Tech Olive

When Mad Catz shipped out their Modern Warfare 2 Xbox controller, they were nice enough to include the second piece of the set with their Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator. Now, we don’t focus on console gaming here at the Olive, so we’ll be testing this device from the perspective of a PC gamer.

The Throat Communicator consists of an around-the-neck piece with most of the electronics (mic included) built in with a wire leading up to a single ear bud. It’s a pretty cool design and makes for a very portable headset, perfect for any gamers that move around a lot. Of course, you’ll have to have your controller plugged in (or powered on if you’re using a wireless controller) and that makes it a little inconvenient, but it’s expected from a headset designed for use with consoles.

Unfortunately, the device is locked to a very low 8,000 Hz quality setting, but this is standard for Xbox headsets. For reference, 44,100 Hz is the standard quality setting for PC headsets, and this makes it almost painful to listen to through your VoIP program of choice. So, when it all comes down to it, console headsets don’t carry over to the PC nearly as well as controllers. While it’s a great looking headset and an impressive attempt to mimic real-life military technology, there’s just not enough to justify paying $20-30 for this if you’re looking for a new PC headset.

**Because of the borderline unfair testing ground for this review, we have decided to leave it more as a heads up to any PC gamers considering using a console headset on their PC. Because of this, there will be no rating for this review.