The team at Xbox has announced a new headset to complement the new console hardware it launched last year in the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The new Xbox Wireless Headset promises myriad upgrades to your average, run-of-the-mill gaming headset with best-in-class audio performance and chat features.

When Microsoft set out to improve the gaming experience for the now-current generation of gaming, one key area was audio. The team wanted you to feel like you were dropped into the middle of your gaming experience, and hoped to achieve that with custom audio hardware built into the consoles to relieve the CPU of the workload of processing audio. With the new Xbox Wireless Headset, the platform holder hopes to take the experience to the next level.

The Xbox Wireless Headset allows you to hear games loud and clear with low latency and lossless audio. This new device supports the most popular spatial sound technologies, including Dolby Atmos, DTS Headphone: X, and Windows Sonic. Xbox specifically calls out being able to better hear crucial sounds like enemy footsteps as they attempt to sneak up on you. 

On top of being able to hear your games better, this new headset enables players to better hear those you're playing with. Intelligent chat audio quality is possible thanks to dual beamforming microphone elements that pick out speech, as well as voice isolation tuning that helps your microphone pick up your voice over any background noise. If you're not feeling super chatty, a new, toggleable auto-mute feature automatically turns off your mic when you're not talking so you're not heard unless you're meant to be; there's also a manual mute button, just to be safe. Either way, you're only heard when you want to be heard, and a new light indicator tells you when your voice is being picked up and the mic is active.

All the technology in the world would be for naught if the headset is uncomfortable, so the team at Xbox worked to deliver a lightweight design, large and soft earcups made of polyurethane leather, and an adjustable headband with a thick cushion. Just because it's comfortable doesn't mean it's soft all around, though. The Xbox Wireless Headset features a frame with an inner metal headband, rubberized dial rings for grip, and an adjustable mic that you can easily tuck away if you're not using it. The earcups also rotate so you can easily adjust the volume of the game or chat. 

Much like other premium accessories released by Xbox (like the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller 2), nearly every aspect of the experience in configurable and customizable. Using the Xbox Accessories app on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, or PC, you can fine-tune and customize your experience, including equalizer settings, bass boost, auto-mute sensitivity, mic monitoring, and even the brightness of the microphone's mute light. You can also connect to this app to download updates to the headset.

The headset can connect to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Windows 10 PC, plus mobile devices via Bluetooth. That means you can use the headset to listen to music on your phone before switching over to your Xbox for gaming without any wires. You can even pair the headset to both your phone and Xbox simultaneously so you can have a call and play games at the same time. When it comes to battery life, you can squeeze four hours of use out of 30 minutes of charging, of 15 hours of use out of three hours of downtime charging.

The new Xbox Wireless Headset is available beginning March 16, and can be pre-ordered starting today. The headset is listed for $99.99.

Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S launched last November, delivering iterative, yet noticeable improvements over its predecessors in the Xbox One and Xbox One X. If you've yet to dive in to the new generation of gaming, you can learn more about what those two systems bring to the table by reading our review.

While not Silent Hill, the creator of the iconic horror franchise, Keiichiro Toyama, just shared never-before-seen concept art for the new project he is working on. As expected from Toyama, the artwork looks pretty terrifying. 

The new concept art was revealed thanks to a recent interview with the creator over on the Bokeh Game Studio's YouTube channel, the studio behind the new project Toyama is working on. During the interview, he shared a first look at the upcoming horror project with a few new images that show off that Toyama has definitely not lost his touch when it comes to absolutely horrifying his fans. 

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The above creatures revealed are unsettling, and I'm not just saying that as a massive weenie when it comes to anything horror-related. The monster designs are unique in their anemic aesthetic, something that Toyama talks a little more about in the new interview. "I often read comics as a form of entertainment," Toyama says in the below YouTube video. "Recently, you see a trend for 'death game' type of content. These works tend to add entertainment to somewhat brutal worlds, so I naturally took that approach. The view I have of horror is the everyday life being shaken. Rather than just showing scary things, it should question our position and make us challenge the fact that we're living peacefully."

Death comics in Japan are gruesome, harrowing, and artistic down to the last line, and they've begun getting more and more popular in the West in recent years. With his insight about horror being connected to "everyday life being shaken" when reflecting back specifically on the last year, we can't help but to think he's had a lot more inspiration going into this new project beyond the usual horrors that humans face. Personal loss, world loss, political strive, natural disasters, horrifying human behavior — there are worlds of inspiration to be had and he's already proven he knows how to tap into that in a beautifully macabre way. 

Toyama also mentions that this new project is a way for him to go "back to my roots" when returning to this genre but that he also wants to ensure that an "entertainment" note could also be felt in the story beyond blind terror. His new project will retain "elements of horror" but that won't be all that it is, making this mysterious project even more intriguing when trying to guess what could possibly be coming next. 

What do you hope to see from Toyama's new horror project? Any guesses based on the interview above and the concept art shared? Sound off with your theories in the comment section below! 

[Source: Bokeh Game Studios via IGN]