: Ditto. I hate having to adjust channels depending on source. MCC is odd
: because sometimes audio is a good volume in the center; I don't want to
: adjust it to hear some in-game dialogue, then have it too loud elsewhere
: in the game. There's always going to be something not right with the
: channel/content volume mix :(

I will say this after having played through most of H2A. The game sounds better through good (faux) surround-sound headphones like the Astros. I also like some of the new gun sounds, but there are many times in game when they overwhelm any NPC chatter, which is a shame given how good the latter is. When I hear them, I'm hearing stuff from my fellow soldiers I've never heard before (which is very surprising to me).

Real guns would drown out any voices realistically, but in Cortana's case, sometimes she seems below the mix, which is sad, in that in past versions she has been THE voice in my head.

Hats off again to Blur, though. They often improve the audio for the cutscenes (that's an easier nut to crack, though). For proof compare the cutscene at the beginning of Delta Halo. In retrospect, Bungie overdid the distortion for the transmitted communications. (Caveat: this could be a emulation bug, I guess. Haven't hooked my original Xbox and played Halo 2 in a very long time.)