Is that pie I smell?

Happy Halloween, game fans! Ok, I will admit that I have been a skeptic of surround sound in video games. Many games that promise surround sound merely deliver 5-channel stereo and don’t make any use of the discrete audio channels available in most 5.1 speaker setups. In anticipation of F.E.A.R., I decided it was finally time to give surround sound audio on the PC a fair test. I picked up a $70 Creative Labs setup at Cambridge Soundworks and came home prepared to be underwhelmed. Don’t worry, the story has a happy ending.

The first difficulty I encountered was speaker placement. The left, right, and center speakers are a no-brainer. But how many people have a computer desk such that they can easily place rear-left and rear-right speakers in the appropriate spots? I was able to place the rear-left speaker on my music keyboard and the rear-right speaker is carefully balanced on the armrest of another chair. Creative sells stands for the speakers which run $59.00. Consider them added to the Christmas list.

With speakers in place, I set out to find the perfect game for my first surround sound test. Doom 3 was the easy choice for quality audio, immersive environments, and scary bits. Setting the game up for surround sound was effortless. I dimmed the lights and fired up a new game. The 5.1 setup proved itself almost immediately during the opening tour of the Mars facility. Doom 3 makes excellent use of the discrete channels in a 5.1 setup and the ambient sounds from all sides really add a new dimension to the game. I walked the familiar path to the marine training center all the while hearing information kiosks and NPC’s speaking all around me. Once the action heated up, the surround sound added new horror to the game. Hearing an enemy soldier throw a door open behind me made my skin crawl and usually resulted in a frantic turnaround and spray of lead. In short, I would buy the speaker setup all over again just to play Doom 3. But now I’m considering revisiting already completed games like Half-Life 2 just to see how much better they can be.

It sounds as good as it looks.

The immersive gaming doesn’t stop there either. I tried out the speakers with Myst: Uru and was absolutely blown away. I didn’t think this game could get any more immersive but the surround sound really puts you into the worlds you travel. Cyan sculpted the aural environment of Uru just as beautifully as they did the graphic environment.

So if you can’t stand to put another new game atop your heap of unfinished titles, dust off your ears and consider a reasonably priced surround sound setup. Next time: What does Doom 3 taste like?