Sound is often
overlooked by many gamers, baring down to merely that stuff in the
background. However the sound
within a game is an absolutely crucial component of creating that
immersive environment. Would a horror game be as scary without an
eerie soundtrack or the sudden bangs that make you jump? Would a
fantasy game be that epic without a sympthony orchestra and choir?
Even down to the small pieces like boss battles or that jaunty tune
playing in the background of a tavern.
Music
within games seems to fall into two categories to my understanding.
There's the music that just fades into the background, nothing
innately wrong with it, maybe helps set the scene yet ultimately
forgotten as soon as you leave the game. Then there is the memorable
music; not just in an 'Oh yeah, I remember that'
sense but in a unanimous anyone who played that game will
remember it kind of way.
For
example, anyone who played morrowind would remember the title music.
This was such a fan favourite among gaming that they redid it for
Skyrim. The music of Oblivion was also so well liked that they
included a lot of it (untouched as far as I could tell) within Skyrim
as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJD-Ufi1jGk
Musical
score however, is not the only sound within a game. Equipment
sounds(guns, spells etc), ambience, voice acting and lets not forget
the little things like menu browsing and footsteps are among the
things all help to enrich the gaming experience. The best part for me
is when sound plays a direct part in the game-play like the
aforementioned footsteps in games like Thief and SplinterCell. I love
me a stealth game.
Voice
acting is a fervent interest of mine, I just love it when a character
is brought to life with a well suited voice. I put a few of my
favourite examples in the Characters
blog several months back but I like voice acting so much I'm gona put
some more up alongside my favourite voice actors.
Kel'Thuzad
– Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos, voiced by Michael Mcconnohie
Excuse
the dodgy fan art.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn6sHxA0Ftg
 | |
| War never looked so terrifying... |
What
I find great (and sometimes disturbing) is hearing a voice on a
character and then seeing the guy who did it to then go 'Wait, what?
This dude did that voice?' 'Cus they never look how you'd expect.
Liam O'Brien is a perfect example of this, if you skip to 1:00 in
this video you'll see him and more importantly, hear their normal
everyday voice.
I
suppose it would be bad to bring the voices of Darksiders into this
blog without mentioning Mark Hamill. Ever wonder where this guy went
after Luke Skywalker? Fuck knows, but in the last few years he's done
some pretty bad ass voices for some pretty evil characters, you'd
never have known this was him unless someone told you.
The
Watcher – Darksiders; Joker – Batman.
Nathan
Drake – Uncharted, voiced by Nolan North
This
guy also did the voice for Desmond Miles in Assassin's Creed among
many others including the Penguin in Batman: Arkhum City. Although
it's the same voice for both Desmond and Drake, I really feel like
North was perfect for Nathan, he got the humour across without making
me want to throttle the character (Hawk – Dragon Age 2) as well as
making the more serious scenes believable proving to me he wasn't a
one-dimensional character. On top of that he's a funny fucker and
does an amazing Christopher Walken impression...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY0ebPKXxXY
Going
back to the musical scores, or more specifically, the composers, I
think it's fucking faboo that some big-time composers are taking an
interest in the games industry. My favourite of all is Danny Elfman
pretty much because he did the music for Fable which is, out of all
the games I've ever played, my absolute favourite. The reason for
that can wait for another time but about the music.
To
sum up Fable in one sentence: A colourful and often times playful
exterior with an interior of misery and sadness. Kind of like a 1960's household.
The
visual for fable were all vibrantly coloured and highly saturated,
the characters were somewhat out of proportion with funky movements
and you often went around doing silly little things like kicking
chickens or sneering at children. The game was so light-hearted and
fairytale-like that when it got into the darker stuff, dealing with
treachery, death and fear it in a weird way became quite serious. As
if while playing this game you, yourself, started as a child and as
it progressed you had to mature and realise life isn't all fun and
games. From happy and easy to pain and hardship.
So Scott, what about
the music?
Well,
funny you should ask, voice-in-my-head.
Danny Elfman does the music for many a Tim Burton movie, probably
most renowned for A Nightmare Before Christmas. The relevance of this
being that Tim Burton's movies are gothic fairytales, essentially.
Boy meets girl, little adventure etc So this complimented Fable
perfectly and, I gotta say, Elfman delivered. Maybe it's the
rose-tinted goggles but I remember every tune from the different
zones, they all just worked so perfectly to make the atmosphere while
not being so varied it just seemed almost garish in an audible sense.
I'll leave you with the theme from Bowerstone South, the town you first arrive in. It's a
standard little medieval town with wooden houses, merchant stools, a
tavern where people drink and play games. Combined with the sunny
day, green grass on the ground and chirpy townsfolk it was a really
welcoming experience. For probably the first time ever in gaming, I
felt like I could spend ages in a town whereas usually I cant wait to
get out of those dreary quest-hubs and get on with the killin'.
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