3DsoundSurge News: December 18-24, 2000


	Been away for a few days or few weeks? Check out our archives dating right back to our very first week!

Please support 3DsoundSurge by visiting our sponsors

News: December 18-24, 2000

Sunday, December 24, 2000

Quake 3: Music Interview - Mikael @ 20:13 EST

GameSlice has interviewed Bill Leeb and Chris Peterson from Front Line Assembly about the music they created for the Quake III Arena and Quake III: Team Arena soundtrack. Here's an interesting bit:

What do you think of the music you've heard in other games?
Chris: Actually, I'm one of those guys who turns it down and plays my own music.
What about the music for Quake and Quake II -- did you listen to the music in those games?
Bill: Quake was quite good, I think that worked really well. I think just having dark drones and ambient sounds, I get way more into the game. But Quake II? Too guitary. When I do play, there's nothing more irritating than having some hyper tech track that drives you up a wall. Like when we're on the tour bus, and they're playing games non-stop, they end up turning down the music because it's too stupid. Which is why, when we did the music for Quake III and the add-on, we tried to make something you could always have on without being in your face.

Yahoo! Wireless Multimedia Keyboard - Mikael @ 18:29 EST

SoundcardCentral has posted a review of the Yahoo! Wireless Multimedia Keyboard. If you like me never heard of this keyboard the following snip should give you a clue:

When I finished building my DVD Box I was really getting tired of having to get up every time to pause the DVD to answer the phone or the door. This is where the Yahoo Wireless Internet Keyboard comes into play.
The Keyboard itself is essentially a Laptop Keyboard and follows the same design. The Mouse portion of the keyboard is a bit odd when compared to most trackball solutions, and takes a little getting used to. So how does the keyboard perform? Read on to find out.

They found it to be well worth the $89.

Other game reviews - Mikael @ 17:08 EST

Alice review on Stomped (Overall 96, Sound 97):

The sounds, music and voice acting do a great job of creating a very thick atmosphere. I usually hate the voice acting in video games but they did a great job using it here. All the characters voices fit them quite well and the dialog scenes are kept nice and short. The soundtrack by Chris Vienna simply adds to the truly stellar atmosphere of the game.

B-17 Flying Fortess 2 on PC Gamerweb (Overall 9.2, Sound 9.0):

In keeping with the rest of the game, Wayward Designs went to great lengths to ensure that the sounds in the game are as realistic as possible. The cockpit sounds -- for instance -- are actual recordings from a B-17, so you can be assured that they are realistic.
In fact, all of the sound effects in the game are top notch. My subwoofer made my room shake every time I dropped a bomb and you could almost feel it when P-51 Mustangs whizzed by. The positional audio in the game is also a great help for when you're stuck at the control panel. You'll immediately be able to get an indication of where the enemy plane was when it last fired on you so that you can let your machine guns loose.
In many games, it is the subtle sounds that make all of the difference and this is probably what B-17 Flying Fortress 2 does best. Although I've never actually had the privilege to fly in one of these beasts (and who below the age of 70 has, anyway?), B-17 FF2 provides such a realistic acoustic experience that I can't imagine the 'real thing' being any different. Whether it is the cranking of your engines, the banter between crew or the sound of a bullet whizzing by your head, everything is in this game.

Crime Cities on ActionTrip(Overall 59%):

But wait that's not all, as there are a lot of unpleasant sound effects to accompany the stinking graphics. The quantity of the sounds in Crime Cities is insufficient and reduced to a small sum of radio-frequency voices you can hear now and then; with exception of a one or two musical scores (that can rarely be heard) and the sounds of your cannons firing

Blair Witch Volume 2 on MGON (Overall: 60%, Sound: 6/10)

Scary sound effects and a range in voice acting abilities combine to give Blair a nice sound bank but nothing to rave about by a long stretch. Crisp quality, at least.

Gunlok on Game-Over (Overall: 10, Sound: 7):

The audio and multimedia content don't quite meet my standards though. The music is simply static audio tracks. Unlike many other games, the music is not scene dynamic (ie: exciting music for battles and ambient music for exploration). Actually, all the music is there pretty much to set the mood of the game. The sound for the game is equally acceptable. It is there but nothing to rave nor rant about. The multimedia is laughable. The intro movie is heavily pixelated and blocky, and the in-game cut-scenes are rendered in real-time (which doesn't mean they aren't nice, but it just means they aren't rendered for kickass video quality). The noises in the game will definitely warn you of any attacks happening off screen, but don't expect to find the audio track to become a part of the pop culture like "Gran Turismo".

Gunman Chronicles on Game-Guru (Overall 2.5/5):

The sounds are quite repetitive and annoying as hell, especially the environmental effects. After a while I just turn the darn speakers off while playing the level called, 'The Rust'. I didn't want to hear that dang robotic sound anymore. Not much to hope for in this department either.

Hitman: Codename 47 on Avault (Overall: 3.5/5):

Sound FX (3.5/5):Audio effects are well produced in Hitman, with few discernable errors in timing or implementation. Most 3D polygonal titles have problems matching the characters' speech to the texture animations, and thus it is with Hitman. Since problems of this nature are frequent, the score is negligibly impacted. The voice of your virtual assassin is quite misplaced in my opinion, sounding more like some gimp you might run into at a bar, than like the emotionless harbinger of merciless death he is supposed to be. Other than the hitman, character voices are convincing and do a great deal for increasing the believability of any particular locale. Explosions are done in Hollywood quality, as are the gurgling sounds of death your enemies make as they are being strangled or slit from ear to ear. There isn't a lot of variation based on the type of character you kill, with the variety instead resting on the type of weapon you use. Knives make a meaty, flesh-ripping noise -- when you miss the opportunity for a quick throat slashing. So long as the hitman remains silent, you will remain immersed in the aural beauty of this world.
Musical Score (4/5): Techno phrases rule in Hitman, with the beat changing depending on the phase of your mission. There are also variations at times, with calming music playing at the beginning of each scenario. Overall, the music in Hitman is designed with the intent of changing your mood from that of extreme paranoia to calming reprieve. The developers succeed quite well in using the musical tracks in conjunction with well-timed triggers to enhance the environment and engross players. Try almost botching a long mission near the end when you are spotted as looking suspicious and only escaping by ducking into a closet at the last second. You'll notice your heart beating along the rhythm of the accompaniment.

Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater on PC GameWorld (Overall 90%):

The sound in Combat Flight Simulator 2 is one of its strengths. There is a ton of radio chatter (and the amount is adjustable), especially from your wingmen as they take on the enemy. If you play as the Japanese your wingmen speak Japanese. Subtitles on the top center of the screen provide English translation of all chatter.
The engine sounds in Combat Flight Simulator 2 are very good but overall less impressive than in WWII Fighters. I wasn't around in 1940s, and can't say for sure, but I imagine that the fighter planes in the Pacific Theater would sound different than their European Theater counterparts, because they were different planes. While the P38 Lightening appeared in both Theaters, the USA primarily deployed P 51 Mustangs and P 47s in Europe, while the US Navy and USMC ruled the Pacific with F4U Corsairs and F4 and F6 Wildcats.

Half-Life CounterStrike on GamePlay (Overall 9/10):

Like everything else, the sound adds to the authentic feel of the game, unless someone is crouch-walking towards you, you can hear the gravel crunch of their boots, and some of the maps feature great sounds and nice musical extracts that lend weight to the map's setting. I could go on, but once you are into the play... you'll scarcely notice.

Rune on Game Guru (Overall: 4.5/5):

Another aspect of the game that deserves mention is the wonderful use of sound effects. Rune has some of the best weapon sounds I've ever heard. The clanging of swords, axes, and hammers are so distinct and greatly aid in delineating the realism in the Rune world. If you swing your sword close to a wall, you'll immediately know it by the clear, steel sound projected into your ear when that blade finds that wall. It's a great sound that must be experienced to be appreciated.

Game-Guru obviously didn't try the DS3D with EAX code since it's terrible. The A3D code may be fine but I haven't tried it.
News Source: Blue's News

Motocross Mania Reviews - Mikael @ 16:46 EST

Barry's World (Overall 9/10):

Motocross Mania sounds like you`re on a motocross bike, from the revving of the engine to the slight squeak of the suspension, to the groans of the rider when you land a little hard, to the painful `ow` when you crash. Each sound is in the right place at the right time and really add to the experience. When racing in Championship mode you can hear the other riders coming up from behind you, as well as their own painful grunts when they crash, or the crump of a bike hitting a tree. Each of the stunts is accompanied by an appropriate sound effect too, adding to the effect of completing it.

