It’s that time of year, y’all. Christmas is over, and you gotta get your yearly dose of consumerism in while stuff is still on sale so you can feel less bad about returning all the things you didn’t want because you got a great deal.
Would you like some ideas on what you should buy? Don’t worry; we have some cool stuff here to show you. Everything you’ll find in this gift guide has been personally tested/vetted by Team Niche Gamer, and we’ll provide links to full reviews where applicable.
Headsets:
Corsair Virtuoso Max
It’s heavy, both in construction and in price. The Virtuoso MAX costs a whopping $329 but it might be the most technically advanced headset I currently own. Not only does it feature active noise cancelling, it also supports Dolby Atmos without needing an optical cable or any additional hardware. I also really love that the microphone is thick and sturdy, and has a self-contained mute button built into the mic itself so you don’t have to fidget with fumbling around on the sides of the ear cups to mute the mic.
Sure, other headsets have the option to mute by raising the mic up, but I will always choose a more flexible boom mic over a stiff arm if given the chance. iCue does a pretty good job of interacting with this headset as well, as I liked having the K65 set to the “puddle” option and seeing the outer reaches of the puddle color splash radiate out and dance across across the thin circles that have just enough glow to really make this this headset look like a premium showpiece. The case is nice and sturdy too, though the silver Corsair sails logo is a shiny polish while the cups have a silver matte finish and matching the two would have been more aesthetically pleasing to me. Minor nitpick, and this is the only other headset that I’ve put in the same category as the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless (which I did a full review for here in 2023.)
Turtle Beach Atlas Air
The Turtle Beach Atlas Air might be the lightest weight headset I’ve ever used, and conversely, the first gaming headset I’ve ever used that features an open back design. Currently on sale for $159.99, this headset is terrific to pop on and wear for super long play sessions. In fact, it might be the only headset I’ve been able to wear for more than a few hours without having to take it off and rub my ears.
I love the open back design because it does a decent enough job of keeping background noise out, yet it doesn’t limit voice too much so you can have a conversation with someone even while there’s sound that would normally cause you to miss a word here or there. I’ve still got a full write up coming on this headset, but it’s an excellent headset with very little downside. My only complaint is that I don’t like the feel of the plastic – it feels brittle like it would harden and snap off after a few months of use, but I’ve complained about Turtle Beach’s choice of plastic for years, so this isn’t a surprise. It’s sleek in all black, but if you want to add a little pop of color, you can pick up one of the different colored mod packs, such as the purple one I’ve got on mine.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Collection:
Our friends at Corsair sent over their new line of products for Black Ops 6, so you know we had to break down this collection since it contains some of their best products.
SCUF Reflex Wireless
If you’re a fan of buying performance-enhanced controllers, there’s no doubt that you’ve heard of SCUF before. At one point, SCUF was the only controller modder legally licensed to make Microsoft controllers because they were too good. Not much has changed now that Corsair owns them, and SCUF’s Reflex might be the best modified PS5 controller I’ve seen from a performance standpoint.
Everything feels great, the COD design looks terrific, and the placement of the rear triggers sitting directly on your fingertips makes this the most immersive and easiest-to-use rear trigger placement I’ve seen. The only “complaint” I have about this controller is that there isn’t an option to make all of the face buttons mechanical switches with the same minimal travel that you’ll find by enabling the trigger locks on the back. I’ve even been recommending this controller over the DualSense Edge because it’s much better and doesn’t have the extra weight. At a price of $239.99, it isn’t a cheap controller but it comes with the best customization and a nice little carrying case.
SCUF Envision Pro
While the Reflex and the Instinct are undoubtedly better than stock controllers, the SCUF Envision is nice but leaves a bit to be desired. While I like the extra macro buttons on the face, I had a few issues with the face plate, which caused the B button to get stuck while playing. Taking the magnetic faceplate off and repositioning it would solve the problem for a little while. Still, it was just as easy to remove it and play with the buttons exposed. Though I fear that prolonged sessions without the face might lead to an increased build-up of dust or hair getting into the controller’s internals, this is likely a quality control thing, and not all units are experiencing this problem.
I suspect you could fix this by slightly sanding down the inside of the B button’s slot inside the faceplate, but I never tried it to be sure. Aside from that issue, it has many of the same features you’ll find on its console brothers, and the only thing that would make it better would be an interchangeable thumb cover to swap from a thumb plate to a traditional cross-shaped d-pad. Coming in at $199.99 it’s a little more expensive than most PC focused gaming controllers, but then again other people might charge an extra $40 for an additional connector that adds the macro buttons, nor do a lot of them have the rear triggers. The Envision feels very similar to the Nintendo Switch pro controller, and features swappable magnetic faceplates.
