News:  December 11-17, 2000

Sunday, December 17, 2000

Q3:TA Voice Binds - Mark @ 08:53 EST

Not 3D related but something some of you may be looking for. Christian Antkow, the id Software level designer, made an update to his .plan, responding to queries about what offensive and defensive voice chats that can be bound to keys in Quake III:Team Arena:

More Team Arena Stuff

I received a few emails about people saying that the Offense and Defense voice chats don't appear to be working properly in the TA menus. If you're interested, here's the entire list of voice commands that you can bind.

To use these, do something like;

/bind o vsay_team onoffense // I'm going on offense
/bind p vsay_team ondefense // I'm going to defend the base
/bind o vsay taunt // j00 sux0r h4w h4w h4w !!!

Cheers,

-Xian

#define VOICECHAT_GETFLAG "getflag"
#define VOICECHAT_OFFENSE "offense"
#define VOICECHAT_DEFEND "defend"
#define VOICECHAT_DEFENDFLAG "defendflag"
#define VOICECHAT_PATROL "patrol"
#define VOICECHAT_CAMP "camp"
#define VOICECHAT_FOLLOWME "followme"
#define VOICECHAT_RETURNFLAG "returnflag"
#define VOICECHAT_FOLLOWFLAGCARRIER "followflagcarrier"
#define VOICECHAT_YES "yes"
#define VOICECHAT_NO "no"
#define VOICECHAT_ONGETFLAG "ongetflag"
#define VOICECHAT_ONOFFENSE "onoffense"
#define VOICECHAT_ONDEFENSE "ondefense"
#define VOICECHAT_ONPATROL "onpatrol"
#define VOICECHAT_ONCAMPING "oncamp"
#define VOICECHAT_ONFOLLOW "onfollow"
#define VOICECHAT_ONFOLLOWCARRIER "onfollowcarrier"
#define VOICECHAT_ONRETURNFLAG "onreturnflag"
#define VOICECHAT_INPOSITION "inposition"
#define VOICECHAT_IHAVEFLAG "ihaveflag"
#define VOICECHAT_BASEATTACK "baseattack"
#define VOICECHAT_ENEMYHASFLAG "enemyhasflag"
#define VOICECHAT_STARTLEADER "startleader"
#define VOICECHAT_STOPLEADER "stopleader"
#define VOICECHAT_WHOISLEADER "whoisleader"
#define VOICECHAT_WANTONDEFENSE "wantondefense"
#define VOICECHAT_WANTONOFFENSE "wantonoffense"
#define VOICECHAT_KILLINSULT "kill_insult"
#define VOICECHAT_TAUNT "taunt"
#define VOICECHAT_DEATHINSULT "death_insult"
#define VOICECHAT_KILLGAUNTLET "kill_gauntlet"
#define VOICECHAT_PRAISE "praise"

Logitech SoundMan Xtrusio DSR-100 Review - Mark @ 01:01 EST

Gamer's Depot has posted a review of the $179.95 Logictech SoundMan Xtrusio DSR-100 4.1 Speaker System. This system is the flagship of the new lineup from Logictech that was announced in May of this year. Overall quite a postive review all things considered and we hope to check this system out ourselves early in the new year. While I have not seen how this system is setup, it's worth noting that in general by using a dual voice coil design for the subwoofer wired in parallel the impedance is lowered resulting in a more sensitive woofer. The other bit worth noting is that 5.1 channels are not necessary for Dolby Digital. There are actually several Dobly Digital formats with some DVDs only offering Dolby Digital Surround or Dolby Digital 5.0. The bundled PowerDVD when used with the Xtrusio will deliver a four channel Dolby Digital downmix so while it's not 5.1 output, it's still Dolby Digital. There are several different output configurations which are certified by Dolby including a 2 channel virtual Dolby Digital and their own Dolby Headphone.
News Source: Anandtech

Sound America - Mark @ 00:21 EST

I was doing some unrelated browsing and stumbled across a website called Sound America, a site that advertises over 29,500 sounds available for download!

Saturday, December 16, 2000

Hot Deals, Buy, Sell and Trade - Mark @ 09:44 EST

Hot Deals, Buy, Sell and Trade is a new forum category we have started. No registration is necessary to post or read and the more people contribute to it by the better it will be.

FrontX CPX Multimedia Ports review - Mikael @ 06:24 EST

SavageZone has posted a review of FrontX CPX Multimedia Ports, a system to relocate your sound card inputs such as gameport, microphone and line-in to the front of the PC. As other reviews they found it to be well designed.
News Source: Blue's News

Friday, December 15, 2000

Hercules Announces Game Theater XP again (updated) - Mikael @ 15:59 EST

Update: Brian Jensen let me know that it's already available in stores in Ontario for about $230 Canadian (=US$150).
Hercules has again announced its new soundcard, the Game Theater XP. Don't see any major changes in the press release compared to the one they released late October with one exception, the release date is now said to be in January. Not sure if this means their online shop won't ship until then either. You can find all the specs in the press release.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto reviews - Mikael @ 15:32 EST

PCShooter and Gamespot have both posted a very positive review of the recently released Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Based on the reviews on the net and posts in the forum this is one if not the most popular game that have been released recently or as Gamspot puts it:

Ultimately, the truly unique premise, coupled with stunning graphics and exciting gameplay, makes Giants: Citizen Kabuto one of the best action games in years

MechWarrior 4: Vengeance reviews - Mikael @ 15:22 EST

A couple new MechWarrior 4 reviews have popped up. One very positive while other is rather negative even though it still thinks it's a fun game. The disagreement also include the sound work. Let's start with the negative one at Ga-Sim:

Aurals

This is, by far, one of the worst portions of the game, if only for the horrific voice acting. I said above that the acting in the FMV is pretty bad, well, the voice acting is even worse. I’ve, personally, seen high school productions of “Our Town” that were better acted than this, and this is a MUCH more expensive production.