GameRaiders (Overall: 85/100, Sound 80/100):

The sound seemed pretty OK overall. There really wasn't much other then the sound of the bike, roar of the crowed and the occasional "woo hoo!" yell from the riders. The different size engines really sound just like they should. From the high pitch scream of the 125cc engine to the deeper explosive sound of the 400 cc bad boy

The game supports 3D sound.

MechWarrior 4: Vengeance reviews - Mikael @ 16:39 EST

Neoseeker (Overall 80%):

The music of the game, while evocative of the overall mood, is nothing special. The battlefield and cinematic cut-scene musical scores are fairly pleasant to listen to. However, I personally found that the music failed to impart a sense of urgency into the game.
The sound effects, on the other hand, are good. Different sized guns have different sounds, machine guns spray lead, and PPCs sizzle & crackle with the promise of imminent doom for those who would stand in your way. Most importantly, when you stomp on some hapless tank, you hear a distinct "crunch" followed by a dull "boom" when the poor vehicle explodes.

PC GamerWeb (Overall: 9.5/10, sound 9.5/10):

The sound effects are every bit as good as the graphics. They feel and sound so right it's hard to believe that FASA Interactive didn't send their sound guys through a time machine to record the mechs in their natural environment. As you walk you'll hear the oh-so-right effects for whatever surface you're on. The crunch of stone being made into gravel, the clump of mech-foot on pavement and best of all, the crump of snow under your feet.
The weapon effects are great. While the slug throwing weapons, such as the Autocannons, missiles and machine guns sound authentic, they were likely easy to create. What really impresses are the effects for PPCs, Gauss Rifles and the lasers. Lasers whir and grind (hard to describe, but it sounds so right). When PPCs light off you hear the screaming protest of superheated air. Gauss Rifles may be the best. You hear the "peew" as the capacitors let go, then, a moment later, the thunderbolt-like clap of the multi-mach shockwave trailing the projectile. As an added touch, FASA Interactive put in "weapon ready" sounds for each system. Because it is so important to keep your eyes on opposing mechs (almost as much so as in a flightsim) I came to rely on sound indicators over the visuals on the HUD to know when I could shoot again.

Head-2-Head (Overall 88%):

I should also mention the sound in this game. The voice acting is pretty much on the mark. Although I found when you were in a briefing and listening to the transmissions your replies were mostly "duh.Ok" type responses - WTF?. But, sounds from the mechs like movement and weapons fire, were prime and realistic. If you have a good sound system setup, you'll definitely enjoy this.

ElectricGames (Overall: 4.5/5, Sound: 4/5):

Sound effects are also very good. Weapon fire and explosions are very well detailed. Voice acting is very stiff, with no prominent actors portraying any of the parts.

The game supports DS3D with EAX.
News Source: Blue's News

Giants: Citizen Kabuto reviews - Mikael @ 16:15 EST

GamePro has posted a short but very positive review of Giants where they gave the game a perfect score in 3 out of 4 categories including the sound:

The superb voice acting will have you rolling on the floor, especially in the cut scenes. During the action, your cockney-accented comrades chatter away, boasting "right between the eyes" when they kill an enemy, or screaming "My legs!" when they get hurt.

Gameloft was almost as postive in a more detailred review where the sound design managed to get a rating of 9 out of 10:

The sounds in Giants are equally well done. The environmental sounds make you believe you're on an alien island, it's kind of like those old "Land of the Lost" episodes. The sound of the wind on top of mountains also adds to the realism. Also, character sounds are impressive. Kobuto's loud footsteps and grunting, the Sea Reapers dash sound, and the Mecc's death yell, "OH, ME LEGS!" add much to the Giants universe. The only negative about the sound is that when all the mayhem onscreen gets fired up, it sometimes cuts to silence.
As for the music, well, it sounds like "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" crossed paths somewhere. And that's not a bad thing in this case. The music sounded like a quality full-orchestrated movie soundtrack.

The game supports DS3D with EAX.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Fallen Reviews - Mikael @ 15:43 EST

GameRevolution has posted a short review of Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Fallen where they concludes it's another above average game that especially Star Trek fans will enoy. Here's their sound impression:

The music is downright cool, sounding straight from some of the more dramatic Star Trek episodes. The music changes depending on what you're doing, so don't expect a firefight to sound like you're just exploring, or vice versa.
The other sounds are fairly standard, with phaser blasts, enemy yelps and screams, explosions, and all sorts of star trek beeps and boops. The voices, however, are sometimes questionable. Characters like Sisko, O'Brien and Kira don't sound anything like their TV counterparts, while Dax and Worf sound pretty close. The actual voice acting is at least competent, and the actors generally don't sound like they're reading from the script for the first time.

ActionTrip has posted a slightly more detailed review that comes to a very similar conclusion. They also liked the aurals:

The sound is commendable. Sound effects are typical for a game like this, but the original actors from the series did voice-over acting. Unfortunately, Cisco and Chief O'Brien mutated a bit as they had not been done by te same people, but they are equally as good. The well-known soundtrack is there to help you immerge into the world of Star Trek.

In a recent interview the audio director said that the game uses the Miles Sound System for A3D and DS3D with EAX support and uses 16 3D sound streams

Quake III: Team Arena reviews - Mikael @ 14:58 EST

The first reviews of the $30 expansion pack Quake III: Team Arena have popped up and the concensus seems to be that it's good but not great and several doubt it's worth the cash with so many free mods available for this and other games. When it comes to sound most seems to think it's one of the weaker aspects of the game, here's a snip from each:

IGNPC (7.5, sound 7):

Another low point for Team Arena is the audio. Sound effects sound good enough, and are well recorded albeit sparse, but the voices sound distorted and lo-fi. While the team may have been going for a snowy, crackling effect, what's the use of having voice work unless you can clearly understand what they're saying? It doesn't help that the voice taunts are immature drivel like "My momma shoots better than you" and "You wanna buy a shot?" either. Team Arena does include a new Doppler effect on projectiles like rockets which is kind of cool, but overall the sound work was only a little bit better than average.

GameZone (8.5/10, sound 6.5/10):

Sound: 6.5. The taunts are a little lame, and the blasts and sounds of weapons discharging is retreaded material from other games (including Quake III Arena).

GamesDomain:

Audio: New Doppler effects and humerous announcer

GameSpot (7.4/10, sound 6/10):

Team Arena doesn't sound quite as good as it looks. The game has most of the same hard-hitting weapon sound effects as those in the original Quake III: Arena, and it features the enhanced sound effects also included in the Quake III v1.27g point release, including a realistic-sounding Doppler effect that is produced by rockets launched from a distance. Team Arena also has new music tracks, though they resemble those of the original game - passable but largely forgettable techno/thrash that you'll likely turn down (or turn off completely) so that you can better hear what's going on around you. Team Arena also offers a new chat option: contextual voice taunts that you, other players, and nonplayer bots can use in addition to Quake III: Arena's standard gesture taunt. Interestingly, Team Arena's contextual taunts change according to the situation: If you successfully frag an opponent, your voice taunt will be a smug insult, but if you've just been fragged, your voice taunt will more likely be a confused "What the...?" Unfortunately, nearly all these voice taunts sound horrible. Apparently, they were intended to emulate the brazen, foul-mouthed trash-talk of the characters and bots in Epic's Unreal Tournament, though Team Arena's voice taunts actually sound more like the result of a corporate focus group's attempt to emulate bored, mildly peeved teenagers. Fortunately, you can turn off voice taunts, and if you play Team Arena for any appreciable length of time, you probably will.

TuPlay:

One extremely welcome feature that Team Arena brings to the Quake3:Arena universe is the option to turn on doppler sound. In essence, this gives you some very, very impressive doppler-shift effects (ala A3D/EAX 2.0) without having to worry about APIs, drivers, and soundcards. There is no better way to hear the sheer impressiveness of this effect than dodging BFG shots. As they zing over your shoulder, the pitch of the flying BFG shot shifts according to the doppler effect (you paid attention in science class, right??), and regardless of any previous A3D or EAX lovin you've experienced, I can guarantee that you'll love this effect.

I think the A3D 2.0 is still present but I haven't tried the latest patch or this expansion pack so not sure.
News Source: Blue's News

ASUS E612 DVD-ROM review - Mikael @ 05:13 EST

Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted a detailed review of ASUS E612 DVD-ROM. It's a 12X DVD-ROM/40X CD-ROM that comes bundled with PowerDVD 2.55 (named ASUS2000 DVD software player. The review covers DVD-ROM, CD-ROM and DAE (CD-Ripping) transfer speeds, CPU usage, spin up and spin down times, DAE quality and region coding.

