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After beating the X-530's to death with scene replays from the movies I decided to move onto the next step of testing, computer gaming. Gaming today has adapted to the use of 5.1 surround sound in computer systems through standards such as EAX or A3D or even just regular Direct 3D Audio. Generally these games pack a heavier punch since they make use of the subwoofer and try to create a real environment around the player that brings them into the game.

The first player up for the gaming tests had to be Unreal Tournament 2004, in a 32 player bot match things get loud and full of life or... death in this case. Rocket Launchers, Flak Cannons, Pulse Rifles, Miniguns and more all fill the hallways. Of course on fortunate occassions shots from the Redeemer boom across the satellites and subwoofer. The main test mission was Assault using the Glacier, mainly due to the amount of resistance that the game puts up throughout the level as many attempts are made to takeover each assigned checkpoint especially when the ion tank is involved with things. The channels on the X-530's were constantly being hit with crossfire and calls from each side and the sub was being put into overtime as the Ion Tank would shoot a round at the enemy. Things held up pretty good but I did notice some distortion coming from the satellites, Most likely because of the amount of actions being sent to all the speakers. Through some adjustments to the EQ I was able to lessen the amount of distortion somewhat so that things were more even.

The Call of Duty United Offensive Demo was up next, the newest expansion to the series includes support for many playback modes including EAX. I turned it on and had at it. The game takes players into the a snowy battle, what was meant to be a short recon turned out to be much worse, German troops are right over the ridge and once the team is spotted gunfire lands through the satellites on call, a quick duck and bullets and explosions are well presented, sitting too long though is bad news as the troops take off for the jeeps to get out of there. After successfully getting on the Jeep as gunner things get interesting as the jeep takes off into the woods for an escape from the Germans, bumping around and sloshing through snow the suprises don't seem to stop, troops coming in from all angles making things a very bumpy ride. These section help to see how the X-530's can perform, the drivers play out the distant sounds with no issues, the power balance keeps things in order since the player isn't trying to focus attention to the front or rear and instead just keeping their head in the game.

The cinematic Doom 3 comes in next for the closing of the tests. The game in 5.1 is actually quite nice compared to 2.1 sound. The areas swallow the player up in environmental sounds, fallen panels, radio calls, sluggish movements and more can all be heard quite well through the X-530's. The balancing of the satellites is a key thing here, the sounds on Doom 3 tend to sweep since players are ducking and dodging enemies or trying to spy around, the audio of the game though focuses on the head movement, as a result of the balanced output a moan heard in the forward right can still be heard at the rear left when spinning back against a wall to reload before being seen. The only thing that really hurts is sub, for some reason during Doom 3 I was getting quite a bit of distortion, after turning down the actual sub control on the back things came back to normal, it might just be the frequency getting too low with high volume. I'll most likely swap around to the soundstorm audio to see if I get the same reaction in the coming week and update things. Other than that setback the game audio came through quite well with solid definition to the satellites.