Other than the rancid voice acting, the rest of the game’s audio is passable. The sound of your mech’s feet hitting different types of terrain is pretty good, and the weapons sounds are nice, but unfortunately, the voice acting just drags it ALL down.

Alice reviews - Mikael @ 15:16 EST

GamersPulse has posted a very positive review of Alice with an overall score of 95. Sound fared even better getting a perfect score of 100:

Another thing the developers paid a great deal of attention to is the audio. Both score and effects are amazing. Sound effects are extremely high quality with hissing steam, screaming banshees, grinding gears and more. To fuse it all together is a simply awesome original score. Composed by Nine Inch Nails founding member Chris Vreena, the score mixes the madness of Wonderland with an industrial feel, combined with the haunting sounds of antique toys, unidentifiable samples, and chanting for a beautiful and eerie experience. It’s both completely unique and yet somewhat similar to some of NIN’s earlier works. The music stays in the background, is never overbearing, but it’s always there, just adding that much more depth to the strange and bizarre Wonderland. To top it all off is some exceptional voice acting. The voices for Alice and the Cheshire Cat are the best of the group. Alice has that childish quality, but with undertones of being very serious, and very deadly. The Cheshire Cat is given a deep, somewhat scratchy British voice which utters the cat’s cryptic wisdom extremely. In all my searching I was never able to find out which voice actors played which parts, but I’d definitely like to commend Susie Brann, Roger Jackson, Jarion Monroe, Andrew Chaikin and Anni Long for some wonderful work.

Hitman: Codename 47 reviews - Mikael @ 14:59 EST

GamingOrgy has posted a a very positive review of Hitman: Codename 47 saying it's the best game he played since Half-Life. One area where he didn't think Hitman lived up to Half-Life is the sound:

This is one area of the game where I can't say I was really impressed. Not to say there was anything wrong with the sound, there just wasn't anything special about it. In todays day and age of EAX, A3D, Surround Sound and everything else they've come out with, I've come to expect a higher caliber of sounds in my games. Hitman was mediocre at best.

Gunman Chronicles reviews - Mikael @ 14:51 EST

GameZone and GoneGold have both posted a review of the Half-Life engine powered FPS Gunman Chronicles. They have about the same impression of the game overall, a good but not great FPS game that's good buy if you don't expect too much. When it comes to sound the reviews differ quite a bit. First up GameZone:

Sound: 7. Nothing special here. The chomping sounds made by the dinosaurs are a little lame, but the audio does, for the most part, provide solid support for the graphics and game play.

Dirt Track Racing -- Sprint Cars review - Mikael @ 14:45 EST

GameRaiders has posted an overall positive review of Dirt Track Racing -- Sprint Cars with the following short bit on the sound:

Like most racing games, if you love the sound of the engine then crank it up, otherwise sound can become annoying. There is not much interaction with the sound, so sound is not really needed.
Sound Score: 70

SideWinder: Game Voice review - Mikael @ 13:56 EST

PlanetHardware has posted a detailed review of MS SideWinder: Game Voice. Despite some complaints about crashes, voice recognition not working that well with longer words and one second delay the review is quite positive overall with a score of 9 (I assume out of 10).

News Source: Blue's News

Hollywood dealt setback in DVD code case - Mikael @ 13:48 EST

CNET's News.com reports that the motion picture industry's effort to ban computer code that subverts its DVD encryption scheme has suffered a setback in California, with the state's high court issuing an order that could see many of the defendants dropped from the closely watched case. For all the details head over to news.com

SWAT 3: Elite Edition Demo - Mark @ 00:51 EST

Sierra Studios has released a demo of the 3D sound supporting SWAT 3: Elite Edition. In the demo mission, you lead a LAPD SWAT element through a high risk warrant service in a downtown nightclub. Your mission objectives are to arrest the four suspects wanted in a home invasion incident. Go at it alone with four AI-driven officers at your side or go online for five person cooperative play. The SWAT 3: Elite Edition demo features all the weapons and multiplayer features found in the full version. Gameplay is limited to the nightclub mission. You can grab the 83.2 MB demo from 3Dfiles.

Shogun: Total War Patches - Mark @ 00:47 EST

A new internatinal patch (v1.12) for the RTS Shogun: Total War has been released. The patch incorporates a long list of new features and gameplay improvements. Click here to see the readme, with the full list of features and improvements. All versions of the patch are available from the official site and the North Americian version of the patch (released in October) is also avaialble from 3Dfiles. I'm not sure if this title supports 3D sound but Avault mentioned "the ambient environmental noise of the battlefields to the positional audio, there's a lot to like about Shogun's sounds." which I would guess refers to more than just stereo but I could be wrong.

Quake III Arena Patch 1.27g - Mark @ 00:41 EST

Not quite sure why we keep mentioning this game since it's apparent that no one at ID cares enough to try and fix the A3D 2.0 support that has been broken for Vortex 2 cards ever since the game was patched (it sort of works for other cards using the A2D driver that Aureal released). Anyway, ID has released a new patch for Q3A with a number of fixes (I am simply assuming an A3D 2.0 fix is not one of them so if you find out the patch changes that please let me know). You can grab the 18 MB patch from 3Dfiles.

MidiLand To Exhibit at the CES International 2001 Convention - Mark @ 00:33 EST

MidiLand will be having a presence at the CES International 2001 Convention, held in Las Vegas, from January 6-9. Their focus at the convention will be to present its revamped vision and directional move to build up and expand their three major lines of audio/entertainment speaker systems and accessories: multimedia, gaming, and home audio. You can expect MidiLand to make available information on future product releases--previously unattainable and unreleased to the public, like the S4 MidiLand 8300, and other high-end home audio entertainment systems currently in development. Information on MidiLand's recent product additions or innovations regarding multimedia, gaming, and home audio accessories will also be made available. Some hot products include, the FS-01, an original MidiLand floor stand kit to be featured in the home audio line, MidiLand's first PC game-experience release, CyberGroove, and the latest speaker system to debut from the new gaming line, the S4 MidiLand 7100 Plus. For some additional details you can check out the full press release.

