Ultimate Gaming Chair products have grown more and more popular in recent years thanks to more mainstream media coverage. In response to the demand for gaming furniture, more and more companies have thrown their hat into the very niche market. Some do it with bean bags, others with low-quality rocking chairs. UGC, however, is the grand daddy of gaming chair makers and you can usually find premium quality in their wares. Thankfully, this is still the case with their Reactor gaming chair.
The Reactor is the lower-cost alternative to their premier model, the UGC ‘v3’. Costing $199 dollars, however, you can be sure that even though its price is not as great as its bigger brother’s $499 MSRP, the Reactor is made from some high-grade stuff. The chair comes shipped in two pieces, the chair back and the chair base. Setup is very simple, as you have to line up the chair back with rails sticking out of the chair base and push. Aside from the basic mechanics of it, you have to connect a couple cables between the two pieces as well, but this is a simple task that even an untrained capuchin with a hangover could figure out. After that, simply plug in the power adapter and your audio input(s). Boom, done.
One thing I loved about the Reactor is that it is not a rocker-style chair. This is a fully-elevated chair that wont break your back every time you try to get out of it. Another benefit to the standard elevated chair design is that you won’t be craning your neck to see the television. The Reactor comes built-in with audio in and out ports as well as a headphone jack. On the same panel as these inputs you will find controls for the vibration motors as well as the chair’s volume knob. The Reactor is equipped with 2.1 channel audio that includes special vibrating motors attached to various points along the chair. These transducers create vibration from base noise which is sent to the chair. You can even use the chair as a massager without playing anything which is a great feature to have. In using it like that however, it makes you wish the chair could recline.
One feature we wish would have made it on the Reactor are armrests. On the higher-end UGC v3 they are prominently featured, but with the Reactor, they chose an open-arm design. While this works with the smaller overall profile of the Reactor in comparison to the v3, it does reduce comfort slightly especially while watching them moving pictures all the kids are talking about.
The sound quality of the Reactor is good overall, but we noted that at higher volumes, the audio would become a bit distorted, although the eight chair-shaking vibration motors do a great job of helping immerse you in the game by helping to make sounds ‘feel’ more powerful then the current volume is set at. Another nice feature is that if you are looking for a quieter experience, you can plug in some headphones and enjoy the chair’s comfort while at the same time playing stealthily.
The Reactor also makes for great party seating, as witnessed at a recent office party with twenty people or so. The chair became the must-sit on piece of furniture in the room. People were talking about it all over the place. So, if you are looking for a solid gaming chair that is a cut above the rest but still not in the completely bank-breaking high end chairs out there you should seriously check out the Reactor. It is available now from Ultimate Gaming Chair for $199 dollars.
Tritton has a fairly large line of gaming audio products. Their headsets in the past have generally been focused on one type of input. For instance, the Tritton AX PC is geared towards PC and Mac usage while the AX 360 is, as you can probably imagine, geared for use on the Microsoft Xbox 360 console. This AX Pro, however, is a new breed capable of utilizing multiple types of inputs while also including Dolby Digital and Dolby Prologic decoding for a true 5.1 channel experience.
Left 4 Dead by Valve Software – Valve really has a winner on their hands in Left 4 Dead. In plainest terms, it is a cooperative, first-person shooter set in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. These aren’t Romero zombies we are talking about here – these are Dawn of the Dead re-make zombies and the come at you in very large numbers. Left 4 Dead isn’t just about zombies though. In fact, because of the threat you and your three survivor buddies face, the game emphasizes teamwork above all else. One day, I would love to see company ‘retreats’ where their team-building exercises consist of Left 4 Dead rounds (I wanna work there!). Coupled with the fact that it is available via Valve’s Steam service, allowing it a built-in community, means you will not have to wait long to get game going. Aim for the head!
Fallout 3 by Bethesda Softworks – If you never got the chance to experience the original Fallout or its first sequel, you are really missing out as they are truly some of the best RPGs ever made. Thankfully, this tradition has been carried on by Bethsoft even when taking the game into the first-person from the previous title’s overhead, isometric view. In Fallout 3 you will wander around a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. in a quest to find your father, who mysteriously disappeared from the vault you have been living in since you were born. It features an incredibly immersive world replete with tongue-in-cheek humor and 1950’s retro styling. The game will take you many hours to get through, and even then you will not be able to experience everything, forcing you to play through it again and again.
MMORPGs
Spore: This species simulation had some serious hype surrounding it and, while unfortunate that it did not live up to all of it, what we did receive was a very creative life sim that allows you to take your small, multi-cellular beasties all the way from algae eating to space colonization. Suffering from a fair mid-point, the game’s first and last stages are more than worth the play-through. Plus, this is one of those family-friendly games that makes a great gift for the little ones you do not wish to see blowing away wastelanders with their Fat Man!
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 by EA Montreal – While not the most advanced game when it comes to gameplay innovations or visuals, it is easily one of the most well-balanced RTS titles we have played in quite some time. This can lead to some very fun and highly-pitched battles between you and your friends (or enemies) in multi-player games. The single player campaign also stars the likes of Tim Curry, so get out there and defend Mother Russia for Dr. Frankenfurter!
Out of the Park Baseball 9 by Out of the Park Developments – Unfortunately, aside from a racer or two, the PC market has not been very lucrative for sports gamers this year. Even though Out of the Park Baseball 9 is a baseball management game, it still tops our list as, well, nothing else was very notable. It features some of the most in-depth sports management ever seen in a PC game. Manage your players and team in both offline as well as online seasons against other players. Sorry sports fans, your future looks to be console-bound.
Creative’s HS-1200 Digital Wireless Headset: When we first looked at Creative’s wireless gaming headset we were skeptical at best. Usually, wireless headsets that cost less than a couple hundred dollars are lackluster. What we found, however, was that the HS-1200s featured incredible sound quality and a generally comfortable fit that made gaming (or just listening to music while relaxing) a joy. Plus, the boom microphone’s muting system makes it very easy to tell when your broadcasting, minimizing the risk of accidental outbursts to your friends playing with you.
When we heard about this new HDD docking station from iStarUSA, we knew we had to try it out. Unfortunately, we have a ton of drives all over the place and their solution, especially since they billed it as hot-swap capable, sounded too good to be true. Thankfully, we have since then discovered that the xAge-N99SAU docking station is a welcome addition to our desktop despite a few limiting factors.
The biggest improvement over its slightly older brother, the N99US, is the addition of an eSATA connection. The front and sides of the docking station are clean, with no controls to speak of. There is an LED power indicator on the front, but its cool blue light is rather stylish. The ports and controls run down the back of the docking station. There you will find the AC power port, power button, and eSATA/USB ports.
Having been a longtime fan of flight simulators in general and especially great peripherals to go with them (I still remember my original CH Products flight yoke fondly), I could not pass up taking a look at Saitek’s new Proflight Headset.