That would be 'cos Martin O'Donnell is still with Bungie, doing the Destiny soundtrack x) so there's still hope...uncanny474 said:
Your Game Music is Bland and You Should Feel Bad
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
How about you get Daisuke Ishiwatari on the line and have him play some of his awesome fight music that he makes for Guilty Gear and BlazblueV da Mighty Taco said:
How about any of the fight music in Blazblue or Guilty Gear? Daisuke Ishiwatari may focus on metal songs but he is awesome at his job as the composer for Arc System WorksTerramax said:
Shameless self promotion there at the start Yahtzee but a well done series of videos all the same.
I agree with the message that if the music in your games are horrible the developers should feel bad about it but there are some Triple-A titles with orchestra music that really enhances the game, Civilization 4, Deus Ex:HR, Borderlands and Crysis 2 are four examples of games doing it right. I feel that while others like the Dynasty Warriors series of games are horrible and should never be allowed to publish their games with the headache inducing nightmares they unleash on the player, there are still people who love that kind of music. I agree with you that companies should produce good music or buy the rights to good music but it is all for the most part experimental and it is hard to say what people will or won't like so I'm sure this kind of practice will continue.
Side Note: Ugh. This captcha actually has an advertisement on it.
I agree with the message that if the music in your games are horrible the developers should feel bad about it but there are some Triple-A titles with orchestra music that really enhances the game, Civilization 4, Deus Ex:HR, Borderlands and Crysis 2 are four examples of games doing it right. I feel that while others like the Dynasty Warriors series of games are horrible and should never be allowed to publish their games with the headache inducing nightmares they unleash on the player, there are still people who love that kind of music. I agree with you that companies should produce good music or buy the rights to good music but it is all for the most part experimental and it is hard to say what people will or won't like so I'm sure this kind of practice will continue.
Side Note: Ugh. This captcha actually has an advertisement on it.
I'll have to listen to those at some point. Never played either game, so atm I currently cannot comment on their music.Izanagi009 said:
Personally I think the Halo theme song is pretty memorable. Play that in any situation, out of context or not and I'll pick it up. Other than that I find it a little difficult to think up any other ones that weren't 8-16 bit games, like pokemon and what not.
A lot of what Yahtzee is talking about is the prevalence of environmental music. At some point in the last decade there was a movement in the gaming industry that changed music from being something that shaped the mood to something that was meant to punctuate the mood in a game. The idea was that if the person could separate the theme from the scene than it wasn't synergistic enough, which seems like a rather odd conclusion to draw. Thankfully they started mixing things back up again with more music being brought to the forefront rather than just being environmental.
Also, it should be noted this mostly was happening with shooters, western RPGs, and many movie action games like Uncharted and Assassins Creed. Fighting games, platformers, and other games pretty much stuck with the earlier idea since it tended to provide more energy to the entire affair.
(Edit: Yes, they need to drop Action Adventure and just call these linear quick time event driven games Movie Action Games. They only got the most tenuous of connections to adventure games of old. They are short lived, completely fueled by the story and the quick time events, and once you've ran through them once you likely will never play them again.)
Also, it should be noted this mostly was happening with shooters, western RPGs, and many movie action games like Uncharted and Assassins Creed. Fighting games, platformers, and other games pretty much stuck with the earlier idea since it tended to provide more energy to the entire affair.
(Edit: Yes, they need to drop Action Adventure and just call these linear quick time event driven games Movie Action Games. They only got the most tenuous of connections to adventure games of old. They are short lived, completely fueled by the story and the quick time events, and once you've ran through them once you likely will never play them again.)
Fair enough, Start with the Guilty Gear X Blazblue Music live 2011. It contains several remixes of major songs from both franchisesV da Mighty Taco said:
Opposite for me, only have heard snippets of Guilty Gear's soundtrack but I love the Blazblue soundtrack. Nightmare Fiction and the new Roku Eiyuu from Chronophantasma are fun to listen to and act as great fight musicTerramax said:
Guess it's a matter of what you like, focus or eclectic. I love eclectic stuff for all of the little cultural and music themes mixed but i understand why some won't like it.Terramax said:
Perhaps I should listen to Guilty Gear though
I don't know if I can agree with Mr. Yahtzee. The music I remember best from videogames or any medium is when what was going on around it became a memorable moment...or it played so many times it became ingrained in my head...or the my brain came up with a story to match the music.
