Sound effects taken into consideration?

[brainless906]

When making a judgment on a game (good,bad,ok,ect.)
how many people actually take into consideration the sound effects or the soundtracks of games?
it seems to me to be a vastly overlooked area of game design.
i'm not sitting up on my tower of judgment telling anyone off who looks over games sounds, i'm merely making an observation. (i do it all to often myself)

so my question being does anyone truthfully take into consideration the sound track when raining down ultimate judgement on a game?

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

Not often, but that's probably because it's not what's advertised. There are expectations though. We who play Final Fantasy expect a stunning soundtrack.

 

[Akai Shizuku]

I've played games with no sound at all that I consider to be excellent, and I've played games all about sound that I think are great, too. I only rarely take sound into serious consideration, and only when it stands out. Games like TWEWY have fantastic music, for instance.

 

[Mcface]

For me, if i hear an assault rifle that sounds like a cap gun, its an instant deal breaker.

 

[Aqualung]

I probably wouldn't notice if someone replaced all the bomb sound effects in a WW2 game with "BOB SAGET!" upon detonation.

 

[Marshmallow]

I sure do. The Super Mario Sunshine soundtrack was great, it sure added to the fun.

 

[Worgen]

while a good soundtrack doesnt usualy sell a game on its own, altho including the sound track on cd has sold me some games a bad one can definatly take away from the experiance, Im looking at you wow

 

[Clashero]

I've never turned down a game for bad music or voice acting, but sound has been a deciding factor in the past when buying games. I was torn about buying Okami, then I heard the soundtrack. Bought. I didn't know whether to buy Shadow of the Colossus or not. Heard the soundtrack, bought it.

I'm quite the audiophile. I think the soundtrack and sound design overall is vital, in a subtle way, to the success of a game. I buy any game composed by Jeremy Soule or Jesper Kyd just to listen to the music (if you don't know who they are: Jeremy Soule composed for Oblivion, Guild Wars, Dawn of War II, Sins of a Solar Empire. Jesper Kyd composes for all the Hitman games).

Same thing with movies. Watch (read?) this scene:
"Are you going to watch Memoirs of a Geisha?"
"I don't know. I loved the book and I don't want to be disappointed."
"But there are so many good actors! Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi!"
"They've got Chinese people playing Japanese parts?"
"Yeah... the director is great, though! And the music is done by that guy, wassisname... John Williams!"
"LET'S GO!"

 

[khaimera]

I probably wouldn't notice if someone replaced all the bomb sound effects in a WW2 game with "BOB SAGET!" upon detonation.

Thats a great idea. I would buy that game for sure.

 

[DrunkWithPower]

Meh, if the sound is crappy but the gameplay's great... it's a good game.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I think where soundtracks are concerned, the only people who mention them do so because either:

A) The soundtrack is amazing and deserves it's own CD so that fans can listen to the game music on their ipods or zunes

B) The soundtrack is so horrible the only people who would be interested in using said soundtrack would be Jigsaw like individuals who enjoy torturing people in the hopes of teaching them a valuable lifelesson.

C) The person talking about the soundtrack is the band/s who contributed to it and are hoping to sell more albums like every band who has put their music on the Tony Hawk games

D) People confused by the lack of music and find it funny how the guns make a 'pew' and a lead pipe makes a 'thud' ... and the cow goes 'muu' instead of 'moo'

 

[Internet Kraken]

I pay attention to the sound effects and soundtracks of video games. They are actually more important than most people might think. Sure a lot of people don't notice the games music or sound effects even when they are good, but when you have bad sounds everyone will notice them and hate them.

Speaking of sound effects, there is one particular sound effect that I keep hearing in almost every game. Can't think of a way to describe it though.

 

[Valiance]

It's not often I'm raining down judgment upon a game.

Presentation does mean a lot though.

Imagine Braid if it didn't have the music or art style it did. It wouldn't have been that special.

 

[minoes]

Tommy Tallarico did. He would lower the score of a game if a footstep was too loud.

 

[Robert632]

no one makes a gaming dessition based on sound effects cos all the companies are trying to improve graphics(that is a big selling point for game consoles now.) so sound hasn't been much of an issue.

 

[NBSRDan]

I value sound effects and music on the same level as graphics, in that I don't. I've only ever discounted one game based on graphics, and none on sound, and I've never bought a game majoritively due to either.

 

[Stalk3rchief]

I often take that into consideration.
A good soundtrack can make or break a game in my opinion.
I think the music and sound effects help portray the mood the designer wants from the gamer.

 

[lostclause]

It's never too great a worry. Sometimes a good soundtrack can help a fair bit (Halo) and sometimes poor sound detracts a bit (Prey) but never to any great degree.

 

[Hexenwolf]

For me, I would say sound is an important part of the experience that can push a game towards greatness, or drag it back into blandness, but only in concert with the gameplay.

D) People confused by the lack of music and find it funny how the guns make a 'pew' and a lead pipe makes a 'thud' ... and the cow goes 'muu' instead of 'moo'

What exactly does 'muu' sound like anyway?

 

[Echelon_3]

Sound is as important as graphics to the quality of the game - Who could forget the swaggering, blustery music of Team Fortress 2, adding to the game's wacky fun while being played seldom enough that it doesn't get old? Who could forget the epic scenes of Call of Duty 4 with the epic film-worthy soundtrack adding just the right tone of urgency or secrecy?

At the same time, Call of Duty: World at War had me thoroughly unimpressed with its sound, at least on PC. The soundtrack was great, if a little electronic-heavy for a WW2 game. But the gun sounds. My God, the gun sounds were terrible. Nearly every weapon sounded like it came from a game made fifteen years ago. The game's StG44 was the worst, it hardly even sounded like a firearm, just a short burst of static-y crap in the headphone.