Cambridge SoundWorks DTT 3500 review updated - Mikael @ 04:59 EST

Anandtech has posted an update to its DTT3500 review. The reason for the update is they recently received a final production unit that corrected many of the problems they mentioned in the our original review. I know one of these problems were a noise issue. There are a couple of things worth noting. The DTT3500 does work for 6-channel gaming but only via the DIN output of the Live 5.1, which is essentially sending 3 stereo PCM signals to the DTT3500. As the review notes, for all other sound cards the DTT3500 will only function as a standard 4-channel system for games. Several people have reported success with AC3 pass-thru when using PowerDVD since it uses Creative's proprietary ac3api.dll file for AC3 pass-thru. The standard method for AC3 pass-trhu won't work until SP2 is released. Should add that I'm not sure if it works with the LW 3.0 for download or only the drivers that comes bundled with the new Live 5.1 cards.

One other thing worth noting is that 10% THD isn't as terrible as the review indicates. Not saying that it's impossible to notice it but if you check out some of the test files at PCABX.com you will find out it's not as terrible as you may think.

Saturday, December 23, 2000

Hercules Game Theater XP review - Mikael @ 18:35 EST

ZDNET has posted a short review of Hercules Game Theater XP. This card uses the same chip (CS4630) as the Santa Cruz/SonicFury. Drivers probably differs a bit but not sure to what extent, should still use Sensaura as the 3D sound and reverb engine though. Notable differences compared to the Santa Cruz are the external rack with multiple inputs and outputs (e.g USB ports, optical and coaxial SPDIF output), the bundle of PowerDVD and the $50 higher price. ZDnet liked the card but absolutely no details about gaming other than what APIs it supports.
News Source: 3DAI

Hardwar patch - Mikael @ 18:17 EST

Blue's News reports that The Software Refinery has released a new patch (version U.201) for Hardwar. As before you have to register to download the patch. The patch that was supposed to add support for DS3D with EAX entered beta testing in February, not sure what happened since then.

Blade of Darkness Preview - Mikael @ 18:12 EST

GameSpy has posted a preview of Rebel Act Studios' upcoming (February next year) fantasy adventure: Blade of Darkness. They think it looks promising especially the graphics and aural aspects of the game:

In addition to great looking graphics, the sound and music are also top-notch. Every slash of the player's sword, whether it's hitting a rock or a monster's flesh, sounds very realistic. Coupled with a great musical score, Blade of Darkness is shaping up to be a worthy adventure.

The official site says the game will offer" 3D sound and environment music".
News Source: Blue's News

Diablo II patch - Mikael @ 18:04 EST

Blizzard has released a new patch (v1.04) for Diablo II.

Mitsubishi Receives Award for Highest Quality - Mikael @ 05:25 EST

Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America (MEAA) announced that for the second consecutive year, its combination AM/FM/cassette/single CD player was ranked highest in audio quality by consumers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2000 Audio Component Quality Report released this month. This type of radio is the most popular audio combination used in cars and trucks today, representing 37% of all units factory-installed in vehicles. You can find more details in the press release

Napa Dav309 CD/MP3/VCD Player Review - Mikael @ 05:13 EST

GideonTech has posted a review with plenty of pictures of the Napa Dav309 CD/MP3/VCD Player. It's a portable CD player that not only can play MP3 files but also VCD if you connect it to a TV. The unit includes a wireless remote controll but lacks any skip protection which raise the question if they really target the portable market.
News Source: Blue's News

SideWinder: Game Voice review - Mikael @ 04:57 EST

PCGamerWeb has posted a review of MS SideWinder: Game Voice. They found both the software and especially the hardware to work well but they complained about the time delay that's making it useless for time-critical commands.
News Source: Blue's News

UT Bonus Pack Released - Mikael @ 04:45 EST

Epic Games has released the new Bonus Pack for download from The official Unreal Tournament site. The bonus pack inlcudes 2 new hi-res player characters with skins, 10 new maps spanning all 4 UT modes - Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, Domination and Team Deathmatch and 2 updated UT maps - a remixed version of the original Lament map and a slightly modified version of the infamous Facing Worlds map.
News Source: Blue's News

New Mechwarrior 4 Map - Mikael @ 04:29 EST

PC.IGN has posted a new multiplayer-only map for Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance.
News Source: Blue's News

Friday, December 22, 2000

Sounddogs.com Surpass 60,000 Online SFX and Music Files - Mikael @ 15:16 EST

Sounddogs.com, the Internet's first and largest online sound effects library, has announced that they have exceeded 60,000 online sound effects and royalty-free music files, thanks to Sound Ideas recent buying spree of existing competitive products. Sound Ideas has also released two new libraries, Emergency, and Flash eFX for Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) Flash and Shockwave developers. You can find more details in the press release

Microsoft Selects RAVISENT For Xbox - Mikael @ 15:14 EST

RAVISENT Technologies has announced that Microsoftr has selected RAVISENT to be the provider of DVD playback software for its eagerly awaited Xbox(TM) video game system. Under the terms of the five-year agreement, Microsoft is licensing RAVISENT's CineMaster DVD engine for DVD playback on the Xbox. Key components in the CineMaster DVD Engine include:

DVD Navigation Engine
DVD Presentation Engine (including trick mode
playback)
MPEG-2 Video Decoder
Dolby Digital (AC-3), MPEG-2, LPCM Audio Decoder
Closed Caption/Sub Picture Decoder

You can find more details in the press release.

Dirt Track Racing Sprint Cars patch - Mikael @ 08:31 EST

Ratbag Games has released a new patch (v1.01) for its 3D sound supporting Dirt Track Racing Sprint Cars. Plenty of fixes but unfortunately no mention of fixing the 3D sound which several reviews says works poorly when using a Live.

DTS Entertainment Releases First DVD-Audio Titles - Mikael @ 02:03 EST

DTS has announced plans to begin shipment of the first DVD-Audio music recordings produced by its company-owned DTS Entertainment record label, by late February 2001.

Each DVD-Audio title will be marketed as a ``DTS Music Experience,'' and will include MLP multi-channel and stereo tracks for DVD-A players, plus a DTS ``Master Quality'' multi-channel soundtrack and a Dolby Digital stereo track (for compatibility with all existing DVD-Video players). You can find more details in the full press release

4x4 Evolution patch - Mikael @ 01:47 EST

Terminal Reality has released a patch for the 3D sound supporting 4x4 Evolution

Sacrifice Patch 2 - Mikael @ 01:45 EST

Interplay has released a new patch for its DS3D with EAX supporting Sacrifice

Thursday, December 21, 2000

Hitman: Codename 47 interview - Mikael @ 16:37 EST

3DActionPlanet has posted an interview with Jens Peter Kurup, the lead animator at IO-Interactive the company behind the 3D sound supporting Hitman: Codename 47. Here's a bit on the sound:

HQ: Also, a much missed part of any game is the sound/music. Personally, I think that some of the music in Hitman is outstanding - enough to listen to on its own - and really captures the mood (I especially love the Menu/Hong Kong music - muted beats, slow lines, big chords). How did you go about creating the sound effects for the game, and what was the inspiration for the music?
JP: The music is made by a guy [named] Jesper Kyd. He's mainly been working on his own (since he doesn't live in Denmark), and I can only congratulate him on his work. He didn't see the game until very late, but the guys have been working with him for ages, so they had a mutual understanding.
The sound effects have been done in-house. Most are made from archives or from scratch. I think the only thing we recorded specifically for Hitman were the weapons. We went on a trip to Finland to shoot with just about every available weapon on earth. This resulted in quite good sounds and lots of ideas of how weapons could work in games. I'm reluctant to admit that it was good fun as well, but...

Quite a few of the reviews I've read have been unimpressed with the use of sound effects and positional audio in the game.
News Source: Blue's News

Gunman Chronicles demo - Mikael @ 13:19 EST

Gunman Chronicles combines a wild-west sensibility with high-tech styling to create a thrilling and visually unique first-person action experience - powered by the Half-Life engine! All of the amazing effects and frighteningly realistic AI that made Half-Life the undisputed king of first-person action have been brought to Gunman Chronicles, a tale of revenge and redemption on the rim of the galaxy. As Half-Life it supports DS3D with EAX and I guess A3D 2.0 with wavetracing even though no review mentioned A3D 2.0 support (plenty mentioned EAX). You can download the demo from Avault.

