Gadgetory

this video is brought to you by NCI XCOM great technology selection and service this is very and if only Wow yeah so that was my initial skeptical reaction based on the promotional material surrounding the core FX tactical gaming vest as the concept itself sounds so awesome you're you have these transducers inside the vest that accept an audio source whether if they're coming from a game it is coming from a movie or music and these transducers intensified the vibration based on the source audio so the more audio layers the more intense the audio as the source is inside the game the more vibrations you would feel inside the vest and that sounds very appealing for gamers because you get that extra immersion factor for whatever games that you play but at the hundred fifty dollars it is inexpensive add-on to your gaming setup this is one of those peripherals that should come last after you are totally happy with your mouse your keyboard and headphones as I wouldn't consider this to be the core gaming peripheral per se now the build quality is ok nothing really stands out there is some padding on the back of the vest and it's really lightweight its size adjustable I would call it comfortable - with plenty of room for your arms to maneuver design-wise it's a typical vest resembles body armor in a way with thicker portions at the front the core effects text is showcased at the front as well on these boxes that house all the electronics and the speakers and similarly shaped battery compartments right above those the velcro portion in the front is designed to show an emblem of some sort perhaps handy for gaming plants and so the vest is Wireless that's a big plus for not needing to handle any cables but it is powered by four double A batteries that are not included I would expect for the price to have a ready-to-go product the core FX hub is pretty small it is USB powered but with a battery compartment available for for double-a batteries if you want to use the vest on mobile devices on the go there's a line in and that's where you feed the core FX with an audio source whether from a game from any movies that you're playing or even music so you can't essentially connect this to anything that has a 3.5 millimeter jack and at the front there is the line out for speakers or headphones the intensity of the line in is adjustable with this dial beside it with small numbers on the wheel to indicate the intensity level and the volume of line out is also adjustable on the side is where you'll find on an off switch for the hub only and the bind button to link the vest with hub and that goes solid green when the bind is complete overall it's a pretty hassle-free configuration at all I will say the base is really light without any rubber bits to prevent it from sliding all over the place and also the included cables are really short thus limiting the location of the hub pressing the power button will turn on the vest with an audio cue and you will need to bind the vest only once by holding the middle button until the LED goes solid green and the rest of the buttons control your mode and amplitude with useful audio cues as well to let you know of the settings used the mode key on the right side selects between three filters the filter one selects your lower frequencies filter 2 the mid-range frequencies and filter 3 meant to arrange so it's slightly wider filter 2 is the most recommended one to use as the default one and you basically have the flexibility to choose which of the portions of the waveform of the sound that is coming in will be detected and translated into vibrations by the transducers and using the arrows on the left you adjust the amplitude of the transducers basically another way of adjusting the intensity of the vibrations inside the best now so you may be wondering what it's like to wear the best how is it actually for gaming is it in any way immersive gives you a bit of extra immersion feeling and as soon as I got the vest I jumped into bf4 because based on the promotional material based on other reviews I wanted to be the impacts of bullets or feeling the grenades going going on beside me only to realize that the core effects does not favor audio heavy or sound heavy games because in Bilbao field for regardless if I was shooting at somebody regardless if I was just standing still there's always something going on in the environment and regardless of the mode I couldn't get the feeling of being inside the games and feeling only certain elements because the audio engine is so heavy it's so busy the transducers were constantly going off and so it didn't really benefit me in any way trying to play that FPS title however I jumped into half-life - Lost Coast and that was amazing just because the environment is more quieter you still get a sense of being inside this atmosphere and that's when it played the core FX is going to be an amazing addition for extra immersion for scary genres like Metro a series the alien isolation or interstellar Marines where the low humming of the atmosphere of the background that resonates through the vest so you don't particularly feel the gunshots but you feel the environment that you're in next I jumped into project cars just to see if this extra vibration inside the best would resonate into giving you more of a realistic feeling being inside a cockpit and actually driving something and unfortunately to say that wasn't the case because the again the audio engine is great that sounds amazing but it's very