Sound in Games

Sound play's a vital role in games these days, and is created by some of the best composer's in the world. Recently for example the blockbuster best selling game to date, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 had only bloody Oscar winning composer Hans Zimmer! Who's worked for big name film titles like The Dark Knight and Pirates of the Caribbean. Every aspect of a game these days is pushed to it's best ability to achieve the maximum entertainment experience possible. As budding game developers' were aware of the processes involved in creating concepts to achieve the look and style of a games appearance, from characters and vehicles, to environments and mood. But what about sound. That's why I was pleased to find out that the industry seems to be broadening its concepting ethics into pitching game ideas not only using visual, but also musical forms. So basically it can range from small sound to scores to find an overall sonic to a game, that fits with its style. The pieces never have to be finished because there just concepts but generally they go on to become final works that will be incorporated into the game. I'm a fan of an upcoming game that was originally a mod for half life 1. They release news weekly every Friday showing there progress in a very “back stage” kind of way, and in a recent post they showcased a mixture of sounds re-enforcing this very topic. It would be best to have a look for yourself so here's the link http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/news/2010/2/friday_update_build_137_and_sound_montages I think this is a very good way to show the direction the sound is going, and I believe its just as important as any other part of the game.

I'm trying to think of past game experiences that have evoked emotion from the sound and one springs to mind that I feel deserves a mention. As I've mentioned before I played Medal of Honor Allied Assault. Its was one of the first franchises to start of the whole first person period, WW2 series of gaming and they did a remarkable job. They paid a lot of attention to detail to make you feel apart of world war. Might be best known for it Normandy Omaha beach landing that's seen also in the film Saving Private Ryan. The sound effect were top notch but it was the score that did it for me. As I have great respect for the soldiers who fought in world war 2 and have a very big interest in it, this soundtrack I felt captured a good emotion for the war and to be honest it made me want to cry. I even copied it to CD to listen to it. Composed by Michael Giacchino who has done work movies, television series. His most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, and Alias and films such as Mission: Impossible III, The Incredibles, Star Trek and Up, for which he won an Academy Award. In my opinion this is the best score in any game ever made and I never tire of listening to it.

Game Engines

I've been a very keen gamer over the years and when I say that I don't mean just playing games. Its the way there made and how the industry has evolved over the years. Its about what the future holds and what technology will become available. How does this apply to game engines though? Well game developers want the best from there engine as it will ultimately determine is there game will any good or not. With the rate of witch games evolve these days its hard to stay ahead of the game ( no pun intended). For me there are two game engines that have most influenced my gaming. This is mainly down to there support for the modding community. I'm a big Valve fan boy and ill happily admit that. I've got a lot of respect for them and I've been a fan since the first Half Life game. It was many, many years after they finally released Half Life 2. The reason being that they decided to create an engine like non other that had been seen before. It made use of lighting, physics, particle effects and model animation in unprecedented and revolutionary new ways that these days has become a standard within new titles. But I feel a better engine became available. Epic games, the creators of unreal tournament develop the unreal engine and its still used by many top titles today. Including army of two, bioshock, gears of war, mass effect, boarderlands and many more. Main features of this engine include the same of the source engine by valve but add more in terms of larger scale maps and open environments, better use of vehicles and the tools make building games far more user friendly. Epics dedication to there engine surpasses anyone's expectations and appeals to all game developers needs no matter what game you may want to create.

This brings me to the point of creating your own engine. To tailor it to your own needs is the obvious reason to do so, but the time and effort needed may require to much time and money for most developers. Epic sold licence to use there engine commercially for around $1.000.000, not sure if it is that price now. Its a lot of money but given the long-term benefits I can see that It could reduce cost and time to deliver a finished game to shop shelf's by quite some time. Plus epic have always been at the forefront of technology working very closely with top gpu manufactures nvidia and ati to ensure maximum performance and reliability. Hence the reason why so many developer have bought the rights to the engine. Just recently they released the tools and engine to be used free of charge in the form of the UDK (unreal development kit) this allows developers to crate a game for free during development and only if they make a certain amount of money after realise per year they then pay royalties to epic games. Now is that a sweet deal or what. Some of you may be thinking this move is just to get the last scraps of cash from and old engine but there are many games still being released, even today on this engine and im sure epic will be maing sure thats the case for any years to come.

Game Culture

If you were to look at my msn friends list and ask me who most of them were I wouldn't be able to tell you. Over the years I have added people that I have been talking to whilst playing computer games online. I never use it to talk to people I actually know. To be honest I never use it these days. Probably because there are better methods of communication. I have a large friend list on steam and xbox live. A lot of these are people I've known for years. Its never really been something I've consid
If you were to look at my msn friends list and ask me who most of them were I wouldn't be able to tell you. Over the years I have added people that I have been talking to whilst playing computer games online. I never use it to talk to people I actually know. To be honest I never use it these days. Probably because there are better methods of communication. I have a large friend list on steam and xbox live. A lot of these are people I've known for years. Its never really been something I've consid
ered any different to making friends in real life. I've never had trouble making friends. I have no trouble talking to anyone but its so easy during a game. One of the major advantages of socialiered any different to making friends in real life. I've never had trouble making friends. I have no trouble talking to anyone but its so easy during a game. One of the major advantages of socialising this way is you know you have something in common straight away because your interested in the same game or even many games. The only major difference is never knowing what they look like, and in some cases not even hearing there voice.

So what does this say about my personality. I consider myself to be a friendly guy and ive got time for anyone. The thing that I like best about people online is there just people! The stereotype is socially retarded teens who have trouble integrating with society, but in my experience the majority of people have more in common with me than I would have ever expected.

People form long term relationships online. In my early gaming days I was in a clan for the first medal of honor game on for PC. Although some games were competitive with other clans, it was more about having a chat whilst playing a game together. There girlfriends and wives would take over sometimes and just chat with each other. I never got to meet any of them in person even when the clan would all meet from time to time but I still felt I knew them all very well.