If it didn't matter we would be stuck with midi on our current games.

Don't let any one EVER tell you different.

It really makes you play better since you are more aware of your surroundings. And a big-ass plasma hdtv helps out alot to.

.

everybody seems to agree. Underrated and highly important

One of the best games I've played with the creepiest sounds was Condemned for the XBox 360.

thats a dumb ?

I was surfing the web just then, somehow I happened upon 'bloop'...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

That article struck my innermost desires for adventurous excitements,
I was all thrilled and said to myself that "Yes, this is what I have
been waiting for the last 6 years since I read Necronomicon...a
proof !"

Some better samplings of the sounds I found on this page below, .wav
files near the bottom of the page:

http://www.bloopwatch.org/t...

After that I searched for related stuff and got this excellent looking
art-inspired silent picture rendition of the great myth:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=...

The staged quality and retro-feel is all awesome but some thing must
not miss the ultimate atmospheric entity...and you do know what is
this entity...#sobbing#...SOUND !!!
Yes please...we need sound bad !!! #still-sobbing#

Hey, ask anyone who's on Warhawk Beta right now if sound matters in games. Pfft.

.it was funny one day i was playing RFOM in the Bus Yard and it was too quiet and then i heard him walking... I turned around and meleed him to death... hahaha

was quoted as saying that sound is at least 50% of the game experience and I couldn't agree more. One of my favorite things about the new "gen" of consoles is real 5.1 audio. My speakers and I have been waiting for this for years!

A good surround sound setup is one of those things you wish you had discovered it a long time ago, because that 3d sound just takes gaming to a whole new level, especially for FPS.

Of course it does, what kind of asinine question is that!? Unless, they were polling deaf people over the inter-net?

@ my nizzle, snoop dizzle. I highly doubt that, a mono speaker!? To each his own I guess. :)

I think the question isnt "does sound matter" but "do you need 2 speakers or 5"

Asking if sound matters is like asking if having a tv matters. Some people would argue that you dont HAVE to have an HD tv, but you do need a TV (And good visuals, which you dont necessarily need an HD tv for)

yes sound is very important, and I can dig the 5.1 speaker set up, but when playing a FPS ( on the pc of course..its the best), i like to have a head set on. That way you just turn your head (on screen) to hear where footsteps are coming from, thats the way to play a fps.

I know a die hard Ps2 owner that always rivaled my XBOX 5.1 talk with, if it were important it would be there. What a tool, he thinks because Sony didn't implement Dolby Digital in all their games that he didn't need it or that on some level I guess he didn't even understand it.

By the time he bought a 360 after his extreme disappointment in the PS3 it was to late, Sony had already dumbed him down with the Ps2. So my guess is that only those that have been exposed realize how important digital sound is, and the rest think they care how it sounds but are to ignorant to really understand what discrete channels are. Everything being equal I bet everyone thinks they care, but I know better.

P.S.- 21.1 - As with everything else about the PS3 it doesn't meet the average Playstaion user base. Sony went from No Dolby Digital to 7.1, and most are saying "ummm duh"! Sony just cut it's user base by 75%, thats the way ring in a new generation, that I quote said "next gen starts when we say it does"! Haaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa

not too long ago i bought an onkyo 7.1 system, and upgraded the sub too a velodyne dps-12 and i cant get enough of this system i couldn't imagine
have mono sound in games, it really adds to the experience of the game when the whole room shake when explosions and things are going on
i think that the people that say sound does not matter in games might
not have a good surround sound system and not everone does, but boy are they missing out....i can't wait for warwawk that game is going to crazy
plane coming up from behind you and stuff, and i think it's 7.1 LPCM too.

Sound can make or break a game. With only tin can tv speakers sound is still a huge part of a game. A good surround system can change the entire experience. For example i replayed many of my old games when i upgraded to 5.1 surround. What I am saying is anyone that says game developers don't need to focus too much time on sound is a mentally retarded peice of s#!+ b@$+ard F*%k head!

Video game music is one of the reasons i kept on Gaming.
So yess.

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau