SpawnPoint

Ok so i finally got my New Sharkoon Majestic 5.1's.

They ARE a hefty piece of equipment but not any bigger or heavier than the Medusa 5.1's i'd killed.

The set up on pc is almost identical to the Medusa's complete with the same demos and sound field set up.

I have to admit to being disappointed at first as, when first installed, the sound on CSS was god awful :( However, i installed the latest drivers and "expirimented" with the individual settings and volume controls and must now admit to being really impressed.

The bass set up even has in-built vibration which is a really weird sensation at first use but becomes a really nice bonus feature to them. the sound is deep and clear for being a USB headset and the volume control allows you to set tem up to "accentuate" certain sound fields.

I  swear that these can do nothing but improve your ganing as i can hear things on server that were previously unheard. The sound quality is excellent when gaming, listening to music or watching dvd's and the in-built pc graphic equaliser allows you to set these up to suit your media.

The mic is small and unobtrusive and can be removed really easily should you not wis to use it.

I hope they last up to the abuse they're gonna take as i've a feeling i'm gonna grow really fond of these babies.

I'd highly recommend them to anyone who's looking for a new (fairly inexpensive) gaming headset. 

Well I've killed my 5,1 Medusas :(

After 2 years of continuous use they finally bit the dust and died. The volume control went well haywire and either went FULL BLAST or mute.

So i've had to go and buy a new set. Looked all over and finally plumped for Sharkoon Majestic 5.1 (New V3) with external sound card including high end amplifier, vibrating bass and inbuilt mic.

I get them on Tuesday so meantime have to use a crappy pair of Plantronics.

Anyone use the Sharkoons?

   

Well it's that time again.

The team I support is playing in the UEFA cup on Thursday night and i'm heading for the return leg in gothenburg Sweden two weeks thereafter.

Now this got me thinking. What's the furthest you have gone to watch your team, where was it and why?

Yes paragraphs finally work LOL

Well, do you?As a Spawnpoint Support Staff member I visit a fair few servers during my gaming sessions. I note that there are a fair amount of nice console messages that appear at various times that lay out rules etc for players information.The Assault rules messages are a point of example. "Do not Upper Vent Camp" and "Do not Glitch" spring to mind. Why is it then that admins are constantly having to "discipline" players for not following these rules? Do players either a)not read them or b)just choose to ignore them?These messages are there for a reason. Please take close watch of your screen for both these messages and admin messages. It would be unfortunate if you were to be either kicked or banned for not paying attention to these messages. 

Counter-Strike is the most played online FPS game ever - yesterday, today and no doubt tomorrow. Countless people have wondered why this is, and just as many have written articles on the subject. This may be simple curiosity, or it may be that they hope to repeat the same success by using their theories. Either way, people have come up with different ideas each time. This little article represents my own thoughts on the subject. The most common answer to the CS success story is how every round and every game is different - my idea is just the opposite. It's the familiarity and similarity of every round that provides the game with a kind of "Just one more round" factor, making you want to keep on playing until you collapse from lack of food/sleep/porn. Think about this. If you win the round, if you kill everyone and have a perfect game, are you fulfilled and can you now leave the server happy in the knowledge that you have reined supreme? Nope, 'fraid not. Getting you to keep playing a game when you’re winning is easy, because everyone loves winning and to get the chance to do it again is too good to pass up. Losing however, getting you to keep playing when you suck is something different altogether In Deathmatch, you die and then you respawn instantly. However, when you go back to where you died the person who killed you will be long gone. In CS, things tend to work differently. Maps and gameplay follow a pattern that the Terrorists start at one side and the Counter-Terrorists at the other. This makes the game much like acting out a defined set of moves each time with very slight changes. So, when you get killed one round you have the desire to extract revenge and do better next time. Since you’re going to get the chance to do the same thing all over again next round, you stay put in the server - even if it means wetting your pants. As the rounds continue to come at you, you have the opportunity to learn what your enemy is doing, the opportunity to outsmart them, and above all else the opportunity to beat their ‘xxxx ass’ down. It all kind of follows the age-old cliché of "Tomorrow is another day", though in this case "Next is another round". This round will be different, you saw what they did last time and you'll be ready for them this time. You'll do better. You'll win. As long as the enemy doesn't do something different this time of course, which they inevitably will - giving you once more the same effect at the end of the next round, and so continuing the endless cycle and addiction. Just one more? Not likely. Of course there are other things that affect people's enjoyment of the game, the fact it’s a team-game for one (although a lot of the time you wouldn’t know it). I remember playing 1.6 and getting completely immersed in the game because it felt as if you were part of something every time you played. You weren’t just a lone warrior killing people for no reason; you were part of an elite squad sent out to save the hostages (or stop that from happening). There was a great sense of fulfilment when you saved the life of a teammate by killing his attacker just before he fired the last fatal bullet, and that was a feeling not acquired by deathmatch. Unfortunately however, the community appears to be in such a state that I haven’t felt that feeling in a long time. Saving someone’s life goes unnoticed, and usually all you receive are calls from that person saying, "HEY, THAT WAS MY KILL!" All the team spirit has left, with only kill-hungry idiots remaining. This for me is the reason 1.6 is loved by so many people, and many consider it to be the best of all the CS versions – not because it was more balanced or it was actually better, but simply because the people were still nice and there wasn’t any paranoia. Anyway, I digress. Counter-Strike is loved by thousands of people and each of them no doubt have their explanations for why they like it – and I'm sure it's a combination of things. So tell us why you like the game...