Rez Infinite Made Me Finally Buy A Gaming Headset
Until recently, I’d been using an old pair of Koss Porta Pro headphones with my PS5. The Porta Pros feel flimsy, like some ‘80s relic from the days of the Sony Walkman. But these budget ‘phones punch far above their weight, and I’ve enjoyed them for everyday music listening while they perform admirably for video games.
One evening, wanting a break from the exhausting immersiveness of single-player narrative games, I downloaded the copy of Rez Infinite I had languishing in the background.
Related: Don't Play The Last Of Us Part 2 Without Headphones
An update of the 21-year-old original, Rez Infinite is a revelation. I’d heard of Rez around the time it launched since there was a chorus of critical acclaim for it. Designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, whose credits include Space Channel 5, Sega Rally Championship, Lumines, and Tetris Effect, this Dreamcast title was conceived following a trip to Europe, when rave and club culture was seeping into the mainstream. Back then, booths featuring Wipeout for punters to play were installed in nightclubs, and tracks from Leftfield, Chemical Brothers, and Orbital were included in the PAL release of the Psygnosis classic.
I never played Rez when it first came out – it was too expensive to buy a game that in reviews was criticised for its short length – but I remember being fascinated by its distinctive style and the way it built a feedback loop of dynamic, escalating electronic music as you played, an innovative gameplay design that was pretty much universally lauded at the time.
Sega has long had a zany, edgy, and innovative spirit running through it, while even Sonic is known for its soundtrack. But around the early 2000s, games such as Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, and Rez,
Read more on thegamer.com