SCUF Instinct Pro
Up next is the SCUF Instinct Pro Xbox controller. Now, with any controller, I will typically say that you only need the base controller to be able to play the game; everything else is cosmetic or to make your life easier. Yes, pro controllers can give you an advantage by not having to push buttons rapidly, but it isn’t necessary.
Unlike other “pro” controllers, the Scuff Instinct Pro has re-programmable buttons that can be set to match your needs and desires. The controller also has anti-slip grips on the back, so it won’t fall out of your hands while playing. The SCUF Instinct Pro also can have multiple profiles that can be changed at the press of a button. You can also change the sticks to change up the field of motion and responsiveness. The biggest disappointment is that at $229.99 it’s only $10 cheaper than the PS5 version and it doesn’t come with a carrying case.
Elgato’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 pack:
WAVE MIC ARM LP
When opening the Wave Mic arm, you don’t realize how heavy it is due to its distribution in the box. When you assemble it, you quickly realize it is a solid piece of metal. Being the type of individual who likes to build first and look at the instruction booklet once stuck, I quickly realized I couldn’t just slam it together to get it to work. The Wave Mic arm has removable plates to make cable management much more manageable while discreetly hiding the USB cable for the Wave:3 mic.
When installing the Wave Mic arm, you must move whatever you are mounting away from any walls or obstacles, or else it will be a tough time. The easy-to-screw-in arm makes it easy to attach to most surfaces, even a 2X4. The arm’s ability to move in 360 direction allows you to adjust it at the necessary angles. The only downside to the arm versus the standard Wave:3 Mic stand is that it can have some issues with monitors that can’t move. However, the sleekness of the Black Ops 6 Arm can easily outweigh any of the negative aspects caused by movement and is something to stare at while streaming.
Although the $99.99 price point can be a deterrent when you compare it to other mic arms, the overall quality of the arm exceeds most of its counterparts. When comparing it to the $59.99 mic arm we purchased from Amazon last year, the quality vastly exceeds that of the cheaper arm; the Wave Mic arm feels like it could be used as a hammer and still stay together. Adding the Wave:3 mic to the mix is a perfect one-two punch for Call of Duty: Black Ops fans.
Wave:3 Microphone
When first opening the Wave:3, we expected that the mic would look similar to what was on the box but not the same due to manufacturing hiccups. To our surprise, the Wave:3 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 mic looked precisely how it did on the box, showing off the Black Ops 6 logo in a great display.
Obviously, with any microphone, this visual appearance of the mic is only a tiny aspect of what matters. The central question is about the overall sound quality and noise filtering. When setting up the microphone, you can find the correct gain input to make the voice audio sound as crisp as possible. When set to the lowest setting, it would quickly pick up the clicking from the mechanical keyboard and the air purifiers blowing. After increasing the gain, the mic would no longer pick up those background noises, let alone the projector’s speakers in the background, and would solely focus on our voice.
The easy-to-mute touch option can make things easy to silence if you need to walk away or have a conversation in the background. We could adjust the PC and mic sound levels to mix the audio easily. At $149.99, the prize tag can be daunting. When comparing it to the Razer Seiren, the mic audio is cleaner and more crisp. Whether the mic is close to your face or a few feet away, it still picks up audio.
Honestly, now that I’ve used the Wave:3 mic, I could not return to using a standard headset microphone for recording audio. It isn’t a top-of-the-line Audio Technica mic, but the Wave:3 does give it a run for its money.
Stream Deck Mk.2
I’ll be frank with you – I have never understood the appeal of this device. You can set macros on your keyboard to do everything this tool does, but I didn’t expect to find just how much support there is amongst the community for the Stream Deck. There is a boatload of programs that you can use to customize what your Stream Deck does; it’s not just a tool for streamers. Sure, it might have been initially conceived for streamers to swap between layouts and focus windows quickly, but you can bend this to your will to do all sorts of excellent shortcuts.
Are you an avid Photoshop enthusiast? There’s an entire layout that replaces all of the face buttons with quick shortcuts to make your work considerably faster. There are layouts for Excel, Windows shortcuts, Filmora, and even entire profiles for Logic for aspiring music producers. There are even complete layouts for extremely niche simulation games, such as Euro Truck Simulator and Microsoft Flight Simulator. If you’re not quite ready to plunk down the $150 for the convenience of this tool, there’s a phone/iPad powered free one you can check to see if you’d get any benefit.
