Games have always been a specialty for Creative, and their cards have always led the field in that area. They have the most advanced versions of EAX, and their processor ensures that they take only a small amount of power from the PC's CPU, saving a maximum amount for the game itself. X-Fi marks a new stage in gaming sound, thanks to its processing power and extended virtual-reality functions. To promote its capabilities, Creative has associated with "cyberathlete" Jonathan Wendel - known in the gaming world as "Fatal1ty" - who has lent his name to the X-Fi card that's specifically dedicated to gaming.

Fatal1ty and Franco of Bonis (Creative) at the X-Fi rollout

A LAN party organized for the introduction of X-Fi, with Fatal1ty as the man to beat...

Fatal1ty - the concentration of a champion...

With the X-Fi line, Creative introduces EAX 5.0, which can render 128 sources simultaneously in a 3D space with multichannel routing. It also has MacroFX for controlling proximity and occlusion effects. All of this is currently in its early stages, since the X-Fi's processing capacity has not yet been fully put to use, but major developments should be appearing soon. EAX Voice, meanwhile, performs real-time processing of the voices of players as they talk into a mic - something called Microphone Environment FX - to render them in conformity with the virtual space they're in. It's a new way to achieve even more total immersion in the virtual world, which will truly show its potential in multi-player environments.