Thursday, December 14, 2000

Baldur's Gate II International Patch - Mikael @ 16:26 EST

BioWare has now released the international patch for Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. The 6.2 MB patch should address the same issues as the US patch that was released a couple weeks ago.

News Source: Blue's News

Yamaha Brings Theater Surround Sound to a PC Near You! - Mikael @ 14:15 EST

Yamaha Corporation of America announces the new, high performance TSS-1 Theater Surround System designed to deliver true home theater surround sound experience to personal computers and portable audio and video players. The TSS-1 has built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoding and includes five satellite speakers, a wood subwoofer, and a dedicated amplifier with master volume and individual level controls. The TSS-1 will be available in late-December 2000 at an affordable estimated street price of $229.99.

The system will also have a 4.1 Channel Game Surround Mode that can be used with any 4-speaker soundcard. You can find more details in the press release

Next Generation of Digital Music Technology to Be Unveiled in January - Mikael @ 14:12 EST

On Thursday, January 4, 2001, MP3.com invites all parties to experience firsthand the world's latest personal device technologies designed to provide consumers with global access to music, whether they be at home, in the car, or even on a wireless phone. Demonstrations will include the public debut of several new music devices as well as the latest in software and wireless technologies from the music research labs of MP3.com and key partners. The ``Next Generation of My.MP3'' event is scheduled to be held at the MP3.com headquarters in San Diego, Calif. with keynote and on-stage presentations from 1:30 to 3:00 PM and hands-on MP3 ``Play-house'' featuring device demonstration from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. You can find more details in the full press release

Videologic Digitheatre And Digitheatre Dts; Ultimate Speaker Systems For Sony Playstation2 - Mikael @ 14:11 EST

VideoLogic has today announced its DigiTheatre and DigiTheatre DTS 5.1 home cinema speaker systems are available for Sony's PlayStation2. They haven't actually changed anything it's more sort of a reminder that they work well with the PS2.

Samsung Yepp YP-NDU digital audio player review - Mikael @ 14:05 EST

HardwareZone has posted a review of Samsung's S$473 Yepp YP-NDU digital audio player. It's pretty well featured with 32 or 64MB built in memory, can be upgraded with 8, 16, 32 or 64 SmartMedia card, USB, stereo expansion, equalizer, remote control, FM tuner, voice recording. The review is quite positive giving it a score of 4 out of 5.
News Source: Anandtech

Samsung Uproar Mobile Phone/MP3 Player review - Mikael @ 13:56 EST

Tech-Review has posted a detailed review of Samsung's $400 Uproar Mobile Phone/MP3 Player. When it comes to the audio part you have 64 MB of storage, a USB connection and earbuds with a remote control. Tech-Review found it to be both a great MP3 player and Mobile Phone (uses the Sprint PCS network in US).
News Source: Anandtech

Gunman Chronicles Reader Impressions - Mark @ 12:12 EST

Some very positive feedback on A3D support in Gunman Chronicles can be found in our forum. If you are considering this game or have some impressions you want to share you might want to check out the post (no registration necessary to view or post).

Upgrade Pixmaker (Creative Edition) at a special holiday price - Mikael @ 08:24 EST

Soundblaster.com has posted news of a special holdiday price for upgrading PixMaker (Creative Edition bundled with the Live 5.1 cards) to the Home Edition or the Business Edition. Head over to Creative's site to get your license key

WinAmp 2.71 Released - Mikael @ 08:14 EST

Nullsoft has released a new version of Winamp bringing this popular audio player upto v2.7. You can grab it from Winamp.com where you can also check out whats new or changed in this version.
News Source: 3Dfiles

Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance reviews - Mikael @ 07:57 EST

Plenty of new Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance. All of the ones listed below are overall positive or very positive even though they have some complaints. When it comes to sound they are quite mixed. GameRush (90%):

The game's sound effects are spot on, the thumping sounds as your Mech stomps around and weapon sound effects are very polished. What's not so professional is the voice acting on some of the mission briefings and in-game radio chatter. When watching the briefings you get the feeling the actors would much rather be at home watching TV than putting their voice talents into a game which was a real shame as all the other game effects and sounds are excellent. The music is dramatic but not over stated, melding in seamlessly with the action allowing you to concentrate on key vocal prompts and mission updates.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen reviews - Mikael @ 06:57 EST

Four new reviews of the Unreal engine powered Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen have appeared. First up XL-Gaming that were unimpressed with an overall score of 65% due to complaints of doom style gameplay and horrid 3rd person viewpoint but when it comes to graphics and sound effects they were more positive:

Sound effects are decent as well. Footsteps, ambient sound of bulkheads humming or wind blowing, as well as genuine speech and the classic Star Trek equipment are all excellently designed and add plenty of ambiance to the game. The "beam me up" audio/visual effect is particularly breathtaking. The only gripe I have with the sound effects are those of weapons that were "made up" for the game. They sound and feel very underpowered, providing very little OOMPH for the buck – or the verteron power cell in this case. A significant boost in volume would have been sufficient.

Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business review - Mikael @ 06:22 EST

IGNPC has posted a positive impression of Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business with the following short but positive (8.5 out of 10) bit on the sound:

Sound
Excellent. Background audio shifts as combat ensues. Voice-overs are professional, appropriate, timely and not terribly repetitive. Weapon sounds are deadly accurate.

Hitman: Codename 47 reviews - Mikael @ 06:19 EST

GamePro has posted a very short but quite positive review of Hitman where the positive impression includes the sound work:

Sound: Much of the voice acting sounds cheesy and negatively stereotypical, not to mention that even the jungle Indians speak English and that all guards say "Hey" before they shoot at you. Luckily, the weapon sounds rock and roll.

Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials review - Mikael @ 06:11 EST

PlayNow has posted a short and rather negative review of Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials where the major complaint is too few levels and missions. When it comes to sound they share the same impression as other reviews, nothing has changed since Rogue Spear:

Sound & Music: 8
It’s a battlefield all right… none of the atmosphere has been lost and the sound quality is as good as previous Rainbow Six games, but not amazingly inspirational.

