Music in games - unforgettable themes (or my way of doing the list)

This post was originally written as a response to a discussion on a World of Warcraft guild forum I'm a member of, but as this is somewhat of a lenghty reply, I thought it best to post here instead, both to keep the forums more readable for it's purpose and also to give the two alternative personalities of myself who still follow this blog - well let's face it, they don't have a choice really - a faint hope that it was worth keeping a bookmark all these years.

As the topic implies, the discussion was about "favourite music in games." The original post requests forumites to share their top-5 or alternatively top-10 lists of music in games that they've liked, and to give detail on the selected pieces. 

Here's my take on the subject:

As per usual, I have to share my 2 cents on this topic in my own way, with total disregard for the set of principles set by the OP. In fact I'll go as far as tell you why - Don't take this as trying to belittle the idea of discussing such matters, for that is not my intent at all, it's merely a thought among others.

For quite a while I've found top-this-and-that lists pointless, simply because if I, or you for that matter, have enjoyed something, how exactly do you quantify that on a level that's comprehendable by anyone who hasn't had the experience? You can't, so why would you want to do it by assigning some sort of an order to your experiences? is it a cultural thing, or some sort of an inherent flaw in our makeup as weird animals with nerd qualities is an interesting thing to consider, but also wildly off-topic so I'll not go there. Not now anyway.

So instead I'll just call this "my way of doing the list" and tell you why I've chosen the songs I'm about to menion to the best of my ability. I know, it doesn't quite have the same kick as "The best **** in the universe", but that's how I /roll.

There's a few melodies in the gaming space that are so distinctively different from anything else that after you've heard them in the context of the game first, you're instantly reminded of the experience as a whole upon hearing these melodies/themes - in most cases with a lot of gold lining to go with it as time has already passed those games by, but you're still holding onto how you remember it.
This of course is all thanks to the amazing talent of game music composers. They're so often overlooked by gamers, and yet they play such a pivotal role in making games as immersive as they can be as a medium, at their best.

The remedy of Payne
One of those themes for me is from Max Payne. As you're likely to note the link is actually to the version from the sequel, mainly because it takes the tones even further and as such is more tangible even if you haven't played the games yourself. The effect of hearing this theme is still the same as when I heard it the first time in the first game.
For me it reminds me of the then-awesome feel of Max Payne - as I've always been a Film Noir fan, Payne really struck a cord with me - with it's dark and to the point style of storytelling more than just the gameplay mechanics. I should also add that the first and the second Payne have great music in general. (Unfortunately the third Payne looks like it's completely giving up on it's roots. Too bad, but then again that's what the game industry does, milks the cow untill it's dead, so I suppose you'd have to be really naive to be surprised by it anymore.)

Snakes on your plate
Another one in the similar theme of...well, themes I suppose, and already mentioned, is the Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater theme. Now, the song itself, while very James Bondish isn't that spectacular in itself, but it does describe the game in all it's agent clichés quite well.
Naturally if you haven't played this game, it will be somewhat difficult to grasp the whole impact of the song. Even more so due to the very clever usage of the song in other parts of the game than just the beginning trailer. In fact I'd wager there isn't a single game prior to Snake Eater - or after for that matter, at least none come to mind - that has such brilliant use of an original in game song, that isn't just ambience.
For anyone who wants to experience it in the appropriate way, say in the soon to be released HD versions for PS3 and Xbox360, I won't spoil it by explaining anything further. Needless to say it's one fantastic-agent-adventure-stealth-recon-tactical-SNAKE!

Demons demons everywhere...
On a very different level, there's the music in Diablo. Having spent ages playing the original Diablo, I'm still in awe of the music in this game. It's not at all in your face - well maybe the town theme is a bit -, but it works fantastically in creating the mood for your hack'n'slash adventure towards carpal tunnel syndrome.
It's difficult to pick anything spesific in the game as all of it is really effective at taking you on the journey, and over time it somewhat blurrs into this big composition of repeated themes, but the Catacombs background music is something I've always felt most strongly  about. Can you see the goatmen coming for you?

Portal Police, pull over
Moving onward with it, on a wholly different level again, along comes Portal Still Alive. Need I say more? Never played Portal? Go play it! - all the way - before listening/watching! Seriously DO NOT WATCH before you've played it! Major major impact on the effect of Portal as a whole if you know of the song beforehand.
Granted I do not know how on earth you could've managed to not hear it by now, whether you played it or not, but I digress. If there'd be a single song that represents the gaming world, I'd say this one is a pretty good candidate for the job. It's smart, funny, easy to remember and very unlike anything else out there.

