Football Manager 2013 is something of an unusual case. Usually, with some notable exceptions, a new instalment of a game series will maintain the main features of its predecessors, developing upon one or more features, but maintaining the general structure of the original. This being the case, it is rather strange to see Football Manager shift from being a database-heavy management sim to an arcade-style sports game, akin to Fifa or Pro Evo Soccer….
Orchestral Beauty: The Importance Of Music In Video Games.
During one of many conversations about our interests I have with my colleagues at my ‘regular’ job, an interesting subject came up that I would like to share. In fact, the point in which I brought it up, my colleague was entirely bemused by the concept. That subject was the importance of music in video games. He is a very big music fan and was surprised by the fact that, in my opinion, music is one of most important benefactors of a good game.
The best way to approach this is to look at some of the games that have had incredible music over the years, even been defined by it. Of all of the games that have been released that have been greatly enhanced by their soundtracks, none in that field compare to the Final Fantasy series. Nobuo Uematsu has forged himself a legacy in the gaming world for creating some of the most incredible soundtracks, not only in gaming history, but in the history of musical soundtracks. In fact, and I don’t think I am alone in this, I regularly find myself listening to the soundtrack for Final Fantasy VII and I never cease to be impressed by it. The music is just simply incredible, from the beginning all the way through to the end.
However, that isn’t the only success that Nobuo Uematsu has achieved with every Final Fantasy score. He has not only created soundtracks where every track perfectly fits the location or event that it is tied to, but (like a true master of his art) he has made it so each individual game’s overall feel pervades the entire score from opening track to final. For instance, VII has a very epic, industrial feel with a natural undertone to express the damage to the planet caused by technology. But, VIII has a very regimented, military theme running throughout perfectly summarising the military applications of SeeD.
The success of the Final Fantasy soundtracks is worldwide and unanimous, and with very good reason. The music from this series is played in concerts by full orchestras across the world, selling out venues with scores upon scores of fans. The recent Distant Worlds concert in London being a perfect example of the reach of these concerts. In Japan, as with most crazy ideas, they regularly hold concerts containing cross-platform and developer musical showcases, taking in titles such as Metal Gear Solid and others outside the expected sphere.
Speaking of concerts, I had the immense pleasure of attending The Legend Of Zelda: 25th Anniversary concert in London last year, and I was entirely blown away. The music that Koji Kondo has created for the Zelda series is beautiful enough, but sitting in an audience of like-minded fans listening to some of the most brilliant songs of gaming music history being played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra was an absolute delight. Despite taking the songs out of their original setting, they remain wonderfully written pieces of music.
If you add to his the fact that some modern games have even been scored by a full orchestra. Listening to the soundtracks of games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario Galaxy comes with a sense of timelessness, like the music in these games will far outlast the fact that the graphics will eventually become dated. The emphasis on music in games has become more and more important with time.
There have even been games that are centred around music, to take things in another direction. It is almost impossible to ignore the success that games like Just Dance or Rock Band have garnered in recent times. But you also have more subtle attempts at making music the integral core to the title, such as rhythm-action titles Rhythm Thief and Elite Beat Agents, giving the players a goal to achieve through the means on music. These are played by tapping on the screen, in both cases, to the time of the music giving the player something more to aim for than just dancing (excuse the pun).
But, what if a soundtrack gets it wrong? Being a music fan myself (like my colleague), my enjoyment of a video game can be diminished by a terrible (or worse, forgettable) soundtrack. An example of this problem is the unfortunate Resident Evil 5. I love the Resident Evil series, even defending Resident Evil 6 against the waves of criticism it has suffered. However, the fifth instalment is not only a poor excuse for a Resi title, but has one of the worst soundtracks in gaming. Sure, the composer did a very good job of relating the musical score entirely to the setting, but he also succeeded in creating one of the most forgettable video game soundtracks I have heard. Also, I am pretty sure the tagline of the game was ‘A Fear You Can’t Forget’, but the entire score does nothing to inspire any kind of fear, apart from maybe the fear of mediocrity.