Philips Acoustic Edge review - Mikael @ 13:06 EST

GameCenter has finished its review of Philips new 5.1 soundcard, the Acoustic Edge. They think it's the best soundcard available and gave it their Editors' Choice Awards.

News Source: Blue's News

5.1 Platinum Guide: In-Depth Techniques - Mikael @ 10:42 EST

That's the title of an article at Gamersdepot, written by by Jeremy Allford. The article is covering some of the features beyond playing games that the Live Platinum 5.1 and the LiveDrive IR it comes bundled with offers.

Powerful New DVD processor from Cirrus Logic - Mikael @ 05:49 EST

Cirrus Logic has announced the Crystalr DVD processor. With the new CS98000 (98K) DVD processor, Cirrus Logic can now provide both the audio and video core processors for the DVD player market.

The 98K provides all necessary audio and video processing functions including MP-3 decoding, Dolby Digital, DTS output support, virtual 3-D and multi-region on-screen display (OSD) with vertical flicker filter. With a customer programmable RISC core and 32-bit programmable audio DSP, the 98K can support all CD formats, DVD navigation, disk control, video decoding and up to eight channel output. You can find more details in the full press release.

DigMedia MusicStore Review - Mikael @ 05:45 EST

CNET has posted a short review of the $499 (including portable unit) DigMedia MusicStore. It's a flat, tabletop console that houses a 5GB hard drive and a CD player. Plus, it can load songs onto the company's SoulMate MP3 player without using a computer. They found it to work quite well but complained of slow ripping (it's done at real-time) and the use of the names ELP, LP and SP to describe 64,96 and 128 kbps. More important complain would be that this is the only bitrates it can rip in from what I understand. Fortunately you can instead rip using your PC and transfer it to the unit over USB, no mention if it then supports more than 128 kbps though.

Review of VideoLogic DigiTheatre DTS - Mikael @ 05:37 EST

Cosmo3D has posted a very positive review of VideoLogic's DigiTheatre DTS. For a second but similar opinion you can check out our own review.

Hitman: Codename 47 review and updated demo - Mikael @ 05:33 EST

The updated Hitman demo was released late last week but I think we forgot to mention it. Moving on to the full game Gamersdepot has posted a mixed review of it which can be summed up with "It's hard not to like this game, but it's equally as challenging to not hate it for the issues it has". The controls are the major complaint with sound and graphics both being great, here's the sound part:

In the sound department, Hitman offers outstanding EAX sound support, and everything from footsteps to wildlife and gunfire rings out all from the proper direction, completely drawing you into the game audibly. Visually and audibly it's a fantastic game.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto review - Mikael @ 05:22 EST

FiringSquad has posted a mixed review of Giants: Citizen Kabuto where the major complaint is that it's riddled with bugs and this include the 3D sound:

Giants sports some of the best voice-overs we've ever heard in a game. Everything from the Pinky sounding Timmy (of Pinky and the Brain fame), to the cockney Meccs sounded spectacular. If there is one thing that seemed complete when this game was kicked out the door, this has to be it.
Weapon sounds are nothing special, nor are they bad. Although we did particularly enjoy the huge crashing booms that Kabuto's belly flops make. Music can also be lumped into the ho-hum category. Nothing intrusive, and nothing annoying, just sort of there.
[snip]
If the video problems aren't bad enough, this game didn't ship with working 3D sound. The options are clearly visible in the sound options menu, but they are disabled because the 3D sound support is shaky at best. After rooting through the Readme, we discovered that you can indeed enable the 3D sound support, but we got strange errors after doing so and reverted back to stereo sound. Hopefully this will also be addressed in an upcoming patch.

This review was posted before the patch was released yesterday which among many other fixes mentioned "Directional audio playback was improved.". FiringSquad thinks this will be a great action game once the bugs are fixed which may be already the case but quite possible it will require a few more patches.

Alice reviews - Mikael @ 05:11 EST

A couple new Alice reviews have popped up that both thinks the game is excellent when it comes to graphics and audio but are less impressed with the gameplay and story. In the end they think it's a good game but not an amazing one. GoneGold:

Music and voice acting are exemplary. Reminding at times of the themes from Disney World's Haunted Mansion attraction, the eerie renderings of Chris Vreena (founder of Nine Inch Nails) help set the tone for this deteriorated Wonderland. Voice acting is equally superb, with the actor portraying the Cheshire Cat deserving of a "PC Game Emmy." Ambient sounds are satisfactory, with this section scoring a fine 95.

Gamers.com:

Audiophiles should be delighted with Alice's music and sound. Chris Vrenna, former drummer and co-founder of Nine Inch Nails, handled the soundtrack, which helps accentuate the game's dark atmosphere. Eerie instrumentals utilizing toy music boxes, piano keys, and choral backgrounds do an excellent job of complementing the twisted visuals, to help bring Wonderland to life. Voice acting and dialogue in Alice is top notch as well. Unlike the voices from Resident Evil, which detracted from the game's serious presentation, the voices from Alice only add to the twisted mood. The Cheshire Cat immediately springs to mind as one of the best voices in recent memory, serving as Alice's calm, cool, and collected guide through her adventures in Wonderland. Normal sound effects are all well done. They're nothing spectacular, but they serve their purpose nicely.

4x4 Evolution reviews - Mikael @ 05:04 EST

Time for three new reviews of the 3D sound supporting 4x4 Evolution. First up GoneGold that have a mixed impression comaplaining about crappy collosion detection and limited racing options. In the end they give it a decent rating of 71 thanks to good gameplay and graphics while they were less impressed with the sound:

There's an old Steve Martin routine where he jokes that all of McDonald's products - the Big Macs, the shakes, the Styrofoam packaging - come from the same vat of "stuff." 4x4 Evo's sound must come from that same "stuff" factory. The music seems to be provided as background noise only (I soon turned it off and put in my own - 4x4 does not require the CD be in the drive to play), and the sound effects are dull and sparse where they could have been spectacular. Consider first that you have over 70 vehicles to choose from. Then consider that your truck will travel over snow, desert gravel, racecourse mud, across the hull of a battleship, and on the wing of an abandoned aircraft. In 4x4, everything sounds the same. There are no unique engine sounds despite the variety in manufacturers and models featured. A souped-up Lexus RX300 sounds like a low-end Ford 250, which sounds like the Mitsubishi Montero. Similarly, the same crunching sound punctuates your driving whether it's over desert rock or tropical sand.

Moving on GameRaiders they were more impressed with the sound giving it a score of 90/100:

Not much in sound other than wildlife, the roar of each engine type and a rocking sound track to keep up with the breakneck racing atmosphere. All of which have been nicely reproduced and incorporated into the game. There are no announcers or human voices on any part of the game. It's as if you are racing against some other strangers with no communication between anyone. All in all, sounded alright to me.

They also liked the game overall. WEWP had a slightly less but still positive impression of the game overall and the aural aspects of it:

The sound is fairly good including both background music to listen to as well as the sound effects. The sound also allows you to customize the output quality and rate. I preferred to turn down the music slightly so I could hear the sound effects more while I was driving.

Blair Witch 3: The Elly Kedward Tale Reviews - Mikael @ 04:56 EST

FiringSquad has posted a detailed and one of the more positive reviews of Blair Witch 3 that I've read. Here's a snip from the quite long bit they have on the audio:

The sound, combined with the visuals produces a product so perfectly creepy that we have to give an example to explain:
At one point in the game, I was trekking through the woods and just finished a tango with one of the aforementioned invisible demons. I was running along, hoping to catch a breather, when all the sudden I noticed a shift in the shadows off to the right! I practically leapt from my chair and immediately whirled and began opening fire with the pistol, only to note that the shadow disappeared. As the light adrenaline rush began to subside, the shadow emerged again, and I ultimately realized the 'invisible demon' creeping up on me was nothing more than my own breath darkened against the surroundings. Besides feeling intensely stupid, I quickly began to realize I was playing much more than a typical third person shooter.

A more negative review of the game can be found at GamersPulse, this especially includes the audio aspects:

The game audio was a mixed bag. The effects were good, but the music was a touch annoying. The music playing through the forest just got on my nerves, as seemingly half the game takes place there. The voiceovers are good, but unfortunately, it felt like there were about 4-5 people doing the voice work for all the characters and creatures in the game. Prye's voice is well done, but the Indian voices were less than spectacular. Some of the bosses set me to laughing when I heard them speak -not on purpose either.
The worst part about the sound was the technical side. Many times the sound would cut out, or go into a high-pitched squeal. Both were solved easily by hitting escape, then returning to the game, but they were annoying nonetheless. It got worse when the voice work would cut out halfway through a character's sentence in one of the many cutscenes - if it wasn't for the subtitles, I would have been lost.

