High Score: The New Era of Video
Game Music
by
Christopher Coleman
August 2,
2008
I am
starting off this update to HIGH
SCORE talking about one of the
video game world's most
important locations - LucasArts
Entertainment, which recently
relocated from Marin county,
California to San Francisco's
Presidio (virtually the only
spot in California not engulfed
in the smoke of uncountable
Summer fires). This incredible
campus is also home to the
effects company, INDUSTRIAL
LIGHT AND MAGIC and a portion of LUCASFILM LIMITED.
I start here because, if you
haven't started talking about
their next game release, THE
FORCE UNLEASHED, you will.
For some of you, this
groundbreaking game's score will
also be a popular topic.
Back in
July, my
gracious host for an afternoon's
lunch and tour of just a small
segment of "Lucas-Land" was Vice
president of Sales
for LucasArts, Mary Bihr.
Props and costumes from the Lucas empire
adorn the foyer (the only place
photos are allowed) and within
the halls and offices are gobs
of original conceptual art
pieces and models from countless ILM projects. Echoing off
of the paintings, models, and
sculptures was positive buzz
over the recent worldwide launch
of the new Indiana Jones Lego
video game. Having just
spent the day previous at "The
Ranch," where the other half of LucasFilm remains located, as
well as SKYWALKER SOUND, and
seeing original props from the
Indiana Jones franchise like
"the fedora," "the whip," and
newly added "Crystal Skull," I
have to admit that I felt a
little Indiana Jones buzz
myself.
There, at
Skywalker Sound, I met up with
composer
MARK GRISKEY
where he recorded his score for
THE FORCE
UNLEASHED. Visiting
the incredible scoring stage, it
was bewildering to think that
THE FORCE UNLEASHED was the
first LucasArts video game to
have its score recorded there!
In the mixing room, I met Dann
Thompson, audio engineer who
mixed Mark Griskey's THE KNIGHTS
OF THE OLD REPUBLIC: THE SITH
LORDS score. While still in the mixing
suite, I briefly met the
Director of Recording and
Scoring, Leslie Ann Jones, who
worked on THE FORCE UNLEASHED
with Griskey.
"LucasLand"
is indeed "Disneyland" for the
film and game geek in all of us.
(Ok...in me, then.) A
large portion of this update to
HIGH SCORE revolves around the
release of THE FORCE UNLEASHED.
You'll find a full review of the
promo soundtrack as well as an
exclusive interview with MARK
GRISKEY. In addition
you'll find full reviews of
KEVIN RIEPL's
HUXLEY and WINIFRED
PHILLIP's
SPEED RACER: THE VIDEO GAME.
Finally, we've added two new
SCOREFRONT profiles:
COLIN O'MALLEY and
DUANE DECKER, both of whom
have a number of significant
video game projects under their
belts. And don't miss the
new music above from titles such
as: PRINCE CASPIAN (Mark
Griskey), SUPERMAN RETURNS
(Colin O'Malley), HEROES OF
MIGHT AND MAGIC V (Paul Anthony
Romero).
Original
Introduction (2007)
The days of the stunted,
electronic, jingles which cued
up with the drop of each quarter
or token into those hungry,
little, metal slots seem like a
century ago. As the world of
video games has become
increasingly sophisticated (not
to mention lucrative), so has
the music associated with it.
While the musical jingles from
Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, or Ms. Pac
Man have become icons
themselves, an increasing amount
of today's video game music is
sharing more in common with many
of the iconic film scores of the
last thirty years.
The world of film music
continues to ebb and flow...to
evolve. Post-modernism,
minimalism, and electronic
instrumentation are ever-present
in today's soundtrack landscape.
Some of film music's stalwart
composers are well into their
twilight of their careers -
"matured" sound and all, and yet
their names still dominate
credit rolls. Such observations
can leave a fan wondering when
and where the next Raiders of
the Lost Ark, Conan the
Barbarian, or Braveheart will
come from. There are, of course
the Brian Tyler's, Michael
Giacchino's and John Powell's,
those from a new generation of
composers, who offer a bright
future for such film music fans.
And still for other daring
composers like: Kevin Riepl,
Mark Griskey, Colin O'Malley,
Winifred Phillips, Duane Decker,
the growing medium of video
games is opening wide to
showcase their talents.
Some of today's most captivating
scores are written, not for the
big screens and
blockbuster-Summer-films, but
for the slightly smaller screens
connected to Xboxes,
Playstations, Wiis, and personal
computers. Tracksounds is
thrilled to turn the spotlight
on this genre of music through
this feature, High Score: The
New Era of Game Music.