I think that a large part of the appeal of music in video games is the simple fact of nostalgia. The music, when heard out of it’s usual context can bring you back to a memory or a feeling. This is usually something like the sense of triumph that listening Final Fantasy VII’s ‘Ending Credits’ gives you, or returning you to the bewildered feeling you had when you first ventured out of the Kokiri Forest in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with ‘Hyrule Field Theme’. Needless to say that the music is the most important factor that rings with connotations in your head.
The enjoyment of video games comes from the entire experience that is had by the player, and a big part of this can be accredited to the music. Sometimes having a subconscious affect, however sometimes being the main aspect that the player notices. The music in video games can make the player feel scared, safe, happy, basically any feeling it wants to. Basically one of the same tricks employed by the makers of films.
It could even be argued that music in video games is now becoming more ‘mainstream’ and accepted with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s ‘Greatest Video Game Music’ albums. The first of which was released to great critical acclaim worldwide and contained orchestrated versions of songs from Final Fantasy, Bioshock, Elder Scrolls and even Angry Birds. The second album, which was released on 6th November this year, has also been warmly received worldwide marking a departure from the usually niche audiences that experience this kind of music.
So next time you fire up a game, any game, just listen to the score. You might be very pleasantly surprised.
The Time Investment of a Gamer
The average action and FPS games take around 8-10 hours to complete, and RPG’s and MMO’s can take over 40 hours to get through the main story, but are these figures accurate? These only take into account actual playing time, not the amount of time needed to install the game, download the regular updates, connect to online servers (*cough* EA *cough*) and the various loading screens that gamers regularly face. There is even the issue of disk swapping for some games (particularly on the Xbox 360 console) which can further add to the overall time spent “gaming”.
Let’s take a new game, such as the superb Assassin’s Creed III from Ubisoft on the PlayStation 3 console, as an example. The game loaded and immediately noticed an update was available, so promptly downloaded and installed that (which took around 3 minutes) and then went through an automatic install before the game started (taking around 10 minutes). Then the game itself had to load, taking around another minute. So far, in my 1 hour gaming session, I have only managed to get the software to a playable stage after around 15 minutes, leaving me 45 minutes of actual gaming time.
As the game continued, there was a beautiful introduction screen, and some interactive loading screens followed (thankfully) by cutscenes with the option to “skip” if you don’t mind missing out on the story. There is nothing more infuriating as a gamer than experiencing a section of cutscenes that cannot be skipped and further eat into your limited gaming time. It is worth noting that this game is well worth the time investment, but I am aware there are some games out there with equally long loading/install times, that are simply not worth the investment by the time the game is actually played.
The Xbox 360 gives you the option to install the games without actually playing them first, so you are able to set the game up at your convenience and then play properly later. But if you choose not to install, you can miss out on some HD textures and extra features, and in some cases if you do install, you can miss out on some additional content (Doom 3 BFG edition, we are looking at you here). And it is also worth pointing out that loading screens aren’t new either, but as software has got more graphics and system intensive, and the hardware hasn’t advanced quite as much, more and more information is needing to be processed and the time this is taking seems to be more intrusive than ever.
When a gamer has only a limited time to commit to their hobby due to work, school, family and other commitments, the time they spend playing the game is precious. It is important that this time is optimised in the best possible way, and I think I have found the best method to make the most out of those limited gaming hours.
- Go through the installation process as soon as you purchase the game, or at a time when you don’t intend to play the game. This will save you time during your actual gaming schedule.
- Download and install updates regularly. Set 5 minutes per day aside to check for updates on your usual game(s) and update as necessary. Again, this will save time during your gaming schedule.
- Find a game with cutscences that can be skipped (or at least sped up). Not always possible, but for casual games, this can be a real time saver.
- Finally, try to find a game that doesn’t connect with an external server, or if necessary, disconnect your console from the network for offline games. This will save time when loading the game, and prevent interruptions if the server loses connection.
- Optionally, go back to an older console which uses cartridges to load games, as the spinning disk/hard drive combination and advanced graphics are pushing the hardware to its current limits.
While not always an ideal list, this can save vital minutes per game session, and potentially hours of the lifetime of a game. When you consider how much of an investment 10 hours can be in your life, or even 40 hours or more for a single game, any additional time on top of that can be a real inconvenience. Hopefully with the advent of Solid State Hard Drives in the new model PS3, and potentially new hardware surfacing in the next 12-18 months, load times and installation times might reduce. If they don’t, and games continue to get bigger and more demanding, gamers are going to have to become more cunning about their time management.
