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Modern Games with Modern Soundtracks


Brandon Strader
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Pre-EDIT: We're up to like 28 games that have multiple votes.. Please try to vote for games on the list. If you make a suggestion for a new game, it won't be immediately added to the list, but may have a chance to get in somehow, I haven't figured out how yet. Maybe through some kind of elimination process and further stages of voting.

I vote for:

Elder Scrolls IV + V

Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2

Portal 1 + 2

Also, how about Shadow of the Colossus? Maybe ICO, too, but that might be a little older.

Of course, later Zelda like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword is oblig in my mind. Especially SS.

Ico is too old, it's from 2001. I'm not allowing the original Kingdom Hearts either, but the later games are allowed. :-) Shadow of the Colossus is from 2006 I think, so it is allowed. I can add it to the list. I'll also count your votes. :-)

Deus Ex HR

Mirror's Edge

TES Oblivion/Skyrim

Batman: Arkham Asylum/Arkham City

Tekken 6

Super Mario Galaxy

Mass Effect 1 + 2

Unreal Tournament 3

Guild Wars

Not sure if Sonic Generations qualifies, but its soundtrack is awesome.

Nice votes. Adding them. :-)

As for Sonic Generations, the songs that are remixes or based on the old songs are not applicable, however any original songs made for the game would be good to go. But since I'm not familiar enough with the OST right now and I am under the impression most of the music is remade from the old games, I'm not gonna add it to the listing. I have Sonic Generations and I need to get around to actually playing it. :-(

Oh oh, I wanna add my two cents too!

Dragon Age

Dungeons of Dredmor

Orcs Must Die

Dragon Age has really good ambient music, Dungeons of Dredmor music is just fun, and Orcs Must Die is pretty rawkin'. XD

Ninja'd. Will add your stuff. :-)

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If I may add Radiant Historia to the list. I think that game does not get enough love!

The Portal series's soundtrack, especially Portal 2, gets my vote.

Super Mario Galaxy does have phenomenal music.

Sword and Sworcery EP has a terrific soundtrack! It's iOS exclusive, but its still great.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword's music is pretty great.

Can we get some Super Meat Boy and Binding of Issac love?

Sonic Colors has decent music, I guess. I wasn't a huge fan, but it works for me.

Cave Story <3.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Anamanaguchi made the game for me when I played a demo of it.

OKAMI: I bought it partially because of the music alone (that and Chuggaaconroy's LP of it)

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I'm making a spreadsheet. NO NEW GAME SUGGESTIONS! Believe it or not, we're up to 71 games. Let's get some voting going on to clear some of these out and get some winners.

\

EDIT: Spreadsheet tally of winners (above 4 votes) as of 1/16/2012 at 10:25PM:

1. Super Mario Galaxy series

2. Ace Combat

3. Portal series

4. Okami

5. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

6. Sonic Colors

Keep voting!

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I'm going to disagree here, with gusto

it's almost entirely a question of arrangement, and every remixer has already held to a specific standard of doing so

Yes, but so far it's been mostly for old games. Thus why Brandon started this thread/project for recent games in the first place.

One important thing to consider also, is that being posted on OCR doesn't necessarily mean you've done justice to a game/song.

It simply means you have the abilities to create music that appeal to the OCR judges, and if you're lucky, the OCR crowd and beyond.

The rest is entirely subjective.

If you personally can top songs that are equal or above OCR bar, both composition and production-wise, then more power for you.

My point is that not everyone will have the vision and the means to do that, especially with so much AAA titles on a multi-disc scale.

The score of a game like Skyrim, for exemple, isn't exactly as easy to interpret as Mario Bros Level 1-1 or Ice Cap Zone.

Again, I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just pointing out that it will be a tall order, regardless of who remixes what. ;-)

NO NEW GAME SUGGESTIONS! Believe it or not, we're up to 71 games.

Holy crab 71 games! :dstrbd: Good thing the spreadsheet caps at 99. How many games will you keep? 10~15?

Also, are you gonna make a poll to determine which song from each soundtrack to remix or will it be open ended?

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I would like to add a touch of negativity regarding the Deus Ex Human Revolution soundtrack, I think it is incredibly generic and dull. Very typical example of retro vs modern soundtrack.

If you listen to the original Deus Ex soundtrack from back in 2000, it's popped full of melodies, classic, very specific tracks throughout the experience. Human Revolution takes a dump on that standard by holding a couple of chords and playing some random notes on top here and there.

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I would like to add a touch of negativity regarding the Deus Ex Human Revolution soundtrack, I think it is incredibly generic and dull. Very typical example of retro vs modern soundtrack.