Here you will find full reviews
of some of the most recent video
games soundtracks to cause a
stir within the circles of
soundtrack enthusiasts as well
as interviews with those who
painstakingly create this music!
Playable Cinema
by
Christopher Coleman
(September 21, 2007)
As I finished up both my
review of BIOSHOCK and my
interview with the composer
of the game's score, GARRY
SCHYMAN, that phrase
"playable cinema" kept
running through my mind.
That is where the gaming and
film industries have been
moving toward for a number
of years now. With the
release of games like
BIOSHOCK and perhaps even
moreso, HEAVENLY SWORD, we
might just be there. I can't
say that I've ever seen any
game like the visuals of
HEAVENLY SWORD or been as
enveloped by a games
atmosphere like BIOSHOCK.
I've been addicted to the
short animated back-story
shorts presented at the
HEAVENLY SWORD site. I've
been swept up in the depth
of 2KGames' official sites
for BIOSHOCK. Both of these
games and LAIR as well, have
created new, detailed
worlds, that are as
interesting as the games
themselves. For as long as
movies have been made,
audience members have said
to themselves "I wish I
could do that!" ...and the
day has come where they can.
If you look at the history
of it - the two mediums have
been on a collision course
for decades. We first saw
game-spin-offs of movies and
more recently movie
spin-offs from games. As
processing power continues
to exponentially increase,
the merging of the two seems
only natural...if not
inevitable. I, for one, am
ecstatic at seeing this
media evolution continue. As
I've remarked elsewhere,
with the storage, bandwidth,
and processing power
available for game
development ever on the
increase, this affords game
producers what they need to
hire grade-A composers and
grade-A orchestras for these
game scores. And we won't
even speak about the
budgets. They certainly have
plenty of bucks now-days.
Let's not underestimate the
power of symphonic music in
these games. While the
visuals cause our jaws to
drop, just how much less
impacting would the game
play be without the
contributions of a MICHAEL
GIACCHINO, INON ZUR, or
JESPER KYD? As it's been
said before "Audiences will
put up with bad picture, but
they won't put up with bad
sound." 128-bit+ graphics
with 16-bit sound would be
unforgivable. So as we are
witness to "playable cinema"
emerging before our very
eyes, I hope you'll join in
the anticipation for where
this will lead musically. If
the music matters within
film and it matters within a
game - just how much more
when the two become one? As
gross as it sounds...my ears
salivate at what's to come!
Huxley by Kevin Riepl
Speed Racer by Winifred Phillips
Crysis Trailer by Inon Zur
The Golden Compass by Jamie Christopherson
Beowulf by Sascha Dikiciyan and Cris Velasco
Assassin's Creed by Jesper Kyd
Having worked with composer MICHAEL GIACCHINO and his team at EDGEWATER MUSIC on
past games such as SECRET WEAPONS OVER NORMANDY, developers LucasArts and Day 1
returned to them to provide the fully symphonic backdrop to the story and
game-play for their latest gaming creation, FRACTURE. Once again it fell on the
shoulders of LucasArts staff-composer and music supervisor, Jesse Harlin
to take the musical output of the trio and give FRACTURE it's final shape.
The story is set in the 22nd century where war has broken out in the United
States. Due to the melting of the polar ice cap, the Mississippi river has
flooded - destroying the central portion of USA and leaving two factions to its
east and west: The Atlantic Alliance and The Republic of the Pacifica. In the single player
campaign you play the character of Jet Brody who is a part of the Atlantic
Alliance. For FRACTURE, the amount of time and energy sunk into the development
of all of these story details is important in terms of the game's score
and would be apart of the challenge for Giacchino and his co-composers,
CHRIS TILTON and CHAD SEITER.
In the ever-growing
process of pre-release
hype (ie. marketing),
Bethesda Softworks
offered a special
sampler soundtrack in
its $5.00 pre-order
package. Included
inside the standard
DVD, snap-box comes a
FALLOUT 3 poster and
this sampler CD.
Roaming an alternative
timeline of
post-apocalyptic
Washington D.C., your
highly customizable
player will see
familiar monuments and
vistas of "the
district," but
complete with
post-nuclear holocaust
"renovations."
Additionally, there
are some true baddies
that also roam the
lands. No, not
politicians, but
mutants, and ghouls,
and other
monstrosities. Gaming
insiders are saying
that FALLOUT 3
promises to be one of
the most anticipated
action-rpgs for the
Xbox 360 and PC since
OBLIVION (also from
Bethesda).
