Quick: Whats the best looking game youve ever seen?
Did you come up with an answer instantly? Its likely you did. Whether it was Gears of War or Crysis, it was a game that instantly stood out in your mind with a big, vivid picture in your brain. Theres Gears of War, looking sexy and shiny...what a visual treat that game was.
Ok, now answer this: Whats the best sounding game youve ever heard?
No, not best music...rather, whats the best sounding game experience youve had? Not so easy to answer quickly I bet, though Im sure in about fifteen or so seconds youve gotten an answer youre happy with. Maybe its Burnout Revenge on the 360, or Call of Duty 3.
My answer is Resistance: Fall of Man...and what an aural experience it is.
Gettin the Gear
I played through Resistance on my old Sony receiver, going through optical at 5.1 surround. It was a great experience, though Im not too sure if it would be in the running for best sound. Nothing stood out to me during the course of the game...then again, I was too busy fightin Chimera to notice.
After beating the game and beating the first few levels again on Hard, I got my Onkyo receiver in the mail (just $360 new) which was not only a nice upgrade from my home-theater-in-a-box Sony set, but had 7.1 capabilities and HDMI audio inputs. Finally Id get to enjoy Blu-Ray movies in pure uncompressed PCM 5.1 (and Ill have to post impressions on that in a later blog).
I remember hearing that the Resistance devs had intended for 7.1 high fidelity sound, but that was quite a while back and since I hadnt heard much about the sound (especially from reviews on the big gaming websites, only noting that the game sounded great) I figured PCM 7.1 was quietly dropped. I noticed the extra two output switches on the back of my new receiver for the back two speakers and thought...heck, why not go 7.1 and see how it sounds on Blu-Ray. So I got two older speakers, wired them up, and placed them behind me.
I always thought 7.1 was overkill, when 5.1 sounded action-packed enough. Why on earth would anyone go 7.1 when hardly any movies supported it? But, I thought Id give it a shot for BD movies, and sure enough none of them supported the rear channels (aside from the Dolby Digital 5.1EX tracks). Some of the latest Lionsgate movies have 7.1 PCM, but I hadnt gotten Crank in the mail yet, so I was a bit let down.
When I fired up Resistance, to my surprise the receiver displayed the Multichannel PCM icon, and my rear speakers lit up with the sound of gunfire. Did Resistance actually support PCM audio, in 7.1 to boot? I quickly exited the game and took off to the NeoGAF forums where a couple of Resistance devs like to hang around. Did the game support 7.1 PCM? The answer: yes. And it sounds amazing.
Surprised, I went back to the game and booted up my Hard campaign, near the beginning of the second level.
Sound Thru Gaming
Audio is an interesting thing when it comes to games. Unlike visuals, which take about 2-3 seconds to recognize whether something looks good or not, audio is much more subtle. We recognize the faults more than the good.
For instance, I remember playing the King Kong game on the 360, and hearing Jack Black say, Come! This way! I remember that line because it sounded so badly compressed that I thought something was wrong with my speakers (strange since the rest of the games dialogue up to that point was fine). The likely culprit? The games main platform being on the PS2, I suppose...though I would think there was plenty of disc space to work with. Chalk it up to nothing else but lazy devs behind the audio scene.
Moving to a next-gen machine has its obvious perks that I can recall...I remember going from SNES to N64 and being awestruck at Super Mario 64...moving from there to the Gamecube with Rogue Squadron...and finally going to the Xbox and Xbox 360. All had their leaps over their predecessors, but I cant recall ever saying, WOW! Now thats next-gen sound right there! Who really looks forward to the sound capabilities of a next-gen machine anyways?
I remember playing Halo for the first time...the audio sounded just fine. Then came Halo 2, and the audio sounded better but not quite a huge leap...that is, until I played Halo again for kicks. It wasnt until then that I noticed that many of the gun sounds liked the power of Halo 2...many of them sounding like they were recorded underwater. Interesting how you dont notice those kinds of things until you hear something better, or at least listen out for it.
And then came Resistance, being played via optical out on 5.1 sound. It sounded great, sure...nothing Id call mindblowing, but a nice audio experience. It wasnt until I got HDMI audio and 7.1 speakers that I was really blown away.
I Have Found 4D!
I loaded up my previous save from the Hard campaign, only this time it was gonna be kicking in 7.1 PCM instead of 5.1 DD.
Like I said before, I never really got the point of 7.1 when few movies and zero games supported the format...but once that level loaded, I was instantly a believer. Those backchannels do what surrounds can only fake...bring up audio that isnt visible on screen. Think about that for a second: any audio you hear from those rear channels, outside of ambiance, is not visible in the game. You might hear a Chimera running behind you, but you wont see it. You might hear an explosion in the back, but you wont visually. Its in that instance that I saw the potential for 7.1 gaming: it literally envelopes you in the sound of the game. Holy smokes, does it ever.
