Graphics can take us only so far in this immersion. Characters we identify with and an engrossing story can take us a great deal further. But, it’s the audio in a game that really helps seal the deal. It’s what separates great games from great experiences.

The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition bridges that gap, and that’s why it earns the title of our Turtle Beach Game Soundtrack of the Month. While hacking, slashing, potioning and bombing our way through the game, we found that the myriad of monsters we fought and the amazing locales we visited sounded believable and engaging. This includes everything from the subtle nuances of foliage rustling behind our characters to the groans and roars of megalithic monsters bearing down upon Geralt.

The Witcher’s world is populated with lively characters, carrying on conversations and living out their lives as you move around and among them. The beautifully-realized surround sound and organic feel of the sound really creates an atmosphere into which you can lose yourself. And in a game like this, that’s really the goal.

We can’t say we’ve ever been adventuring out in the wilds, stalking down monsters for fame and fortune, but having played through The Witcher 2, we feel like we have a pretty good idea of what it would be like. It’s a great game, with a mesmerizing story, beautiful graphics and truly top-notch audio. We recommend that you pick it up, take it home, get comfortable, put on your favorite Turtle Beach headset (we love the Ear Force XP400 with this game!) and let yourself drift off into the Witcher’s world.

The XP300 features our new Dual Band WiFi technology, which virtually eliminates all wireless interference. So, instead of hearing pops and cracks, you just hear uninterrupted, clean, uncompressed CD-quality audio through the XP300’s huge, acoustically tuned 50mm speakers.

In addition to boasting outstanding sound quality, the XP300 has a long-life rechargeable battery that can be recharged while in use, so you never have to miss a moment of your game. The XP300 also features a Bluetooth radio for wireless chat over Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. And, of course, you can pair the Bluetooth in the headset to most mobile phones so you can seamlessly take a call while you’re gaming.

And the best part? The XP300 is available NOW from our site. It works beautifully on Xbox and PS3. Still need more information? Click here to watch our YouTube video about the XP300.

The XP400 boasts some pretty impressive tech, though. It’s one of four headsets (The Ear Force XP300, X42 and X32 are the other 3) we’re launching this spring that are virtually impervious to interference. We’ve spent a long time working on our new Dual-band Wi-Fi system, and there’s no finer showcase for it than the XP400.

We’re also proud to offer a truly outstanding rechargeable battery in the headset. Some headsets offer rechargeable batteries that last for three to five hours and require docking to charge. But, we’re all gamers here and we understand that gamers don’t play for three hours at a time (and definitely not when it’s our choice!) and we all get that consumers don’t want to have to stop using the headset to charge it. The battery in the XP400 lasts 12-15 hours and can be charged while you’re playing. Take those marathon gaming sessions as far as you want – your headset has the staying power to keep up with you.

In addition to the new Dual-band Wi-Fi and awesome recharge-as-you-play battery, the Ear Force XP400 also features our new Variable Angle Surround Sound. In the past, surround sound in headphones had been one-size-fits-all. But, your home theater had speakers you could move around so that they sounded right for you. Our new surround sound algorithm has six built-in speaker angles so you can set the angle that sounds right for your ears. The benefit here is huge: more realistic, more immersive and more competitive surround sound. All your games and movies will sound better than ever before.

And what would all this be if you were tethered to a whole load of wires? The XP400 has exactly two wires: USB for power and optical for audio. It offers fully wireless chat on Xbox 360 or PS3 and allows you to answer phone calls while gaming. It’s the new standard for wireless gaming headsets.

We know the XP400 will be available for sale in the middle of April.  What we don’t know is what we’re going to do to top it…

Last year at PAX, we were showing the Ear Force PX5. This year, we’ll be showing off the Ear Force XP300 and XP400, as well as, offering up loads of awesome deals for gamers on site to pick up a new headset. And, of course, we’ll have plenty of headsets set up for your demoing pleasure at a number of our partners’ booths.

So, just what kind of awesome deals can you get? Well, if you’re at the show, you’ll be able to get 20% off anything you want to buy during the whole show. But, make sure you’re following us on Twitter and Facebook, because we’ll be announcing even more awesome ways you can gear up with special PAX East discounts, no matter whether you are at the show or at home.

In the meantime, head over to http://www.paxsite.com and check out all the amazing companies who’ll have booths set up at this year’s PAX East!

