LORNE BALFE

You know, I can see Thor's point. Quite a few game scores can get a little samey and tiring and "static" on album because of the medium's lack of dramatic synch points and narrative flow (for the in-game cues, anyways...cinematics are a different matter entirely). I think one of the great challenge for game scores...well, action game scores anyways...is to somehow deliver action music that feels like it's progressing from a to b and saying something, but still serves its purpose as general mood music that will match whatever the player is doing at any given moment. Not an easy tightrope to walk by any means, and not everyone manages it. On the other hand, there are of course plenty of excellent scores that do. And even the ones that don't can still be enjoyable.

Weird; i think the video game genre pulls some amazing gems each year. You want a list from 2013?

As we're both IFMCA members, D, I think I've heard most of that. Even the much-lauded REMEMBER ME failed to make much of an impression on me.

Every once in a while, though, a game score comes along that also works as an album. But just because they're bigger and more expensive these days; just because the SOUND is more rounded, doesn't automatically mean there's been much development in terms of, well....development.

Well, for me an album is more than just themes. There has to be some form of development, a sort of 'inner' storytelling. Even those that are more centered on mood and ambiance. And while there are individual tracks that I can like, there is rarely anything that keeps the motion going forward, for the reasons that Edmund mentions above. Many games move through environments, with story being a secondary priority. So the music will reflect that. Appropriate for the games, of course, but not always appropriate in terms of making interesting concept albums.

To play the devil's advocate and stick to Lorne Balfe to an extent, I must say that the combination of the Hollywood-like themes (in the modern environment, of course) with the principle of keeping things more ambient to fit a game atmosphere and gameplay is one of the biggest reasons why Modern Warfare 2 fails so miserably on all levels.

Ironically, composers doing games and having film experience praise not only the raising budgets of game scores but also the fact that, due to the non-linear character of games, they have to fit what is called the general mood music, they can write much more free-flowing piece that fitting the synchronization points of a film score.

I haven't asked much about game music process, but I don't think that composers deal much with the proper music editing and spotting and that's left pretty much to the post-production or even *programming* of the game itself. I'd like to find out more about that. Generally speaking though, I must say that it's a totally different scoring methodology and Thor does raise some interesting points about how it translates to a listening experience. Brian Tyler has spoken very interestingly about this. Hans Zimmer on the other hand, who wrote themes to a couple of games already, still admits that he doesn't understand the medium at all.

Rubbish! Listen to Journey by Austin Wintory. Game scores are becoming more varied than ever, because games are becoming more cinematic. Games are so much more than killing bad guys and jumping over things these days (although, thankfully, those games still exist).

You probably know more about games than I. I can also see the point about the cut scenes having a more pronounced cinematic vibe (they had cut scenes in the 90s too, btw). But I still stand firm on my experience of the music alone, which does NOT -- as a whole -- provide that concept album feel that most film soundtracks do, at least those that have been carefully designed for listening.

Depending on how one defines 'cinematic' (are you talking about sound or structure?), we'll have to agree to disagree on that one, I think.

Yeah, but I think you conflate sound and structure here.

Sound isn't really that important for me in this case, nor thematic material. It's about the total 'journey' from when you press play to when the album finishes. Computer games, despite the changes in sound and despite the more cinematic production values (cut-scenes etc.), still operate with realtime in the gameplay.

So it's a temporal question, really. Film has to operate within given timeframes (carefully edited scenes and sequences) and have to get to the emotional point more quickly. This gives it an advantage when you're assembling cues for an album later on -- each track has a definite structure, and then it's a question of combining those tracks into a coherent whole. I have yet to hear a single computer game score that can offer the same, despite some fine individual tracks and/or pleasing soundscapes. Not even my beloved THE DIG, which I'm more into because of sound.

No, but I was tempted to adjust my stereo when I first heard it. The loop effect is cool and everything, but comes off as a bit too gimmicky for my taste.

I didn't like Journey either, i found it very overrated.

You guys obviously haven't played the game! It's art.

Review of Terminator Genisys:
http://www.movie-wave.net/terminator-genisys/

We had a press release of that score a while ago. I am so glad it is finally fully released!