The chartermark of Fatal1ty, the gaming moniker of Jonathan Wendel, never really seemed to help with sales of associated hardware as far as we could tell, so it was something of a surprise when we picked up this Creative Fatal1ty Gaming Headset. It's not a brand new product, as it turns out, but it's benefited from some substantial price cutting that makes it available in certain quarters now for £20 or less.

For that kind of money it's easy to forgive the headset's shortcomings. At its most basic, it's a comfortable-ish, old style set of headphones, replete with a decent detatchable microphone. If you have ears that are bigger than the norm, then the headphones themselves may be quite a snug fit, but we tried them for a few multi-hour sessions and they were comfortable enough. We always knew they were there, but they never really got on our nerves. The immense amount of padding on them probably helped (and added a little to the heat back there, too).

Surprisingly, given the fact that these aren't in-ear headphones, they're fairly tight at containing sound. We conducted a test in an office with four or five people sitting in close proximity, and some very loud music, and it took the higher echelons of the volume scale to be encroached upon before there were any murmurings of genuine complaint. This is good.

The sound reproduction itself isn't bad, although it's much happier in the mid-ranges. When we pushed bassier output in the direction of the headphones, they didn't cope as well. And whenever the range of audio was pushed too far, the headphones weren't quite as confident.

They were competent, and happily dealt with the audio being pumped out of our test games of Crysis and Call Of Duty 4, but it's understandable why the kit has come down from a once far more expensive pricepoint. Likewise the microphone, while convenient, is best treated as a fine budget inclusion rather than anything more. The clarity is good, to be fair, and the ability to detach it is a nice thought.

To be fair too, the manufacturing values of the headphones are good, and it's a robust product you get for your money. There's also a lengthy cable and a separate box to control volume and to mute the microphone if required. And given that it connects to a standard headphone and microphone socket, there's none of the fiddling around that you tend to have to do to get a USB headset working.

At a pocket-friendly street price of £20-£30, we suspect that the Creative Fatal1ty Gaming Headset has found a comfortable level, where it offers a good alternative to the iPod generation's usual choice of earphone. For while it's no market leader, it is now good value and a perfectly decent product.

Verdict
Not a bad headset, and a good, general all-round package for the gamer to enjoy. The lower price point helps a lot, though.

Company: Creative Labs

Contact: 0118 934 4322

Tags: headphone ipod crysis microphone audio shopping consumer electronics business