Retro-auditive
And then we visit the past, I suppose many have already forgotten, but in it's prime Ski or Die was quite stunning and a very widely spread - this analogy goes to interesting places if you ignore it's about a game for a second - piece of gaming software (though back then I doubt if it actually sold that much rather than was just copied a lot). This is one of the most memorable older game-themes I can still recall.
Another worth mentioning on the same note is none other than Jack the Jazzrabbit. Memories of this caliber are difficult to beat. Oh, and speaking of which, did I mention Skyroads? I did! Such a powerful tune for it's time. Check out all the music for the tracks, tasty! It's freeware now too, hurrah

A whole world of it...
For the finale of my individual song choices, since this is originally a post for a World of Warcraft related forum, naturally I had to pick something from WoW as well. The choice wasn't that difficult actually; Wrath of the Lich King login music.
If you've heard the progression from Classic to The Burning Crusade to Wrath of the Lich King, you'll most likely get the idea why I picked this one. It has such a wide array of atmospheres mixed in, like it should for a game that has already so much history. I'd describe it as the shortest and most imaginative way of telling "what has transpired" for me.
I still get shivers down my spine from listening to it now. That doesn't mean I dislike the current one, it's very moody and works well with the overall tone of Cataclysm, it's just that for me personally the WotLK one struck a cord in a different way. Just for the sake of interest for those wanting to compare the themes, I'll link all the login/expansion themes below, in chronolical order for those who might not be familiar with the timeline of events:

World of Warcraft themes:

• Classic
• The Burning Crusade 
• Wrath of the Lich King
• Cataclysm

As those of us familiar with World of Warcraft know, the game has some fantastic orchestral composition. Unfortunately it's often lost in the heat of battle or simply because people have music turned off. I simply couldn't resist linking a few more that I've really enjoyed listening to;

• The Black Temple theme,very fitting music for it, brutal and gloomy. Loved it in the context.
• The Descent Into Madness, first time I heard this as I started the descent into the room of General Vezax I was blown away. The place and this music = perfection. If you've not been here, it's ok to not get the idea.
• Tempest Keep theme, a rather quirky piece of music I have to say, lots of different themes, but quite unique none the less.

For those whose interest I may have stimulated with this post, there's a very nice interview with Russell Brower, the composer from Blizzard responsible for WoW, on Blizzcast episode 4 discussing about the music in WoW back in the WotLK release times. Too bad the Blizzcasts have become rarer and rarer as time goes by.

Now that I've gotten through digging up some of these individual pieces of musical euphoria in games, I've come up with the theme for the follow up post, which shall be about entire games, their sound design and musical genious.


Until then,
.S

LotRO Diary: Concerning elves

I'll be delving into the birth of an Elven Hunter, covering feelings and experiences from the first evening of testing. Continuing what I begun in the previous post.

I thought I'd cover the elvish part of my initial testing in a separate post, instead of making it a part of a bigger whole, in order to keep the length of the posts more reasonable. Certainly wouldn't hurt to learn making more to the point posts from time to time.

So, after the couple of hours of dwarfdom, exploring Thorin's Hall a bit (one of the main cities), which in comparison isn't quite as big as Ironforge in WoW - this is a good thing in my view, and as far as conveying the feeling of "home" it's lightyears ahead in general atmosphere. One thing I have to say is that I was rather surprised at the lack of players in there. I was there late at night, the optimum nerdtime, an yet I only saw a handful of characters. Maybe the location is such that it isn't highly populated or it might be that the realm I joined isn't highly populated.

Anyway, time for some elfin action.

Everyone loves elves right? I mean, how could you not? They're like the prehistoric (if you go by the lore created by Tolkien) versions of the modern idealized man (and woman). Beautiful, lean, tall and very much in touch with their surroundings (and feelings?). Effortlessly and flowingly moving, in harmony with all, which is the overall theme of their society, reaching everything in their culture, art, language and architecture. Needless to say the pointy ears only add to their flowing, almost river-running-free-esque appeal.

For some reason the bulky, clunky elf males (and females to some extent as well) that Blizzard has decided to portray in World of Warcraft don't quite fit into that category in my view. I generally don't like gender bending all that much, but in WoW I just couldn't have bared to look at the really akward and unnatural runstyle of the male elves as my own characters.
Picture if you will, an Arnold Schwarzenegger size fella merged with the body of a 20-year-old European Ladies Figureskating Champion and you have a pretty accurate idea of the grace of which these "creatures" move. Hardly something you'd easily relate to the previous picture of elves or that of Tolkien origin.