If you listen to the original Deus Ex soundtrack from back in 2000, it's popped full of melodies, classic, very specific tracks throughout the experience. Human Revolution takes a dump on that standard by holding a couple of chords and playing some random notes on top here and there.

You're a fan of the 'classic' Deus Ex, right? Then listen closely and you'll notice melodies from the original were included in songs.

Not to mention ingame radios playing UNATCO and Main Title among others. Have you played the game btw?

You complain about 'retro vs modern soundtrack', but may not realize the constraints associated with modern game sound design.

Nowadays, composing for big AAA titles isn't an all or nothing process like it used to be during the past generations.

Many require adaptive music, long tracks made of multiple layers that are triggered by player specific action or situations.

When a composer translates such work into a soundtrack format, it's generally in a more subtle and evolutive way.

It basically starts slow with few elements and, as the piece progresses, content layers are added to build tension.

I guarantee you there are plenty of pieces in that soundtrack that have variety, depth and are oozing with details.

Try being patient and listen to the songs more than 20 sec before skipping to the next track. Then you might notice it too. ;)

Just because there are no catchy chiptune solos or crazy guitar wankery outright, doesn't mean a game soundtrack is bad.

The point of game music is first and foremost to fit the game's context/content.

And in that regard, Michael Mc Cann's work on DXHR was stellar.

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I don't have much of an attachement to the original Deus Ex soundtrack, and the new one still struck me as utterly forgettable.

Game music "fitting" a context is only dependant on conforming to our expectations. And right now AAA games are obsessed more than ever with being like big blockbuster movies. I don't mind game music being like movie scores per se, it's just that the modern post-Batman Begins stuff sounds like utter shit to me and has infested everything.

I'm a big fan of the classic Italian school of film music, and I think it shares similarities with the classic game music we love so much. And I think this has an interesting example about what kind of music "fits" a certain setting. I'm talking about the iconic spaghetti western music which had plenty of electric guitars and other oddities which is really out of place in a 19th century western setting. They just did it because it sounded cool and was just plain good music, and after that it has become entirely acceptable to hear such music in that context.

My point with this is that this can easily be applied to game music as well. It would probably help if the industry stopped looking up to Hollywood so much and started treating games as its own unique medium, which is essential if we want it to actually grow as an art.

And regarding music being adaptive, I'm not 100% sure about the first Deus Ex but the first Unreal also made by Alex Brandon changed in real time depending on what happened while also retaining the qualities we like in classic game music.

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You're a fan of the 'classic' Deus Ex, right? Then listen closely and you'll notice melodies from the original were included in songs.

Not to mention ingame radios playing UNATCO and Main Title among others. Have you played the game btw?

You complain about 'retro vs modern soundtrack', but may not realize the constraints associated with modern game sound design.

Nowadays, composing for big AAA titles isn't an all or nothing process like it used to be during the past generations.

Many require adaptive music, long tracks made of multiple layers that are triggered by player specific action or situations.

When a composer translates such work into a soundtrack format, it's generally in a more subtle and evolutive way.

It basically starts slow with few elements and, as the piece progresses, content layers are added to build tension.

I guarantee you there are plenty of pieces in that soundtrack that have variety, depth and are oozing with details.

Try being patient and listen to the songs more than 20 sec before skipping to the next track. Then you might notice it too. ;)

Just because there are no catchy chiptune solos or crazy guitar wankery outright, doesn't mean a game soundtrack is bad.

The point of game music is first and foremost to fit the game's context/content.

And in that regard, Michael Mc Cann's work on DXHR was stellar.

I am a fan of both Deus Ex The Conspiracy and Human Revolution, prefer the original, but both games are great. While the use of music in The Conspiracy is a bit repetitive in terms of the music ALWAYS playing as you go along I can agree to the slightly more subtle use of music in games. However, the laid back oozing atmospheric style that pretty much every single game that is released now a days go with, is insulting to the reputation game music built up since day 1.

Games are moving more and more towards Movie score soundtracks, and I personally would like to see the continuing of the unique way music has been done in games.

I've heard the Human Revolution soundtrack from 1st to last track and I say it's nowhere close as melodic, memorable and unique as the first game. It's a professionally scored ''fit the basic emotion'' type of soundtrack. To me it got no balls, no presence of wanting to truly stand out and up the games presence. It just fills the gap to me, no more no less.

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Thanks to Brandon, I went through the OST of Dante's Inferno once again. And I will remix the "Cocytus" track. :D

Brutal and epic. >:]

(you already counted that vote i think)

Elder Scroll

Scott pilgrim

Portal

Okami.

in no particular order of course.

