[Fa11ou7]

Quote:

That's a shame. I've been playing COD  for a while so I've been looking to switch to something else. Other options, borderlands?

 
Quote:

I also want to try Dead Island, and Borderlands 2. Left 4 Dead had pretty good (but easy to hear) audio cues.

 
I would highly suggest you give Borderlands 2 a shot if you have any interest in it at all. I am still really enjoying the game and I pre-ordered it. Keep in mind the the multiplayer isn't going to be CoDish at all it would be closer to a Halo co-op game (B2 co-op is definitely the preferred way to play this game). DH with B2 sounds great to me, obviously the positional ques aren't all that important because there isn't any "sneaky" game play but it does make the game very immersive. Great soundtrack and effects with lots of explosions, excellent voice acting and fun storyline. I actually cared about some of the characters with this game, which is hard to do in shooters nowadays (My opinion only). 

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

There's plenty of people who prefer stereo over virtual surround. If you go into virtual surround expecting pure audio fidelity, you're gonna be disappointed. You can't go into virtual surround with a headphone mentality. You have to go into it with an open mind, and expecting something that sounds very different from what you've been accustomed to in headphones.
But I have NEVER met a person who has tried virtual surround for a week who preferred to go back to plain stereo.
It takes time to adjust, but once you do, it's impossible to go back.

 
And that's the thing: I don't turn on virtual surround expecting the usual clarity and sound quality of a stereo headphone presentation. That's why I turn it off when listening to music.
 
I turn it on expecting aural wallhack levels of knowing where every sound came from the instant I hear it, being immersed like I'm actually there in the environment with all this stuff happening around me instead of all the sounds being artificially positioned right beside my ears as a stereo mix would do, and it's done so convincingly that I immediately threw out any notions of buying complicated, expensive surround speaker systems.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Very much how I feel. I use it only when gaming and watching movies. Sometimes even like using the stereo upmix when watching TV shows. But never, ever for music.

 

[Evshrug]

Good news, we have regained Internet at the house! And, I couldn't resist, I played 2 hours of Halo 4. I'll tell you what: you don't need special playlists to make Halo 4 surround useful. I played 100% infinity slayer today, and you can locate enemies, weapon drops, that vehicle driving half a map away... Taste aside, the technical quality of this game is very high. My guess about gameplay being balanced, favoring bold aggression & good timing instead of camping, and the variety of movement options (tactically speaking) were accurate, but what I didn't guess was how fast it is! Almost wish the rounds lasted longer, lol. Can't wait to play spartan ops, but I'm on my way to the library to check out books on HTML coding and get to work improving my portfolio, so I can get a well-paying job.

I would highly suggest you give Borderlands 2 a shot if you have any interest in it at all. I am still really enjoying the game and I pre-ordered it. Keep in mind the the multiplayer isn't going to be CoDish at all it would be closer to a Halo co-op game (B2 co-op is definitely the preferred way to play this game). DH with B2 sounds great to me, obviously the positional ques aren't all that important because there isn't any "sneaky" game play but it does make the game very immersive. Great soundtrack and effects with lots of explosions, excellent voice acting and fun storyline. I actually cared about some of the characters with this game, which is hard to do in shooters nowadays (My opinion only). 

Fallout,
Though I've played CoD more than any other XBL game series (90% CoD4, though all at some point), I have beaten Borderlands. I imagine the sequel is more of the same, though much more polished since the first game had a ton of last-minute decisions made. Do they have matchmaking for Borderlands 2? I'm afraid there won't be anyone starting out in the game by the time I can afford to buy it. The fact that they developed characters and give enough personality that players invest in & care about them is encouraging. I'm sure it's very fun, and I look forward to playing it someday... Probably splitscreen.

 

[Fa11ou7]

Quote:

Fallout,
Though I've played CoD more than any other XBL game series (90% CoD4, though all at some point), I have beaten Borderlands. I imagine the sequel is more of the same, though much more polished since the first game had a ton of last-minute decisions made. Do they have matchmaking for Borderlands 2? I'm afraid there won't be anyone starting out in the game by the time I can afford to buy it. The fact that they developed characters and give enough personality that players invest in & care about them is encouraging. I'm sure it's very fun, and I look forward to playing it someday... Probably splitscreen.