It's worth noting that FiringSquad had the same complaint about the voice acting being cut out sometimes. Despite being a bit negative in tone through the review and the audio complaints GamerPulse still think the game is worth the $20.

Pro Rally 2001 Review - Mikael @ 04:47 EST

GameRush has posted a mixed review of Pro Rally 2001 with one major complaint being sluggish controls. Here's their audio impressions:

The in-game sound effects are pretty solid but the biggest gripe is the almost patronising comments made by the in-game commentator if you fail any of the training missions. I was almost punching the screen at one point and if I'd had that guys address I would have been round there to sort him out sharpish. The vehicle engine noises are on-par with what you would expect from a rally some and the co-driver's/navigator's comments are enthusiastic and amusing at times.

According to a recent interview the game supports 3D sound

Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business review - Mikael @ 04:31 EST

GoneGold has posted a positive impression (81/100) of Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business with the following short but positive (80/100) bit on the sound:

In fact the sounds of the guns are one of the things that Unfinished Business does best. Each weapon has it's own unique sound. From the crack of the FN-FAL assault rifle, to the bark of the machine gun, you'll quickly learn to recognize the individual reports and know when you're mercs are coming under heavy fire.

Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business is a stand alone turn-based strategy role-playing game with squad type combat developed by Sir-tech Canada, creators of Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2. We had reported (but never tested) that the first two games supported A3D 1 via Miles Sound System but that's no guarantee they carried that forward to the new release.
News Source: Blue's News

MechWarrior 4: Vengeance review - Mikael @ 04:20 EST

Gamers.com has posted a very positive review of the DS3D with EAX supporting MechWarrior 4 saying it's a must buy for any Mech fan. When it comes to sound that mostly got very positive reviews they were more mixed:

The audio effects are a mixed bag. Snow crunches under the weight of your Mech, missiles rush past your head with a high pitch whistle, and lasers sizzle as they scorch enemy units. The sounds of a Mech in operation are very cool. Gears clash and lock when turning your torso too far, computer systems crackle when hit critically, and Mechs power down to the sound of slowing belts and fans.
On the other hand, portions of the effects are rather weak. For instance, running full speed into a structure doesn't produce a sound at all. What's up with that? Mech explosions are just passable, and should have a much heavier bang to communicate how massive these machines being destroyed are. Radio chatter is limited to team members confirming their kills or acknowledging your orders. While there are a few instances of mission specific communication, the personality of your teammates is lost when on the battlefield.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen reviews - Mikael @ 04:01 EST

Four new reviews of the Unreal engine powered Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen have appeared. All of them overall positive but they include complains of not working well on GeForce cards, the story loses focus at times, not that great level design, no multiplayer and still too much of key hunting. As usual the sound snips from each:

EuroGamer:

Meanwhile all of the character voices are provided by the real stars of the television series, and as such the acting is generally of a very high quality, though sometimes the conversations can flow a little unevenly. But most impressive of all has to be the soundtrack, which really does compliment the eerie atmosphere of the game perfectly. Even though there is not a wide variety of music, what there is seems to fit each particular scene perfectly.

The Game Den:

The music compilations played throughout the game are simply awe-inspiring and worthy of Hollywood credentials. It almost seems like the production band from Paramount Studios was used to supply the background themes for this particular adventure. Whether it's battling against Aliens or exploring unknown planets, the soundtrack adds a noticeable element towards the entire gameplay experience.

GoneGold:

One of the benefits of making a Star Trek game must be easy access to the original cast and Paramount's sound effect archives. The sound effects are straight from the series. The actors reprise their roles with the exception of Sisko and O'Brien. Avery Brooks is missed but his replacement does a good job. The other actors do an equally fine job. The music is in MP3 format and are up to the series' excellence. Sounds effects are well done and do a fine job adding to the atmosphere. All in all, the sound and music gets an 90.

Ga-Source:

The music and voice acting in Deep Space Nine: The Fallen are top notch, and sets a pleasent tone for the game. It's nice to hear many of the actual actors from the series lending their voices to make the use of the license seem a bit more authentic. The sound effects were ok; nothing really spectacular or wrong about them although they seem borrowed from another Star Trek title. The audio in Deep Space Nine: The Fallen is definitely the best aspect of the game.

In a recent interview the audio director said that the game uses the Miles Sound System for A3D and DS3D with EAX support and uses 16 3D sound streams.
News Source: Blue's News

Starship Troopers review - Mikael @ 03:46 EST

Gamesfirst has posted a mixed review of Starship Troopers calling it a good action game but a mediocre real-time strategy game. Here's what they had to say about the music and sound effects:

The sound effects, unfortunately, are hit and miss. Effects for weapons sound crisp and clear, if not a little clich,d (why do all laser weapons make a "pssshhuu" sound?), and the various screeches of the bugs add a sense of realism to your little hunt. But, the voice acting absolutely sucks and it shows when you have to listen to a monotone female voice report to you every five minutes. No text is given for in-game speech, so if you miss what is said, you're out of luck. The random catch phrases your troopers utter get tiring and very repetitive.
The musical score is quite good, however. While it's MIDI quality sound, the orchestrations are well written and add to the overall mood of the game. Remember the last Tom Clancy movie you saw? The music is similar to that style. Unfortunately, sound effects all but drown out the musical score in the gameplay. Also, one other nit-pick: if the musical selection could change to reflect the action on the screen, such as in other real-time strategies like Homeworld, that would have heightened the adrenaline in the battles, but, hey, that's a style choice.

Gunman Chronicles review - Mikael @ 03:41 EST

EntertainmentDepot has posted a rather negative review of Gunman Chronicles giving it a score of 5.5 out of 10. Sound faired only slightly better:

Sound: 6/10
he environmental affects in the outside areas are done quite well and small touches like the tanks tracks making a different noise depending on which surface it's on is nice (instead of just having the engine sound overpower it). This may not be for everyone though and with only these sound effects to fill your speakers and no music, there will be some who tire of hearing constant explosions and laser fire. If it weren't for the hints over the loud speaker or instructions from the mainframe on what to do next, I would have merely left the game on mute after I got my feel of that levels surrounding sounds. Since each world is different, so are the inhabitants and environment and the letdown is that the effects and sounds are done good, they are just reused too much making them seem to fade out and not become as important as they could be. With a bit more time used to giving more variety, the sound really could have sucked you into the various worlds and make you look over your shoulder instead of having you reach for the volume button when instructions aren't being given.

There have been a couple reviews that been really positive but most have found the game below average.

Dirt Track Racing -- Sprint Cars review - Mikael @ 03:30 EST

IGNPC has posted a positive review of the 3D sound supporting Dirt Track Racing -- Sprint Cars saying it's a good but not great game. Here's the sound bit:

Ratbag has taken the credo of "less is more" when it comes to the sound in DTR: Sprint Cars. Though these puppies can routinely top 8000RPM, the sputtering sound coming from my speakers was hardly what I expected. Even the announcer only had a few lines to say over and over again. The surround sound worked nice however, in conveying the Doppler effect whenever I was passing or - more frequently - was passed. Though there's no music shipped with the game, you can pop in your own CD's and listen while racing.

No mention of what soundcard he used but according to several reviews it doesn't work well on a Live card.
News Source: Blue's News

Rune review - Mikael @ 03:23 EST

DailyTelefrag has posted a detailed and very positive review of Rune with the following (IMO) odd bit on the sound:

Not much about the sound, friends. You just don't notice it. And if you don't notice it, that means the sounds in the game are natural. That's what you need in a game.
There's not a lot of music in the game. Very little music, I should say. You hear it only in the most important parts of the game. I think that's good. Your playing a game, not listening to CD, are you? By the way, the multiplayer also doesn't have any music in it. You must concentrate in the game and music can be a distraction to you. In any deathmatch you have to contemplate and prepare yourself for battle. Music is out of the question.
Of coarse some things could be better. Like instead of hearing a damp smack when you chop off a head of a goblin, I'd put in something more frightening. Almost forgot. I think that the developers really made a serious fault - when you plunge into the water you don't hear any splashes. Must be corrected at once.

I guess this reviewer didn't enable 3D sound since you will then most certainly notice that something is wrong with the sound. It's like on all cards I've tried (SonicFury/Santa Cruz, Philips Acoustic Edge and the Live, not tried any Vortex2 card so maybe the A3D code is fine).

Giants patch - Mikael @ 02:19 EST

Interplay has released a patch for its recently released Giants. You can find download links and the full list of fixes at 3dfiles, one of them is "Directional audio playback was improved.".

