Black Swan Composer Takes Over Mass Effect 3

[Anton P. Nym]

The music in Mass Effect 1 & 2 was completely serviceable, but nothing sublime.

Blasphemy

I bought Jack Wall's soundtracks for the Mass Effect series and enjoyed them immensely; I thought they did an excellent job of capturing the moods of the scenes.

I'll reserve comment on Mansell's work as I'm not familiar enough with it, but I can't help but be a bit disappointed that the composer that did so well for the first two games won't be back for the third and (probably) final one.

-- Steve

PS: rassin'-frassin'-reCaptcha-[censored]

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Ignore, fail post.

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

The music in Mass Effect 1 & 2 was completely serviceable, but nothing sublime. The music in The Fountain, on the other hand, was mind-blowingly awesome, so this is excellent, excellent news indeed.


Seriously, listen to this and tell me that the potential greatness in integrating Mansell in Mass Effect 3 is not astoundingly fantastic.

YES! Good God in Heaven, the Fountain's soundtrack might be the most played series of music in my entire library, followed closely by Requiem for a Dream's Score. Personally, I though the music in Mass Effect 1 and 2 was decent, but nothing that really drove me to purchase the soundtrack, with Mansell... hell the man halfway owns my soul.

Now... they should just go make a little DLC for ME2 which lets you play Shepherd drifting into a planet's atmosphere after the destruction of the original Normandy. Let Darren Aronofsky produce and direct it... with Clint Mansell on soundtrack... and my life will be complete!!!

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The music in Mass Effect 1 & 2 was completely serviceable, but nothing sublime. The music in The Fountain, on the other hand, was mind-blowingly awesome, so this is excellent, excellent news indeed.


Seriously, listen to this and tell me that the potential greatness in integrating Mansell in Mass Effect 3 is not astoundingly fantastic.

I hope that's not indicative of his style, because that was boring as all hell.

Not gonna judge until I hear some of his work for ME3 though.

 

[lacktheknack]

Note: He also wrote this.

<youtube=e2Ma4BvMUwU>

ME3 is going to have the best music evar.

Dosent fit in with Mass effect, sure he makes good music, but if the usic dosent fit then in the game it is bad.

Stunningly, a good composer can write cross-genre.

Don't be a doomsayer, you'll just depress yourself.

Mass effects music was unique, sure he may be able to make differnt types of music, but that dosent mean he will be able to make music that fits like Wall did.

If a good composer has respect for the source material, then they will do a good job. End of. I'm willing to bet that only people who go "BAAWWW IT'S NOT WALL" will dislike it.

 

[Wharrgarble]

It's Bioware. I'm pretty sure they didn't just rush to the Yellow Pages and pick the first replacement composer they could find.

If they didn't think he could do a good job, they wouldn't have hired them. They have talent for picking... well... good talent. It sucks that Wall isn't returning, yes, but I'm sure Mansell is going to do wonderfully.

 

[lacktheknack]

Note: He also wrote this.

<youtube=e2Ma4BvMUwU>

ME3 is going to have the best music evar.

WHAT?!

That song is SHIT. Maybe because it's over-used everywhere for this fake ass dramatic tension for people's videos and/or news. If I hear something similar in Mass Effect III, I'mma go berserk. Really.

But, he is shit until proven otherwise on this project. Nothing beats the Vigil soundtrack yet!

The piece went memetic, yes, but it became memetic because it was GOOD. Sort of like Drowning Pool's "Bodies".

And he has proved otherwise. See: Everything else he's ever done.

 

[Arafiro]

If he can make something as soothing as this:


I'll be happy.

As will I. Wow.
I'd forgotten how good that was.

 

[Buccura]

As someone who has the soundtracks for ME1 and 2 and listens to them fairly often, this has me saddened, personally.