Corsair K65 Plus Wireless 75% Keyboard
Years of typing experience has lead me to rely on the use of the number pad, but there’s something to be said about using a TKL keyboard that’s slightly smaller than a standard sized keyboard. The K65 Plus Wireless is a 75% sized keyboard, which gives you less space to move while hitting keys but also a considerable amount of extra desk space.
While I’m not super impressed with the Bluetooth option, the wireless mode works extremely well on the K65 Plus Wireless. There’s almost no noticeable difference between wired or wireless mode, meaning this keyboard still performs at high levels when playing games like League of Legends or Marvel Rivals where every split second counts. The biggest downside is the lack of a palm rest given the $169.99 price tag.
Other Peripherals:
BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX Monitor
What’s not to love about a 32″ monitor that looks like it came straight off a spaceship? Boasting a ridiculously great 144hz refresh rate at 4K while having a 1ms or less response time means you’ll be smashing foes faster than they even know what hit them.
Using the built-in KVM module, you can seamlessly swap between three devices while using the same keyboard and mouse, which makes this the perfect monitor for playing Xbox, PlayStation, and PC all at the flick of the input (on the included remote control). If you’d like to learn more, you can read our full review of the MOBIUZ EX321UX. It’s expensive at $1199.99 (via Amazon and others), but it’s a fantastic monitor once you update the firmware.
Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro
This is the first batch of equipment I’ve gotten from Turtle Beach since they acquired Roccat back in 2019. I used to love that Cougar emblem, and while these products still have the same spirit that Roccat had, the palm tree still just doesn’t feel right. The Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro features slightly raised keys that have a smaller profile keycap that feels similar to the way typing on a laptop keyboard with the Chiclet design felt. The Hall-Effect switches take some getting used to though, as half the time it either feels too sensitive and I’m pressing a ton of buttons that I don’t mean to, or that it’s not sensitive enough and I’m not quite getting the keys pressed down far enough to register.
I have to focus a little bit more to get accurate results with this keyboard, but I feel like it’s making me a better typist. This means I’ve managed to accidentally blow my ultimate by pressing E and R in the center, accidentally triggering both skills, but when I’m concentrating, my skill shots are way more calculated and reliable. I really wish it had a better included palm rest though, I greatly preferred the transparent one that was packaged with the full size Vulcan II Max. What can I say? If I’m gonna have RGB glowing nonsense on my desk, I want it to go all out. It’s a nice keyboard for $159.99, but could be just a touch better.
Turtle Beach Kona II Air
Since the Turtle Beach Kona II Air is pictured with the Vulcan II TKL Pro above, I didn’t feel the need to insert a separate picture. Roccat’s biggest strength was always their unique keyboards, but their mice have always felt like nicer versions of the $30 or less Chinese knockoffs you’d find on Amazon or at Five Below. Not much has changed, but the Kona II Air does have a niche – it’s huge. My hands are small, and this thing feels like I’m using a football compared to the SteelSeries Aerox 5 Diablo IV Edition mouse that I normally use.
The buttons are in nice places and this mouse has plenty of room for large hands who prefer the flat palm technique, but it’s also got sleek angles that meet in the middle to support those who prefer a claw grip. The mouse is smooth, but comes with optional grips for the inner and outer walls so you can decide how much grip you want to use instead of being locked into using a mouse that you wish you had been able to customize. I like the Kona II Air’s frosted RGB strips, which give the glow portions a unique look, but I don’t like that the buttons don’t create a lip around the scroll wheel. I can’t tell you how many times that I’ve already scrolled up or down when I was just trying to slide my finger over to click. The Kone II Air is on sale right now for $89.99 and that’s not a terrible price considering it’s got two action buttons on the side above your thumb and one below which is often overlooked.
SCUF Nomad
While it was a little bit weird to get the hang of using the Nomad at first, I’ve grown to appreciate that it doesn’t plug directly into the phone and instead sits on a little rubber nub that keeps it aligned and in the controller’s cradle. It stretches out long enough to accommodate my iPhone 16 Pro Max, and using the SCUF button in tandem with the SCUF app to capture videos/pictures and find new games is a cool touch.
The Nomad also features the carbon fiber touches on the analog sticks and is made from the same quality components that the other SCUF controllers are made from, which makes the Nomad feel far more premium than, say, a Backbone (currently also $99.99) or one of its many clones on the market. I’ve already played so much Dead Cells+ with this thing, and it’s an excellent substitution when I don’t have the space in my backpack to take my Steam Deck out on the day’s commute. The only downside is that it’s only compatible with iPhones that use iOS 16 and higher.