Q1: All the Assassin’s Creed games have amazing sound. The atmosphere is completely immersive, the soundscapes are believable and the sound cues are tremendously valuable to players navigating through the game world. How did your team approach improving on an already-excellent sound design for Assassin’s Creed Revelations?

We wanted to take the sound in Assassin’s Creed Revelations to the next level. The saying around the production team was “we want the landmarks in the game to be as close as possible to real life from a visual standpoint”. I wanted that mantra to apply to sound as well. So we went to Istanbul to capture many sound elements that we used in the sound design. The capturing of ambient sounds ranging from people haggling in the grand bazaar to the morning call to prayer, really brings the flavor of this game to life.

Also we devised a method in conjunction with our middleware to recreate the actual reverberation (echo in layman’s terms) of our interior spaces (an example would be the massive interior space of the Hagia Sophia). So what you are hearing in the game is actually the real space! Not many games go to this level of detail.

Q2: Is there any particular part of the sound in Assassin’s Creed Revelations that you’re most proud of?

One aspect of the sound that I’m particularly proud of is the way we incorporated the overall sound design into the district control (Assassin controlled district versus Templar controlled district). All aspects of the sound change when the player goes from an Assassin district to a Templar district. In the Assassin’s District, the ambiance feels light with birds chirping, cats purring, fresh breezes and leaves rustling. People in the game are laughing, conversations are light hearted and the music is very easy on the ears. Conversely, in the Templar district the ambiance feels heavier and has a darker tone to it. Birds are now squawking instead of chirping, dogs will bark aggressively. People will be arguing, crying and talking about how they are oppressed by the Templars and the music will have a dissonant drone to it. The main intention is to make the player feel that he/she is not welcome in the Templar district.

Q3: Many of the fans reading this may not know, but your team has been creating presets for Turtle Beach’s programmable headsets for Assassin’s Creed Revelations. How have you tackled this process? What can gamers expect from the presets you’ve been creating?

All Assassin’s Creed games are mixed to provide gamers with optimal audio experiences. With Revelations, our audio team went above and beyond our previous efforts with high quality recordings featuring a full orchestra, on-site sound effects recording and more (a sneak peak of the process is viewable here). Created by the Audio Director of Assassin’s Creed Revelations using an XP500 headset, this Turtle Beach exclusive audio preset provides the most faithful and fully immersive audio experience possible – it’s Assassin’s Creed Revelations as it was meant to be heard.

Q4: We’re very excited to see that Revelations is bringing back multiplayer. What sort of a role can players expect sound to play in the multiplayer part of the game?

The great thing about multiplayer is that we have a full 60 minutes of custom music created especially for it. The music is incorporated in all the multiplayer game modes and really supports each gameplay mechanic. We also have location based music at the start of the gaming session to give a grandiose introduction. We created custom sounds for slow motion assassinations. The intention was to accentuate the sound and to reward the player for successfully assassinating their target.

Q5: Audio is often overlooked as a tool in entertainment. People frequently take sound for granted. How has audio helped you to tell the story of Assassin’s Creed Revelations and shape the world that players will experience?

For Assassin’s Creed Revelations, the sound will help tell the story in many ways. First, the score evolves depending where and what the player is doing. We also have orchestral scored cinematics that really support and guide the intention of the story line. We support all the gameplay features with iconic sound effects that players will feel rewarded by. Also, the dialogue was recorded in a way that really progresses throughout the game. Orators will tell different stories of what the player experiences at different points in the story. And finally we have a great dynamic ambiance system which changes based on what the player has done and where the player is. As the player starts liberating the Templar controlled districts, the overall sound will evolve to support this. All these sound elements will shape the player’s experience into a memorable one. The sound team has worked hard to provide the fans with a great overall sounding game that I hope they will enjoy!

The X31 had 40mm speakers. They sounded great, but we knew we could do better. For the X32, we tuned up the earcups and upgraded to 50mm speakers. They provide deeper bass, clearer highs and tighter, more accurate mids. All in all, the X32 just sounds a lot better. We also traded in the old black and white scheme for a newer, slicker black and green look that matches the newer Xbox® 360’s look.

