Videogame Music Corner

For all the love I have for Mass Effect 2, the game's soundtrack still bothers me a little. The Vangelis-esque pieces from the first game have taken a backseat for some run-of-the-mill John Williams style grandeur. As competent as it is, it's nowhere near as memorable as the original Mass Effect score. It's made me think about it in the more general sense and address my feelings on videogame soundtracks in general.


Maybe it was the limited tool set that gave 8 and 16-Bit era soundtracks their distinct charm. Maybe it's simple rose-tinted nostalgia. Either way, it feels to me that contemporary game soundtracks are always lacking. Obviously there are a few exceptions - Castle Crashers, Street Fighter 4, Left 4 Dead - but that itself is the problem; games with decent soundtracks shouldn't be the exception, we need memorable, distinctive soundtracks as the norm.
Amid all it's lunacy, Bayonetta had an amazing soundtrack. Say what you will about endless remixes of 'Fly Me To The Moon', at least it's distinctive: I, for one, cannot hear that song now without thinking about climaxes and lollipops.

The development of videogames as a medium has, like any other, relied on technological advancement. As technology improves, developers will, and always have, found new ways of making games interesting and engaging. This advancement, however, always seems focused on the visual element. It's almost as if post-Playstation, audio technology reached some sort of plateau. Surround sound would have been the last frontier for videogame audio and even then, original soundtracks would have been unaffected. Graphical development still has new ground to break; there are still visual styles that have been left untouched and 3D is on the horizon. Audio, however, faces a much less determined future.

I'm hoping that somewhere out there, someone or one particular game will reassure me - tell me that it's all going to be alright and videogames won't be permanently restricted to aping shitty Hollywood idiot-fodder. A boy can dream. Until then, said boy is going to keep the rose-tinted shades on and keep listening to Mux Mool. Retro fans, enjoy:

Andrew Ryan reckons Bioshock 2 is shit

I received an interesting email this morning from none other than Mr. Andrew Ryan himself. Being the shining exponent of games journalism that we are, Mr. Ryan thought it fitting to air his grievances with Bioshock 2 through us. I am honoured to be the vessel in this instance and so, without further ado, I give you Mr. Andrew Ryan.


"Yeah, so I noticed that Bioshock 2 came out today. It was right there in Tescos and I was all like 'what the fuck!?' cos I didn't even know it was coming out! How the fuck could they make a Bioshock game without me!? I mean, they could have given me a rad mecha suit or made me into some sort of even bigger daddy or something.

Anyway, the game, even though I haven't played it, is probably total shit. For one, I'm not in it. Secondly, nobody even asked for a fucking multiplayer or dual-wielding. It's cunts like those over at 2K that made me want to build Rapture in the first place. No respect for quality, just a desire to bleed every licence dry until the real fans become bitter and leave and only the fuckwitts who never got it in the first place remain. They've asked me to be in Bioshock 3 - which is going to be like a Kart Racer style game with loads of 'neat-o Adam power-ups'. I told them to fuck right off though, cos I'm too cool for that.

Smell ya later.


Ryanzzz