LJ> Sorry for the delay.  I've been quite seriously ill 
 LJ> over the past week, and
 LJ> this is the first time I've touched a computer since the 6th.  I'm still
 LJ> not 100% healthy (probably closer to 75%), so don't expect length.
  Ooh, I don't envy you.  Surprisingly enough, I seem to be fairly resistant 
to flus and such.  I got sick for a couple of days in October, and that's 
pretty much been it for awhile.
  You can take as little time as you want!  :-)
 LJ> Altec Lansing is okay.  Caimbridge Soundworks might 
 LJ> have been better, since
 LJ> Creative Labs owns them (can you say "tuned system"?).  As for the AWE64
 LJ> Gold, it's good for today's gaming.  Give it a while, and it'll be out 
f
 LJ> date - the SoundBlaster Live may squish it quite hard.
  I'm pretty sure that Cambridge might have been better, but it would be 
pretty hard to beat the price I got for the ACS-55s.  In Canadian dollars, it 
was $225; the Soundworks were $350.  And since my parents spent a lot of 
their "budget" on the computer itself, it's doubtful I could have squeezed 
much more out of them.
  But I'm still quite satisified with what I got.  There's some nice bass, 
the sound is clear.  My setup doesn't really let me notice the Dolby sound, 
but it's certainly good enough.  And of course, that funky look helps add a 
sense of futurism to my computer.
 LJ> I read 'em when I find 'em.  They all come into the office.  As for the
 LJ> reviews of SW, I liked what they had to say about music and sound, so 
they
 LJ> made me happy at least.  As for unbiased, I don't know and can't say for
 LJ> sure.  The only unbiased magazine I know of, Consumer 
 LJ> Reports, doesn't rate
 LJ> games.
  Yes, one of the definite highlights of Shadow Warrior was its sound; nice 
bass and not very generic at all.  It was also obvious that you did some real 
searching and/or tweaking to get the right sounds.  The music... well, since 
it was largely ambient, I don't know if it would win some awards; but it was 
well done.
  In my opinion, most computer magazines aren't really biased.  I've seen 
them be harsh on even the companies which would seem most able to afford 
"compensation" or other influences.  I know that some magazines tend to lean 
towards one value in gaming or another (CGW liked G-Police a lot; PCG 
didn't), but that's about it.
PS  I think you're probably mandated by law to include some lounge lizard 
music in Duke Nukem Forever, it taking place in Vegas and all.  Tom Jones, 
perhaps?  And of course, at some point Duke will HAVE to say "Viva, Las 
Vegas!"
--- Maximus 3.01
---------------