Midtown Madness 2 review - Mikael @ 06:08 EST

The Mushroom has posted a short and very negative review of Midtown Madness 2 with the following bit on the sound effects:

As you crash into these car lined streets, the sounds score just above par. The engine sounds seem true to their real-life counterparts. How exciting can engine sounds be? Although I suppose it's better that I didn't notice how awful they are. The crash sounds add more ouch to each car or building you run into. One of the better things about Midtown Madness 2 is the ability to put in your own music CD and listen while you drive around. Guess what Microsoft - you can do that with most any game nowadays, I would hardly list that as a feature.

Sacrifice review - Mikael @ 06:05 EST

XR-Gaming has posted a short but overall positive review of Sacrifice with the following bit on sound:

The sound is all orchestral music, lots of brass and very effective. Voice acting is a strong point of the game. Your wizard is a gritty, Clint Eastwood-sounding guy. Your owl-like familiar, who follows you around and gives you event updates, sounds like a prissy Brit. Your units all respond differently. I especially loved the Hellmouths, who sounded really reminiscent of a unit out of Starcraft. Another thing I enjoyed was how spells were spoken differently every time they were cast. It removed a lot of repetition from the game.

My only real wish is that the voices were actually synched with mouth movement. This detracted some from my enjoyment of any cinematic sequences, and left the characters, especially your main wizard, looking like fish gasping for water while their voices emanated from somewhere around their heads

Gunman Chronicles review - Mikael @ 06:02 EST

EuroGamer has posted a more positive review of Gunman Chronicles than most other sites, they don't think it's an amazing game but still pretty good. When it comes to sound they have similar complaints as several other reviews:

Voice acting is fine, but lacks a decent sample definition which means they are often lost in the environment sounds going on around you, and also sound annoyingly tinny. There is far too much reverb going on too, and frequently in places that really would not reverberate sound in a million years.

Blair Witch Volume III review - Mikael @ 05:40 EST

Game-Over net has posted a negative review of Blair Witch 3 where the creepy atmosphere was the only thing they had a positive impression of:

If there's anything constant about the series, it's the visuals. All three games, albeit choppy at times, feature strong lighting effects, creepy atmospheres and eerie sound effects that help create a spooky gaming experience. It works well, providing thrills and chills as creatures jump out at you from every conceivable angle. The voiceovers sound professional as usual

Blair Witch volume 2 review - Mikael @ 05:36 EST

FiringSquad has posted a mixed review of Blair Witch 2: Legend of Coffin Rock. Here's a snip from their rather detailed sound coverage:

As professor Wojnarowicz would theorize, sound and gameplay go hand in hand in the horror genre. Within horror games, sound is just as important as the graphics and the gameplay itself, if not moreso. Though Human Head had some issues with the gameplay of BW2, and there were a few problems with the graphics they hit the coffin nail on the head in the sound department.

The focus of sound in BW2 is on the ambient effects of the "woods outside of Burkittsville, Maryland." There is an eerie quietness that pervades the game, overlapped with the sound of wind sweeping through the trees, and birds calling in the distance. Neither the wind nor the birds sound forced, as they often do in games.

Ford Racing review - Mikael @ 05:30 EST

GamesDomain has posted a review of Ford Racing that is currently one of Creative's pick of top EAX Technology-enhanced games. The review is overall quite positive thinking it's worth the $20 for the US version of the game but it's not thanks to the sound design:

The sounds are also still a low point, and it seems that the same engine sound must suffice for all vehicles and there is noticeable looping in the engine sample. This may be something that can be addressed by third-parties, but I haven't had time to look into it yet. Not a biggie at this point, since the Kas and Escorts need to run flat-out anyway, but the engine sound is definitely one thing that could still be improved upon. Thankfully, there is a manual transmission mode, rather than the automatic-only that was in the UK version.

Alice reviews - Mikael @ 05:27 EST

GameZone has posted a review of Alice. The review is very positive with an overall score of 10, here's the sound bit:

Sound (8.5): Voice casting was done very well for this game. Alice has a pleasant and soothing accent as a lovely contrast to her deadly purpose and hard-edged attitude. The Cheshire Cat also has quite a unique, somewhat sinister voice to match that wickedly toothy grin. The original soundtrack was suitably matched to the somber and dark atmosphere of the game although not drawing too much (perhaps too little?) attention to itself.

Sonicblue empeg car player review - Mikael @ 01:21 EST

CNET has posted a short review of Sonicblue's empeg car player. The empeg car is a dockable MP3 player with hard drives that can store up to 680 hours of music. It's not exactly inexpensive with a price of $1200 and almost $2000 for the one that comes with two 20GB drives.

Wednesday, December 13, 2000

Independence War 2 Interview - Mikael @ 19:01 EST

Ga-Sim has posted an interview with Independence War 2's lead programmers, Will Vale and Michael Powell that included the following interesting bit:

Tell us more about the lastest engine on which I-War 2 is based. What are its capabilities and how has it allowed you to expand the game beyond the scope of the original title?

I-War 2 has an entirely new game engine called Flux. This is a next-generation game engine designed for new and upcoming PC and console hardware. In terms of features, we have full support for Direct3D and take advantage of new hardware features such as texture compression and accelerated T&L. We also use 3D sound to put the player right into the centre of the action.

With Flux, we've been able to create a much richer world, with ships and environments that look real enough to reach out and touch. The new scripting language has allowed the game designers to be much more creative with ship behaviours and mission scenarios.