LotRO obviously being based on the idea of "the grace of elves", I was looking forward to actually having to play a male character that is clearly male and yet beautiful in an elven kind of a way. I have to say that is very much what I got as well.

After some noodling around with the class selection, I thought the Hunter sounded interesting, as it loyal to the idea of a bow wielding damage dealer instead of the pet juggling counterpart in WoW.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I played the dwarf first and only after deciding to stop for the evening I thought I'd give the elf a spin just to see how it works out. Some of you may know how I relate to spoilers, but I just have to say: boy was I ever surprised at how brilliantly the elven starting story and quests link with that of the dwarves. I don't know yet how the Hobbits and Humans start, but I will definitely have to find out at some point, so cleverly are the stories and reasons why things are woven together between the elves and dwarves. Not only do you instantly get the feel that you really are in the same world, you also get to see and understand more about the details of why things were so with the other character. The phrase "the moment you think you're out, they pull you back in" comes to mind.

And what of the Hunter then? Wow! - not referring to the game in this case.
I thought I was being critical, but right from the start I was totally mezmerized at how the class works even at the very basic level - obviously I can't say anything about the higher levels yet. The sounds are awesome and you really feel like you're controlling a powerful character, for me the closest comparison would be to call the experience magical. Shooting arrows from far away, with awesome sounds I might add, and having very unique feeling hand-to-hand combat moves to finish off anything that gets too close. I know this doesn't sound at all like coming from someone who is heavily against any sort of hype and is cautious of spoiling anything for anyone.

It might even be that this is how hunters feel in WoW as well, but I wouldn't know. Of course hunters inLotRO have traps as well, but I've yet to have a proper chance at seeing how those work into the class mechanics.

I'm starting to see why people with experience in MMO's are saying LotRO is a game based on atmosphere, story and adventuring. Sure others are as well, but I find the way a lot more appealing than that of WoW, so far. Certainly I have to admit that the game is still very new to me and thus I can't really draw any major conclusions, but I can say for sure that the initial experience in WoW was very different.

One thing to take into consideration is that WoW was my first MMO and as such I wasn't at all familiar with the intricacies and inner workings of such games at the time and due to that my opinion in this case is also affected by being more familiar with the basics. Despite that, I'm looking forward to experiencing more of the world and seeing how my adventures will coincide with those of the actual fellowship.

So far it has been a very interesting experience and now, after almost reaching level 7, my elf has started it's "second chapter" in an area called Celondim, a foresty area west of The Shire close to the Gray Havens, I can't wait to have the chance to sit down and see where the road takes me next if I'm not mindful of my feet. Unfortunately tonight my feet take me to the barren wastelands of Post Apocalyptic Earth.

Until next time, may the light of Elendil shine upon you.

LotRO Diary: Part 1 - First impressions

It's about time I explore the world of MMO's from another angle. This time I'm delving into the World of the Rings, or Lord of the Rings Online in other words.

Having being subjected to several praising reviews and opinions of Lord of the Rings Online as a game for people who enjoy the experience of adventuring and the feeling of immersion, I figured I might as well see what it's like. Finding out there is a 14-day trial available for everyone, the choice was even easier to make.

As usual, the trial version features are limited, though not that much at all to my surprise; the ability to trade with others by means of direct trading, using the auction houses or mailing are all disabled. Having no level gap in the trial allows you to play as much or as little as you like with any character you like, which is a nice, small but significant difference from some other MMO's.

I'll be writing about my experiences every now and then (hence the "Diary"), but I don't expect it will be a daily thing. I'm unfortunately unable to not make comparisons to WoW when explaining things, as it is the only MMO I can really say I have experience from, so bear with me.

A word of warning I feel I must give before I go any further though, aimed at anyone considering trying out the trial as well. There's a literal TON (or 15) of client software to download to be able to actually get in game. Add to that, that the way the patches and other files are named aren't exactly the clearest, I strongly suggest that you start downloading the client and patches well before you activate the trial. There's nothing more annoying than knowing you have 14 days and you end up spending the first five downloading.

Using this guide is a decent starting point, the launcher can also do the patching, but downloading and installing at the same time will take quite a while so personally I chose to download as much as I could find as files so I can later use them if need be without needing to download them again.
Most of the client and patch files can be downloaded from a web based downloading client, or if you are familiar and willing to, you can download them via torrents. The client itself is freely distributable, and downloading it as a torrent does not constitute piracy. I do NOT encourage piracy in any form.

A good way of knowing that you are indeed up to date is that you are prompted to enter "Username" and "Password" in the launcher. That is the opportune time to go and activate your LotRO trial account as well.