 
Yes Borderlands 2 has matchmaking and since there are 5 distinct characters this time there are always people starting over or playing alts so it should be pretty easy to find a group. I played the original and found it to be pretty boring but 2 has been much more engaging for me. I was able to talk my wife into playing with me and that has been fun but even solo is still pretty enjoyable though harder. 

 

[calpis]

I would suggest playing BL2 solo first playthrough or with someone else that is playing it for the first time so you can stop and enjoy the story. If you get in a game with someone that has played it before then you run the risk of them just rushing ahead of you, opening all the chests, and skipping all the story beats. Also during your first playthrough, you should do EVERY quest that is available (cept for the raid boss). This is key especially when playing solo so you can be at an adequate enough level to not have a super hard time during main story quests. During your 2nd playthrough you should only play through main story quests and save the rest of the optional quests until you're level 50. Quest reward weapons/loot are locked to their quest level and when you max out at level 50, everything turns into a level 50 quest and you'll get around lvl 50 reward weapons. Or if you know what quest reward weapons you want, you can just save that particular quest until you reach the level cap. In my case, I'm saving the Law and Order quests until I reach the level cap.

 

[Evshrug]

Calpis,
Ugh, lately I've come to loathe power grinding. Don't get me wrong, I haven't actually been able to resist trying to experience everything a game has to offer, but after Bethesda's Fallout 3 and oblivion had so many side quests and monotonous time requirements for unlocking cool high-level abilities, I've come to realize that sometimes a grind is just a grind, and you don't even get paid for it like at work.

There were was a fun style to Borderlands, and it was more fun in co-op with someone who appreciated the same things as me, but to meet up regularly enough to keep the story moving is tough, and the first borderlands lost my interest shortly after beating it the first time. I mean, I want to play it, but getting scientific about maxing your potential sometimes takes the play out of it. Do you get what I mean?

On the other hand, maximizing compute potential for the lowest price while building my computer was what MADE it fun. If a developer can capitalize on that interest, and reward players enough along the way, then it's still fun. I just wasn't so interested in replaying all of Borderlands' side quests over again, and of course the story was the same.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Looks like im not going to enjoy Blops II because of the maps.

In any case, the surround cues are actually damn good in multiplayer. There just isnt much in the way of footsteps. Shots, explosions, etc are all excellent.

 

[rabinzero]

Quote:

Looks like im not going to enjoy Blops II because of the maps.
In any case, the surround cues are actually damn good in multiplayer. There just isnt much in the way of footsteps. Shots, explosions, etc are all excellent.

 
I thought I was going to have the same issue.  Then today when I played I was finding myself head faking and killing enemies with no issue and the map designs made tons more sense.  There are a couple that are designed for chaotic action, but I can tolerate those.  I'll just have to be less aggressive on them.
 
I'm with you on the sound.  I agree completely.  I've actually discovered Supercrunchy is the way to go...for my preferred listening experience anyway.  Treyarch Mix is good, but I wanted more fill and Supercrunchy did the trick.  Not only do I hear footsteps VERY well using Dead Silence and Awareness, the sound during gameplay alone is amazing!!!  I really am going to enjoy playing this game.

 

[Evshrug]

There's always an adjustment period for new maps. Glad it's starting to click for you, Rabinzero. What headphones & other equipment do you use in your setup?

On a personal note, I played an hour and a half of SWAT in Halo 4 yesterday. At first I was having fun, dismayed at rumors that SWAT was a temporary playlist that might be taken down, but then I got bored of SWAT and wanted to go back to Infinity Slayer. Then, around 10:30, my mom comes home and sees me playing, and now she's threatening to shut off the 'net again because it's "All you've done since I brought it back." Good thing what I ACTUALLY had been doing all day, between checking on Head-Fi, had been job hunting so I can leave and make my mom understand that it she won't suddenly save 40% on her living expenses nor read about me in the news as becoming a creature of violence and manslaughter. She will make a horrible, meddlesome in-law some day, not just because of games.