Terratec announces SoundSystem 512i digital - Mikael @ 18:01 EST

We already mentioned this when they announced it on their website but today they sent the press release announcing their new SoundSystem 512i digital. It's a 4-speaker board with an optical output that uses the ForteMedia FM801 chip. You can find more details in the press release

Boston Acoustics BA7500 review - Mikael @ 17:50 EST

3Dretreat has posted a review of Boston Acoustic's DD 5.1 system, the BA7500. The review that mostly compares them to the FPS200 is extremely positive saying they are "some of the best computer surround sound speakers I have ever heard". I know Mark thinks they offer better sound quality than the FPS2000 but clearly behind Boston Acoustic's 4-speaker system, the BA4800. One of the major selling points of the BA7500 system is the design which this review many photos shows.
News Source: Blue's News

MidiLand S4 4060M Speaker System review - Mikael @ 17:42 EST

HardwareZone has posted a review of MidiLand's $100 2.1 system the S4 4060M. The review states that compared to the 4060 the 4060M offers (according to MidiLand) an improved subwoofer unit and nicer metallic finishing. The reviewer found them to offer great sound quality, enough to award them 5 out of 5 stars.
News Source: Anandtech

Philips Acoustic Edge Early Impressions - Mark @ 07:42 EST

This fall Philips officially announced three new sound cards. The cards are all now shipping and are going by the names of Rhythmic Edge (stereo output), Seismic Edge (quad output) and Acoustic Edge (up to 6 channel output).

The card we are going to take a quick look at in advance of our full review is the $99.99 Acoustic Edge. Philips Semiconductors’ Thunderbird Avenger - SAA7785 PCI audio chip powers the Acoustic Edge sound card. According to specifications the card offers up to 96 simultaneous 3D streams and 256 DirectSound streams and up to 576 Wavetable voices for MIDI music synthesis and a game port for analog and digital joysticks. The card also sports both a COAX SPDIF input and output with the start of the software bundle being the full version of PowerDVD 3.0 with full 6 channel support. While we are just posting a brief look at the card right now we have tested enough to say that if you are looking for a four or six-channel sound card then the Acoustic Edge is a worthy competitor in the performance market segment offering good all round performance to go with a good feature set for the $100 price point.

For some of the reasons why we feel this way you can check out our early impressions.

Hercules Launches Its New Online Shop - Mikael @ 02:06 EST

Hercules has announced the launch of its new online shop. To celebrate the opening of this new shop, Hercules is offering a FREE three-day shipping on any purchase and a FREE Maxi Sound Fortissimo™ with the purchase of a 3D Prophet™ II Ultra. The audio products they sell are Game Theater XP, Maxi Studio ISIS XL, Maxi Sound Muse and Maxi Sound Fortissimo™.

Rio, A SONICblue COMPANY, Ships Rio Memory Backpack - Mikael @ 01:49 EST

Rio, a SONICblue(TM) company has announced it has shipped the first of its Rio memory Backpacks, offering an extra hour (32MB) of storage for owners of Rio 600 and the soon-to-be-released Rio 800 handheld digital audio players. The first two Rio Backpacks available this year will offer one hour (32MB) and two hours (64MB) of built-in memory at a cost of $99.95 and $169.95, respectively. Each of these Backpacks provides additional functionality by including a rechargeable battery and AC adapter for the same cost as the memory alone. All Backpacks operate interchangeably between the Rio 600 and the Rio 800 players. You can find a couple additional bits in the full press release

DTS 5.1 Encoding to Be Used on Masterdisk's Music DVDs - Mikael @ 01:47 EST

DTS has announced that Masterdisk, the industry-leading CD mastering and DVD authoring facility based in New York City, has purchased the DTS Professional Audio Equipment and will begin to encode the DTS 5.1 Digital Surround audio format technology onto its music DVDs. You can find more details in the press release

Tuesday, December 12, 2000

Windows Media Audio and Video 8 Announced - Mark @ 23:12 EST

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp. president and CEO, unveiled the new Windows Media Audio and Video 8 beta technology for the delivery of audio and video over the Internet. According to the announcement Microsoft's new compression technology "enables the delivery of film content at near-DVD quality across Internet broadband connection speeds as low as 500 Kbps, and near-CD-quality audio streams on a 48Kbps connection". The Windows Media Audio and Video 8 beta is compatible with Microsoft Windows Media Player 7 and 6.4, and offers content owners the benefits of improved quality and lower bandwidth costs while reaching more than 220 million Windows Media Players worldwide.

The announcement also claims that Windows Media Audio 8 enables users to nearly triple audio compression compared to MP3 and receive a near-CD-quality streamed audio experience at 48 Kbps. That remains to be heard and we know that Microsoft has made strong claims about the CD quality of 56 Kbps WMA 7 files compared to 128 Kbps MP3 files before, but the MP3 tests did not use what we could consider best case encoding. Regardless, this is sure to be a step forward in quality. Windows Media Audio and Video 8 is fully backwards-compatible with existing Windows Media Players including version 6.4 and 7. Windows Media Audio and Video 8 beta technology is available today for consumers and content providers. This new quality can be experienced firsthand at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/quality8/. Windows Media Player 7 users will be able to automatically download updates that enable the new video technology the first time they play any content that uses Windows Media Video 8. No update is needed to enjoy the improvements with the new Windows Media Audio 8 codec. Starting this Friday, Dec. 15, 2000, content providers can download the new Windows Media Encoding Utility Beta by to create their own audio and video content using Windows Media Audio and Video 8 at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/ Windows Media Audio and Video 8 and the updated encoder also will be included in next version of the Windows operating systems (currently code-named ``Whistler''). Lots more details and quotes can be found in the full press release.

You can also read more about the new technology in a second press release entitled Steve Ballmer Unveils Building Blocks for Next-Generation Digital Media Solutions at Streaming Media West 2000.

Microsoft has also announced the immediate availability of the Microsoft Windows Media Player 7 for Pocket PC. Windows Media Player 7 for Pocket PC includes support for the Windows Media Audio and Video Format, an integrated skin chooser and support for Windows Media Digital Rights Management for both secure music and video. Windows Media Player 7 for Pocket PC is available for download today for owners of Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs, the HP Jornada and the Casio Cassiopeia Pocket PC model. More details can be found in the full press release linked above.