First impressions
Finally I get to start the game up. Everything looks nice, and music in the background while I play around with character creation - different classes and details -, trying to make some sense of it all is nice and calm but still adventurous.

The choices in character creation for a first timer are confusing at first, which I reckon is a common trend in any game of this magnitude - certainly was that way for me in WoW as well. To help in this, there are some really good explanation videos along with text descriptions with each race and class that ease the way in making a choice in your first character to enter Middle-Earth. The plethora of options for character customization immediately raises the bar in my mind for any other such games, though I must admit I might be a bit of a oddball when it comes to the passion of which I utilize in character creation.

My previous main character in WoW having been a Dwarf Shadow Priest, I decided to go with a Dwarf again, choosing class as Defender. Basicly the class is a tank, which I figured a good starting point-of-view for this new crusade and having some universally transalting experience in the role - here's me hoping at least. I also made an Elf Hunter (no, I didn't name it Legolash), but I'll get to that another time.

Game loads, and the adventure begins. Oh, familiar faces...but why is the world so silent?
Damn, me sounds are lost! After a bit of poking and tweaking I finally figure out the game is has, for some reason, defaulted itself to the wrong sound output method. Changing it fixed the issue, nevermind it actually made the computer crash in the process...

So where was I....ah yes. I enter the world, familiar faces, discussion over a certain dragon is being displayed in the chat screen and as texts hovering over the heads of the characters. Everything looks really beautiful and with the sounds, the voice acting and rest of the sound world make a good impression. After a very short explanation of what is happening and learning a bit about the user interface, I'm sent of to check out some other dwarf in an instance of some sort. Of course I immediately thought "what, instance, at level one?" since I was still hooked on what WoW is. Note to self, this clearly isn't WoW. Impressive!

I'm joined up with an NPC as I enter the instance and almost immediately after entering the cave of an instance the game grips you as you're thrown into the middle of a "situation" where some key characters appear...a troll is solidified and other such. I'm sold, what a brilliant way of introducing the basic game mechanics, taking you into the world and giving you some light common reference that you're actually in the same world as the Fellowship is...where Sauron is gathering his strenght and the dark shadows are stretching over all of the land. That you're a part of a world where great adventures happen. Looks rather promising.

After the initial couple of levels I started to get familiar with the UI, how the map displays different things and such. I have to say even before entering one of the main Cities I was already impressed by the look and atmosphere of the game. The UI itself is a bit...cluttered compared to that of WoW and the icons aren't quite as clear as I've gotten used to, but in general the default settings are easy to the eye and reasonably easy to understand.

The class I chose, Guardian is a stout - I suppose this goes with dwarves without saying - warrior type of a class that utilizes a shield and a weapon for threat building and damage. Because of this, my lil dwarfy seems to be able to take a lot of punishment compared to the Elf Hunter. I played the dwarf to level 7 before deciding it was time to quit and during that time I didn't manage to die once.

Speaking of not dying. There's a really nifty award/achievement system in LotRO that way outdoes the comparison in WoW. This achievement system actually has concrete awards and it doesn't feel like it's bolted into the game afterwards at all - mainly because it isn't *duh*. You get special titles and abilities for a lot of things that are relevant to your character developement and what you do in the world. These abilities aren't just static or nonsense, but actual useful abilities such as: Using an ability a set amount of times makes you more effective in the use of that ability or others similar to it - if I use my Shield Blow enough, my blocking becomes better (Shield Expertise), or if I use my Shield-Swipe ability enough, an ability that is only usable after you block an attack, I gain a bonus called reactive shield that does damage to anyone who attacks me based on my Defense. All of these are of course set high enough so you will not gain them before reaching a reasonable character level.

As a closing thought for the first part, I have to say so far I'm really positively surprised, even with being subjected to the hype, about LotRO and find it very likely this will affect my plans of possibly exploring WotLK for what it's worth. The graphics are great and the sounds equally so. Playability seems decent though the icons are a bit small and too similar to eachother for my taste. The implementation of the story and the world is interesting in a different way due to knowing quite a bit about the world already - I love the book(s) and the movies like Elvira loves pets.

Next part I'll share some thoughts on the Hunter, which I also played up to level 7 the first evening. Quests and crafting are also going to be on the table in the future.

Until then, play nice.

Beyond Good & Evil (mostly evil)

Hi there, unknown reader, one of the two.

First let me start by saying, that I'm way past making any sort of promises in conjecture with writing here, so there won't be any of those. To continue in the the same theme, I should also add, that there are vast amounts of subjects that I would consider blog worthy in their own right and it is therefore likely and even mostly probable that I just might. But I promised no promises, which I tend to keep true to.