What helps to define
the FALLOUT franchise
is it's setting.
Marked by the quirky
and somewhat misguided
worldviews of the
1950s and certainly by
the visual design
style of the era, the
environment of FALLOUT
is an odd
juxtaposition of
idealism and
destruction.
Fortifying this very
feeling are the
musical choices for
the game. On the one
hand, music from the
40s and 50s is again
integrated into the
game experience and on
the other, composer
INON ZUR provides an
uneasily mournful, but
powerful score - at least as measured by
the two tracks
released here.
Of course, as with any
good STAR WARS
episode, whether film,
television show or
game, the associated
music has to go beyond
"good." Expectations
are for the
spectacular. As a
one-time LucasArts
staff member, MARK
GRISKEY already had
KNIGHTS OF THE OLD
REPUBLIC II: THE SITH
LORDS, under his belt
as wells as
contributions to games
like: EPISODE III:
REVENGE OF THE SITH,
STAR WARS: RACERS
REVENGE, and STAR
WARS: OBI-WAN. Even
with such vital
experience, THE FORCE
UNLEASHED had to
remain an incredible
pressure in living up
to the John Williams
musical legacy. For
LucasArts latest
effort, expectations
have again risen to
the level of "spectacular" and
famed gaming company
would probably not
have it any other way.
The final game score
includes extensive use
of John Williams'
expansive library of
music from the six
films and so GRISKEY's
score had the
unenviable position of
being set right along
some of the most
recognizable film
music of all time.
One video game that is
poised to have a huge,
long-term impact on
the gaming world is
Webzen's HUXLEY. The
title has been on
gamer's radars for
quite some time. With
engineers in the midst
of crafting up the
next-gen engine,
Unreal Engine 4.0,
HUXELY is another
title that will be
launched on version
3.0 of the popular and
still impressive
graphics engine. The
story of the game
reportedly has been
inspired by Aldous
Huxley's BRAVE NEW
WORLD. As per usual,
with the world in
utter chaos, humans
and non-humans alike
are fighting over the
world's
resources...for
survival. In the case
of HUXLEY, the two
main combatants
struggle over control
over a potential
society-saving power
source, called
Lunarites. It would
seem with that story
as background, gamers
would have enough to
hang endless hours of
frag-time on. Yet
HUXLEY goes further as
it is no
run-of-the-mill FPS
(first person
shooter). This time
out webzen has created
a MMOFPS (Massively
Multiplayer Online
First Person Shooter).
This time you don't just have a single
session of fraggin'
fun, but now your
efforts are a part of
a persistent
world...where
everything you do,
every battle you have,
impacts the greater
world in which you
play...not to mention
your team-mates. The
game is scheduled to
release on both PC and
Xbox360 - the biggest
difference being the
X360 also receives a
single player campaign
in addition to the
multiplayer play. For
HUXLEY, veteran video
game composer KEVIN
RIEPL was brought on
to provide the game's
musical score.
When it comes to
racing game scores,
there aren't a ton of
options; that is, if
the producers care
about optimizing this
very specific gaming
environment. In a
word, both the visual
and audio components
are most likely going
to have to convey one
thing: speed! Little
needs to be said about
the visuals of the
game...it's all about
speed, and reckless
abandon, and
loop-de-loops,...and
"Car-fu!" In truth,
almost everything in
SPEED RACER: THE VIDEO
GAME is to the
extreme. Employing the
Wii's unique wireless
control system (this
title is one of the
first to be compatible
with the Wii's special
steering-wheel
controller) or using
the standard Wii
remote in the
horizontal
configuration, the
gamer already set to
experience a racing
extreme like no other.
You can choose to
battle-race with 1 of
some 19 cars and
characters including:
Speed Racer, Trixie,
and (my all time
favorite) Racer X.
While some gamers
found the lack of
track variety to be
sorely "unextreme,"
the game's musical
score certainly helps
to keep the driver
extremely invigorated
no matter how many
times they run a
particular track.
I am
starting off this update to HIGH
SCORE talking about one of the
video game world's most
important locations - LucasArts
Entertainment, which recently
relocated from Marin county,
California to San Francisco's
Presidio (virtually the only
spot in California not engulfed
in the smoke of uncountable
Summer fires). This incredible
campus is also home to the
effects company, INDUSTRIAL
LIGHT AND MAGIC and a portion of LUCASFILM LIMITED.
I start here because, if you
haven't started talking about
their next game release, THE
FORCE UNLEASHED, you will.
For some of you, this
groundbreaking game's score will
also be a popular topic.
