GREG EDMONSON

The MySpace page, as I recall, is a fanpage. There is a suite of "Uncharted II" over at ScoreNotes.com.

As I posted at MMUK:

GREG EDMONSON's exotic orchestral action score for "UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves" wins BAFTA!

http://scoremagacine.blogspot.com/2010/ … ction.html

He recently won a BAFTA for his score to Uncharted 2:

http://www.bafta.org/awards/video-games … html#jump8

From the nominees, I would have picked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. But Uncharted isn't bad either.

Ah, didn't see that. Just two posts above mine too!

the game is a hoot on all levels, the music is good enough (and at least orchestral)
so congrats to Edmonson

No I mean interactive films... Wouldn't you agree games are becoming more and more like films? Not only from a graphical perspective but on a cinematic level that is every bit as awesome and detailed to look at as they are to play?

While a game on the holocaust would be VERY difficult to make succesfully for the gamer to feel emotionally involved, games such as Heavy Rain are a sign of how the medium will evolve in the future into more mature, emotional and character-driven interactive stories. I've still to play it but the word is that it is a milestone in interactive entertainment.

Sorry for going off-topic btw.

Okay then. No point in discussing that further here.

I find Uncharted II just like a film, with those seemless cutscenes. Very nice! Best voice acting too. Its hilarious sometimes what they babble to eachother! Very witty. Love it!

A game about the holocaust just doesn't sit right with me for various reasons. Chief among them the fact that games are primarily about entertainment. The holocaust is not a subject well suited for entertainment, nor is it one I imagine anyone would want to be entertained by. Any medium that depicts the holocaust, be it film, book, or even spoken-word should ideally be one of education, even if that education is through interesting story arcs and character development (usually in a poignant and graphic style to hammer its worthy point home; people are bad, shit happens, don't forget it).

With that in mind, a 'game' about the holocaust would inherently, not set out to entertain, but rather teach. The educational part would pose little problem: you could play a character that, as you say, has to balance certain decisions against other decisions to create the best outcome, and in the process you would learn facts about the holocaust itself and the kinds of decisions that Schindler faced. But would it be poignant? Would you really feel the depravity of the holocaust sitting in front of your TV playing on your PS3 or Xbox? I don't think so. You would simply have to reset the game or start from your last save point to make the right decision (hopefully the one that results in the least amount of death and suffering). In which case it simply allows you to feel good about eventually ending up at the "right" decision. You can also play at your own discretion. You can play in spits and spats so that it doesn't begin to feel too heavy. Of course, you could do the same with a film... but then there would be little point in watching it in the first place if you're simply going to keep stopping and starting it (i.e. films are designed to be watched all the way through in one sitting. Games aren't.)

Then there's the fact that real-time computer graphics simply aren't good enough to truly depict a believable environment (yet). Watching computer-generated Jews being murdered just doesn't quite have the same effect as seeing a real life actor pretending to be shot: even though you know both are fake, it's far easier to sympathise with a real person, even though he or she might be an actor. So if the game's aim is to educate and also be poignant, it might as well be a film.

But then there are games about historical wars. Do I find them 'immoral'? Perhaps a little, but I don't have a problem with them to be honest. It's easier to detach the subject nature and the playability itself with war games. War games are fun... and they don't pretend to be anything else.

On the other hand, I don't disagree that interactivity has a lot to say about the past. I'm sure there could a way to make an educational and poignant interactive environment depicting the holocaust (or any number of past horrors) in a perfectly tasteful and worthwhile manner. But it's certainly not something I see that will be for "home entertainment", especially at this point in time with the limits posed by game technology.

So killing people in games in any form (guns, cars, etc) is entertaining, as long as they're now little digital jews in holocaust stories.

Did you actually read my post?

I didn't say that. In fact, I said war games do, in certain respects, feel a little immoral - but they can be entertaining because it's much easier to play it as a fantasy rather than a historical factual depiction of war with a point. You can seperate the reality from the fantasy, and I'm okay with that. But I don't think you could do that with a "game" about the Jewish holocaust, for the reasons I described above.

I'm sure the game will be another cinematic masterpiece. Release it already...

Cd cover:

http://scoremagacine.blogspot.com/2011/ … rakes.html