CGM Monthly Top 10 Reviews: March 2022

“Providing the ultimate smooth experience, with a reasonable price and endless possibilities for customization, I can’t find a flaw in the ROCCAT Kone XP mouse. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone in the market for a wired mouse and will be using it at my home office—where all my flashy gear is—from here on out.”

“Starting with its insides, the S22 Ultra runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 4nm chipset, an Octa-core CPU and Adreno 730 GPU. It runs on Android 12 and offers storage of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB and sports 8 or 12 GB of RAM (8GB for the 128GB only, 12GB for the others). This phone is lightning fast and incredibly responsive to your commands.”

“Sennheiser has exceeded all my expectations for the CX True Wireless Earbuds. They cost less than past iterations, offer plenty of improvements, and still deliver the vibrant, robust audio the company is known for. If you like audio and want the best you can find for the price, few headphones compare to the Sennheiser CX True Wireless Earbuds.”

“Jujutsu Kaisen 0 did a lot of things to keep the pacing upbeat. Even when there were no fights on-screen, the jokes and teases were there to keep me interested and laughing. While Jujutsu Kaisen 0 served as a prequel story to the show after the fact, I think audiences who have not seen the show can watch this as great entry point and for those who have followed the anime will be in for a treat. If you love action, gore, and heartwarming moments, this anime film could be for you. I cannot wait to rewatch this movie over and over when it will eventually be available on Crunchyroll!”

“Alright, sticker shock aside, this gaming chair is really something. My model was Black & Glacier, but you can also get White, Black & White, or Black. I was able to put it together on my own, which is more than I can say for a lot of chairs I’ve tested. With the easy-to-follow videos online, it took me about 20 minutes. The MAVIX M9 does come with a 12-year warranty (yes, 12 YEARS) and they have 24/7 customer support as well. That’s a win in my books.”

“All-in-all, the Kaira Pro is a fantastic headset and will continue to be my go-to for a very long time. It has everything I want, and nothing I don’t. The only issue I have with the Kaira Pro is the price. Coming in at $249.99 CAD, it is a touch on the expensive side. I do believe that you get what you pay for, though, and the build quality and features of the Kaira Pro are good enough to warrant a price in that range, especially when it is this much of an improvement over its baby brother.” Here is CGM’s review of the Razer Kaira Pro PS5 Headset.

“Moon Knight is long overdue for a live-action debut. Oscar’s experience cuts out three distinctive personas for him to shift between brilliantly. But it’s satisfying to see Marvel Studios introduce him with a winning formula post-Endgame. The extended TV time fully fleshes out Isaac’s deep commitment to three distinctive personalities. Viewers quickly get sucked into a tonally-inconsistent offering. That’s the intended effect Moon Knight adds to keep things exciting. Marvel mostly understands how to tuck superheroes into the world of psychological thrillers.”

“For me, the ability to finally be able to play both Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online at a vivid, blistering 1440p60 alone is the dream realized. Trust me, once you’ve played them with such fidelity, just like your imported saves, there is no going back. The PS5 version can keep its extra DualSense features, and Rockstar has already promised a super-duper PC version of this remaster down the road, but it will be on my Series X where I will ultimately conclude my 8-year long criminal journey.”

“At $979.99 USD, it is a comparable price to the latest iPad Pro, which is to the detriment of the Galaxy Tab S8+. While the S8+ is indeed an improvement on the S7+ (which, in my humble opinion, overshadowed the iPads of the time) in virtually every way, the jump made by Samsung was small compared to the leap made by Apple with its M1 chips. Someone without brand loyalty to either side would likely lean to the immense power of the newest generation of Apple devices and the S8+ certainly isn’t bringing anyone over from the other side. Loyal Android users, however, will still find in the Galaxy Tab S8+ a powerful device that is well worth the price.”