Kenwood DPC-MP727 Portable CD Player First to Support Windows Media - Mark @ 22:53 EST

Microsoft president and CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the new Kenwood DPC-MP727 portable CD player, the first CD player to support the Microsoft Windows Media Audio Format. The announcement comes across like the unit is the first portable CD player to support compressed audio formats, and it's not. The difference is the other players use the MP3 compression format while the Kenwood DPC-MP727 portable CD player uses either WMA (including the new Windows Media Audio 8 Format launched today) or MP3 to deliver more than 22 hours of music on a single recorded CD. This new player also includes a bass boost feature and Kenwood's Digital Anti Shock Circuit (DASC) technology, which automatically stores up to 160 seconds of music data to help prevent music interruptions caused by shocks to the player. The DPC-MP727 will be available in the second quarter of 2001 beginning in Japan. More details can be found in the full press release.

Spatializer to Expand Distribution of Audio Enhancement Software - Mark @ 22:43 EST

Spatializer Audio Laboratories Inc. has announced a strategic initiative with Internix Incorporated, Japan's leading technical distributor to expand distribution of Spatializer audio enhancement software solutions in Japan. Under the agreement, Internix will market Spatializer's industry standard Spatializer N-2-2 virtual surround sound technology, Spatializer 3-D Stereo, and the new Spatializer DigitalFX audio enhancement software products throughout Japan. Internix, which has 9 sales offices and 200 employees, serves many of the leading Consumer Electronics manufacturers in Japan and is well known for the quality and reliability of the products it represents. You can find lots more detail in the full press release.

Oak Technology Integrated 'Combo' CD-RW + DVD Controller - Mark @ 22:40 EST

Oak Technology, Inc. has unveiled one of the industry's first integrated Compact Disc -- ReWritable (CD-RW)/DVD "Combo" controller, which will allow optical storage drive manufacturers to develop high-performance optical storage solutions capable of reading and writing Compact Discs and reading DVD discs from a single slim line drive. The OTI-9897 combo controller creates a fully integrated solution for a combo drive that can significantly reduce both the time to market and the bill of materials for OEM manufacturers. Oak's OTI-9897 combo controller is capable of 16X CD-R and 16X CD-RW write speeds as well as 40X CD-ROM and 8X DVD read speeds. It supports all DVD media types by reading DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW discs. The single-chip controller integrates an Ultra DMA IDE/Atapi controller, CD block decoder/encoder, CD-DSP, DVD-DSP, CD/DVD servo, CD wobble servo, CD write strategy, and CSS content protection authentication. You can find more details on the controller and on Oak Technology in the full press release.

Rogue Spear: Urban Operations 2.52 Patch - Mark @ 22:33 EST

A pach for Rogue Spear: Urban Operations, an expansion pack to the DS3D with EAX 2.0 supporting Rouge Spear has been released bringing it up to version 2.52. A full list of changes can be viewed at the official. In addition to the official site you can also grab the 2.3 MB patch from 3Dfiles.

Hitman: Codename 47 Patch - Mark @ 22:29 EST

A patch for the EAX, DS3D and A3D supporting Hitman: Codename 47 has been released. The following issues have been addressed in this patch: problems with weapon selection when replaying levels fixed, Voodoo users may have experienced problems in Jungle levels, planting bomb on "Say Hello..." no longer causes occasional crashes, dancer in "Gunrunner's Paradise" is no longer confused by dead bodies and more. You can grab the 2.5 MB patch from 3Dfiles.

New A3D Music Player with Dolby Digital Support - Mark @ 19:14 EST

Diapolo has released a new version (0.0.4.0 Beta) of his A3D Music Player with added support for AC-3 files. For a list of changes in this version click here and if you want to get this new version you can click here to grab the 365 KB file. Note that for full functionality a Vortex2 sound card with the 2048 drivers is required. You can also check out Diapolo's web site (www.3d-fan.de).
News Source: Our Forum

Sacrifice reviews - Mikael @ 05:58 EST

Time for four new Sacrifice reviews. Again all very positive with overall scores of 8.9/10, 44/50, 5/5, 9/10 and sound scores of 8/10, 9/10, 5/5 and 8.5. As usual here follows the sound comments:

StratosGroup:

Sound:
Generally very nicely done: the voiceovers of the various gods are excellent, and the battle sounds are well-done as well. However, the voiceovers for Zyzyx get annoying... "Invalid target... Your creatures are dying!" He's just so... insolent.

Deep Space Nine: The Fallen reviews - Mikael @ 05:50 EST

Avault has posted a review of the Unreal engine powered Star Trek game, Deep Space Nine: The Fallen. The review is quite mixed with complaints of frustrating gameplay at times. In the end they gave it a score of 3. When it comes to sound it managed to get 3.5 while music got a perfect 5:

Sound FX: The audio is commendable, with each actor turning in a solid performance. Good voice acting was important because it helps distinguish the audio from the dozens of other futuristic shooters whose sound effects The Fallen mirrors. As expected, phasers sizzle, enemies wail and explosions go “boom” with ear-shattering precision. The sound engine shines during the busier moments, such as Kira’s opening mission when the Pah-wraith’s compound is being assaulted. The audio code blends distant explosions with local combat and frantic dialogue, enveloping users in well-timed effects and immersive 3D audio. The effects tend to drown out the dialogue, but there’s nothing else to protest. I loved hearing the actors deadpan their more complicated lines -- as on the TV show. Even though a lot of the dialogue comes across as indecipherable techno-babble, the actors pull it off with finesse.

Musical Score: Before the main menu loads, The Fallen opens with a sweeping glance at the space station in which the TV show and game are set; the music that accompanies this sequence is nothing less than poetic. The main theme’s rich strings, subtle horns and celestial voices fill the space around the PC with a sense of sci-fi wonder; the effect is similar to listening to James Horner’s wonderful scores for the second and third sequels in the film series. It’s a good example of game music that is as much about emotion and art as arrangements for the cinema. The composer does an outstanding job of fitting the orchestrations to the various moods of the different maps, too. Some the music is standard action fare, with tempos that pulse with agitation, while others are slower and more contemplative, or even ominous. The effect can be numbing during the longer action-oriented sequences, but it’s a nice touch to hear the music taper off or tense-up according to what’s happening on-screen. The music is well-composed and sounds good, so it’s nice that each song has been included as an mp3 file.

