Gaming and Surround Sound

We have been told for many years that for movies, that the picture is important but also the sound. Without good sound reproduction we are only getting 50% of the movie going experience, for both at home and at the theater.

Well, I feel the exact same way for video games.

Without a good surround system you are getting only half the experience when your playing your favorite video games. Don't get me wrong, there is no problem using the TV speakers to play games, but I think you're missing on the other half of the video game immersion process. There is nothing more satisfying when your being bombarded by excellent graphics but hearing awesome sounds coming out from various points in your gaming room.

There have been many games that I have played that the surround sound reproduction in them has been excellent, totally making me believe that I'm in a forest or on a battlefield. There have been a few games that really hit this mark and really stood out in my mind.

Here is an example of a few of them...

Warhawk - excellent use of front back and side to side surround sound panning. Nothing beats being on the ground with an enemy warhawk coming behind you on a strafing run.

Uncharted 2 - This is a classic case of being surrounded by the sounds of the environment that you are in. It can be subtle at times with the score playing but you actually think you're in the mountains.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 - This is where your subwoofer gets a complete work out. When your in a Bradley and you're firing the main gun, the sound is so well reproduced that you think you're actually there with the tactile sounds hitting you in the chest. Nothing beats the low reaching gut twisting sound when you fire the main gun on the tank. Also, who can forget the sound of a explosion going off close by, causing your ears to ring.

That is just a small example of the surround sound effects that are out there in games. Dolby and DTS have API's for developers to bring out the best in their games, to excite you visually and to tickle your ear drums, and hopefully they are doing there best to fully immerse you.

Now, you say this whole surround sound thing is expensive or to complicated, well, it doesn't have to be. You don't need a $30,000 system to really experience it. You can start of with a cheap Home Theater in a box or you can start buying components to build your system within the budget that you have set out. The sky is the limit.

What you really need to do, is to do your home work. DTS and Dolby are great places to start to get the fundamentals of surround sound. Then check AVS Forums and Audioholics for more detailed information on speakers and electronics. Or you can leave me some questions on our forums at www.PS3GamerGroup.ca and I can give you some heads up on your quest of getting a great sounding system.

If you listened to our last podcast, we did a review of Tron and in the review I pointed our the surround effects of the game and how well it sounded. I will be doing more of these in future podcasts and showcasing outstanding games that really pull you in with their sound.

I will be focusing on this aspect of gaming, because... I love it! I have been working on my home theater since the early '90's and I'm loving every minute of it. The goal at first was to reproduce the movie going experience at home, but now it's to pull me into the game further.