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Gaming Gear<br />
Accessories<br />
A steady hand and a good eye will get you only so far. These console<br />
add-ons can coax out your A-game. —C.B.<br />
Microsoft Xbox<br />
360 Messenger Kit<br />
$30 • xbox.com<br />
Typing “Dewd H3 2nite” over Xbox<br />
Live takes forever with those damn<br />
analog nubs. The Messenger Kit<br />
snaps into your Xbox 360 controller<br />
and makes texting Sidekick-simple.<br />
Clicky tactile keys, plenty of special<br />
characters, and auto-backlighting<br />
give asinine adolescents on Xbox<br />
Live no excuse for sending indecipherable<br />
insults to rubes.<br />
Nyko Charge<br />
Station for<br />
Nintendo Wii<br />
$30 • nyko.com<br />
When playing Wii tennis, your<br />
focus should be on your followthrough,<br />
not your stockpile of AAs.<br />
Let the Nyko Charge Station play<br />
ball boy to your battery-hungry Wii<br />
controller. Two rechargeable battery<br />
packs, each with 25 hours of<br />
Wiimote juice, give you peace of<br />
mind during tense match points.<br />
EDITORS’<br />
PICK<br />
Sauder<br />
Manufacturing<br />
Trey Chair<br />
$239 • treychair.com<br />
PC gaming may require an office<br />
chair, but hardcore console fragging<br />
works best close to the ground. This<br />
chair swings both ways. Remove<br />
the pedestal to transform it from<br />
desk fixture into floor-bound game<br />
rocker, complete with reclined view.<br />
Too bad the price tag is even more<br />
painful than the harsh seat cushion.<br />
SplitFish FragFX<br />
$60 • splitfish.com<br />
For PC-hardened FPS addicts<br />
slumming it on a console, the<br />
FragFX eliminates joystick jitters.<br />
A mouse, lapboard, and Wii-style<br />
handgrip replace the console’s<br />
controller. We plugged ours<br />
into a PS3, tweaked the sensitivity,<br />
and before long were<br />
able to squeeze off head shots<br />
in Resistance: Fall of Man with<br />
cold-blooded ease.<br />
Your new gaming PC? Merely a big, blinking, expensive box without<br />
quality peripherals like these plugged into it. —C.M.<br />
Bigfoot Networks<br />
Killer NIC<br />
$280 • killernic.com<br />
Getting <strong>sm</strong>oked like Lil’ Homer’s<br />
Cajun Sausage? Let the Killer<br />
network interface card rescue you.<br />
By shouldering the burden of network<br />
processes, it lets your CPU<br />
focus on the game for higher frame<br />
rates and prioritizes game traffic<br />
for faster ping. If you still get beat<br />
using one of these, well, that’s probably<br />
because you just plain suck.<br />
Creative Spectre<br />
Gamer Keyboard<br />
$50 • us.creative.com<br />
In the black abyss of your gaming<br />
crib, the Spectre’s backlit buttons<br />
act as shining blue beacons for<br />
your fingers. Five macro keys<br />
can be programmed for single or<br />
multiple keystrokes—great for<br />
fast-action situations. Additional<br />
sweetness: A compact form factor<br />
and underside cord manager make<br />
it easy to cart to a LAN party.<br />
Logitech G9<br />
Gaming Mouse<br />
$100 • logitech.com<br />
A <strong>sm</strong>ooth handle, modular design,<br />
and red LEDs make Logitech’s G9<br />
mouse look like KITT reincarnate.<br />
Two interchangeable grips, a <strong>sm</strong>art<br />
customizable weight system, and<br />
adjustable-on-the-fly dpi settings<br />
(200 up to 3,200!) make fragging<br />
with this mouse pure money. Even<br />
cooler: The LEDs can be adjusted<br />
for hundreds of color combinations.<br />
EDITORS’<br />
PICK<br />
Razer Barracuda<br />
HP-1 Headphones<br />
$129 • razerzone.com<br />
Getting pistol-whipped in the<br />
back of the dome way too often?<br />
These Barracuda surround-sound<br />
headphones will make sure you<br />
hear the approaching footsteps<br />
of your enemy. Eight sonic drivers<br />
handle the heavy audio lifting,<br />
while the volume for each pair<br />
of stereo channels (center, bass,<br />
front, rear) is totally tweakable.<br />
WIRED TEST<br />
1 4 5
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