With summer well under way filling our lives with sunny days and warm still evenings where we can sit outside enjoying a nice cool beer*, what better musical accompaniment could you ask for than some chiptune Christmas carols? None, obviously. Hence… Big Giant Circles’ “Big Giant Christmas EP”.
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Not Quite Game Music: The Big Giant Christmas EP
Everquest Next: Massively Multiplayer Online Voxels?
Rock Paper Shotgun just posted an article covering the first look at the upcoming Everquest Game, cunningly named Everquest Next. Unless Sony Online Entertainment have access to a cadre of wizards or time travellers many of the announced features will almost certainly not live up to the hype (Radiant AI, anyone?), but one in particular piqued my interest.
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Intense Serious Fun!
Rekabmot recently hosted a competition – write a review and win a copy of Monaco. The retro gods must have been smiling because my Tyrian review was one of the winners. Heists, capers and hijinks await!
Congratulations to my compatriot in victory, Sam Hogarth, for his heartfelt review of Bastion.
A personal history of game music: Part 6 – A New Generation
Advances in audio technology and the hardware to drive it powered the latest evolution of soundtracks early in the early years of the new millennium. High fidelity, CD-quality, studio-recorded, surround sound music became the norm and the line between gaming and cinema grew ever more blurred. But as we know, the old-school never really dies…
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Game Music: Metroid Metal
This week’s soundtrack is actually an album and an EP composed of tracks taken from one of the longest-running franchises in video game history, “re-recorded and ‘redone a bit'” for live performance. Covering almost three decades of the Metroid series, it’s Metroid Metal.
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This! This is my new anthem!
This! This is my new anthem!
CHIPTUNE! CHIIIIIIIPTUUUUUUUNE!
From KeyGenMusic.net. I in no way endorse keygens or crackers. I do endorse stupidly happy and addictive chiptunes that simultaneously give me spine-tingling nostalgia and happy-foot syndrome.
A personal history of game music: Part 5 – Interludes and Anecdotes
Due to one thing or another there wasn’t enough time to write the article I had planned for this week. Rather than just wait a fortnight I’ve decided instead to take the opportunity for a bit of a link clearance. So here follows a grab-bag of interesting music-related stories, articles and titbits that have built up over the years.
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Game Music: Mass Effect
After introducing Jack Wall last week it would be insanity not to follow up with another of his scores, and perhaps my favourite game soundtrack of all time. Fitting, since it’s for one of the greatest games ever created. I am referring, of course, to Mass Effect.
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A personal history of game music: Part 4 – A Time of Transition
Early PC games were packed with great soundtracks and technological developments, but the real advances were still to come. With sound cards and CD-ROMs becoming more mainstream the technical and artistic horizons of composers broadened considerably. Soon full orchestral scores would be the norm, but before then, technology was still catching up. The 90s then, were a period of transition bridging the MIDI age with what we know today.
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Game Music: Myst IV – Revelation
Some days you just need music to plot by, a suitable accompaniment to the story you are writing. On those days, Jack Wall should always have a place on your playlist. His scores for Mass Effect 1 and 2 are a regular feature when I’m writing, but every now and then the plot calls for something a little more tribal. This week, Myst IV – Revelation.
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