Socal Regionals Fighting Game Tournament just started:

http://www.leveluplive.tv/

Noooooo! I was going to actually play videogames today instead of watching other people play videogames for once.

Edit:

Sick stream quality. Looks like 60fps.

Just bought an Asus Xonar DX sound card and a Corsair 850W Gold Pro. Will post reviews when I get them.

Guys, get the **** off 2+2 and buy a sound card now. And I mean right ****ing now. ****ing AWESOME!

Is it really that much better? I used to have a sound card circa 2005-2006, but around that time the onboard sound of top motherboards started becoming rather high quality and the expense of a $50-100 sound card seemed needless.

What's so special about the sound card?

I only use headphones, so I haven no clue about a 5.1 system, but the sound quality is incredibly better. My on-board has a Realtek sound chip that worked decently, but sometimes i could hear a faint humming or other times it chirped here and there. Sound virtualization was also wonky at beast with the headphones.

The card on the other hand, supports Dolby Headphones Virtualization and I was already blown away by the sound of MP3's alone. The "headphones" fill up way way better and the sound is all around you and feels vivid, while the old one was more dull, even with EQ on. The bass is also better, has a nicer feel to it.

Obv everything is objective, because not everyone likes the same sound, but as I bought headphones there were very good quality ( even if on the cheaper side ) I could hear most imperfections of the on-board sound, while now nealry everythign is crystal clear.

The card also only costs 60€, but imho it it worth the price. Obv if you only have tiny speakers it's not worth it, but if you move to a setup that is more suscetible to distortion or stuff like that, imho it's worth it.

I still have my HD650s from when I used to waste money on stuff so maybe I should look into getting a soundcard to test the quality difference. I'm not really an audiophile, though, so I wonder how much it matters. I have a RT chip pushing my sound as well.

im not particularly impressed by the sound i get, but not too bothered by it. would be nice to notice some more defined surround, as well as more ease in hearing subtler sounds. like a spy decloaking in TF2. i have some semi-decent headphones in $50-100 range.

my motherboard has built in sound

MB is ep45-ds3p

1. Realtek ALC889A codec
2. High Definition Audio
3. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
4. Support for Dolby Home Theater
5. Support for S/PDIF In/Out
6. Support for CD In

this looks pretty good, but idk. got it 2-3 years ago. is it worth getting a dedicated sound card? or would it be worth picking up some better headphones?....or both?

Is Dead Space considered a hard game?
I got through the first chapter with out dying but now I'm constantly getting killed and seem to be very low on supplies and ammo. I'm playing on normal difficulty and starting to think I'm going to get stuck soon.

I went finished normal without tha many problems, so it's more of personal preference imho. I didn't consider it hard once you know what to expect.

I don't think you should be having that much difficulty on Normal. I got low a time or two, but that was when I was being pretty dumb about conserving resources.

If anyone has Wii and isn't a part of Club Nintendo, and are interested in either Mario Kart for SNES or Fluidity for WiiWare for basically free, you should really look into it:

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/15/no...ins-for-games/

This promo expires Jan 10th, maybe more games will be released after then, but who knows.

Just wanna say Merry Christmas to all my fellow gamers.

Got these speakers today for Christmas. Awesome.

Have some dubstep playing for the bass and it's vibrating my desk and the floor.

Love it.

Sound quality is great.

Boxing Day in Canada eh? Picked up Assassin's Creed 1-3 for $30 I only played a little bit of AC1, looking forward to playing through them. Also heard EB Games has AC4 on sale for $20?

i don't remember it being really difficult but i do remember that inventory items didn't seem to be in abundance and you could have problems if you wasted stuff early on, its probably above average difficulty for games these days
3=2>4>1 imo, if you like 1 you'll probably love the later games

Picked 'em both up free.

Fluidity is actually really unique, its a very cool game

i've been told i can skip AC and jump right to AC2, I haven't heard a single person rave about AC1

If you really want to get into the AC story then I wouldn't skip it. I was one of the few that enjoyed AC1 however I will admit that it did get repetitive.

I finished my first kill last night, talk about huge setup no payoff lol I'll play through it just for the story, would hate to miss any references in later games

can anyone recommend a good gaming headset for the PS3?

Wireless or wired? Friend got the Sony 7.1 wireless headset, and while not super high quality, it's pretty good for the price.

Turtle Beach P11's are what I'm rocking now and I really like them. I like the PX21's better but they are a touch more expensive and, as a few other posters on the website have experienced including myself, they aren't them most durable things in the world.(I like them better because they were more comfortable than the P11's. Not that the P11's are uncomfortable, they are likely average on the comfort scale, just that PX21's are very comfortable. I don't notice any difference in sound quality fwiw).

Also...Goofy. If we ever have a VG draft in this forum, can we screen the people we allow into it? Holy **** that one in SE has to be the worst thing I've ever read. I can't believe I just wasted 30 minutes catching up on that thread.