How many people care about their audio in games?

[MajorWales]

I know a game is a game, but when you play the story/campaign of a game, instead of picking out explosions and gunfire and footsteps, do you like hearing the wind, birds in the trees, rustling of leaves and bushes, the ambient noise of a computer, a server room etc. Does anyone actually care about hearing these extra sounds?

 

When gaming, do you use an equaliser (custom/presets) to optimise your headset/speakers for gaming? I find that a lot of my friends don't even realise they have an equaliser with their soundcards/onboard audio. I'm the only person I know that has actually tried to create a "flat response" based on what I hear through my headphones using a javascript hearing test.

 

I did it because I wanted the audio to be "as it was supposed to be heard", which doesn't mean setting the equaliser to 0dB across all frequencies because the headset and your ears are tuned differently and pickup different sounds better than others, and some not at all (high pitched noise test being an example). I know it's kinda useless because I'm using a gaming headset (whoopdee do), but if I spent £5000 on a pair of the highest end headphones and the best DAC, I'd still run into a problem because my ears are different to what the sound engineers working on the game have.

 

 

Even with AMD's TrueAudio, or Creative's EAX/CMSS-3D, Dolby's Pro Logic II, and THX's ASA, you may still need to equalise the sounds to be able to hear them properly, or even to be able to hear them at all. It would be pointless having a surround sound experience with a headset/home theatre setup where half the sounds you can't hear because all you are able to hear is mostly explosions, footsteps and gunshots even from a distance.

 

I want to know what you guys can come up with, it seems like a great thing to do for games since it allows you to be more immersed in it, especially when playing career/campaign/single player.

[Dragonzeanse]

I would love to appreciate audio in games. If only the developers did too, half the time.

[NInety]

I don't know..... I'll go ask everybody.

[Humbug]

I care a lot about in-game audio. It's part of the experience, the music too plays a big role.

But i went off equalizers years ago because i could never find a sound that i wanted- it was always a trade off.

[DeViLzzz]

I really do appreciate 5.1 surround sound, loads of base and many games I play right now I definitely appreciate the music. BIT.TRIP.RUNNER and Two Worlds Epic Edition or whatever and the music in both of those definitely add something to the game. I like hearing the really good menu music for both for sure. It gets me pumped to play the game.

[JcGross]

To me sound design is possibly even more important than graphics. The examples you said, like wind howling and other ambient sounds, are kind of nice, but when a game doesn't even take the time to get the gunshots, punches, explosions and footsteps right I get really disheartened. It just gives a very cheap feel to the game imo. It's one of the reasons why I don't like Saint's Row all that much, and why I love Batman Arkham Origins. I'm sad that in reviews they don't talk about sound design.

[ObeseWalrus]

I care enough to install this into Arma 3:

 

[.:Lucky:.™]

I love Audio, bit of an Audiophile and I love really great positional audio and ambient noises that really make up the atmosphere of a game.

Running a Asus xonar essence stx and Sennheiser pc360's

I tried 7.1 with the razr megalodon, but I hated it I found 7.1 made it much harder to hear positional audio and pinpoint where people are. And in Tf2 the medi-gun was so loud and droning that it practically made me deaf, maybe it was due to the closed ear design. I really enjoy my Sennheiser pc360's though. They are top notch and I only wish they had a braided cable.

[Jobobee]

I love Audio, bit of an Audiophile and I love really great positional audio and ambient noises that really make up the atmosphere of a game.

Running a Asus xonar essence stx and Sennheiser pc360's

I tried 7.1 with the razr megalodon, but I hated it I found 7.1 made it much harder to hear positional audio and pinpoint where people are. And in Tf2 the medi-gun was so loud and droning that it practically made me deaf, maybe it was due to the closed ear design. I really enjoy my Sennheiser pc360's though. They are top notch and I only wish they had a braided cable.

7.1 headsets are a gimmick, and such.

I like my game audio, I use modded AKG K702s.

[Jerakl]

I would love to appreciate audio in games. If only the developers did too, half the time.

This

[MajorWales]

I've setup equalisers for my headset and 5.1 speaker setup, but if you look at gaming headsets, they tend to be tuned with a lot of bass for explosions, and the mid-end sounds seem to be a lot quieter, I was on about do people really care about trying to listen to a properly balanced sound being played to them? I've used a hearing test page to try to equalise the volume of each frequency (on the EQ) in my soundcard and get it as close to what it's supposed to be, basically balancing each frequency to make an "almost-flat" response.

 

I use my Vengeance 1300 Headset with my Creative X-Fi soundcard (worst purchase ever), and although the sound quality is great before editing everything, comparing it to my laptop, the audio is completely different. I use my laptop when I'm out because every so often I go over my Gran's house, which for about 6 hours or so isn't really necessary to take my whole PC over. When I noticed this audio quality difference, I decided to try to make it sound better. I started to mess about with the equaliser and found some settings which made it work a lot better. I decided then to see what it should be like, of which I decided to use a hearing test to help me setup the equaliser.

 

Because of this difference, I felt the need to try to balance everything out as best I could, and I've noticed myself playing a lot better because some sounds I can hear better and others I could hear really loudly got turned down. as a result, the equaliser I setup actually helped me playing games. It's not just the headset/speakers you buy, it's your ears and (In some cases, if it's old or just plain rubbish) can be the soundcard. My headset when using a flat EQ actually starts to rattle when bass comes through in games, and I found that when I equalised the frequency responses properly using the EQ it was a lot nicer to hear, with no overpowering bass (no CMSS-3D/Crystalizer/bass boost enabled, when using my 5.1 speakers I have Crossover Freq. set to 40Hz, and SW Gain off)

 

If any of you guys want to try to "balance" your audio in the same way I have, I'll leave a link here to it (just make a copy and edit in your own hearing test's results through your headset/speakers)

[infernap12]

What I appreciate most about audio in games, is when it has great surround audio. I game 99% with a 5.1 surround sound pc speaker setup and have my surround speakers strapped to the sides of my chair. Yeah the audio quality isn't audiophile, buts it is really really good and I find amazing for "adventure" gaming. Two games that really stick out as taking advantage of 5.1 is skyrim and surprisingly minecraft. I can tell where literally everything is in that game.

[theroflcopta]

My gaming experience is always hampered by crappy stock audio. (world of tanks comes to mind) I download good sound mods whenever and for whatever game I can. audio is the third most immersive aspect of gaming behind VR and smooth frame rates.

[Applepienation]

I like good sound, but most of the time the sound assets are disappointing.

 

My Sennheiser 449s work pretty good though, and will be better when I get some quiet fans.

[LancerBG]

a game with out great audio is like a movie with out great audio. Even with old school games how many midi tunes are now classic? its just a must. 

[Wano97]

Yeap audio in campaign/single player games is really important to me. The Last of Us is one good example here====

[aeterna789]

Audio is just as important as graphics and story since the three complement each other. They all form part of my immersion experience as a whole.

[_TechPuppet_]

I feel it's one of the most important things. Think about it, games wouldn't be as fun without the added sound effect/music. It's what makes you able to get really into the game and feel the emotion of it. For me if a game has great audio/sound effects, it makes it that much better.

[Blue fellow]

In multiplayer games, I generally turn the sound to 10% and put some music on