 

[cynicalsaint1]

A couple more awesome tracks by Mansell (sorry not sure how to do the embedded youtube thing):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa33P9A5iHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtCpttsZiys&feature=related

While I'm a bit sad to hear that Jack Wall isn't going to be doing ME3, hearing that Clint Mansell is going to be his replacement has me excited. Really the only misgivings I have is with him taking over for the last game when Jack Wall has already established a pretty strong style for the series - but Mansell's stuff is awesome, so I'm sure whatever he does it'll be good.

 

[Zeraki]

It makes me very uncomfortable that they're changing composers. I seriously hope he doesn't change up the music too much. The music in the first game was incredible and was already getting watered down it 2. And I hope some of the more memorable songs such as the main theme(which wasn't used in the second game nearly enough) and Vigil's theme aren't going to be removed entirely with the change of composers.

It's like what happened with Gears of War, I loved the soundtrack for the first game(even though quality in story wasn't nearly as high as Mass Effect) but the second just didn't have the same feel to it.

EDIT
After listening to his work on Moon I'm more comfortable with it. I feel the soundtrack is in pretty good hands. I can't believe I forgot he did the music for that movie.

 

[Vykrel]

sounds good to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa33P9A5iHs Dead Reckoning is probably my favorite work of his

 

[tautologico]

Oh, Internet. What would become of you if people were reasonable for a change? Like saying "let's wait and see what happens". Anyway...

One of my favorite things about ME1 was the soundtrack. And this is why I was surprised about ME2, which has a far more generic and unremarkable OST. The best parts in ME2's music are when themes from ME1 are reused.

So I think change is good, better to have a good composer who will obviously take the original style into consideration than some generic job from the same composer.

 

[Zakarath]

I don't particularly mind the change, sure, ME1 had some good music (even though its best song wasn't even done by Wall, but rather by Faunts for the end credits) people don't seem to really be touching on the fact that the second game already took the music in a completely new direction from the first (from sci-fi synth-type stuff back to rather overused epic orchestral/classical stuff, which wasn't bad per se but is seen all over the place in video games). So switching up the music again isn't that big a deal to me.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

It's Bioware. I'm pretty sure they didn't just rush to the Yellow Pages and pick the first replacement composer they could find.

If they didn't think he could do a good job, they wouldn't have hired them. They have talent for picking... well... good talent. It sucks that Wall isn't returning, yes, but I'm sure Mansell is going to do wonderfully.

As someone who has the soundtracks for ME1 and 2 and listens to them fairly often, this has me saddened, personally.

These two sum up my thoughts pretty perfectly. ME1 and 2 are up there as some of the best soundtracks in gaming today, and I love them dearly. But at the same time, I have to hope that Bioware knows what it's doing.

Hopefully they will keep the same theme that has been running through the series so far:

<youtube=yVm_ljDSdwA>

(Skip to 1:10)

 

[LiquidGrape]

[Mistake]

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Note: He also wrote this.

<youtube=e2Ma4BvMUwU>

ME3 is going to have the best music evar.

Holy hell, I've been trying to find out where that's from for ages. If he made that, I'm psyched.

And I can't read the captchas. :S

 

[Flamezdudes]

Sweet bleeding Jesus this is brilliant! That guy is a brilliant composer and I love Black Swan and the Wrestler (Anything Aronofsky). He's just stunny and to think he's going to do ME3's soundtrack...

However, i'm not sure yet whether he can do the massive epic sci-fi score which Mass Effect 3 requires.

EDIT: Wait a second... he did MOON'S SOUNDTRACK? Holy shit this guy just gets better.

 

[katsabas]

And here I thought nothing could top Hans Zimmer in MW2 when it came to big names and music in gaming. The man behind Requiem For A Dream is gonna rock our socks off. I am kinda sad to see that Mr. Wall won't be making a comeback though. Suicide Mission is still one of the best game ST of the decade.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

<youtube=vwfJvemUIZg>

Bah, Mass effect needs more faunts! It's the only game I've watched the entire credits for, entirely because of that song. Finished a great game off perfectly.