Back when I was using 5.1 in Resistance, Id hear an explosion starting to happen (with those explosive balls you see around) but I didnt know exactly where it was till I saw it in the game...and by then, it might have been too late. Here, I can easily tell where exactly that explosion is in my virtual 3D space (wait...I just thought of something: is this the 4D Sony has promised us? It just might be! laugh ) so that when I heard that ball start to crackle directly behind me, Id run like hell forwards until it blew. I never had to turn around for a second.
Likewise, when youre dodging for cover and some Bullseye bullets fly by you into the wall behind, you hear that sharp ricochet that could have easily torn you apart. When theres lots of Chimera shooting at your covered position and you hear the ricochet firing from all speakers, you really feel like youre ass is on the line. Its even better if glass happens to be behind you...it shatters with the intensity of what glass should sound like when bullets tear into it.
Its quite remarkable...but it gets even better when you hear it via HDMI.
High-Fidelity: Whoa.
Heres the funny thing about 7.1 PCM in Resistance: I was more impressed when nothing was happening. Oh, the battles sounded fantastic, with gunfire and explosions all around. But when youre in a more intimate level when its just you vs. them (quite literally) and an open, abandoned earth...it sounds pretty incredible.
Take the dock levels soon after the bus depot mission. After I had gotten off the elevator you get to go into some small houses lining the dock before entering the warehouse full of Chimera. As I gathered up ammo before the big battle ahead (as I knew since it was my second time through) I started to listen to all the ambience. Its the kind of stuff sci-fi books are made of (it was an unnatural calm in the ocean, as I stood still with seagulls in the distance, blissfully unaware of the hum of the alien tech pumping bodies from tube to tube, onward to their final, gristly destination...).
Gone are the days of explosion1outside.wav and explosion1tunnel.wav. With the sharpness and quality of the audio, Insomniac was able to create a sound engine thats unlike anything Ive heard. Take the abandoned church, with its huge ceiling and big open space. As I killed all the enemies I started to once again forage for ammo and supplies...but I heard a weird sound echo through the distance. I stopped moving, and a second later the sound stopped. I moved again, heard it, stopped, and it stopped a second later once again. Then I realized: thats all the gear Im carrying thats echoing through the church. Big deal, you say...Ive heard sounds echo in games before. But not with the subtleness of this particular moment, with all seven channels firing quiet echoes from each other, and stopped cold as I went outside into the open air.
Whats even more amazing is the conic effect that happens inside buildings. Take an enemy firing at me in a room...I retreated back a few rooms behind me to recharge my health. Thats when I heard the gun fire from the enemy, but it sounded different. The sound of the gun was actually passing through the various walls to get to me, resulting in a muffled sound that I didnt recognize until I found it getting louder and louder...and thats when the bullets were staring me straight in the face. It was an Auger-equipped Chimera, and they werent gonna let walls stop them from killing me.
Guns sound more throaty and powerful with HDMI; shotgun blasts sound painful, as do sniper rounds to the skull (get close enough and you can hear that blood tearing out of the skin...yah!) But you havent heard anything till you fire the Hailstorm...man, I have never heard a gun this painful to listen to before. When you fire it up, it sounds exactly like fifty thousand needles being fired at high velocity to a chalkboard at the same time. You will want to cover your ears when firing this gun...its that loud, and that awesome.
The sounds of the enemies and friends alike are also unique and vital to the gameplay, if for just one sound effect that remains constant yet changing on the environment: the footsteps. You can clearly hear your fellow soldiers walk on the sand or gravel as the rocks make a squish sound beneath their feet. But the Chimera...thats a whole different experience.
Consider the dock levels once again. I ran into the warehouse and was fired upon almost instantly, decreasing my health to the last bar. I ran the hell out of there until I hid in a corner behind some boxes, covering me up in a standing position. As I waited there to reload my gun and recharge my health, I heard a thump coming in fast. It was a Chimera, and he was running towards my position. I got out my shotgun, and reloaded. The thumps of the feet to the docks got even closer and louder. I couldnt peek out from my position to see how far he was...my health was down to a sliver. Any hit could instantly kill me. It grew even louder. This was it...I had my shotgun at the ready. I heard it coming, and with that I knew which direction it was coming from. It was just a few feet away...and as I saw his body cross the boxes and turned to me, I gave him a loud double dose of shotgun shells, his corpse flying in the air with his hoses flying around, dead and leaking coolant.
Could I have done that with regular TV speakers? Nope. A 5.1 setup? Probably. But it wouldnt have been so damn awesome, thats for sure!
You Gotta Hear It.
So how can you hear Resistance in 7.1? Ive put up a guide on bringing uncompressed PCM straight to your PS3 right here.
I gotta say, after going 7.1 its hard going back to plain ol 5.1...when I put it Call of Duty 3, my rear channels remained deathly silent and it was very noticeable (games like Sudoku that use 2.0 sound use the rears as front speakers, giving old sounds a neat twist).
Is it worth upgrading $400 to game in 7.1? That depends on how much $400 really means to you. Me? I love it. Its easy to forget how powerful the PS3 can be audio wise, thanks to the HDMI output.
Next gen sound is here...and it nearly snuck right past me, as it did many of you I'm sure. If you have the money, go uncompressed and go 7.1. You won't be disappointed.