Halo chat log - Mikael @ 02:17 EST

X-Box addict has posted the log from the chat session that IGN held earlier this week with Halo Lead Designer John Howard, and Matt Soell from Bungie. Here's an interesting bit:

The Xbox is said to have concentrated more on audio compared to other consoles what kind of features have you implemented?
We've been concentrating on getting the visual end of things straight, so we don't really have any incredible audio features to tout just yet. But we did learn a lot about what we could do and what we want to do from Oni, and I think you'll see us using that experience to go beyond the audio stuff we've done in the past.

The game will also appear on the PC and way back it was supposed to support A3D 3.0, doubt that's still the plan but hopefully some support for 3D audio will happen.
News Source: Blue's News

New Aliens vs. Predator Gold Levels - Mikael @ 02:09 EST

Fox Interactive has released the fifth set of levels for Aliens vs. Predator Gold. You can grab them from AvPNews.com
News Source: Blue's News

Wednesday, December 20, 2000

SONICblue Ships Rio 800 - Mikael @ 16:41 EST

SONICblue has announced that it has shipped the Rio 800. This stylish, full-featured digital audio player joins the Rio 600 and Nike psa\play 120 and 60 to round out the Rio family of portable digital audio players. The Rio 800 offers up to two hours of music storage (64 MB), a voice recorder, rechargeable battery, remote control and works with a selection of other Rio accessories such as Backpacks, an FM tuner and a car cassette adapter. You can find more details in the press release

Harman Kardon/ZapMedia to Market New Home-Entertainment Convergence Component - Mikael @ 15:20 EST

Harman Kardon has announced a strategic alliance with ZapMedia, Inc. to launch the DMC 100 Digital Media Center(TM). The DMC 100 is a digital convergence component that enables consumers to enjoy music, movies, the Internet and much more via an all-in-one interactive device that integrates seamlessly with other Harman Kardon high-performance home entertainment products. Highlights include: Built-in DVD/CD player, Massive storage capacity (30 GB) and Playback of MP3 and Windows Media streaming. For more details check out Harmon Kardon's press release. You can also check out ZapMedia's press release.

Timeline supports 3D audio - Mikael @ 14:52 EST

Timeline, the first person adventure from Timeline Computer Entertainment that is based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, supports 3D sound according to Avault. Here's what they had to say:

Sound FX: The audio in Timeline consists of brief, varying moments of brilliance with the majority being mediocre at best. At random intervals I would get static in my speakers regardless of the setup. Other than the popping and hissing noises, quality was good overall. Most developers that use spoken text in their audio presentations have a difficult time finding good voice actors, which has led to a stigma that no voice acting can be good in video games. While Timeline doesn't lend any credence to this theory, neither does it dispel anything. The voice acting ranged anywhere from professional with the assistant Katherine, to uninvolved with the rather bland voice of the professor. For the most part, the audio serves a calculated purpose in bringing the players into the virtual world and serves well for immersion. 3D positional audio is also implemented here and works especially well with my SBLive, though I could not find any specific support for EAX listed either on the box or at the company website.

Musical Score: One thing that the design team at Timeline Entertainment studied in-depth is the use of music in creating mood. All the music -- fast and slow -- helps set an incredible level of mood. The title music is especially worthy of note, sounds at its lightest like medieval orchestra, and like a rock opera during some of the transitions. Almost every moment of Timeline is filled with a different style: Fast paced themes will play when your partner is trying desperately to unlock a door while you deal with the guards. Then suddenly, when you both finally duck into the safety of an abandoned home, the music takes a very noticeable lull, helping you to feel secure in continuing the next phase of the journey without being ambushed. Of all the different components to Timeline, the music stands out as being decidedly higher quality, helping to convey a sense of danger and excitement where the story fails.

Overall the Avault review is a bit on the negative side. Checking a few other reviews that has been posted recently (the game was released in November) it doesn't appear to be much to have with music being one of few strong points of the game. Here's the sound and music snips from the reviews I've read:

HappyPuppy:

The sound effects (i.e., nice clickity clacks of horses trotting) are appropriately placed and well done

GameOver:

Giving credit where credit is due, Timeline features a strong audio department. While the sound effects are rather generic, the dialogue was excellent. Each character has his or her own unique personality and the accents were right on the money. They even had French-speaking citizens in Castelgard. The musical score was also tremendous, helping to create some tense moments during the game. Graphically, Timeline reminded me a lot of Thief, not necessarily the most spectacular visuals, but they did a commendable job bringing the architecture of that era to life

GameLoft:

The music, however, does deserve credit - the intro track is one of the best pieces of music we've heard in a PC game, although the incidental tracks are less impressive

IGNPC:

The quality voice acting is much appreciated and so is the musical score. Both do more to set the mood than the actual story.

GameSpy:

While the sound effects are sparse and mediocre at best, the music is outstanding. A fantastic orchestral score by Bill Brown has been integrated into the gameplay, and I've already copied the MP3s to my music folder for regular listening. (Yes, I'm a soundtrack junkie.

ActionTrip

Sometimes the dynamic music score will add the feeling of tension and suspense to the game's atmosphere. Unfortunately, this is not enough to keep your attention for a longer period

FMOD 3.3 released - Mikael @ 13:18 EST

Brett Paterson let us know they just (well two days ago) released version 3.3 of FMOD FMOD Sound and Music API for programmers. When it comes to 3D sound it supports DS3D, A3D 3.0, EAX 1.0 and 2.0. For all the details check out their site

Game Theater XP available at Best Buy - Mikael @ 12:58 EST

Brian Bryce sent us the following e-mail that should be of interest for anyone that wants to buy the Game Theater XP:

The Game Theater XP is now available at my Best Buy therefore I assume that you can now get it at all best buys in the east. Just was put on the shelf today I think. Costs 149.99 at Best Buy

As you may know the press release from last week said the card wouldn't be available until January. The card can also be ordered for $150 from Hercules online shop, no mention of out of stock so hopefully they will ship it right away.

FAKK2 Postmortem - Mikael @ 12:38 EST

Gamasutra has posted the Heavy Metal: FAKK2 postmortem written by Scott Alden, who has since left Ritual for 3D Realms where he's working on Duke Nukem Forever. As usual the postmortem features a look at what went right and wrong with the game's development. In the end he concludes it's the best game Ritual Entertaiment has done to date. The only sound related bit can be found in the what went right section:

Sound system (Zound). Another in-game system is the Zound editor. This system let our sound engineer place sound and music triggers in the game without having to recompile the entire level. This allowed him to place music cues and music mood triggers around the level to create tension or humor when needed.

The game used Miles SoundSystem to offer support for DS3D with EAX 1.0 (2.0 is broken) and A3D 1.X.
News Source: Blue's News

D-Link Releases Portable MP3 CD Player - Mikael @ 03:54 EST

D-Link has launched a new MP3 CD Player that delivers up to 10 hours of digital quality music called the D-Link DMP-CD100. Representing the third generation of MP3 technology from D-Link, the DMP-CD100 uses CD technology combined with MP3 technology to deliver hours of no-skip continuous music. It recognizes both normal Audio CDs (CD-DA) and MP3 CDs (CD-R) created on a PC. You can find more details in the press release.

SWAT 3: Elite Edition International Patches - Mikael @ 03:25 EST

Sierra Studios has released international editions of the SWAT 3: Elite Edition multiplayer patch. The 54MB huge patch is available in UK, German, French, Italian and Spanish versions.

News Source: Blue's News

Giants: Citizen Kabuto review - Mikael @ 03:21 EST

IGNPC has posted a very positive (9.2/10) review of Giants with the following sound bit:

Like the graphics, the sound work in Giants is top notch. The voice-overs are well acted and recorded, and it's obvious that the team has taken great care in picking voice talent that was both professional and possessed a good sense of humor. Sound effects are abundant and have the perfect amount of reverb to fit the sound dynamics of each location, and the rich, dramatic orchestral soundtrack accompanies the action perfectly, keeping you primed and energized the whole time.