 

[calpis]

Quote:

Calpis,
Ugh, lately I've come to loathe power grinding. Don't get me wrong, I haven't actually been able to resist trying to experience everything a game has to offer, but after Bethesda's Fallout 3 and oblivion had so many side quests and monotonous time requirements for unlocking cool high-level abilities, I've come to realize that sometimes a grind is just a grind, and you don't even get paid for it like at work.
There were was a fun style to Borderlands, and it was more fun in co-op with someone who appreciated the same things as me, but to meet up regularly enough to keep the story moving is tough, and the first borderlands lost my interest shortly after beating it the first time. I mean, I want to play it, but getting scientific about maxing your potential sometimes takes the play out of it. Do you get what I mean?
On the other hand, maximizing compute potential for the lowest price while building my computer was what MADE it fun. If a developer can capitalize on that interest, and reward players enough along the way, then it's still fun. I just wasn't so interested in replaying all of Borderlands' side quests over again, and of course the story was the same.

Nah, totally understand. But imo, the best story bits in BL2 happen to be the optional side quests. If you happen to do playthrough 2 then you're pretty much only doing it for high level gear and a much harder challenge. Hell, I never even got around to maxing out my level in BL1, I think I made it to 52 before I kinda stopped playing.

 

[Hailin]

Just finished the campaign in Halo 4. I was just wondering if anyone with a Mixamp and DT990 has massive distortion on things like ship engine sounds when they are flying over head. Gravity hammer also causes this. I think I have almost stopped it but I had to turn the volume on my mixamp to 50% then turn my Fiio E9 to high gain and just turn the volume up to match the old volume which was about 10 or 11 o'clock when I was on low gain. I also had a few moments like this while playing Uncharted 3 whenever something loud happened. There were 3 really bad moments.
 
Another quick question I had was what would be an upgrade from the DT990pro? I have my Christmas bonus coming and I am thinking I should upgrade either my amp or headphones. That or I am going to grab a pair of closed headphones or wait for reviews on the AD900x.

 

[clamchowder01]

Hello,

I just bought a Xonar Essence STX sound card along with Beyerdynamic MMX300 based on good feedback and recommendations.

First, when I installed my STX, I got it working in a weird way.. I saw that the computer recognized my STX in the Device manager, but when I went to install the drivers.. at the end it told me to connect the device allowing me to Retry or Cancel the operation.. I clicked retry and it asked me a similar question. I cancelled it, restarted PC and saw that the Xonar audio center was in the quick bar so it was ok.

When using the Unified Xonar Drivers.. it gave me the please connect device again, selected retry , it asked me to attach device again, I selected cancel. I restarted PC , saw no icon, and tried to install driver again and it told me that installation of driver is complete.

To note I had to install my card in the PCI express x 4 slot because of my Gigabyte mobo config (This big blue thing makes it not possible to connect my card to the PCI-Exp x 1 slot.

I get sound and stuff from the card, but I've noticed when playing Black ops 2, I sometimes got game pausing and few seconds of no sound. I have an error with DataRam RamDisk Device -> RamDiskVE saying that drivers can't be installed. Does that affect my sound card?

Also, I am not really impressed with the surround sound I get from the setup of the STX / MMX 300. It's hard to tell where the sound is coming from when playing FPS shooters compared to my old Logitech z5500 5.1 system which my brother wanted to use, which causes me to ask if virtual or headphone true 5.1 is good as actual 5.1 speakers? The sound from the headphones sound like it's coming from everywhere still.

I used the Dolby headphone (DH-2), xear 3d, 7.1 speaker shifter when gaming, 8-channel

Should I return my card and headphones.. and just buy Steel series Siberia v2 headphones or Razer gaming headphones or am I expecting too much from headphones to produce good sound channel separation as actual 5.1 speaker setups?

Music is great from the setup though. Haven't tried movies yet, but I'm thinking the sound separation is pretty much the same as the games.

Anyone please help or have input? Sorry for long post.

 

[clamchowder01]

Also, when I play Black ops 2, after the game ends and everything is quiet and your viewing the score screen for that game, I can hear static.
 
When it returns to the intermission/menu screen there is no more static... why is that?

 

[chroniX]

I wouldn't judge the positional qualities of your setup from blacks op 2 alone. I find that the game is terrible for sound whoring (at least without perks). I've been knifed in the back quite a few times in this game since I can't hear them coming behind me unless they're shooting or something. A game like CS:GO would be a much better test to gauge how well surround sound works with your headphones.