Awesome Audio vs. Subpar Sound in Gaming

The new 3D gaming era is well underway, and the graphics we're seeing now are getting better than we could have ever imagined.

The other major factor is sound mixing. This is how the sound is implemented into the game. The programming, basically. A well mixed game has good dynamic range, difference from loud to soft noises, good use of surround sound, and clear, clean audio. An example of a well mixed game is Mass Effect 3. Dialogue is always audible above gunshots and music, yet music is always audible and the explosions and guns sound just right. The loudest effects drown out everything else, like Banshee screams or biotic explosions. Well mixed games: Battlefield, Grand Theft Auto IV, Mass Effect 2 & 3. A poorly mixed game, however, is Saints Row: The Third. Try and remember a gunshot sound from SR3. Car engines are subdued because music is playing, yet you can't hear the music over the guns. Even with some modified settings, the sound gets messy and distorted and can get quite painful. As my friend describes it, "You can't hear anything over anything." A sound mix needs to highlight an important sound and suppress the rest of the filler. Poorly mixed games: Saints Row, Left 4 Dead 2. But why is sound so important? Well, for few reasons. Sound can be very immersive if done right. Grand Theft Auto IV's use of surround sound was excellent. You could hear voices all around you, and cars moved seamlessly across the different speakers. Niko's voice was always the most important sound, and music volume decreased whenever dialogue was present. Audio is also used to enhance gameplay. Sound warnings like alarms and beeps let the player know something is wrong. Weapons in most shooters click when they are out of ammo, and incoming fire in Battlefield 3 is loud in an attempt to stress the player out. Bad Company 2 also featured a grenade deafening effect sadly missing from BF3. And the last reason is simple: it makes the game more pleasant to play. As for a war game, sound players made find that constant screaming and aggressive sound is too much, but it suits the genre. An open world game must have street sounds and vehicle sounds echoing around. And then there's one really crucial factor. Ambiance. Ambiance describes the sound we hear when there is sound. Soft effects like chatter, bird sounds, cups being knocked around or people typing. Ambiance single handedly creates the mood of any scene. Ambiance helps us to understand the world around us and what is happening, and is important to reinforce an environment. A busy crowd must have chatter and laughter whereas a city scape must have cars and phones ringing. Getting the background sound right is important as poorly done ambiance makes a scene confusing or even broken. DICE's 2008 sleeper hit Mirror's Edge had excellent ambient sounds. Sound is a crucial part of any game. It aids in telling us things, informs us and sets the mood. While it's a shame some games have almost broken sound design (ahem, Modern Warfare 3) and even the best have weaker elements. In the future we can hopefully look forward to games reaching a movie like quality in gunshots and soundtrack. Coming up next week, we'll be keeping on the theme of audio with my personal favourite part of so many games: the soundtrack.

 
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Contributor

I live in Australia, love to write and play games. So what better than writing about games? I love all things action and fantasy, as well as my occasional shooter. I literally cannot wait for GTAV!