Looking for games with amazing sound

Race Driver: Grid
Call of Duty 4
Company of Heroes

all good games with pretty good discrete 5.1 support

Thanks for the input. Can anyone second these games? I am also willing to take suggestion for console games too.

COD4 and GRID both has excellent sound, heck probably all modern games do like strange said.

F.E.A.R. is also excellent for surround sound. Totally creepy.

most of the recent games(discluding most ports from consoles) have good sound.

If you're really in to high quality sound go for x-fi sound blaster card.
be aware though that in Vista EAX support is cut, (UNLESS you use
software called Alchemy which emulates EAX)

I'll second F.E.A.R. The sound effects are supremely creepy and awesome. I'd also say Bioshock, purely for the music and voice-acting.

thanks for the input. shopping around most games won't say whether or not they support eax or have surround sound output. I'm really looking for games that will have me listening to make vital game play decisions. Company of heroes is a great rts, but I doubt i will be listening for units coming behind me. But since i have that game i'll give it a run. I can imagine listening to the cars behind me in GRID so I look forward to running that game. I have FEAR and Bioshock, it's been so long i've forgotten completely about them, I'll definately be looking forward to playing through those again.

Has anyone played Unreal Tournament III and know whether it makes good use of sound? I was real big into 2003 and now that UTIII is like 20 bucks I would be willing to pick that up if it really showcased surround sound.

Well I finally got my logitech z-5500 and have set it up. I used an opitcal cable from my onboard sound on my AB9-Pro to the speaker system. The system is kinda neat cuz the lcd panel will tell you what type of sound is coming from the computer. For the first round of testing I quickly ran through, the matrix DVD, unreal tournament III and mass effect.

The matrix what awesome. even the intro had me spinning my head trying to get bearing on various sounds. The LCD readout did indeed say dolby digital.

However the two games only played in stereo. This was a big dissapointment for me. It sounded OK when i enabled dolby prologic but nowhere near the lvl of "discrete" as the matrix DVD.

Later I will try using the direct 6 channel hookup and see if I get any better results from the games. Also I'll test the matrix DVD to see if it's effected. Sould testing on that front fail to produce accurate in game surround, could anyone help me with the various creative x-fi products? Do they all provide the same lvl of decoding? Or will the 200 dollar units "render" sound faster then the entry lvl 100 dollar units?

Heya,

What sound card are you using if I may ask?

Very best,

I'm using the onboard sound from my AB9-Pro motherboard. I don't know what it is for sure. Prolly reltek.

Testing with the direct 6 channel hookup made no difference. I still get amazing surround sound in DVD, none in gaming. Games do provide a acceptable lvl of surround sound if I enable prologic on my speaker set, or enable speaker fill in vista. But comparing it to the dolby surround sound from my ps3 through the same sound system, it's lacking considerably.

I'll be installing my audigy 2 zs, now that vista drivers are avaliable and it looks as if they are no longer charging for alchemy. I'll update when i've done that.

Oh one last note, for testing purposes I am comparing sound from call of duty 4 on the ps3 and call of duty 4 PC.

I don't know about surround but LEGO Star Wars has pretty good sound.  

FEAR and COD4 and Stalker shadow of Chernobyl or clear sky both have good 5.1 sound

COD4 sounds more realistic than all of them as they seem to have better sound libraries and a better sound editing team

Onboard sound?   Someone kill this guy  

Get yourself a good soundcard for you PC. Xbox360/PS3 are fine. Onboard sound sucks for gaming no matter what anyone tells you.

As for games? COD4/Bioshock/FEAR/GRID
Also FIFA08 have a fantastic sound as well..feels like you're actually in the stadium  

Well I felt the desire to see exactly what a dedicated sound card can do. I always thought that a dedicated sound card would enchance my expierence. When in reality it enables it. I've since installed my old audigy ZS 2 and have ingame true surround sound working on call of duty 4. I thought that would be good knowledge for people that use surround sound headphones and onboard sound. Turns out the combination really isn't any better then standard headphones with "fake" surround.

It also brings to question why people claim that dedicated sound cards help with FPS? Since the game won't run advance sound with an onboard unit where is this "CPU" usage savings comming from.

its still using the onboard sound card and CPU to process sounds even if they arent "advanced"

So yes a sound card helps with gameplay (FPS) for example.. ask anyone with tech knowledge.. almost anyone....llooll

I've come to the truth on my own accord. I've compared sound and fps with my own time and my own machine. I don't think i need someone else to interpret my results for me.

I'll third F.E.A.R., surround sound with the lights off should make for an interesting experience  

Sadly that's all I can think of right now, I wish developers would pay as much attention to sound as they do to graphics. I haven't played COD4 or GRID so can't comment on them.

So far the best game I've played is bioshock. Fear is good. but most of the action happens infront of you except of the occasional "alma" scene. But with bioshock the splicers tend to surround you which makes the sound much more intense and part of the game IMO.

Just got my hands on crysis warhead. I'll report back with that once i've given it a good play through.

Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3 has the highest quality audio I've ever experienced in a game.