The beauty of the song, lyrics or no, was how it complemented the moment. An orchestra playing something low and sweeping before battle and then something grand during it during a medieval rpg is would fit the moment better than someone playing a licensed rock song.
It has to capture the feel of the moment. I bought just as many recent soundtracks as old to know why I adore both.
The beauty of the song, lyrics or no, was how it complemented the moment. An orchestra playing something low and sweeping before battle and then something grand during it during a medieval rpg is would fit the moment better than someone playing a licensed rock song.
It has to capture the feel of the moment. I bought just as many recent soundtracks as old to know why I adore both.
You guys have mentioned Metal gear, but not the best track in the entire series? Shame on yall.
I usually kill a game's background music and fire up an mp3 player to run in the background. Fortunately a few games I play have user added tracklist supported. I think Skyrim had o.k background music, not sure, I turned it off almost right away. But not any of the Command & Conquer games, they always have had excellent ingame music. Except 4 maybe, I have almost purged all traces of that game from my memory.
Studios go for the generic crap because licensing official music is very expensive.
Studios go for the generic crap because licensing official music is very expensive.
elvor0 said:
Normally I'd be the very first person to defend the Halo soundtracks (at least I would be if I were quicker to this thread!) but Yahtzee did mention Halo 4 specifically and that soundtrack was largely forgettable. Mostly because 343 Industries didn't benefit from the talents of Marty O'Donnell.martyrdrebel27 said:
Halo 4's music is more akin to incidental music rather than an actual soundtrack. Instead of matching the mood, atmosphere and action of the scene it just kinda acts like musical noise to play in the background, which appears to be the approach most triple A games use these days. It also didn't help that Halo 4 had no audio volume options and the music was often criminally drowned out by everything else. Neil Davidge did a decent enough job on the score but it was no Halo soundtrack.
As far as I'm concerned, Martin O'Donnell's ability to match music with both gameplay, environment and narrative are unparalleled.
I suppose I can't speak for everyone, but I can think of quite a few songs from modern games that left an impression on me:
"Far Away"- Red dead redemption
"Deference for Darkness"- Halo ODST
"Vigil"- Mass Effect
"The Secret Revealed"- Bad company 2
"I'm Sorry"-Far cry 3
"Venice Rooftops"- Assassin's Creed 2
"Will The Circle Be Unbroken" Bioshock Infinite
not to mention the entire fallout 3 and new Vegas soundtracks and the intros to both borderlands.
There's plenty of good music to be found in modern games.
"Far Away"- Red dead redemption
"Deference for Darkness"- Halo ODST
"Vigil"- Mass Effect
"The Secret Revealed"- Bad company 2
"I'm Sorry"-Far cry 3
"Venice Rooftops"- Assassin's Creed 2
"Will The Circle Be Unbroken" Bioshock Infinite
not to mention the entire fallout 3 and new Vegas soundtracks and the intros to both borderlands.
There's plenty of good music to be found in modern games.
Maybe Halo 4 has a more generic soundtrack, considering Martin O'Donnell wasn't even involved in the project, but I can definitely come up with about any song from Halo 1 & 2 and hum it all day long, 3 was just a combination of 1 & 2.
I know half of today's games music isn't as memorable as before, but when it works, it freaking works as good as the old soundtracks of yore. I still search Age of Conan and Okami's soundtrack in YouTube from time to time.
I could put on a few hundred YouTube links to some of my favorite gaming tracks, but I'm a bit lazy right now.
I know half of today's games music isn't as memorable as before, but when it works, it freaking works as good as the old soundtracks of yore. I still search Age of Conan and Okami's soundtrack in YouTube from time to time.
I could put on a few hundred YouTube links to some of my favorite gaming tracks, but I'm a bit lazy right now.