The Life and Times of a Pixelated Player
Sports games. If ever there was a genre of games which was the epitome of consistency and ‘sameness’ its sports games, in particular Football games (soccer games for our counter-Atlantic readers). The core mechanic of the experience hasn’t really greatly changed in the time between playing Fifa 1995 (in 1994… it’s a sports game thing) on my Megadrive and playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 on My Xbox 360 about 30 minutes ago. Yes, the flash and sizzle may have changed, but the basic experience, puppeteering a plethora of pixelated players (alliteration is fun!), is largely unchanged. Why would it be? It’s still the same sport that forms the basis of the game, so why would there be any major dynamic change? Indeed, the sales of the Pro Evolution Soccer and Fifa series of games have been ample demonstration that the genre isn’t broke, so why would developers try to fix it?
My Favourite Game Series: The Sims
Everyone has a game series within their collection that they simply adore. It’s often a series that truly shapes and revolutionises the way in which they approach gaming. It’s safe to say anyone who knows me is well aware of my favourite game series. With plumbobs, simoleons and ‘WooHoo’ in abundance, who doesn’t love the occasional game of The Sims!?
I discovered The Sims whilst visiting a friend’s house shortly after it had released. Being described as a ‘virtual dollhouse’ me, being a ten year old became overwhelmed with excitement. Needless to say, my parents were greeted with countless hours of nagging when I returned home. Knowing how destructive my behaviour was with a real dollhouse, the prospect of owning a virtual one to destroy was irresistible.
It felt like an age had passed as I patiently waited for The Sims to install. Little did I know, this title I discovered by chance would shape my gaming experiences for many years. Although I enjoyed The Sims immensely upon discovering it, as I became more mature, I began to understand the concepts and possibilities the series provides.
The Sims series has come a long way since it was released just twelve years ago. As an avid fan, I was delighted when The Sims was introduced to console. Despite owning every PC release within The Sims series, I swiftly purchased the console releases that followed. Just when I thought my passion for The Sims could develop no further, I found myself partaking in a balancing act between experiencing The Sims on console and on PC. There were simply not enough hours in the day to satisfy my obsession at this stage.
Having collected an astronomical amount of The Sims titles, people often ask me ‘What’s your favourite title?’ The Sims 2 is probably my favourite title released within the series, owing to the amount of time I spent playing it. The possibilities were truly endless, so much so that I delved into story-writing and creating my own attire for The Sims 2. It truly was an accessible game for an eclectic audience. My favourite expansion packs from The Sims 2 series were Seasons and Pets. Implementing weather into The Sims really did the series some justice, and provided a further degree of realism to the game.
Having purchased two PCs just to play the latest release in the series, The Sims 3, people would argue that I am obsessed. In my opinion, The Sims is merely a passion to me, not an obsession. Thus far, I’ve collected every expansion pack released for this instalment of the series. The Sims 3: Pets has been my favourite expansion pack to date, owing to my profound love of animals. I’m delighted that my other favourite expansion pack is finally being implemented into The Sims 3 experience. The Seasons expansion pack is a fan-favourite and including weather is something Simmers have wanted for quite some time.
I found it difficult to provide a ‘summary’ regarding my experience of The Sims. If I were given the opportunity, I know I could write reams of facts and experiences regarding The Sims. If anyone does have any questions regarding The Sims or this article, feel free to tweet me on .
Thanks for reading, happy simming!
Mass Effect Trilogy
It’s virtually impossible to discuss one of the Mass Effect games in isolation from the others. The fact they are a chronological trilogy covering one overarching story, between which you transfer your character. Though not the first and, hopefully, not the last game to allow you to transfer your character from a previous game, Mass Effect is the first series to really take it and run with it. Decisions you make in the first game genuinely affect the way the game plays out, seemingly minor actions/decisions in game one resurface in game 3 as being vital and difference making. The sheer planning and effort that must have gone in to keeping track of the various storyline options is hard to comprehend.