So.

Beyond Good & Evil. A game, first published for consoles and soon followed by a PC version. I have owned the Ps2 version of it for god knows how long, but I did only purchase it after its price dropped to a more...poor-student-homie sort of a level. So lets just say for the sake of argument that I've had it for four years minimum. Should also add as a side note, that this is indeed the method I implore on most of my purchases of the consumable media (excluding music for the most part).

I even played the game and really liked it a lot, according to my guesstimates, I played it up to 2006. Known for some as The year the darkness took over. In other words when I delved deep into the world of world of warcraft. And that's a bloody correct sentence. Slipping off topic here. So I played it then, check. Liked it, check. Didn't play it all the way due to other 'activities', check.

As mentioned before, there is also a PC version of the game, which I had of course managed to ignore in the past. Over the christmas holidays Valve and their mostly ingenious (we'll get to the mostly part later) Steam service were offering Beyond G&E - looks curious like that, doesn't it? - at a very reasonable price (5 euros) among other titles and I figured I'd like to play the game all the way through. So why not play the console game? I'm having a hard time enjoying games on Standard Definition due to the detail limitations and also the limitations of my current TV. LCD scaling = not the most crisp result one could wish for. I admit it's also because I'm too used to having high details due to having been playing on the PC for most of my mind-bogglingly-vast gaming history.

Money goes in, game comes out along with the other bits of information that st(r)eam from the internets. Downloaded, installed, tested and works fine. Nothing major to moan about there. Steam is a great service, though I could think of a couple of dozen things to make it even better.

The Mostly Evil part is, that in my ever clever wittiness, I figured I'd prefer to play Beyond G&E with a pad, as it is "supposed to be played" (shameless Nvidia plug). Add to this that I had a plan of also playing Resident Evil 4 the same way, as it was purchasable dirty cheap and with some extra patching should be a decent experience. No waffle for those who start making a point of how is it possible that I haven't already. Get off my back. Seriously.

So I got a pad (not a Pad_lle, but a gamepad, in case you're some type of a ...anti-gaming-nerd, which, if you are, you should be a lot more shamed about than I am about not having played Res4 yet - and of which you will most likely have no idea what I'm talking about anyway), again a part of a grander scheme of things involving a box-of-gaming by a multinational software corporation of lies and music players that don't have 366 days that cause them to crash - and a product of which can be described with: ><> or a fish if you like. Go figure.

Pad is great, pad is good. The only elfing problem is, and now pay attention as I'm finally getting to the point of it all, Beyond G&E doesn't support gamepads at all on the PC version. *Eyes open, Jaw on the floor* Who the hell came up with this brilliant idea.

The thought process is something like this:

• Lets develop this game for consoles, basing the controlling scheme to expect the use of gamepads.
• Lets make that same game into a PC version, but lets NOT have gamepad or joystick support for it, but keep the same control scheme to keep the playing as unintuitive and silly as possible.

So now I got a game, that is designed to be played on a gamepad with analog controllers, that only works with mouse+keyboard combination - which feels akward - that I want to play with an analog pad. The solution? To use an emulator for the gamepad, that pretends to be a keyboard and mouse. Sigh. The wonders of technology. As for Res4, it supports game controllers.

Luckily there are solutions like that, since otherwise I would've been slightly annoyed at myself for not checking such things in advance to bying a controller. Another lucky part of it is that I'll be able to take advantage of the gamepad later on anyway, so ...yeah.

Oh right, then there's the Steam point I made earlier. The gripe I have with it, in this case, is that I find it odd that Valve have developed such a decent method of distributing, but they still seem to have forgotten that with the ability to distribute they could also take a stand towards making a more unified controlling scheme, since they have the ability to do so.

What I mean by that is that I would have presumed, that in their wisdom of designing Steam, they would've made some sort of an unified method of using other peripherals than the conventional mouse and keyboard combination. To be fair, they have, it's just that the way it is being done is that they don't require the publishers to support it. Which kind of leaves us, the consumers, in a place where we need to put quite a lot of effort into getting that support working on our own.

What this tells to me, is that Steam is still primarily a distributing method and nothing more. I hope in the future they do utilize the ability to make gamers lives easier when it comes to using different gadgets-of-play.

That about sums it up. Lesson learned, tech learned. Now I know how to get over the hurdles of setting up gamepads and other controlling periphelia whether or not it is supported by the software I'm looking to use it with. Hurray.

Good deeds don't go unrewarded and bad deeds are a reward in their own right.
The both of you have a nice weekend! =]