So, I've noticed this weird issue since I've been playing strategy games.
For context, I have a left and right speaker, and that's all there is. By that, I mean they weren't bundled with a middle, satellites etc. it's the whole package.

The problem:
While playing a strategy game, I noticed that anything toward the top of the screen is quiet... quieter than it should be, even if I can see it on the screen (a unit firing weapons for example). Anything toward the bottom sounds just as it should; however, I can hear things much further off the bottom of the screen.

Don't starve is another game where it's happened. There is a portion of the map I haven't seen yet, however at night when the spiders are roaming and screaming at things I can hear them clearly past the bottom of the screen.

Basically it's as if my speaker sound is misplaced. Everything is shifted downwards so to speak.

Solution:
I'm just going to chalk it up as a 'me' issue. If I manage to get my hands on some quality headphones in the future and the 'problem' disappears, then I guess I'm not mad.

Is your OS set up for stereo or multichannel audio?

Are the speakers plugged in to the front or back/surround audio jack on the motherboard/sound card?

I would guess that your speakers are plugged in to the back/surround jacks and that the drivers thus figures you have a surround setup so it tells the game to mix audio from "behind" your/the camera's position so that it goes through the back jacks (where your speakers are connected) and audio from "in front of" your position through the front jacks (where nothing is connected).

I'm not sure I understand the first question, or how to check (embarrassing).

They're plugged in the motherboard which is at the back. It's the green jack which I assumed was the front speakers.

built it myself.. The Realtek HD Audio Manager says it's in the Front Speakers Out jack so I'm pretty sure cords aren't in the wrong spots :)

I'll try the front of the tower, which is the headphone jack. I'll update you in a few hours if that's cool :)
Thanks for taking the time to try and help me, much appreciated.

All right, so it should be correct from that info.

The jack on the front of the machine might work better as it's stereo-only.

There could be a driver settings issue reversing front and back audio, but I can't think of much more to try.

Depending on the mamaboard there should also be a black output if it's 5.1 or 7.1.

Try the black one. This one is more than often the stereo headphone output, for only 2 channels.

All the others have different signals to a more surroundsound oriented speaker setup, so a 5.1 or a 7.1 sound setup will output the whole "sound image". Front output will only have signals for the front speakers, but not every signals needed to hear everything.

I'd say Maighstir is right in thinking it has something to do with your system's audio settings (or reverted cables). Which operating system do you use? Depending on the OS, there are several settings to check; also, most audio control panels (including the Realtek one) have a 'test' function that plays the audio through all known channels separately.

Also, to speed up the help process - tell us the your hardware and OS next time ;-)

Right, I forgot about that. The drivers for my old SoundBlaster Live! had a function to speak the speaker position through each speaker, so it went "Front. Left... Front. Right... Rear. Right..." and so on, each only through the respective speaker, so that you could figure out if they were connected correctly.

It sounds to me (pardon the pun) that either the speakers r connected to the wrong jacks or the sound setup by the audio software is incorrect.

The easiest way to test is unplug the speaker cable & plug it into the jack that indicates 'Stereo'. The symbol for the jack is a pair of over-ear headphones. If everything works or rather sounds right then well & gd, prob solved. Otherwise u wld need to calibrate/readjust the audio settings such that they output the right direction. This is a bit more complicated to explain in detail over here so u may hv to do some trial & error. Hope my suggestion helps. :)

Okay so, I've tried a few things:

uninstalling audio drivers, scanning for changes and reinstalling.
switching between the headphone port at the front of the tower, and the green 'front speaker out' at the back.
playing around with the enhancement tab in the sound settings.

All of this on Windows 10, my apologies...
No such luck.
I'm honestly not sure if this was always the case and I just haven't noticed until now...

To clarify though, it isn't an issue with the channels. Testing those is fine. It's the direction of where the sound is coming from that bothers me. There's nothing past the top of the screen. If there was someone here who owned ashes of the singularity I could test back and forth to see if I'm just going crazy or not.

If aft all u hv done still nothing works, i'm stumped too. But as a last suggestion, u might want to test out some other audio/video in another game & c if it turns out all right. If so then it shd be something to do with ur game settings or drivers instead.

Is the problem only with Ashes of the Singularity? Because then the problem might just be the game itself (I don't have Ashes but I did a quick check online and there seem to be several problems with the game's audio).
If you have more examples, maybe one of us will be able to check/verify those for you.

He mentions it's also happening in Don't Starve.