At the young, impressionable, and stupid age of 13, I remember being influenced by Nintendo's horrid Play it Loud television commercials. The sight of gamers like myself rocking out while playing Mortal Kombat II, Super Mario World, Star Fox, Super Street Fighter II and other popular titles at full volume looked totally fun, a guaranteed way to increase the immersion factor of my favorite Super NES games and rebel against the serious, studious parents who, according to Nintendo, wanted to limit my precious gaming time.Those of you who, like me, attempted to play "it" as loudly as possible most likely recall that the commercials were all hype -- loud, painful, and unrewarding. While pleasant at lower volumes, the sound on the SNES, while not as grating as the underwater gurgling emitted by the Sega Genesis, were muffled, crackly, and distorted at medium to high levels. Even worse, playing it loud didn't exactly sit well with parents. Sure, the commercials showed authority figures staring in disbelief at their wild teenage gamer children, but they forgot to show the part where those crazy kids got grounded for playing games at ridiculous volumes.Quality sound systems have come into their own since then, with many snazzy setups readily affordable and worth every penny due to the theater-like atmosphere they provide. Couple that with the fact that this generation of games is actually meant to be played at a higher volume than five or six, and it's easy to understand why many gamers value their sound systems above pricey graphics cards.The Phillips amBX system is more than just a quality audio experience. Equipped with speakers, lights, fans, and a wrist pad offering a more dynamic level of force feedback, amBX is deservedly being billed as a total immersion system, one that won't just bring pleasure to your ears, but to every part of your being involved in the gaming experience. ...

Philips has been promoting their amBX PC gaming ambiance hardware for some time and today the company revealed that Indie game maker Introversion Software will support amBX in their upcoming strategy game Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest.The game itself is a multiplayer version of Introversion's award winning Darwinia. According to the press release, "The addition of amBX to the digital world of Multiwinia will allow players to experience all kinds of multicoloured lighting, air movement and rumble effects." Introversion seems to be rather keen on the amBX effects with team member Byron Atkinson Jones saying, "Think sprite carnage on a massive scale, a lot of colour, a lot of flash explosions and plenty of fast and furious action-based gameplay to get stuck into." Multiwinia is due for release in September....

Phillips has been pushing their amBX ambient hardware for PC games for some time now but today the company announced price cuts across the board on its hardware, at least in the UK, bringing the price point under 100 pounds for its Starter Kit. In addition, the company announced plans to add amBX support to the upcoming Ubisoft flying action game Tom Clancy's HAWX.The near-future flying action game is due out this fall and the amBX technology will add things like rumble effects via a wrist strip along with lighting and fan effect to supposedly give the player more immersion while playing the game. amBX has previously announced support for other upcoming Ubisoft titles like Far Cry 2 and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway....

If you have a gaming PC, you might need all you need is a powerful rig with a great graphics card, a big monitor, a super sound system and a gaming oriented mouse and keyboard. Oh, but 1Up.com says, "Wait a second, partner.". They have taken a look at some other types of technology that might (or might not) influence how we play games in the future.Some of these devices are actually available right now such as the Novint Falcon controller that allows gamers to "feel" things like weight and textures inside the game. Other currently available "innovations" include the amBX sound and light system that allows supported games to extend beyond with new sounds and light and the TN Games Vest which allows the wearing to "feel" shots created by in-game shooting. One device that isn't out yet is the Emotiv Epoc headset which has sensors that in theory allow people to use their thoughts to control games. It's not due for release until this fall but the device had a fairly spectacular and fairly public failure during a press conference at GDC last February. In short; it just didn't work. The 1Up.com article also seems skeptical that the Epoc will gain again traction but who knows? Maybe next year at this time I will be playing Crysis with my mind....

The folks at Phillips have been pushing their amBX hardware to PC gamers for some time now as they try to make us want to experience different sights, sounds and even feelings while playing games. Recently Phillips announced that they had signed on two more upcoming games that will support amBX; the first person shooter Legendary and the stealth action game Velvet Assassin, both from publisher Gamecock.In case you are not familiar with amBX its basically a series of speaker, lights and fans that react with amBX enabled games. This means that while playing Legendary you will not just hear shots being fired and monsters attacking you but lights will react as well and you will even feel the breeze as well. Velvet Assassin, a WWII stealth action game, will also benefit from amBX features. But do you really want to "feel" the game? Phillips certainly hopes so. Both games are scheduled to be released for the PC this fall....