Those changes weren’t enough though. Historically, one of the issues with wireless headsets has been interference. Truth is, there’s just a lot of stuff broadcasting wireless signals in our world today. Routers, cell phones, laptops, consoles, Bluetooth devices, wireless phones and even microwaves occupy part of the wireless spectrum and can cause pops and dropouts in audio while you’re playing.

We’ve heard the hype about 5.8GHz, but we’ve known all along that the solution wasn’t a different band to transmit on, it was a smarter system of transmission. So, we worked on implementing dual band wifi in the X32. Dual band wifi operates between 2.4GHz and 5GHz and it works around other wireless devices you may have running near the headset. If your wireless router is transmitting on a given frequency, the X32’s transmitter is smart enough to find a different band to use.

All in all, the X32 sounds better, looks better, feels better and communicates better than the X31.

But wait, there’s more! The X32 also has several EQ settings so you can choose whether you want a flat response, bass boost, treble boost, mid boost or a combination setting. The X32 also has a stereo expander, which widens the sound field so you can pick out quiet sounds more easily. That means you’ll have an easier time hearing footsteps, reloads and other soft sounds that can get lost among the louder game sounds. And, it’s got chat boost so when the game gets loud, chat volume increases so you never miss a word your friends and enemies say.

The X32 is available now in stores and also directly from our site. And of course, it’s just $99.95, like the X31.

I’ve just finished playing a few rounds of Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Super Stardust Delta on the PS Vita. I’m blown away. Both of these games port so well to the Vita that they feel like it was just meant for them. The system’s gyro is incredibly tight and responsive and the dual touch screens rival the sensitivity and control of the best smartphones and tablets. The analog sticks are also particularly enjoyable to use, feeling both firm and accurate. The d-pad and thumb buttons are a bit small, but feel snappy. It’s not that they feel too small, just that there’ll be a bit of a learning curve to get used to them.  All in all, I’m impressed. I liked the PSP a lot, and the Vita is a definite huge leap forward in both its spirit and execution.

And of course, I was playing with one of our new mobile headsets connected to it! Every bone-crunching punch and asteroid explosion came through crystal-clear with deep, tight bass. The stereo separation was phenomenal, giving a great sense of directionality. It’s almost like the Vita was built for a headset. I’ve tried the Vita with the Ear Force M1, Ear Force M3 and Ear Force M5, and they all perform wonderfully. I’m personally partial to the M1 with the Vita. Being able to store the headset inside the Vita’s carrying case is a nice added bonus, and the total isolation and immersion that an in-ear headset provides makes the experience even more immersive.

The inline mics on our mobile headsets also work great with the Vita. Being able to talk to your friends (and online enemies) while you’re punching them in the face in UMvC3 makes the whole experience that much better. We found the voice quality to be great when playing against one another over wifi. It’s awesome to see a mobile console that doesn’t isolate you from your friends, but rather offers you an even better way to play and communicate with them.

Having the ability to form a party and play games with friends and chat with them while you play just adds to the slew of awesome features the Vita boasts that make it such a perfect candidate for one of our new mobile gaming headsets. And, with the announcements of Netflix and Skype coming to the Vita, it’s even more to look forward to.

So, if you’ll excuse me, it looks like my next round is about to start.

Since we announced so many products at this year’s show, we’d like to take a few minutes to explain each one so you can see the differences among them and check out things that we upgraded. Grab yourself a drink and get comfortable – this is going to be a long post.

CES 2012 was really a love letter to our fans, delivering products, upgrades and features our fans have requested. One of these requests has been to create a line of headsets for use with mobile phones, MP3 players, tablets and mobile gaming consoles. And so, we did! There are three headsets in this line: Ear Force M1, Ear Force M3 and Ear Force M5. Each of these headsets features an inline mic with a multifunction button that lets you pick up or hang up phone calls on iPhones and Androids, start and stop music, etc. The M1 is a great sounding set of high performance ear buds (MSRP $59.95). The M3 is a super lightweight on-ear model that folds up neatly for easy storage and travel (MSRP $39.95). And finally, the M5 is a larger, over-ear style headphone with fold flat ear cups so you can rest the headset comfortably on your shoulders when you aren’t listening (MSRP $49.95). Both the M3 and M5 also ship with splitter cables so that you can use them as PC headsets.