“TUNIC is a breathtakingly beautiful game with novel ideas that borrow from many games that have come before it. The small Fox has many trials and tribulations that are highly difficult to overcome, and a combat system that wasn’t skimped on. There is a certain lack of a storyline in TUNIC, but it could be by design, and it is not missed much. “

“Right out of the box, the sound was impressive. The cardioid polar pattern seems to work better than most USB mics because the amount of room noise was minimal. It is one of only a couple of USB microphones that I have tried where I would be comfortable putting straight on my stream without any VSTs as any music or game audio you may have playing would cover up the room noise without issue.”

“The ROCCAT Vulcan TKL Pro keyboard is a stunning device that is not only great to look at but provides customization for the user that can fit individual needs. The Swarm suite allows for advanced functionality for gamers looking to up their K/D ratio. Without even utilizing the Swarm suite functionality, the light touch of the keys allows writers to march through daily activities with ease, and the satisfying clicks of the key presses never get old.”

“I spent most of my time with the Oclean X Pro Elite on the “Clean” setting, which featured a two-minute time limit and a vibration setting of 13 (which I turned up to 15), as this seemed pretty standard to me. I was genuinely surprised how clean my teeth felt once I was done, and also to notice what areas I was neglecting—having been instructed by my dentist to brush my bottom left teeth especially well after my last visit, lest I need another filling. I didn’t realize that my attention to that spot specifically was causing me to brush my top teeth less, which the brush definitely helped me realize and correct.”

“Critical Role represents the pinnacle of what good, fun Dungeons & Dragons play can look like, so it’s fitting that Call of the Netherdeep should also be a gold standard sourcebook. The campaign offers a little bit of all the game’s features, and inspires players to rise to the occasion with a grand adventure. Newcomers may balk at the depth, but I have no doubt that players who run the entire campaign will emerge better for the experience.”

“I was most excited to experience the audio quality on this high-fidelity headset, and it absolutely did not disappoint. The first thing I will christen a new headset with is my favourite album, and this time I was floored. Crisp audio filled my ears, bringing out little details I normally don’t hear in these 20-year-old songs. Even at lower volumes, I could pick out subtleties that lesser headphones can’t convey.”

“Having looked at a fair number of chairs, and enjoyed sitting in even more just around the CGMagazine offices, I have to say the TITAN Evo 2022 is one of the best chairs you can buy for gaming. It takes what was amazing about the past iterations and improves on it where it counts. It may be a hard sell to replace a year-old Secretlab offering, just based on the new features or customization options, but if you are in the market for a new gaming chair, few compare to what Secretlab has on offer.”

“The art is saturated with style that breathes life into the pages of Cowboy Bebop. Not only does the narrative feel like it was pulled directly out of the anime, but the art by Lamar Mathurin also gives the world a seedier fresh look, while keeping consistent with the noir-feeling aspects of the series. At some action points, it was difficult to not hear the signature Bebop jazz almost jumping off the pages in response to explosions, or good ole fashioned combat segments.”

“This laptop is teeny. I love it. The HP Elite Dragonfly G2 features a 13.3 inch, FHD (1920 x 1080), touchscreen display and weighs in at under 1 kg, but still packs a punch with 16 GB of RAM, and an 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor. The laptop runs on Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and let me tell you, all of that wasn’t easy to figure out.”

“I’m genuinely excited about checking into this game weekly for the foreseeable future, in a way that I haven’t been since the sequel launched. Destiny has always been a great companion game to whatever your main title du jour may be, and with the standard set by this expansion, that weekly check-in experience is going to be more enjoyable than ever… for established players, at least.”

“Fresh is just that, fresh. It’s a new story, new characters, and a new take on horror. It’s refreshing to see something that can completely shock me in 2022. I will recommend it to everyone I think can handle it—it’s not for the faint of heart. If you have Hulu, or Disney+ in Canada, and are looking for a movie that will turn your stomach and make you question your morals, Fresh is your first stop.”

“With over 400 different cars and 90 variations of tracks to drive on, there’s never a dull moment in Gran Turismo 7. There are a lot of real-world tracks and some returning fan favourites from previous GT entries like Trial Mountain. Not only are the tracks spectacular, but the weather also changes according to how the weather in that specific region changes, as well as time-based changes, like dusk moving to night. These all added an extra layer of immersion that I couldn’t have been happier about.”