What Are You Currently Playing? 5.05: You Are (Not) A Gamer

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't agree that orchestrated soundtracks are boring, or at least not inherently so. I just find that MOST games make them pretty boring. Stuff like God of War, Gears of War, and various other big budget titles have parts of their soundtracks composed by orchestras, but they are incredibly generic sounding and are put together by amateur composers who just think that the only thing necessary to make great music is having a lot of big sounds strung together to make things seem more epic. Now, when orchestrated soundtracks are done well, then they can be just as great as the best video game music. Halo games are one of the few examples of really well-done orchestrated music. There is a ton of variety to the music besides just the main theme, so you aren't listening to the same boring tune for every 10 minutes of gameplay, and the soundtracks in the game actually have "themes" to them, and are expertly used in places of the game in which they fit the theme of the level or setting they are placed in. Some soundtracks are big and epic sounding in very open areas and big battlefields, others are slow and somber in more confined and isolated areas, and some are just downright bad-ass and have a nice touch of metal to them in the more hardcore enemy encounters. Most Halo games (except for 4, which does NOT have Marty O'Donnell as the composer) have expertly composed scores and what's even better is that they are expertly utilized throughout the game, without any single theme feeling like it's ever being overplayed.

So, the main thing with me is that I don't inherently have anything against orchestrated music in games. I just find that a majority of games that use it don't know how to use it right. On that note, it's not as though 8-bit or 16-bit music is inherently better just because they are not orchestrated. That music can suck too if the composing is bad or they aren't utilized correctly (and there are plenty of examples of that as well). It's just that there are a lot more genuinely good examples of that sort of videogame music done right as opposed to orchestrated music.

Really, it's not so much the instruments which you use that matter, but more so how you choose to use them.

[talonmalon333]

The main theme/motif of Metal Gear Solid is phenomenal in my opinion. But it's the type of theme that would be even better with real instruments. Shame they had to ditch it for MGS4. I can't blame them though.

[Avaitor]

Hey Spark, did you check out the new DuckTales mobile app game? The voice actors are back AND it's a Canadian exclusive.

[Foggle]

So, the main thing with me is that I don't inherently have anything against orchestrated music in games. I just find that a majority of games that use it don't know how to use it right. On that note, it's not as though 8-bit or 16-bit music is inherently better just because they are not orchestrated. That music can suck too if the composing is bad or they aren't utilized correctly (and there are plenty of examples of that as well). It's just that there are a lot more genuinely good examples of that sort of videogame music done right as opposed to orchestrated music.

Really, it's not so much the instruments which you use that matter, but more so how you choose to use them.

I absolutely agree with you. I was originally going to mention the Halo games for a soundtrack that does orchestral music right. I don't think it's inherently bad, really I don't (though I will admit I am biased towards "gamier" music"), it's just that most games don't do it too well.

[Spark Of Spirit]

To be honest, I can never understand why many of you guys see to take issue to orchestrated soundtracks.

The Mario and Sonic platformers are examples that use orchestral right. They compose themes that suit the action and drive the player forward.

Then there are games like Final Fantasy that uses orchestral-style really well to set mood while still suiting the action. Stuff like this or this are not only some of my favorite game tracks but they still sound like video game music and they still drives the player forward. I enjoy them just as much as standard 8-bit tracks.

It's when the effectively score the games like movies that I take issue to. Which is basically how about every game is scored now outside of quirky action games and old school-style platformers. It gets old.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Hey Spark, did you check out the new DuckTales mobile app game? The voice actors are back AND it's a Canadian exclusive.

I did not hear of this. 

[talonmalon333]

I think Skyward Sword used orchestration badly for the opposite reason. It didn't utilize it well and the music just sounded like typical gamey blandness.

[Avaitor]

Hey Spark, did you check out the new DuckTales mobile app game? The voice actors are back AND it's a Canadian exclusive.

I did not hear of this. 

Here.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Hey Spark, did you check out the new DuckTales mobile app game? The voice actors are back AND it's a Canadian exclusive.

I did not hear of this. 

Here.

Interesting! Thanks.

Too bad I don't have a phone. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I absolutely agree with you. I was originally going to mention the Halo games for a soundtrack that does orchestral music right. I don't think it's inherently bad, really I don't (though I will admit I am biased towards "gamier" music"), it's just that most games don't do it too well.

Yeah, I'm also more of a fan of "game-ey" music from the 8-to-16-bit stuff, but that's honestly because there are way more really good tunes from that type of music. This is most likely because if you had really bad music in older games, it sounded REALLY bad to the point of being downright annoying, so composers really had to be creative and inventive with how they used the limited sound they had at their disposal to make truly wonderful music to listen to. With orchestrated music, composers know that the average schmuck will be easily impressed, so their bad orchestral music will be interpreted as good just because they are recording a full orchestra, and the typical game journalist automatically associates orchestra with class. I had to laugh at the Game Trailers review of Halo 4 when they said that they would recommend the soundtrack for it; and GT is the last gaming site that I think is still "kind of" reliable with their reviews, so that's saying something. It sounds SO fucking generic that it kind of sickens me.