busy and because it's using a simple 3.5 millimeter headphone jack to actually power to receive the source audio it doesn't separate between each layer so if there's speech or there's gunshots if there's a grenade going after next to you if you're driving over certain different surfaces it doesn't fully translate into giving you the same layered feeling even though you have different nodes to select from it's not as realistic as you would normally get with maybe digital audio and built-in driver and API to detect which the layers they want to pass through the vest or you know to leave out for more immersive experience and while I was driving inside project cars the vest was constantly going off it gave me a little bit extra I'm like feeling like I was inside a cockpit but not as realistic and so I felt more like a chest massage then being inside the game now also the dual transducers are set up in stereo mode for left and right and thus in theory should deliver directional assistance on where the audio is coming from for example if you get shot from the right side the vibration on that side should be stronger than on the left and you can react accordingly however the transducers are not spaced out enough and provide almost zero directional assistance and now coming back to this whole idea of what games work with the core effects and what don't throughout my experience half-life 2 is a must if you own the core effects definitely go do play through half-life 2 because the gravity gun that vibration through the ground translates so well into vibrations of the actual vest it's almost feel like you're holding the gravity gun interstellar Marines is awesome it's still in its alpha stages but the low humming environment very creepy and dark environment you feel like you're there because you can feel the humming of this environment that you are in it's not about giving you the sense of bullet hits because that's not really realistic but it's about giving you a sense of atmosphere and the environment that you are in so for creepy genres this would be outstanding the entire metro series is great with the best alien isolation I don't need to say anymore it's a very creepy game but man it works really well with the core effects however it is an expensive peripheral and I would say it still feels like in the prototype stage rather than a finished product now don't get me wrong I love the concept of this haptic feedback but it needs to be expanded even further with additional transducers on the side and maybe on the back too just so that you can feel there's something coming around you or coming on the sides to actually give you a sense of directionality second because it's only using the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack to receive the audio source I think that's where the limitations lie within what games it works and what games it doesn't work so for quiet environments it's perfect but for loud environments you just constantly feel the vibration so my proposal in if this is at all possible is to have a digital pass-through maybe you're connected via USB into a sound dongle of some sort that way the game engine maybe could layer the different audios and the vest could detect that and you can have different modes for FPS titles maybe for driving simulators for all different settings that you could select based on the layers of the game not based on the entire waveform through the sound engine and for right now I would like for core FX to provide some recommendations for what mode and which amplitude and which sensitivity setting works for certain titles because right now it's completely based on user feedback and user experience and so once you get the best it's a little bit of a hassle to try it out see what works what doesn't it would be nice to know that battle fits for works on this setting certain other games that are most common - that works on this setting however it now that's not available I would also like for core FX to fix out the whole battery issue because it's only using four double A batteries to dive really quickly I got through about two days of light gaming so maybe some built-in rechargeable so that you can just plug in the USB somewhere on the best that will charge the best because once you run out of charge on these four batteries you kind of have to scramble for more batteries and that is a hassle and lastly there is no auto shutdown on the vest you have to mainly always remember to turn it off as otherwise it does consume battery and you come back to it later thinking that let's do some core effects gaming and the vest doesn't have any power so that would be an indication maybe in LEDs somewhere that would that is visible but not distracting to indicate you should our off the vest or even an or shutdown would be nice and overall I think the core effects is a step into the right direction for extra immersive gaming but it needs at least another revision for this to become the common gaming accessory the form factor is great and the fact that it's wireless and comfortable but it needs a larger selection of audio presets better battery integration and the extra transducers for proper directional immersion but for hardcore gamers does this interest you in any way and for $150 do you see value in this sort of part time accessory as always leave your comments down below make sure to subscribe for more gaming reviews like this give us a like if you found this review helpful and we'll see you in the next one you