[chewy4]

It's possible to use a controller on most games, but if you have a wireless controller you'll need an adapter(play and charge kits will not work).
 
Unfortunately the only standalone adapters you can get now are bootlegs, although some of the bootlegs have good feedback. The official one's come in a bundle with a controller labled as a wireless 360 controller for Windows.
 
You're gonna have to get used to keyboard and mouse though if you want to be competent online. I'd imagine a game like Black Mesa would be hard with a gamepad as well.

 

[alenfromcroatia]

Why don't you try Black Mesa for PC?
It's free and it's a complete remake of Half-Life 1 in Source engine.
Also, play the HL2 Episodes.

 

[Double-A]

Why don't you try Black Mesa for PC?
It's free and it's a complete remake of Half-Life 1 in Source engine.
Also, play the HL2 Episodes.

 
I already said earlier in the thread that I was going to try Black Mesa.
 
EDIT: For some reason it wasn't working for me to download the blackmesa.7z file so I just decided I would try again later. I did download the Black Mesa soundtrack however because I thought "why not if it's a free download?"

 

[alenfromcroatia]

OH, I didn't notice
You need Steam for BMS., BTW (if you dont' know hehe)

 

[Double-A]

I am quite disappointed with the dynamic range levels of the songs this soundtrack is composed of. I don't know how much work it would take for the Black Mesa dev team to replace all the music in the game with more dynamic versions of the same songs and also replace the downloadable soundtrack on their website with the more dynamic songs but it sure would be nice if they did so.
 
EDIT: Here are some measurements that I took using the dynamic range meter 1.1.1 component for foobar2000 version 1.2.9: http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=44872 To give you an idea of how the Black Mesa Soundtrack stacks up against the original Half-Life soundtrack: http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=25703 Don't get me wrong, the Half-Life soundtrack ain't exactly my definition of perfect and if I was the mastering engineer, I wouldn't have used as much dynamic range compression but it sure does have a heck of a lot more dynamic range than the soundtrack for Black Mesa does. Only three out of 27 tracks have what is classified as 'bad' dynamic range (according to the dynamic range database) in the Half-Life soundtrack versus a staggering 28 out of 30 for the Black Mesa Soundtrack . . . that's pretty bad.
 
EDIT: @ alenfromcroatia: It's no biggie and also, I have already downloaded Steam but I am holding off on downloading Black Mesa just yet as I was having trouble downloading the game and also because I'm actually thinking I may not download the game because it is 3 gigabytes in size and that, in my opinion, is a pretty hefty download and bandwidth is expensive. I kind of wish that I had the ability to get the game on a physical disk. I'll probably give in and still end up downloading the game despite the fact that it is such a hefty download though.

 

[alenfromcroatia]

@Double-A, I didn't know that bandwidth was so expensive around there
Here in Croatia I have flat internet.
But it's expensive too.

 

[Double-A]

@Double-A, I didn't know that bandwidth was so expensive around there

Here in Croatia I have flat internet.
But it's expensive too.

 
Over there in Croatia I'm sure that it's more expensive as it seems like everything is more expensive outside of the United States (based on the prices for things that other people have posted on the internet) but I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't care to see the cost of bandwidth drop where I live.
 
EDIT: Does anybody here own the Half-Life 2 soundtrack + the Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 & 2 soundtracks? I would like to see measurements taken of the dynamic range levels of those soundtracks so that I could compare them with the dynamic range levels of the songs in the Half-Life and Black Mesa soundtracks. If somebody could do this for me, I would be very appreciative.

 

[alenfromcroatia]

I have Black Mesa, Half Life 2, HL2 E1+E2 on my PC.
I'm gonna test it tomorrow, still haven't checked the testing software link.
Cheers.

 

[Double-A]

I have Black Mesa, Half Life 2, HL2 E1+E2 on my PC.
I'm gonna test it tomorrow, still haven't checked the testing software link.

Cheers.

 
Thank you.
 
EDIT: On an unrelated note: I just downloaded the Bioshock soundtrack and I'm really liking it. I really need to buy the whole game sometime . . . I just have the demo for the Xbox 360 version as of right now.

 

[alenfromcroatia]

If we are talking about soundtracks, check out the TES IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3 soundtracks.
And not just that, the entire music for exploration, towns or dugneons, they are very nice for me.

 

[Double-A]

If we are talking about soundtracks, check out the TES IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3 soundtracks.
And not just that, the entire music for exploration, towns or dugneons, they are very nice for me.

 
Thank you for the recommendations, I will check the soundtracks out.

 

[alenfromcroatia]

Sorry for keeping you waiting.
I just can't figure out how to test the dynamic range.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

Sorry for keeping you waiting.
I just can't figure out how to test the dynamic range.

Foobar has a tool built in for it. 
 
Honestly I don't see why you'd want a high dynamic range for a video game soundtrack though, especially something like Black Mesa... The quiet stuff would just be drowned out by gunshots and other ambiance.

 

[Double-A]

Quote:

Sorry for keeping you waiting.
I just can't figure out how to test the dynamic range.

 
      Do you have foobar 2000 installed on your computer? If you do not, you will need to install that. After you have finished with that, you will want to go to dr.loudness-war.info. Up in the top right corner you will see "foobar2000 component". Click on it, save the file (supposedly you can find this component on the foobar2000 website but I did not see it). You will then need to start foobar2000, click on 'Library', select 'Configure', click on 'Components', click on 'Install . . . ' and then select the component you downloaded and click 'Open'. After that you just need to click 'Apply' and 'OK' and then you should be all set. Now, once you have the component installed successfully, to run the Dynamic Range Meter you simply have to right-click on any songs you have in your foobar2000 library to bring up the context menu and you should see it. Click on it and it will start running right away.
 
      @chewy4: This wouldn't be a problem for me because I oftentimes have to turn down the sound effects volume for the games that I play as I just find that they are usually too loud at full volume. For example, I had to turn down the SFX volume on Batman Arkham City because when you hit someone, you would hear a very loud and dramatic/grossly exaggerated sound and every time I heard it I thought "it never sounds like this when you're around to see someone hit another person." Also, another reason I had to turn down the sound effects volume in that game is that when you are trying to be stealthy and take out some baddies one by one and you grapple an object and start zooming up towards it, again, you hear a very loud noise and I can't help but think to myself "in reality, if you were trying to take people out one by one without being detected and you fired this grapple gun, your position would be compromised immediately with how loud this thing is." So I turned down the sound effects volume until they sounded more realistic to me. Can you do this on Black Mesa (turn down the sound effects volume)?

 

[alenfromcroatia]

OK, I'll do it tomorrow, I promise.
It's quite late here.

What tracks need testing?