Icewind Dale review - Mikael @ 05:42 EST

GamingOrgy has posted a detailed and very positive review of Icewind Dale with the following sound impression:

The sound in the game was very evocative of what it's like to actually be in that desolate sort of wasteland. You'd be wandering through an arctic pass, and there really wasn't a lot in the way of music. Just the occasional gust of wind, and the sharp keening of a hardy eagle. Battle music is a standard of every game in this genre, and is just as jarring in here as it is everywhere else. It's the same sort of "Oh my god, your party is in trouble, whatever shall we do" style of music that's so prevalent as "danger" music. It gets damned annoying, since as soon as a combat's done, if you get into another one, the music will start RIGHT back up again. I was tempted to just put on a CD and ignore it...
[snip]
With EAX, it sounds rather nice. When you're in a cave, the footsteps echo a little bit, you hear the occasional drop of water from a stalactite as it hits the rocky floor, the *plop* shimmering like a bell before vanishing, engulfed by a fireball cast by your resident invoker as a sound beyond noise lays waste to the oral capabilities of the ogres, just before the explosion of flame does the same to their arms and legs.

Gunman Chronicles reviews - Mikael @ 05:39 EST

Three new reviews of the Half-Life engine powered Gunman Chronicles. They all share the same opinion not a bad game but not worth the cash. Here's the audio bits:

FiringSquad

Since the developers had limited resources and time, there is no in-game music to speak of. The only sounds you hear are those of enemies and guns. Guns have their usual bang or explosion, nothing in particular stood out, but nothing was bad either. Although we do have to say that we really liked the sound of the chemical gun. The shots would sound and behave differently depending upon the concentration of acids, bases, neutrals, and pressure. It almost sounded like the goop gun in UT, on the whole a very cool gun.

Hitman: Codename 47 reviews - Mikael @ 04:03 EST

A couple new Hitman: Codename 47. Both far more positive than the last 2 I posted. First up Game-Over that has several complaints but still enjoyed the game and think it can be a great game once it's patched. As for now it had to do with a 76% score. When it comes to sound they were less impressed with a 7 out of 10 score:

The audio is nothing special, the gun effects are realistic and the various sounds of pain and death are adequate. The voice acting, especially after playing Alice, leaves much to be desired though. The main character especially sounds entirely unconvincing and stiff. The music suits each level quite well and enhances the game experience.

Fur Fighters demo review - Mikael @ 03:53 EST

3Dactionplanet has posted a mixed review of Fur Fighters that ends on a positive note. Here's an interesting bit on the sound:

Using the Miles Audio System, Fur Fighters supports 3D audio, multiple speaker setups and EAX. Using a four speaker setup was helpful as the positional sound made it easy to identify where some of the sneakier enemies were hiding, although more often than not it was above me. Each individual character has their own set of sounds which are made to be more cute than funny, but after a few games they can start to get a little repetitive, most notably the sound when you get hit (though that could just be me getting hit too much).

The music changes according to the situation and is pretty good for the most part, but sometimes it "calms down" before a firefight is finished, feeling more like a track played once and then set to the next piece rather than true situational music. Oddly, the music during the main menu is much quieter than in the game itself and the somewhat cutesified nature of the score may put off some, but by the same token it may have others humming along happily. For me, it just stuck in my head and refused to shift for over a day, so I'm not such a fan anymore

EverQuest: The Scars of Velious review - Mikael @ 03:45 EST

IGNPC has posted a review of the second expansion pack to EverQuest, The Scars of Velious, which just went gold. They think it's much better than the previous expansion pack giving it an overall score of 8.5 with sound getting 8. Here's an intersting bit on the sound work:

While Kunark shipped quite silent (new sounds weren't implemented in time), Velious doesn't share the same fate. There are plenty of new ambient sounds such as swift wind and falling waterfalls, all of which sound great in comparison of what was in the previous game.

Far Gate review - Mikael @ 03:41 EST

BarrysWorld has posted a review of the recently gone gold Far Gate. The review that compares the game to HomeWorld (but better) are quite positive giving the game a score of 8 out of 10 stars. Here's the sound bit:

Sound
Equally impressive, everything has a different engine noise and atmospheric touches abound especially with the organic Nue Guyen. The only thing that was decidedly dodgy was the awful soundtrack full of blibby blobby music - that was turned off rather rapidly and the game suffered nothing for it`s absence.

Baldur's Gate II review - Mikael @ 03:38 EST

RPGVault has posted a detailed and very positive review of Baldur's Gate II. As other reviews they were impressed with the sound work:

Although it's not new - indeed, many gamers have come to expect it from BioWare and Black Isle titles - the aural elements in Shadows of Amn are outstanding. The music helps to build and to enhance the overall feel of the game without being obtrusive. Although it's not feasible to include enough music in any game to have it stay completely fresh throughout, I played over 250 hours without ever turning it off. The voice acting is excellent as well, with many if not all of the performers being drawn from the Los Angeles - Hollywood entertainment community. Well-known actor David Warner, who previously worked on a number of games including Fallout, is especially strong in his critical role as Jon Irenicus, effectively conveying a feeling of disdain and condescension without becoming camp or over the top

Deus-Ex reviews - Mikael @ 03:22 EST

A couple new Deus-Ex reviews have popped up both very positive. First up PlayDevil:

Sound and music are equally very well done, using 3D sound to great effect.
The voice-acting must be one of the best in any game today. Especially J.C. has a very cool voice and some of the quotes in the game are hilarious.
Thumbs UP !!

