We all know we have been to that place, on your PC hooked up to your nice and loud surround sound playing some Call of Duty 4 or Counterstike and BAM! The Missus or the Parents are telling you to turn your bloody game down! You plead with them to no avail; you say things like “But I can’t hear people when they are sneaking up.” or “This game is all about the immersion.” But they never listen; but they will one day but not now. So you have to go back to playing with your stereo headset getting frustrated. For those with this conundrum I may have found a solution and for everyone else who has no idea what I'm talking about I have one simple statment for you. If you like sound in your games read on.

The Logitech G35 Headset is the solution I mentioned above, being a nice 7.1 surround sound headset you can game as loud as you want with out disturbing the more “important” people. It’s the newest member of Logitech’s new G range of PC Gaming accessories, such as the G9x Gaming mouse and G19, as such the aesthetics fit in with the rest of the series. This means a lot of sharp angles and a bulky look, but by no means is it ugly. I actually really like the design but it must be said it can look very goofy on less than the manliest of men. The build quality seemed impressive and a nice touch was the braided USB cable, it was something small but it made it feel like a lot of thought went into the design process and that can only be a good thing. The only thing it seems to lack is a carry case for you LAN Lovers out there.

One of the most important considerations for a gaming headset must be how comfortable it actually is to wear over those long gaming sessions. This is just one of many areas the G35 delivered. While the look is nice it translates to the headset looking slightly bulky, luckily the headset is fairly light. The ear cups are nice and large enough that my big ears can fit in them with out felling squashed something a lot of headsets actually get wrong. The seal is not lost with the larger cups and this makes for a quiet environment, for a non noise cancelling headset, to let the speakers to work their magic. With a good amount of adjustability in the headband and 3 different headband pads you can easily find a comfortable position, unless you have a head like a mirelurk from Fallout 3.

With a recommended retail price of $199.95 it’s not out of the question to hope for good sound quality. I must say that the Logitech G35’s sound quality delivers and would go as far to say it is fantastic. It gives a nice clear crisp sound with very good treble without sounding tinny or overpowering.. Impressively the sound quality doesn’t decrease much at louder levels. Slightly disappointing though was the lack of Bass given the 40mm drivers, even with the settings adjusted I couldn’t find a happy medium between a lack of Bass and the Bass becoming muddy. This carried through to the impact of the explosions sounding slightly weak. It’s only a small complaint but one worth noting. While talking about sound quality I must say that the noise cancelling microphone does an excellent job and its sound quality is just superb. It can also be neatly tucked away by your head and doesn’t get in the way. For PC gamers that also own a PS3 this can also be used as your gaming headset but unfortunately sound output is still going to be directed towards you from normal output source.

Not being a true 7.1 headset I would forgive you for thinking that the virtual surround sound wouldn’t be too convincing. You would have been right 1% of the time, the other 99% of the time the headset handles surround sound fantastically. While not compatible with every game, the games that do support it sound amazing. This is coming from someone who games with his surround sound speakers about 2 feet from his head. As with all headsets there is a good level of customisation with 3 buttons that are completely selectable but most of the options don’t warrant a mention.

Overall I came away impressed with the G35, the sound quality was good and the surround sound effects were convincing. The headset seemed like it would be able to take a bit of a beating and is genuinely comfortable. Only the lack of bass and incompatible games are factors that sour the experience. Considering the price it would be worth looking through the forums to see if your favourite games are supported before laying out the cash.