[Mas]

Oh, glad you guys were talking about DuckTales. I got it on Steam a few days ago. I love Scrooge McDuck.

Besides that I'm also slowly getting through Last Window and Inazuma Eleven 2 for DS.

[Foggle]

Besides that I'm also slowly getting through Last Window and Inazuma Eleven 2 for DS.

Argh, two cool games we never got in America. Gotta' get my import on one of these days.

[Mas]

Besides that I'm also slowly getting through Last Window and Inazuma Eleven 2 for DS.

Argh, two cool games we never got in America. Gotta' get my import on one of these days.

Yeahh, I didn't even know there was a second Hotel Dusk game until recently. I'm glad to see more Kyle Hyde.

And Inazuma Eleven is an amazing series, too bad it never appeared in America. I've never had so much fun playing soccer before. Plus the story is fun. And even more fun in the second game.
The only bad thing is, they changed all of the character names in the European version, but thankfully fans made patches to correct that and undub all of the voices in the 1st and 2nd game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I went to my local Game Stop today to FINALLY pick up Bayonetta, and wouldn't you know it? The mother fuckers aren't carrying it anymore. Well, to be fair, they said they were clearing some space on their shelves in preparation for making room for games from the new consoles coming out in a few months. So, what really happened was they stopped re-stocking their older games after they sold off all of their current inventory for it. At least, that's just what my local store did. Having said that, though, I didn't walk out of the store empty handed. I ended up getting Darksiders II for $20, since I had been wanting to play that game. So, Bayonetta will have to wait a little while longer before I finally get around to the full game (really, though, I've already played most of it in sizable chunks, by this point in time).

I played through the intro dungeon in Darksiders II. There isn't really much for me to go on and judge the game with, so far, but I enjoy the platforming (even if it's so simple and insultingly easy), and while the combat comes off as shallow (as expected), I do still like the light RPG-elements and the whole skill-tree element to the game, which at least gives me a good deal of incentive to keep finding new weapons and gear to strengthen my attacks and defense with, and if nothing else the combat in the game does still feel really smooth, which is something a lot of games with melee combat actually don't do very well (games like Ninja Blade and Dante's Inferno come to mind). I'll get back to playing the game tomorrow (or maybe after I finally get back to finishing up BioShock: Infinite), but so far it's looking a lot better than the original. Also, the art-design in this game is gorgeous. This is easily one of the nicest looking games that I've seen from last gen.

Also, I played through Mission 7 of DMC3 on Dante Must Die mode. Yeah, I'm no longer complaining about the game not being hard enough anymore. This mission rightfully kicked me ass and made me it's bitch, and by that I mean that I have to admit that I was once again forced to use an item, which in this case was a gold orb to revive myself given just how damn tough the fights in this mission were. What really made it hard was how the Greeds were so damn fast when it came to summoning enemies, AND the enemies themselves would all Devil Trigger before too long. The enemies in DMC3 have WAY too much health on DMD mode as it is, but with Devil Trigger raising their defense AND making them more offensively aggressive, it becomes multiple times harder to take them out while avoiding insane amounts of damage. I had to try and focus on taking out the Greeds before they got the chance to Devil Trigger, themselves, but it was easier said than done on this difficulty setting. However, for all o the trouble I had with the regular fights on this mission, the 1st fight with Vergil was still an utter joke, even on this difficulty setting, since the strategy to defeat him didn't change at all. Still, there is absolutely nothing to laugh about when it comes to this difficulty setting on the whole. This is easily DMC's equivalent to Ninja Gaiden's Master Ninja mode.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I played past the first dungeon of Darksiders II. I like it, so far. The combat has just a tiny bit of depth to it, though so far it's not really necessary to master anything. All you need to be decent at is timing your dodges when enemies attack, which doesn't take much skill at all, though initially I kept getting hit because I just tried to jump instead of rolling out of the way of attacks since I was still too used to playing the DMC games (being that you get i-frames during your jumping animation in those games). Even still, it's fun to string together long combos in the game, especially with gauntlets as my secondary weapon, since those are really fast. The dungeon style in this game is, unsurprisingly, a complete rip-off of the Zelda formula, but like I said I was in the mood for Zelda-style gameplay, so this gives me just enough of that to be entertained. Of course, being that this was only teh first dungeon, the puzzles were incredibly easy, as was the boss fight, but overall it was still a fun experience.

My one gripe with this game so far is that sometimes the platforming controls can be a bit clunky. Like, there were at least a few notable occasions where I swear I had my let stick aimed in the right direction for a jump, and instead Death just jumped in a completely different direction and landed straight into a pit, making me lose some health and setting me back to the first platform of whatever room I was in.