The game supports DS3D with EAX.
News Source: Blue's News

B-17 Flying Fortress reviews - Mikael @ 03:01 EST

Sim-Arena has posted a mixed review of B-17 Flying Fortress complaing about huge system requirements, a few minor graphics/sound issues and somewhat repetitive gameplay but in the end they still think it offers some hours of fun gameplay. Here's a couple interesting bits on the sound:

One potential problem is in the startup utility, which offers the ability to enable A3D even if a compatible sound card is not present. Doing so seems to be asking for a crash - just leave the defaults alone here.
[snip]
Sounds are probably the weakest point of the sim. In external views the sounds are fairly anemic, especially engine noise. Intercom communications are a little too quiet to be easily heard. The most annoying problems are with machine-gun sounds. There's a noticeable stuttering, and sometimes they go away entirely. This would be a nice thing to have fixed in any patch, if one is coming. Inside the aircraft, most things sound like they should, with a loud steady drone from the engines. Flak and gunfire are clearly audible. One nice touch is the delayed sound of bombs detonating below.

The was said to support A3D 2.0 so if working properly it should give you 3D sound on all cards that support DS3D. As this review indicates it may not work that well but he never mentioned what soundcard he uses. For a second and very positive opinion on the game you should check out IGNPC's review. No mention of 3D sound but they liked what they heard (9/10):

Really atmospheric music punctuates the briefings. The engine and weapon sounds are phenomenal but are surpassed by the superlative voice work

Carmageddon: TDR 2000 review - Mikael @ 02:52 EST

Gamespot has posted a short and quite negative review of Carmageddon: TDR 2000. They considered sound the best aspect of the game giving it a 7/10 score:

The game's soundtrack by Utah Saints is appropriate, if forgettable, though it's nice to see they're still getting work. The sound effects, from the roar of engines to the screams and curses of pedestrians, are generally well done.

Carmageddon is supposted to support 3D audio according to the offical site but a recent review at Avault didn't notice any use of 3D audio.

Alice reviews - Mikael @ 02:46 EST

GameSpy has posted a very positive review of Alice with the following audio coverage:

Alice's hypnotic musical score exhibits the same twisted otherworldliness of the game's imagery. Cranks, bells and swimming xylophones strike in syncopated rhythms, setting a dramatic tone of urgency and danger. Sounds of gears, springs, and tortured strings form the leitmotifs in a sort of Wagnerian Wonderland opera

As said they liked most other aspects of the game overall awarding the game an overall score of 93 but they complained a bit about weak AI, thin story line and simple interactivity. Another very positive review of the game can be found at Game-Over. Just like most others they found gameplay to be the weakest aspect of the game (42/50) while sound and graphics both got a perfect score of 10/10. Here's the detailed sound coverage:

The sound is probably some of the best I've heard in a game. The music, for starters, is almost perfect. It's simple, ambient, and blends into the background well and it sounds fantastic. Most of the tunes are very creepy, they really give the sense of a twisted and evil Wonderland. I hear the music was done by an ex-NIN member, which would explain how well the music comes across as creepy, but it's not fast or heavy.
Ambient sounds are worked in wonderfully as well. There are enough to add variety to the levels, but they aren't constant. This is good because it lets you listen to the background music and also gives you that creepy "alone" feeling. Some of the creepiest you'll hear are the little psychotic kids cackling and crying. Steam vents burst into action, rivers murmur, gears grind, electricity crackles. It's very immersive.
Weapon sounds are pretty good. Small details like the croquet mallet "squeaks" when you hit something (if you remember, the croquet mallet is actually a bird) and the jack-in-the-box plays a little music before it opens make a big difference. Overall they are nothing to write home about. Alice has 3 types of gibbing - slice in 2, slice off the head, and explosive gib. The slicing ones sound fantastic, you hear a satisfying sound and hear the blood splatter on the ground. The voice acting in this game is exceptional too. Congrats are in order for the voice of the Cheshire Cat, he sounds amazing. Other developers take heed - voice acting should be done by PROFESSIONALS, not by some jackass off the street. Hitman developers, do you hear me? "Excuse me I have to go to the bathroom"...ugh.

The game supports DS3D with EAX (1 and 2) and A3D.
News Source: Blue's News

Sacrifice Reviews - Mikael @ 02:40 EST

FiringSquad has posted a detailed and very positive review of Sacrifice giving it an overall score of 87%. Here's the a bit mixed sound impression:

We found ourselves less impressed with the music and sound effects. The music is above average, not overly creative but suits the mood. No single tune stood out in our memory, though there is a fair number you'll hear in the game. The songs accompanied the flow of the game more than actually helping set the pace. At no time did a song get the blood pumping, add urgency to the action or do much except fill the occasional silence.
The sound effects are good but when you consider the high standards present in games now, Sacrifice feels average. The sounds do their job of supporting visuals very well, but not much more. Much like the music, there isn't anything memorable.

Upon further inspection, some of these sounds really deserve strong praise. After all, the visuals in Sacrifice are some of the best we've seen. When one of the spells a wizard casts involves summoning a volcano, the sound effects involved keep up with the wondrous visuals, that's saying quite a bit. Of course, the volcano isn't the typical effect. The more mundane visuals are partnered with 'merely' average sound effects.

A more positive review, especially when it comes to sound can be found on Gamevisions (sound 98%):

EAX support and the other usual amenities make the sound pretty immersive, but what I was really impressed with was the voice-overs. Usually 3D action/strategy games get the short end of the stick when it comes to voices, but Sacrifice has faired rather well. The in-game sounds (especially the conversions and desecrations at the altars) were well orchestrated, in addition to the fitting (and catchy) music (except for Pyro's music which sounds like one of those bad 1970's mythology movies with the stop-motion animation.

Other reviews have been more along the line of gamevisions than FiringSquad and personally I think the sound is pretty good so far including the use of positional sound effects. It's not a game where EAX is that effective but it still supports and use both EAX 1.0 and 2.0.

Blair Witch 3: The Elly Kedward Tale Reviews - Mikael @ 02:34 EST

3DGameForces has posted a positive review of Blair Witch 3: The Elly Kedward Tal saying it's the best game in the series by far. Here's the sound bit:

Following this pattern, the sound is also superb, even better than that of the first game. The voice acting is top of the line and very professionally done. All of the sound effects, from gunfire to zombie moans are atmospheric and excellent.

ElectricGames disagree in their review of Blair Witch 3 saying it's the worst in the series and suggest you pick up Blair Witch 1 instead. When it comes to sound they had no complaints and gave it a perfect score:

Sound effects are as good as ever, and the voice acting is quite well done

The game supports DS3D with EAX.
News Source: Blue's News

Tuesday, December 19, 2000

Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live Platinum 5.1 Review - Mikael @ 18:33 EST

Tech-GODS has posted a review of Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live Platinum 5.1. They think it's a great card but question if it's worth the price, especially if you already have a previous Live. I don't get why they put mini-jack digital output as a con when you have SPDIF output of RCA type on the Live drive so you don't even need to use the mini-jack output if you have something against digital outputs of mini-jack type.

MidiLand 7100M 5.1-Ready Speaker System Review - Mikael @ 17:50 EST

SharkyExtreme has posted a review of MidiLand's 5.1 ready speaker system, the 7100M. It is technically the same system as the S4 MidiLand 7100 with a new MidiLand original finish, sleek metallic. The estimated street price of the S4 MidiLand 7100M system is $199.95 (MSRP $249.95). Not sure why SharkyExtreme decided to review the speaker system again but maybe to check it out with Philips' Acoustic Edge and the PlayStation 2 that wasn't released at the time. They found it to work great with both without much details. Overall they think it's an excellent system. For a more mixed and detailed review you can check out Mark's S4 7100 review
News Source: Anandtech

TI introduces new Digital Audio Amplifier and DSP Technologies - Mikael @ 17:40 EST

Texas Instruments has announced a new digital audio solution. TI's new digital audio solution is based on four basic components. At the heart of the system is TI's DSP technology. When the application requires decoding or additional audio processing, the solution will leverage a TMS320C54x(TM) DSP to enable the host system to send digital data directly to the speakers from a CD, DVD, TV, game console, the Internet or other source. The DSP also provides audio filtering and processing for Dolby Digital, 3-D Surround Sound, DTS, MP3, and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). The solution will also use TI's dedicated Digital Audio Processor to perform speaker equalization and correction, tone management, dynamic range compression and expansion, and volume, bass and treble control. To communicate with the PC or the home audio system, the solution must have a digital interface chip, such as TI's Universal Serial Bus (USB) streaming controller or S/PDIF chip. The final piece of the digital audio solution is TI's new true Digital Audio Amplifier. If it sounds interesting you should check out the press release for more details

Wolfson Microelectronics Delivers Sound to Xbox - Mikael @ 17:32 EST

Wolfson Microelectronics has announced that it has been chosen as the initial provider of the analog audio DACs for Xbox. You can find some details about the DAC and the X-Box in the press release

Creative Technology Revises Second Quarter Expectations - Mikael @ 17:30 EST

Creative Technology today joined the long line of technology companies that have had to announced revised expectations for its current quarter. In Creative's case they have reduced the overall revenue expectations with just 5 to 7 percent. Creative Technology says this revision was primarily caused by lower than forecasted demand from some of its OEM customers and PC system integrators. You can find more details in the press release.

