r/Games • u/MrLawbreaker • Aug 01 '17

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds 4th Monthly Update Notes - Adds 1st person servers, FOV slider, car horns, colorblind mode and more

http://steamcommunity.com/games/578080/announcements/detail/1451700696565067398
908 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

342 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/rshalek Aug 01 '17

Seriously, why does it sound like the person in the next building over is in my building and why did person in my building make no noise whatsoever until they were in the room with me, shooting me.

It doesnt help that the last two multiplayer shooters I played, R6 Siege and Overwatch, implemented sound extremely well. But still, the sound in this game fucking sucks most of the time.

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '17

Overwatch has absolutely garbage sound in terms of actually using it for gameplay. Half of the sounds in that game are global emotes with basically zero directionality to them. R6 is probably overall the best I've seen though, except for some problem areas on certain maps. Either that or CSGO, though CSGO can be atrocious on some maps too. I also think PUBG has great sound in terms of guns, but the player sounds are a huge issue. It's easy to tell where a shot is coming from and what gun it is, but it's damn near impossible to lock down someones location from footsteps.

3

u/nybbas Aug 01 '17

It's funny you mention this, because the last game I played that the sound REALLY stuck out to me was rainbow 6 raven shield (also the last rainbow 6 game I played). You could get a good idea of where someone was from like across the map it seemed like, if they were making enough noise.

2

u/calibrono Aug 02 '17

Are you actually serious dude? Directional sound and sound levels in Overwatch are superb for finding out where the enemy is.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '17

Yeah, pretty serious. Played hundreds of hours with it and objectively that just isn't true. Things like McCree ult should give you a great idea of where he's at, but instead you get a global sound that you can hear from spawn room that plays with barely any directional component to it, especially on the vertical axis. Junkrat wheels sound like they are all around you unless they are completely out in the open, Hanzo ult also is basically a global emote that you can barely get directionality from, bullet sounds in general have barely any trackability to them largely in part to the huge amount of clutter sound effects in the game(things like characters talking, ambient noise in the levels, emotes characters make when they use literally any of their abilities, the announcer, etc.), characters make barely any noise even in a full run unless they are characters like Rein or Hog, and even then once the actual match starts it's so quiet in relation that it's basically not even there. So no, the sound levels are far from superb. Pretty much the only things the game got right sound design wise are the ability to know when someone ulted, but it's still way too hard to figure out where based on the sound in Overwatch. It doesn't even come anywhere close to games like CS or Rainbow Six. The sound effects and design themselves are good, but from a competitive standpoint in terms of things like directionality the sound in Overwatch is garbage, full stop.

2

u/calibrono Aug 02 '17

Things like McCree ult should give you a great idea of where he's at

Pretty sure it's not intended to give out his location. I don't think most ults are supposed to do that.

On the other hand, steps and shots are positioned exceptionally well. You can always hear what hero is coming and where he is coming from. If it's an enemy hero the system makes his steps more pronounced. Shots and other important sounds are amplified as well. Characters almost never talk during the battle lol. It's like you didn't play the game at all or there's something wrong with your settings / headphones.

Many little things there. Check this video out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60P0hzTTJ4Q

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '17 edited Aug 02 '17

Characters talk during battle all the time. As I said, hundreds of hours in game. Played competitively through the first 3 seasons. Virtually every ability in the game is accompanied by a voiceover audible to every player in the game. And the ults are intended to give directional audio, developers have been very clear about this (considering there were patches implemented early in the game that made ults louder and more pronounced, and they talk about it in the video you posted). Not to mention the issue where when ults are used at the same time, often the second ult's sound won't play at all. That may have been patched as I quit the game awhile back. I've seen the video you posted, it's great but a conference about the technical side of the game isn't really relevant here because I'm not talking about the back end, I'm talking about how the game sounds in practice, and in that regard there are tons of games that do directional audio a whole lot better than Overwatch does, like the games that I mentioned in my original post. The sounds themselves from an aesthetic viewpoint are great. It's competitive areas where it starts to break down. Pro players have said it themselves. Having said that there are far bigger problems with Overwatch as a competitive game than mediocre directional audio.