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I was going to post this in the "Very Good Things" thread, but I decided that I would go all out and provide a review of the product and give it it's own spot on the forum. So a few weeks back I was lucky enough to notice an amBX Premium Kit available on Sellout Woot for about $75. For those who have never heard of amBX, it's basically a set of gaming peripherals that strive to enhance the ambient atmosphere of a video game, thus further enveloping the player in the game's world. Some videos: (This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.) (This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.) (This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.) The premium kid comes with 2 lights, a 2.1 speaker system, 2 fans, and a rumble pad. In most games the fans simulate wind while running or falling, but several have other added effects, like in CoD4 when a grenade explodes you feel a blast of air depending on how close it is to you, and when a helicopter passes overhead you can feel the rush of the whirling blades. The rumble pad lies near the base of your keyboard sits beneath your wrist, much like the wrist rests (wtf are those called, anyways?) that come with many keyboards. The pads vibrate much like a console controller, providing feedback when you shoot a gun, take falling damage, etc, depending on the game, of course. And the lights are obviously an extension of the game lighting, as you can see in the videos. While they don't always match the lighting on your screen precisely (well, for some games they do, but it's not always perfect), you don't really notice the inconsistencies while you're playing. Instead, they really draw you into the game. I was very impressed with the lights, especially for games that have embedded amBX support. At first I was very skeptical. I figured that the lights would be distracting, the fans would be loud, and that the rumble pad would be a nuisance. Furthermore, I already have 5.1 surround sound on my computer, so I wasn't even planning on using the speakers. Nevertheless, I decided that I would take a risk and purchase the kit. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It's by no means a perfect system, but I have fallen in love with the amBX kit. The purpose of the product is to enhance the gaming environment, and it certainly does. Call of Duty 4 and other shooters have never felt more real. And it even re-sparked my interest in other games that I had stopped playing months ago. For instance, it was just so cool to be playing Oblivion and feel the rush of wind when you cast a fireball spell, and then experienced your entire room filling with a burst of white light fading into blue when you cast a healing spell. My only real complaint is that not enough games use ambx support. Thankfully just about every game can make use of the lighting, and the automatic lighting that amBX simulates is pretty accurate, but only a handful of games make use of the fans and the rumble pad. Luckily the number is steadily increasing and the community on the amBX website is pretty active, with developers constantly making updates and patches for different games to provide ambx support. They even got it to work in Windows 7 before the OS was released! If anyone is looking for a way to revitalize their gaming experience, this is definitely what did it for me. I'd be glad to answer any questions about the product, and would highly recommend it to anyone with a bit of extra pocket money. Also, out of curiosity, do any other swampies play with amBX?
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