EMusic adds voice to chorus of MP3.com copyright suits - Mikael @ 17:24 EST

That's the title of a CNET News.com article where they report that Online music company EMusic, along with several independent record labels, have filed copyright lawsuits alleging that MP3.com infringed its copyrights. It's yet again the My.MP3.Com service that is in focus just like with the lawsuit brought by the 5 major labels which MP3.com settled with earlier this year.

Creative NOMAD Jukebox firmware update (MAC OS) - Mikael @ 16:27 EST

Creative Labs has released a new release of Creative NOMAD Jukebox Firmware (Ver 2.56) for users running Macintosh Operating System 8.6 and above only

Rave MP-2300 Review - Mikael @ 16:21 EST

Neoseeker has posted a review of the Sensory Science Rave: MP-2300 mp3 player. The 2300 uses the Iomega 40mb Clik! for storage and according to this detailed review it's just as fast and skip free as those that use flash memory for storage. The player is also rather well features with plenty of play back modes including A-B playback, Voice recording, EQ presets and a large LCD display. In the end they found it to be a pretty good MP3 player but found sound quality to be behind the Nomad II and Rio 600.
News Source: 3DAI

Rio 600 Review - Mikael @ 16:12 EST

The Tech Zone has posted a review of SonicBlue's MP3 Player, the Rio 600. They liked it quite a bit thanks to excellent sound quality, customizable EQ settings, playlists, backlit LCD display, ID3 tag as well as filename display. Complaints included only 32MB built in memory, use of proprietary and expensive format for memory upgrades and some minor complaints about the software. Just like Nomad II the Rio 600 can support future formats thru firmware upgrades. Could also add that Rio wasn't the first MP3 player it was just the first MP3 player that become a major hit.

Panzer Elite 1.08 Patch - Mikael @ 15:56 EST

Wings Simulations has released a new patch for its 3D sound supporting Panzer Elite

Carmageddon: TDR 2000, The Nosebleed Pack - Mikael @ 15:49 EST

This is what the Nose Bleed pack actually delivers: Enhanced multiplayer model with a server mode, a whole range of updated power-ups including: Meteor Storm andf Hover Mode. Carmageddon is supposted to support 3D audio according to the offical site but a recent review at Avault didn't notice any use of 3D audio. You can download the Nosebleed pack from 3dfiles

Gunlok 1.1 Retail Patch and updated demo - Mikael @ 15:43 EST

Gunlok is a `3D team based action strategy' game, from Rebellion, the developers of the number one world-wide hit Aliens vs. Predator. As the game starts the player sets out on a quest to destroy The Corporation, along the way solving puzzles and battling robots as he strives to free mankind. During the game Gunlok picks up companions and together, through team co-operation and using each other's unique abilities, they battle their way to a final confrontation with the evil at the heart of The Corporation. You can find more details about the game and download links for the updated 62 MB demo at 3dfiles. I don't know if the demo supports 3D sound but according to an interview in February the game will support 3D sound and EAX. Speaking of the full game a new patch bringing it up to version 1.1 has just been released

Deer Hunter 4 patch - Mikael @ 15:34 EST

Quite a few bug fixes in this patch that brings the 3D sound supporting Deer Hunter 4 up to version 1.1.

X-Tension 2.0 Patch - Mikael @ 15:31 EST

Egosoft has released a new (v2.0) patch for the English version of the expansion for the DS3D supporting space combat X:Beyond the Frontier.

FrontX CPX Multimedia Ports review - Mikael @ 14:59 EST

Soundcard Central 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.

Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 FAQ - Mikael @ 14:56 EST

Soundblaster.com has been updated mentioning a FAQ for the Sound Blaster Live 5.1 line of cards. Nothing ground breaking in the FAQ and their claim of having to enable digital output only to get the digital output of the Live!Drive IR to work is incorrect.

Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE Review - Mikael @ 14:53 EST

PlanetHardware has posted a review of Guillemot's inexpensive ($30) 4-speaker soundcard, Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE. They found it to work quite well, especially if you take into account the low price.
News Source: Anandtech

Rocco 5.1 Digital Audio System review - Mikael @ 14:49 EST

TechReview has posted a review of Jazz inexpensive DD 5.1 system, Rocco 5.1. As the two previous reviews I've read they were not very impressed with the system to say the least. I agree that just giving PMPO specs is worse than not giving any specs at all but when it comes to the comments of a subwoofer having to go down to 20 or 25 Hz I think they are a bit too critical since no one does that in this price range. Can also add that Jazz sent me this system a couple days ago but later e-mailed saying they sent a test version (or old version not sure which) and asked me to not review it. Let's hope the version that Techreview posted is the one I currently got and the new version I will get late next month offers better sound quality.
News Source: Blue's News

Monday, December 18, 2000

Server Problems - Mark @ 22:24 EST

As you have likely noticed we are having severe server difficulties. I don't know exactly what the problem is or when it will be fixed but we hope it will be soon. Thanks for your patience!

NVIDIA's European Marketing Manager Interviewed - Mark @ 00:32 EST

NextGame has posted an interview with Alain Tiquet, NVIDIA's European Marketing Manager. A lot of graphics as you can imagine but there is also a bit on their upcoming audio processor. Here's a snip:

Nextgame.it: So also a powerful sound system? 3D audio supported?
Alain Tiquet: what we do for Xbox is a "sound" investment....
Nextgame.it: By the way, could you tell us something about this MCPX? It seems soo interesting!!!!
Alain Tiquet: Has communication capabilities (ethernet, modem,USB) plus traditional IDE. 3D Digital Dolby stamped sound. We'll tell you more in few months.
Nextgame.it: Mmm... The audio market on PC seems blocked, now, without Aureal (acquired by Creative)... Do you think your products could introduce so many evolutions to restart the race also in the audio market?
Alain Tiquet: The room for improvement in the graphic field far exceeds the the sound. The trick is to get sound and graphic fully in synch

Not quite sure what he means by the last comment (and I could argue about the bit on more room to improve in graphics too). It's worth noting that this interview was done before the NVIDIA / 3dfx deal was announced so it's interesting to see where some of the answers to questions about 3dfx are out of synch with recent events.
News Source: Blue's News

Oni Demo - Mark @ 00:21 EST

Bungie Software proudly presents a demo of Oni - a single-player blend of action and adventure that combines the best elements of shooters and fighting games into a near-future epic featuring anime-style action and characters. Throughout breathtaking indoor and outdoor levels created by real- world architects, Oni's third-person vantage point casts gamers in the role of Konoko, a heroine with a vast arsenal of fighting moves- including kicks, punches, throws and combos, as well as finishing moves. But she can also wield powerful weapons- from machine guns to plasma cannons- as she maneuvers her way through an increasingly dark storyline. Last year the game was on Aureal's list for A3D 1 support but we have not seen anything new on this recently so no idea what if any advanced sound options the demo or the full game will sport. You can find out about the demo by grabbing the 70 MB file from 3Dfiles. If you do check the demo out we would appreciate hearing from you about the audio options.

S4 MidiLand 8200 Review - Mark @ 00:17 EST

The Tech Zone has posted a review of the S4 MidiLand 8200 Dolby Digtal 5.1 speaker system. Note that the list price of $399.99 is something new from MidiLand's online store but the street price is consistently below $300 and even from MidiLand there is a $100 trade in offer. Getting to the review, like most this one is a postive review. Even though I have not heard the system I think it's stretching things too much when they say it's a system "to rival most home theater systems". One bit worth noting is unless the games they tested with supported Dolby Pro Logic or they were using LiveSurround (which they were not) then despite what they report, they were not hearing true 3D sound for games. The S4-8200 was not designed with multichannel gaming in mind and what they likely heard was a Pro Logic ambiance effect to the rear channels. The ADS-2000 connects to the speakers via an analgo DIN to DIN cable so to do true multichannel gaming you would have to find or make an analog DIN to stereo 3 stereo mini-jack and use the system with a 6 channel output sound card.

News from December 11-17, 2000

Search 3DsoundSurge News

Looking for a particular story or issue? Why not search our news archives.

All content, design and work is � 2001 - 3D Sound Surge Please respect the copyrights of the articles and writers herein. All copyrights are enforced by 3DSS.
View the 3DsoundSurge Privacy Statement