Victrix Pro BFG Wireless Controller – Tekken 8 Rage Art
Who doesn’t love a controller that you can swap the spots of the left analog stick and the d-pad? The Victrix Pro BFG is an excellent tournament grade controller that allows you to quickly reposition the module based on the layout you’d prefer. I love the replaceable d-pad caps which allow you to move from the wide plate style d-pad you’ll find on Xbox controllers all the way back down to the precision based original cardinal direction classic d-pad you’ll find on Nintendo controllers. Adding the Nintendo d-pad to a PlayStation style controller makes the BFG a terrific choice for someone who wants one unique controller for both their console and their PC, and with the BFG allowing you to quickly move from the standard right analog with four face button layout to the traditional fight pad six button layout, this controller is a terrific jack-of-all-trades choice given the ability to lock the travel time on the rear triggers.
Coming in at $199.99 it’s not quite as expensive as some of the other controllers on this list, but the module replacement means this controller may also be easier to repair if something happens to the sticks or the buttons. The only downside from my testing is that the six button layout is too close to the center due to the extra space being added in the top right outside (where you can see FIGHTPAD in the photo). In future iterations, I’d like to see that space flipped down to the left so the buttons don’t feel too close. as it stands now, instinctively my fingers return to the center and outer two buttons, leaving me to have to look down to ensure my fingers are over far enough to rest on all three buttons, as I primarily only keep two touching the button due to years of playing with standard controllers and hovering my right hand over the face buttons.
Victrix Pro KO Leverless Fight Stick
If you’re new to arcade sticks, or a casual fighting game fan, you may not even be aware that this product exists. The Victrix Pro KO is a “leverless” fight stick, which means it doesn’t have a joystick, and instead you use buttons positioned to align to your fingers for more precise inputs. In the default configuration, your left hand sits on left, down, and right, while your left thumb sits on up. It takes quite a bit of practice to get used to the feel of this, but if you can keep your mind wrapped around the unique feeling of these controllers, they really are the most optimal way to ensure your technical mastery.
It is much harder to pull off a 360 degree spin move, such as Zangief’s Spinning Piledriver, but it is also far less likely for you to accidentally pull off a move when you meant to do something else. Street Fighter aficionados know how bad it sucks to accidentally throw a fireball instead of a dragon punch because you accidentally wiggled the stick a smidge too far forward or not quite forward enough, and these controllers eliminate these mistakes.
I love how thin and portable this stick feels, and it definitely doesn’t feel like it requires its own backpack like my old Qanba or Mad Catz sticks did. The Pro KO is super lightweight and made from a nice sturdy aluminum shell with terrific feeling silicone padding to ensure the stick stays put during the height of battle. I also like the release switch on top in order to unlock the cable, instead of having to plug it in and screw it down. Fight stick fans know these are never cheap, but the Pro KO is very affordable at $249.99.
The buttons all light up purple around the outer edge, so it’s flashy but also refined. My only complaint with this stick that the inputs are etched into the shell, which means if you want to move the arrows over a slot to give you more room between your hands, the visual inputs won’t line up. I know this isn’t a big deal for a lot of people, but I’d rather see the buttons have their direction/symbol inside of a clear button, but you can use the Victrix software to change the colors of each button’s light ring in order to give yourself a different way remember your custom layout. I didn’t take a picture of it, but I moved the directions over and mapped the rings to show red on left/right, and green on up/down so I could keep those straight without getting hung up on the predefined markings.
Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot
This controller is probably the weirdest one of the bunch because it’s extremely niche. The Stealth Pivot is well-built, in fact I’d argue it’s probably the most sturdy controller on this list. It feels like you could bounce it off the wall and it’d be just fine. The pivot gimmick is interesting because you can swap from standard Xbox controller to a six button fight pad. This eliminates the need to have multiple controllers if you’re a casual fighting game fan or wanna emulate some Sega Genesis games or something, but one likely unintended feature is being able to tuck the analog sticks in so that you can rotate the modules.
However, if the module stays docked, this actually serves as a cool way to protect your sticks when your controller is in a bag or backpack. The other neat thing this controller features is small LCD screen that can display notifications and chat messages, so you can quickly read things by flicking through them on the toggle wheel slightly under the Xbox logo. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of the d-pad on the fighter side because I’m old and will always prefer a good old fashioned cross d-pad like Nintendo taught me to play games on.
Alright. That’s a lot of stuff, and plenty of awesome things to pick up. If you decide to pick up some of these items, consider clicking the links in this post in order to help support independent media! If you have any questions that this didn’t address, you’re always welcome to hit me up on X/Twitter @sybaritictrance!
