cards for them. 

Boring accounts question:

I have a series x, my nephews bought a series s. I have gamepass on my account. Can I set up my account on their Xbox, set it as the home console and install games on it so that they can play them on their own accounts? 

Really? I have to admit I didn't spend much time with it, just thought it looked very ropey. I'll give it a try. At least it doesn't have all the Ubisoft bullshit to Wade through. 

I bought this because it was 22 euro for the ultimate edition and my nephews keep playing that terrible descenders game on gamepass so I figured this would probably be better. 

And it is. The actual biking is pretty cool. And it looks pretty. But man does it check all the cliché Ubisoft boxes. Forcing me to login to an account I don't want. Unskippable cutscenes. Cringe voice over (he literally said "holy shiz wizzle"). Getting lots of exp and new gear for finishing last. It even wanted me to install a separate app on my Xbox so I can receive 'benefits'. 

Anyway, I turned off the voices, music and hud and now it's bearable. There's a decent arcade game in here somewhere. 

Edit: can someone tell me why all my controls are reversed when walking around the hub area? 

Monument Valley 1 & 2 - Beautiful puzzle games. Probably my favourite mobile games.

Aka to Blue - If you like Cave style bullet hell games. The touch screen controls actually make it more fun.

There are lots of classic Squeenix games like Dragon Quest (4,5,6 and 8 are highlights), FF's etc. But they are quite expensive. Suits mobile very well because of the menu based gameplay.

I can't seem to find Gunvein on the eshop, is it not out yet for Switch?

Part of the fun is the many ways in which this game can be broken.

I love the look of this! Can't wait to play it.

I really want to reread it but there's so many other books I want to read.

This sounds like a perfect 'headphones on and in bed with the lights off' game. 

6 hours ago, MattyP said:

Indeed the difference is quite impressive! Just not sure which one to go for?! Think Dolby Atmos has the slight edge although DTS seems less "in your face" and more subtle. The sound is also less compressed.

 

Too many choices 🤣

Yeah it's not an obvious choice. In the end I chose dolby because I liked the way it sounded and the app design is much better, but DTS is probably just as good. 

It's worth noting here that you only need to buy the license for use with headphones. Using Atmos or DTS X on a home theatre setup is free. 

19 hours ago, MattyP said:

Note you can get trial versions of both Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphone X to give surround sound with those implementations a go. Worth a try think it does improve spacial sound over the standard MS one.

I'd urge anyone using headphones to do this, I found there's a pretty big difference with the windows sonic stuff. Enough to spend the 20 euro on the dolby license anyway.

The dolby app also let's you chance some settings that have a big impact on the way things sound. Counter intuitively for me the movie settings sound best, also for games. Nice to get so much control over this stuff on console. 

I definitely don't have the patience to play a game like this, but I gotta say it does look pretty cool in that video.  If it was free to play I'd try it out to mess around with for a few hours. 

That must be it then. Too bad, I'll have to wait 3 weeks before I can watch the rest. 

I just finished season 1 of this, loved it! But season 2 doesn't seem to be available on Disney. I'm on holiday in Korea, could that have something to do with it? It should be on there right? 

I'm watching Breaking Bad again at the moment, halfway through season 4. It's been said many times and it's so true: it's great, but BCS really is a lot better. 

Dishonored is amazing. It runs like a dream on series x, very smooth and it controls very well with a pad.