Blair Witch Volume 3 review - Mikael @ 03:16 EST

CGO has posted a short review of Blair Witch Volume 3. As most others it's mixed but ends up on a positive note saying "Blair Witch 3 provides a very satisfying wrap-up to this series and, in some ways, is the best gaming experience of the group". When it comes to audio they offered the following:

In keeping with the previous games, the sound track is outstanding and the voice acting is highly professional. Rather than relying on ambient noises to create an atmosphere of suspense, Ritual uses sounds in combination with music and chanting. Especially on the spiritual planes, this creates a very eerie sense of the supernatural.

Swat 3 Elite Edition Review - Mikael @ 03:12 EST

Ga-Sim has also posted a review of the 3D sound supporting Swat 3: Elite Edition. They were even more positive about this title giving almost a perfect score in every category with Aurals being closest with a 99% score:

In games like this, where stealth is usually of the essence, good audio is incredibly important. This is not only true in order to present a more realistic gaming environment, but to also aid the player by giving them audible clues as to their surroundings. Swat 3: Elite Edition has a wonderfully realistic audio component that, while not as tense or usable as the audio in Thief, is incredibly well done. The game does feature positional audio, and you will be able to determine the location of events simply by listening, which helps in many situations.

The sound effects are, like the graphics, top notch. Each weapon and piece of equipment has sound effects recorded from the actual equipment used by the LA SWAT team, to insure total accuracy. Personally, my favorite sound effect is of the suppressed MP5, which has a lovingly quiet clicking sound that belies its deadly accuracy and killing potential.

The vocal effects are also of high quality. The mission briefings are given in a very convincing manner, and are actually interesting to listen to, as the person giving the briefing usually has a lot more information that the small, on-screen briefing given in the pre-assault mode. The voices used for your men are usually very authoritative and commanding, while the voices for hostages are usually very scared and tense. The numerous types of hostages in the game have a wide array of vocal effects, from taunts to war cries.

Overall, the sound effects perfectly compliment the graphics. They, like the visuals, are top notch, and really pull the player in. Even if the game didn't have top-notch gameplay, the visual and audio components of the game would alone do a great job of pulling the player into the virtual Los Angeles presented here

X-Tension review - Mikael @ 03:09 EST

MPOG has posted a review of Egosoft expansion for the DS3D supporting space combat X:Beyond the Frontier, X-Tension. Here's their fairly detailed audio coverage:

If there's one thing about the music in this game, it really drives the feeling of expansion and isolation home. It's very light most of the time, and usually fits the setting and atmosphere of the game perfectly. The two times wherein the music changes is combat and docking. In combat, the music gets a little more techno, while in docking it becomes more orchestral.

While the music is good, the voice acting is better, especially one in particular…the voice of your computer. The voice of your computer will describe almost everything in the universe to you in exquisite detail, from commodities to ships, space stations to systems. The voice is always pleasant and easy to listen to, and almost always quite informative. The voices for the other races, are also well done, and while some are a little goofy (one race in particular could be a dead ringer for Eeyore), but usually convey themselves well.

Overall, the audio doesn't get in the way, and is used mainly as a tool for communication and information. The music is ominous and ever-present, and the voice acting is well done.

Alice reviews - Mikael @ 03:00 EST

Alice continues to get mostly positive reviews with the aural aspect getting a lot of praise. First up GamesDomain is a minor exception with a mixed impression of the audio:

I rarely pay attention to in-game music but in Alice's case, the ambient soundtrack possesses a fantastic chilling quality that perfectly complements the dark and sinister atmosphere of the game. While there are no real scare moments, the chorus of young voices and creepy instrumentals in the score (all originally composed by former Nine Inch Nails member, Chris Vrenna) keeps tension levels high. Sound effects, on the other hand, do not have as much presence and the voice acting could have been much better - it's not that the characters sound wooden per se, but you can tell each of the actors recorded their lines separately and the dialogue doesn't flow smoothly.

4x4 Evolution reviews - Mikael @ 02:44 EST

GameRush has posted a short but fairly positive review of 4x4 Evolution with the following short bit on sound:

The game sound is ok but nothing to write home about, the engines do sound good and the different terrain produces unique sounds as it whizzes under the tyres. Overall though there isn't really anything spectacular on the sound front.

Monday, December 11, 2000

Neverwinter Nights preview - Mikael @ 17:12 EST

Ga-RPG has posted an interesting preview of the upcoming RPG Neverwinter Nights. They think it shows a lot of potential but still too early to tell if it will be a success when it's released, which they expect will be Q2 next year. Here's the audio bit:

Aurals
BioWare and Black Isle have a very strong reputation in this regard. Their latest games have all contained quality music and a truckload of sound effects / ambient sounds. While this doesn't give any guarantees as to the sound quality of NWN, we don’t think you are going to have to worry too much about this area of the game. Full 3D sound support should be included as well.

Updated Creative Labs Jukebox review - Mikael @ 17:10 EST

3Dhardware has done an update to their review of Creative Labs D.A.P Jukebox. The original review was posted a couple months ago and this update cover the new features that been added since then including Track seek, MP3/WMA transfer FROM the Jukebox, improved USB transfer speeds, etc. The update also mention the promised remote control upgrade.

ACS54 review - Mikael @ 17:06 EST

SavageZone has posted a short but very positive review of Altec Lansing's inexpensive 4.1 system, the ACS54.
News Source: Blue's News

Far Gate supports DS3D and EAX - Mikael @ 01:57 EST

Far Gate, a 3D real-time strategic game, "use DirectSound3D as well as EAX effects for nebula environments. " according to James Thrus (Producer/Development Lead of Super X Studios). Avault reported early last week that the game went gold. You can find more info about the game at the official site or download the demo that was released last week

Game Commander 2 review - Mikael @ 01:48 EST

Gamersdepot has posted a detailed review of Game Commander 2 which they found to perform so well that they gave it the maximum score of 6 drips. GameCommander 2 can be bought for $40 with Labtec LVA-7331 noise-canceling microphone headset or just the software for $30 according to the review.
News Source: Blue's News

News from December 4-10, 2000

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