Thanks, I'll add your votes as soon as I publish this reply. :-P

Holy crab 71 games! :dstrbd: Good thing the spreadsheet caps at 99. How many games will you keep? 10~15?

Also, are you gonna make a poll to determine which song from each soundtrack to remix or will it be open ended?

I figure I'll keep the games that get 4 or more votes, then open it up for suggestions again, allow voting for those, then maybe put the 2 lists against each other competitively. :-P Depends on how much time the community puts into the process, which so far it seems to be very very good.

As for which song will get remixed from the games, it'd probably come down to first come first served. Like how Chernabogue said he would do Cocytus but I already had plans to remix Crossing the Styx. >:] OR in a perfect world, I could accept 2 remixes from each game.

WHAT!? No votes for Lost Odyssey!?!?!?! 10 votes from me

Actually you get 2 votes, because you are 2 people (Dan and Frank)

I absolutely love the metroid prime soundtracks. I consider Kenji Yamamoto my biggest influence for getting into music too , so yeah. They're pretty good.

Also okami is amazing and stuff.

I will count these as votes. :-D

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I am a fan of both Deus Ex The Conspiracy and Human Revolution, prefer the original, but both games are great. While the use of music in The Conspiracy is a bit repetitive in terms of the music ALWAYS playing as you go along I can agree to the slightly more subtle use of music in games. However, the laid back oozing atmospheric style that pretty much every single game that is released now a days go with, is insulting to the reputation game music built up since day 1.

Games are moving more and more towards Movie score soundtracks, and I personally would like to see the continuing of the unique way music has been done in games.

I've heard the Human Revolution soundtrack from 1st to last track and I say it's nowhere close as melodic, memorable and unique as the first game. It's a professionally scored ''fit the basic emotion'' type of soundtrack. To me it got no balls, no presence of wanting to truly stand out and up the games presence. It just fills the gap to me, no more no less.

Thanks for clarifying Dan. Now I have a better understanding of your point of view, and see where you're coming from with this. :)

With all the money gamers put into their hobby over the years, a marginal entertainement venture has grown into a full fledged industry.

Game composers are transitioning to scoring for TV or movies, but the blips and blops aren't appealing to Network producers and Hollywood fat cats.

So why limit yourself to making game music when you can score documentaries or feature films?

From a studio's perspective, why hire some dude who makes chiptunes when you can have Hans Zimmer?

Game writers, like any other interactive media writers nowadays, have always secretly been hoping to write for the silver screen and make it big time.

You only have to watch, as you said, games slowly turning into movies (with at times more cutscenes than actual gameplay *cough* MGS4) to realize it.

Worse case scenario (many SquareEnix games from the last decade), all the budget goes into lenghty CG and grandiose scores at the detriment of mechanics.

Which, predictably, often results in somptuous looking and sounding, yet archaic/buggy games. (The Last Remnant, Infinte Undiscovery, FFXIII, FFXIV, MindJack)

Most composers in the industry are proly married, with their children's tuition, big house and tons of studio gear to pay for.

And let's be realistic here: video games are nice, but no one wants to eat rubble and sleep in the mudd for the rest of their lives.

So studios create cinematic games with cinematic cutscenes and cinematic music because it has a much broader appeal.

And judging by how the game industry is getting in bed with hollywood nowdays, their strategy was solid. ;-)

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People didn't vote for a whole day, so I'm going to take it as a sign that I need to select winners and remove losers, then start a new list and let people nominate NEW games for the MODERN GAMES WITH MODERN SOUNDTRACKS list. If you're unfamiliar, check the first post -- looking for new-ish games with amazing soundtracks. From the first set, the winners are games with 5 votes or higher. Hopefully this will inspire more voting to get the game you really want ON here. EVERYONE CAN VOTE AGAIN NOW. Here are the winners from the first set:

1. Super Mario Galaxy series

2. Okami

3. Portal series

4. Ace Combat

5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

6. Halo 3/ODST/Reach

7. Elder Scrolls 4, 5 (removed 3 -- too old)

8. Sonic Colors

These are the winners of the first round of voting, of which there will probably only be 2 or 3 rounds. That means that most if not all of these will probably be included in a possible "modern games" album to come in the future. Commence new nominations! I'll start us off by nominating 5 unique titles that weren't previously in the running.

Assassin's Creed series

Please make it easier on me and include a year when you nominate a game.. also rule of thumb, try to stick with games from 2006 and onwards.

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