Videogame developers and filmmakers have always had sort of an odd relationship, with some developers like David Cage pretending they're actually filmmakers and some filmmakers like Stephen Spielberg trying their hands at game development and production. When it comes to honest, useful dialogue about what the mediums can take from each other, however, there's not a lot of it. There are exceptions, though, such as Daniel Espinosa, the director of the just-released action film Safe House. At a press event for games bloggers following a screening of his film, he told the group where he thinks videogames should be heading:
I think [it’s] the sound and how things get destroyed. I think that’s always something that draws me, you know? I thought I could use the sound also [in Safe House], because then you can put a hole close to the camera, and you can hear as a duct tears apart and goes over you. That gives depth into the image, so you have the character here and then the sound is very close. It’s something that they don’t use so much in videogames, which they should. Have that close impact on the side. You hear them go by, but if something ripped over you and heard it splinter and it covered the frame, that would be a cool experience. I got some Swedish friends who did Battlefield at DICE, and they’ve been working a lot towards that too. You can have opinions about it, it’s not perfect, but I think that’s the path that we’re going down.
I absolutely agree with him. Sound design is about much more than just soundtrack, and the true creation of 3D sound would do a lot to help create a sense of immersion in games. Unfortunately, it requires engines that can create the destruction to fuel the sounds, and there aren't a lot of those out there. However, companies like DICE, Crytek, Epic, and Volition need to get their asses into gear and show the world why sound is so important and what it can do to really give gamers a heightened sense of their environment.
Contest:
12:00 PM on 02.10.2012 | 
People really hate to equate this industry to the movie industry, but when you're dealing with visual storytelling, specially over a similar medium (the TV) the same rules are pretty much made universal across the board. Movies, TV, Games, all need immersive sound to be truly effective.
Problem happens to be when any one of those 3 industries makes the mistake of assuming everyones got a sound system hooked to their TV set. Immervise sound doesn't need 72.1 surround to be great. It helps, sure, but it hurts the experience for a major chunk of the audience when studios in any of these mediums decide that they're only going to cater to those with the most toys. Sound calibration starts at the stereo level, not the THX level, and always should.
my PS3 stereo headset it was fucking amazing. The destruction and mayhem from the sound alone made the game more exciting than it'd ever been.
Sound design is generally overwatched today and it's a goddamned shame.
Or something
sound design is one of the worst aspects of many modern games since devs are fine with just putting in comms chatter and a loud machine gun (if its melee its groans) that drowns everything else out.
Many people refer to Dead Space as a good example but I think it is the opposite. The sounds were repetitive after a short while and then they were no longer scary at all. If I hear a clank of a pipe or something in the background, it better be because something causing it otherwise you have just another "ghost" sound in a game. To me, a sound without a cause is like a light without a source in a game. Distracting, then annoying, then ugly. The sounds had no connection to the next attack from the zombies and because of that, I stopped paying attention to the sounds.
Skyrim isn't perfect but at least if you hear a sound you can use it to your advantage. A clink on the ground might mean someone has just shot an arrow at you and missed or it might mean kicked over a valuable potion. It might also mean you have just set off a trap and should dodge accordingly. Dead Space had none of this. Just a whole lot of bark and no bite. Well, the zombies bit but the sound didn't do much at all. I liked the game a lot and I even beat it with a smile but I could never look at the game as an example of good sound design.