Next, we announced updates to two of our most popular Xbox headsets. This spring, the Ear Force X32 and Ear Force X42 will replace the beloved and widely acclaimed X31 and X41 models. Let’s pause here and talk tech for just a minute… Until now, wireless headsets have had issues with wireless interference. Some companies have tried to inject marketing spin into the discussion, introducing headsets that run on the 5.8GHz band and saying that a new band clears up interference. Truth is, 5.8GHz is just another widely used band with loads of interference. The solution isn’t a different band, it’s a smarter transmitter.

So, we’re proud to have introduced a new technology called Dual Band Wi-Fi. Our new wireless headsets have a transmitter that operates between 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Simply put, the transmitter pays attention to wireless activity going on around it and finds a clear space to transmit its signal. This means the end of wireless interference. We were able to demo this new tech on the CES show floor without any trouble. By comparison, many people’s mobile phones wouldn’t even work on the CES show floor.

The X32 features the new Dual Band Wi-Fi technology and has 50mm speakers, which are 25% larger than the 40mm speakers found in the X31. The X32 also sounds better, is more comfortable, doesn’t suffer from interference issues and has the same MSRP as the X31: $99.95. The X42 features Dual Band Wi-Fi and also incorporates our new, improved Dolby surround sound technology. And, once again, it carries the same MSRP as its predecessor: $169.95.

So what do we mean by “new Dolby surround sound technology?”  If you thought it couldn’t get any better, you are in for a treat.  First introduced at CES, TB’s new Dolby surround sound system is found in several new headsets, as well as our new DSS2 Surround Sound Processor (more on that in a bit). Instead of having a one-size-fits-all setup, our new surround sound products now feature six variable speaker angles. Think of it like this: if you had a surround sound system in your home theater and you moved the speakers around, it would sound different. Placing the speakers differently would make it sound better or worse for different people. The same thing is true in a headset. Different configurations sound better to different ears. The end result is better, richer surround sound that can be optimized to suit everyone’s unique ears.

OK, so what if you took the awesome new wireless tech, combined it with the new surround sound tech and threw in some Bluetooth chat?  Well, you’d have our awesome new Ear Force XP400 for Xbox 360!  There are actually two new headsets in our premium line of Xbox 360 headsets announced at CES. Joining the top of the line XP500 introduced at E3 are the new Ear Force XP400 and Ear Force XP300. These two headsets have a whole host of features that our fans have been asking for. They work on PS3 and Xbox, have wireless chat for both consoles using Bluetooth direct to the PS3 and Bluetooth through our XBA for Xbox, have rechargeable batteries that can be charged while you’re playing and have a volume adjuster for Microphone Monitoring, so you can decide exactly how much Mic Monitoring you want on the fly. Both of these headsets also allow you to answer phone calls using the built-in Bluetooth and incorporate our new Dual Band Wi-Fi technology. The XP300 is stereo and has an MSRP of $169.95. The XP400 is surround sound, features our new surround sound technology with variable speaker angles and has an MSRP of $219.95.

In addition to four new console headsets and three new mobile headsets, we announced another addition to our PC line of headsets: the Ear Force Z11. The Z11 is all about packing in a lot of power for your money. It has huge, high-fidelity 50mm drivers, deep, comfortable earcups and two ways to connect it to your computer. If you’re using it with a Mac or tablet, it has a 3.5mm 4-pole connection that carries both headphone and mic sound. If you want to use it on a PC with a traditional pink and green (mic and headphone) connection, it also comes with a high-quality splitter cable. No matter what your PC setup is, it’ll work with the Z11. It also has an inline volume control and a mic mute switch and an MSRP of $39.95.

Last but not least, we announced a successor to our popular Dolby Surround Sound processor, the DSS. The new version, called the Ear Force DSS2, has the same new surround sound technology found in the X42 and XP400 that offers users the ability to adjust the virtual speaker angles for the best surround sound possible. We improved upon the original DSS by adding a full EQ system instead of just a bass boost and by adding the option to mix in your own music from an MP3 player with the game sound. And, as an added bonus, we dropped the price $10 from the original DSS, making the DSS2’s MSRP $79.95.  In addition, the DSS2 will be the engine for several wired surround sound bundles that will be hitting stores soon for PS3 and Xbox gamers.

We know nine-plus new products might be a lot to take in. If you have any questions about these or any of our other products, please, Like us on Facebook or Tweet with us. We’re always happy to answer any questions you have (or just talk about video games and other cool stuff).