Saturday 24 July 2010

A Symphony in midi

One of my favourite things in many games is the music. About a quarter of my music comes from games (the majority of which can be attributed the genius that is Nobou Uematsu, legendary composer for most of the Final Fantasy series but he gets his own post later).


A good soundtrack can make or break a game. It doesn't matter how a good a game is if it has an annoying soundtrack you won't play it or you'll mute it and loose all the whizzes and bangs that help you submerse yourself in the moment. But it's so much more than that. Music sticks in the mind long after the excitement of the game has worn off. If you don't believe me hum a few bars of the Mario or Tetris theme on a packed train and see how many people start tapping along. They got stuck in your heads for hours and they're still there in the back of your mind all these years later.


Game music is notoriously difficult to get right. It has to be distinctive and suit the mood and atmosphere of the game, but at the same time it has to blend into the background to not take focus away from the action on screen. You could be listening to the same 5 minute loop over and over again for hours; if done right you'll feel a deeper connection to the characters and their plight, if done badly you'll want to throw your controller at the wall and gouge out your ear drums.


There are many modern games that have good soundtracks but there are very few in recent years that can hold a candle to these giants of ages past. Most rely on similar styles themes: pounding syths for fights and flights, ye-olde flutes and lutes for bimbling about country villages, grand orchestras and choirs when you need 'epicness'. While being a good short hand to let the player know what's happening and doesn't jar by being unexpected it does lead to everything game in a genre sounding the same and rather blasé, nothing that sticks in your brain for longer than it's playing. Can you think of any game from the past year that had even one tune that you can still hum now, or has everything become one great wash of Latin chorus and thumping that wouldn't be out of place at a rave?


Not all games use original scores of course. Games set in a contemporary world are increasingly using contemporary music, such as Grand Theft Auto. Following the huge success of Guitar Hero many bands now see games as a platform to get their music across to a whole new audience. And it works. It was a demo of the first Tony Hawk game way back when that had 'Superman' by Goldfinger on it, the song that introduced me to the wonderful world of punk rock.


It seems like music in games is beginning to get it's just recognition with events such as the fantastic Video Games Live, a travelling show where composers Jack Wall (Mass Effect, Myst, Splinter Cell) and Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim, Prince of Persia) perform medleys of soundtracks accompanied by a local orchestra. If it comes to a town near you I highly recommend it, it's a lot of fun. Hearing Tetris and Space Invaders played on classical instruments is a real kick. It's not just specialist events like this though. At Christmas I went to 'Nokia Night of the Proms', a night of pop acts from various parts of Europe brought together to play whilst backed by a full orchestra. I was surprised when I suddenly realised that they were playing the Advent Rising medley I'd heard only a few weeks before at VGL! Unfortunately we caught the show in Munich and I don't speak a word of German but my friend tells me that the host was saying how games were becoming an important step in the evolution of music. I have to say I agree with him and it's an evolution that I can get behind.

Friday 23 July 2010

Bored of the Rings

I'm currently reading LOTR -The Two Towers. It took me 8 years to read Fellowship. 8 YEARS! 8 bloody buggering years! Why am I doing this to myself? Because I have to. How can I call myself a fan of all things fantasy when I haven't read Lord of the Rings? So now I have to slog through 7 billion pages of a bunch of people with Paper Thin Personality Disorder walking in a sodding wood and getting into the occasional fistycuffs!

Yes. I know. It's 'seminal'. It defines a genre, a genre for which I have great love. I just hate the way its written. The characters all sound the same, segregated into three groups; Gollum, hobbit and other. The battle of Helms Deep is crammed into about 10 pages, completely devoid of tension or any sense of peril only to be followed by 20 pages of walking, oh, sorry, riding as they bugger off to Isengard! Seriously? The language is dated, the bits that are in English I mean. The characters show no emotion; you're told what they are feeling but there is little in the way they talk or act to reflect this.

And the ring. What does it actually do? What is it about the ring that makes it so bloody powerful and makes everyone want it? It makes you invisible. Kinda cool, you can use it to spy on the ladies but worth destroying the world for?

Any time I dare voice my opinions in public I'm immediately shot down. I said I know it is THE most influential fantasy book ever but it needs an editing hatchet taken to it. People always tell me 'oh you just need to skip over the Council of Elrond... and the bits with Sam and Frodo... and anything that appears in italics, then it's a fantastic novel'. Well, here's some news for you. If you have to skip out nearly half the book it's not a fantastic novel. A fantastic story maybe, I'm not saying the plot isn't brilliant. You just shouldn't have to wade through 1000 odd pages of pointless shite to get to it. A novel shouldn't require Appendices.

So here. I'm saying it. Tolkien is not the God of Fantasy. Godfather, maybe, but his books are not sacred texts to be put on a pedestal and admired for all time, any speaking against them to be struck down for such blasphemy.

Okay, so maybe I'm being overly harsh, but I'm sick of being treated like a leper for feeling like this. As much as I slagged off the book for giving us every small detail on the workings of Middle Earth it's quite cool having all the back story but I have to agree with something J K Rowling once said. An author should know everything about their characters and their world but the reader doesn't have to. If you want to go into minute detail on the number of days in a Shire month do it in text book.

I will get through the series. I'm not wasting that 8 years but next time I think I'll just stick to watching the films.