Sound for Games-week 18

Sound is an important factor, that we live with in our daily routine, maybe its the baby crying, which would cause different emotions, in this case stress. Sometimes sound makes you happy, with music of your own taste, its most common to find boredom, when it is quiet, but allows the brain to concentrate more. For example, when no sound surrounds myself i tend to concentrate more but when sounds from a different variety of levels, this is rather distracting,

So now, i have realised sound plays a major effect on a persons mood throughout the day, so this has made me realise that sound in a game does actually play a major factor than, I originally assumed.

Sound, when i play a game doesn't really come across to me, that I say, "wow that sounded cool!" its something that is automatic you expect the gun to make sound, when pulled on the trigger for example. For me personally to be impressed by sound, mostly happens when music is involved, whether is would be a chart hit, my favourite song, or a classical choir to run along with cut scenes in a game, gives it that extra edge.

Just recently call of duty modern warfare two was released, i noticed the song for the advert was by one of my childhood heroes eminem and this had a massive effect on the target audience; gave them excitement to buy the game.

As game audio has developed, so have the audio developers. Such as surround sound was not apart of gaming until certain composers introduced these factors. Which to me made a great impact on the game itself ,as I like to have the sound set to full, before playing a game as it introduces the game as a whole.

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/experience/interviews/game/richard-jacques.html

This is a link, with an interview with a composer, stating his background experience and also the effect of certain sound equipment and projects.

A game without music, its like a lost sheep without its herd! Every single game should have music involved, some way or another. I loved playing need for speed underground, while being able to tune my radio, in the car to play a favourite chart hit of mine, this key idea has been carried on through the years, i have noticed, as GTA IV has a similar more advanced system, where you can skip to different radio channels, to find the song you like, whether r n b or rock, whatever you fancy its there.

Xbox 360 and the ps3 both enable control over your sound settings, also to what music you would like to play of your personal collection! I've bin sat there playing a scene out of red faction while listening to prodigy and out of luck it matched the scene in the game and proper got me full swing into it. So there's another example or the dramatic effect sound can have. I personally play music, while im playing on a game with my surround system on, i can hear both the effects from the game and also my music playing at the same time!Sweeet!

Jake Fowell