Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Immersion is one of those “power” words in the MMOG industry. Developers, journalists and fans all love to talk about this immersion concept; the idea that a virtual world could be so “realistic” that a person could – if they chose to – become totally engrossed in the virtual environment. If you still don’t get the concept think of Star Trek’s Holodeck as the epitome of what every video game developer is shooting for; you can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t.

Most developers would love to have the "immersion" factor of Star Trek's Holodeck.

As I’ve said previously, having a horrible sound experience can render even the most impressive environments lackluster. In many titles, I’ve found myself wondering why my sword collisions still sound the same, even though I’m colliding against a foe that is obviously wearing metal armor? Even if a developer includes innumerable sound effects for any sort of situation, if a gamer doesn’t have a sound system that is at least adequate for exploring those environments, again the immersion goes the way of the dodo bird.

If you’ve been following Ten Ton Hammer’s contests over the last few weeks, you surely noticed the incredible giveaway that we’re hosting with the help from the folks at Creative. In short, we’re giving away five Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series sound cards and five Fata1lty Gaming Headsets [We took one for a test drive already, check it out!—Ed.]. Even with these fantastic prizes available, Creative wanted to make sure our readers knew what they were getting when they signed up for the contest, so they sent over one extra Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series card so I could put it through the grinder and see what a gamer really thought of the their latest Sound Blaster card set.

Just like the Fatal1ty Gaming Headset, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series card comes in some pretty packaging, which I hastily tore to shreds to get to the meat and potatoes of the product. Luckily, the actual sound card components themselves were just as sexy to view. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series package comes with one internal PCI-E card and one external, drive-mounted sound dock.  Although PCI-E slots aren’t terribly utilized in most barebones computer set ups, this card does drop into that slot so you’ll need to insure that you have a decent amount of space available to wedge it in there. My computer is more crowded than Target on Black Friday, so actually getting the device in was a bit of a challenge. Once it was plugged, however, I was surprised to see a nicely illuminated “X-Fi” on the side.

Age of Conan's beautiful soundtrack boomed out of my new X-Fi wired speakers.

The external, drive-mounted sound dock required a bit more finesse to actually install than the sound card. In order for the sound dock to operate correctly, it needed to be attached to the sound card via a pair of “digital” and “analog” cables, which basically turned into “suck” and “ass” in my mind. Those two cables were extremely hard to plug in, and even with my post-collegiate football muscles [which aren’t much these days—Ed.] I had to strain to actually push those cables into their slots. I can’t imagine if one of those things had slipped out of my hands; I would’ve been digging an early grave for my graphics card.

When everything was installed and mounted, I fired up my computer, installed the drivers with minimal finagling, and restarted my machine. Almost as soon as the Windows boot-up noise hit my ears, I was in audiorgasmic heaven. My onboard 5.1 sound paled in comparison to what I was hearing from the Sound Blaster. Gathering my wits, I decided to take a deeper look at what the X-Fi could give me in my gaming experience.

Since Creative seems to have some sort of working deal with every video game manufacturer on the planet, a number of your MMOGs will have an option for Creative EAX sound  If you’re unfamiliar with EAX, it stands for Environmental Audio eXtensions and it basically allows the environment within your games to sound better, clearer, and – as I talked about in my opening paragraph – more immersive. Although most sound cards support EAX 1 or 2, the hardware required for any further EAX iterations must come solely from Creative. Some companies – like ASUS – have devised ways around that dilemma, but onboard sound solutions simply won’t have the sort of life and detail that a higher quality sound card – especially one as robust as the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series. It’s like comparing someone to a vampire; the vampire may do it’s best to emulate human qualities, but it is still nothing more than a cold, dead corpse.

As I expected, the sound quality – especially in the newer games like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning – was absolutely fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the difference that enabling EAX made in WAR; I went from hearing only a few ambient noises to looking around, trying to find where all those damn bugs were coming from. Even World or Warcraft was significantly improved with the X-Fi card, and my Death Knight couldn’t sound any more ominous with his fancy new voice.

Even an older game like World of Warcraft utilizes the Creative technologies.

Notably, I’ve never been a big proponent of any “extras” that are included in a hardware gaming package. Free games are nice, extra screws are cool, but I don’t need any fancy gadgets or do-dads to come with it. With the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series, Creative proved me wrong. As a gamer, I always thought it was incredibly cumbersome and time consuming to need to plug my headset into the back of my computer. With the drive-mounted sound dock, I can plug my headset into a front port AND control the volume of my microphone. Couple that with buttons to turn on “Game Mode” and a few other gaming adjustments, and I was in sound heaven.

Weighing in at $199.99 on Creative’s official product website, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series isn’t a cheap card, but it certainly doesn’t break the bank either. A cheaper version does exist in the form of the Professional series at $149.99, but that card doesn’t come with the drive-mounted sound dock. If you’re already willing to shell out $150 dollars for a sound card, why not pony up the extra $50 to have a bit of comfort in your gaming life?

All in all, I had a really hard time finding any true faults with this sound card set-up. Except for the wiring difficulties, everything was as smooth and painless on the installation, which is exactly the way I like it. Concerning the overall sound quality, I was as happy as the lucky guys who were first in line to grab their copy of Wrath of the Lich King. Kudos to Creative for making a tremendous sound card that appeals in many areas other than simply the quality of its audio.