As I type, my dad and younger brother are now taking their turn in going to London to see a Hard Rock (the restaurant chain and the musical genre) concert in Hyde Park. The wonderful thing about my dad being away is that this frees up the 40″ 1080p Samsung and the corresponding LG 5.1 setup for my PS3 to handily sit beside. Well, connect to as well, but at least sit beside because all three pieces of equipment are very shiny shades of black (and they all generate an absolute heatwave, but that’s another story). For the weekend, I had my very own temporary manlair with my PS3, a single Blu-Ray and 1080p, 5.1 gaming goodness. It made a nice change from my little 20″ Sony anyway.

Into my weekend diary after the jump!

Saturday

3:00pm: GT5 Prologue’s already in the PS3 so I’m sticking it on for the closest thing I’ll probably ever get to driving, since I can’t drive for real to save myself. Just give it a minute to pick up the 1080p signal and the optical audio cable so I can get 5.1 sound, and I’ll be ready to dive into the game.

3:05pm: I’ll be back in a minute; I need to find my hair and most of my facial features as they’ve just been blown clean off by GT5’s introduction sequence. Ah, there’s my nose…

3:10pm: Okay, GT5P is pretty sweet in surround sound. In a car where the engine is behind the driver’s seat (for example, the Ferrari F430, the Ferrari 599, the Ferrari F2007..you get the idea, a Ferrari basically) the noise coming from the rear speakers is something I can only compare to what God sounds like when he speaks. As for the Formula 1 car though, that’s God in a blind rage. I think GT5’s developers intentionally made that car twice as loud as the rest of them..or maybe I just got a little bit enthusiastic with the volume buttons.

4:00pm: Rather than watch something a 40″ HDTV was made for (say, Casino Royale on Bluray) I’ve opted for volume 3 of American Dad! which I picked up a few days ago. It promises 5.1 so hopefully I’m in for a treat.

4:07pm: I’m not in for a treat. The 5.1 is almost nowhere to be found save for a couple of scenes here and there, but I’m past caring because I think American Dad! is one of the best things out there in the history of anything ever anywhere.

5:00pm: Time for a bit of LEGO Indiana Jones. It’s even got a nice little ‘Surround Sound’ option to turn on in its Options menu that, when selected, plays some nice little twinkley noises in each speaker to show it’s working. That’s all very nice but aren’t the PS3’s Sound Settings there to stop these sorts of menus being necessary? It’s not like it’s worth it anyway, since there’s practically no use of surround sound in LID apart from hearing the gunshots of your pretend-Nazi foes from a certain side of the screen. Not much difference, and not much help either. Maybe I should play something where surround sound would be a genuine improvement to the game itself rather than just being a fancy gimmick.

6:00pm: I think I’ve found the ideal game for a good use of surround sound. MGS4 time, on page two.

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