System of the Year

[Jeremy]

But since it didn't blast them with a water cannon, Nintendo's victory is paper-thin, at best.

[Sl1p]

Wow, Astroblue just dominated this thread hardcore. This is the perfect time for me to ask a stupid queston since he knows a lot about the human ear and theres a bunch of people here who know a lot about digital sound.

So how is it that when I'm playing something like say, Counter-Strike on XBOX I can automatically tell when someone is behind me? I don't have a speaker setup, just the 2 built into my TV like everyone else. The most obvious answer is something like "Well you're hearing shots, theres no one on your screen, so you just sort of figure they're there" but I swear I can hear them behind me. Do developers make with the sound trickery to produce this effect or was my first answer correct and I'm insane?

[AstroBlue]

Wow, Astroblue just dominated this thread hardcore. This is the perfect time for me to ask a stupid queston since he knows a lot about the human ear and theres a bunch of people here who know a lot about digital sound.

So how is it that when I'm playing something like say, Counter-Strike on XBOX I can automatically tell when someone is behind me? I don't have a speaker setup, just the 2 built into my TV like everyone else. The most obvious answer is something like "Well you're hearing shots, theres no one on your screen, so you just sort of figure they're there" but I swear I can hear them behind me. Do developers make with the sound trickery to produce this effect or was my first answer correct and I'm insane?

A bit of both, but you're not insane. Some developers will slightly muffle sounds coming from behind so they sound different to sounds coming from the front. Your brain will notice the difference, collate it with the fact you can't see anything shooting at you, and then spit it out as the impression something is behind you. The brain is good at trickery

[gamevet]

I have a Sony Time Linked Digital Delayed Dolby Surround tuner. It's about 7 years old and pumps out around 250 Watts. It's not 5.1 surround, but it sure acts like it is. I have 2 JBL (large bookshelf)center speakers, 2 Fisher 250 watt speakers (12" Ported woofer) on the front channel and 2 Advent tower speakers on the rear channel. I have yet to see a 5.1 or 6.1 surround sound setup in a store, that sounds better.


My DVD player has a 5.1 surround test setup for your speakers. I do the test and the sound does goe around the room hitting one speaker at a time. Is that not the same thing, that a 5.1 surround sound system would do?


When I play Rogue Sqaudron II, a tie fighter that's circling around my ship, does so by going from speaker to speaker on my supposed Pro-Logic II like reciever. Resident Evil Remake sounds great on my system. If there's a zombie to my rear left, I hear it that way on my speakers as well. If a zombie is to my rear right, I hear it that way as well.

So what is the big advantage to 5.1 over Pro-Logic II? Or is it that my system is some sort just of hybrid to the 5.1 surround sound model?

[AstroBlue]

Pro Logic II is analogue, it gets two channels (stereo) and splits it into four.
Dolby 5.1 is digital, it comes from six/five pre-recorded channels and outputs them as such.

[AstroBlue]

Pro Logic II is analogue and splits a stereo track into five.
Dolby 5.1 is digital, it decodes from a six track recording and outputs them from their respective speakers.

So when you are doing the test, you're not actually hearing TRUE 5.1, the game console is converting the six digital tracks into two analogue stereo tracks, then your digital encoder processes those two tracks into five tracks and then outputs them from your speakers.

They'd basically sound pratically the same, only wankers would care or be able to tell the difference.

[Tracer]

People who are 13 and 14 are going to act like people who are 13 and 14...
Your have no argument because they're going to act like a young teen should, immature would be a 20+ gamer acting like a 13 year old.
Just a thought.

I'm sure it happens. Probably with people who post here.

[Chux]

I know it happens, I just don't let it bother me. As a host, you can deal with the problems, or you can ask the host to get rid of the problem. It's just a game, but a lot of people get really, really mad.

[Sl1p]

Even when I do something stupid to get us all killed by terrorists.

=D

[MechDeus]

And as the guy said, if you DO take the time to compare the Xbox and GC versions of multi-paltform games insteado f raving on like a Xbox fanboy, they are for the most part, virtually identical graphically.

First off, don't put words in his mouth. If you've read a post by him in which he compares versions he always states the GC one is clearly the superior one far and away to everything else, including sex. Secondly, most GC multi-platform games do not have 480p support whereas that comes automatically built-in with Xbox games, so the MS system still generally looks better even when they're technically exactly the same.

Seriously, go read of his posts, he finds the strangest things wrong with Xbox games that no one else can ever seem to find. I've done a lot of his comparisions myself after he's tried to bring them up and pointed that out on multiple occasions; he's either voluntarily blinded or his Xbox is broken. You decide.

I never EVAR have a problem getting a good crew of friends on PGR2, or Rainbow Six 3 (Which I play the most online)

RS3 has a great ratio of good people to assholes, I think I've only encountered two or three my entire time online. In MechAssault there was always some retard hanging around but it was always worth it because of the great mixture of hick and ghetto talk that permeated so many matches. Very few matches didn't involve at least a heavy dose of one of those, if not both together in a beautifully disorienting way.