02.20.12 | Gideon Dabi | Comment? Growing up a Yankee fan, Curt Schilling was never a name I wanted to hear. He was outspoken, lethal on the mound, and a fierce competitor. My opinion of him changed when I learned that he was also outspoken about his love of gaming and fantasy. He was unapologetic about the wealth of time he [...]
01.04.12 | Gideon Dabi | Comment? I have always felt that Greg Edmonson is a wonderfully gifted composer. His work on the two previous Uncharted games saw a dramatic improvement from a competent score to an exceptional score by the time Uncharted 2 came along to wipe the floor with all its rivals. Regular readers of the site may already know [...]
01.03.12 | Gideon Dabi | 3 Comments Independent developer, Supergiant Games, dropped this little gem of a game onto the XBOX Live Marketplace on August 16th, 2011, and it hasn’t looked back since. Widely hailed as one of the best indie games of the year, Gamespot’s former Editor, Greg Kasavin, devised a genius script with an astonishingly innovative narrator to make the [...]
10.31.11 | Gideon Dabi | 2 Comments I have always been a fan of Steve Jablonsky (as well as all of Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions). It is for this reason that I have been a bit critical of his previous work on the Gears of War series. In fact, I confess that the soundtrack to Gears of War 2 became my [...]
09.23.11 | Gideon Dabi | 3 Comments 2011 seems to be a year full of comeback stories. Storied franchises like BloodRayne, Marvel vs. Capcom, and even Duke Nukem (no, I can’t believe it, either) have all returned after some years in hiatus. Not to be outdone, Square Enix-backed Eidos Montreal updated its beloved franchise, Deus Ex, with a blockbuster prequel, Deus Ex: [...]
09.06.11 | Gideon Dabi | Comment? Like open-world games, scoring an MMORPG is tricky business. The player is often in the same areas for several hours at a time, essentially forcing the composer to neuter his score of being too melodic – as an overly melodic score can grow tiring to the ear after many hours of gameplay. Inon Zur is [...]
09.01.11 | Gideon Dabi | Comment? Double Fine, makers of such games as Brutal Legend and Grim Fandango, has just released a soundtrack containing tracks from its Flash games Tasha’s Game, My Game About Me, and Host Master and the Conquest of Humor. The collection, now available on iTunes (link HERE), is entitled Double Fine Action Arcade Soundtrack. Clocking in around [...]
04.18.11 | Gideon Dabi | 1 Comment Despite being relieved of the duty of underscoring the Crysuit, Inon Zur has been plenty busy this year. Although the Dragon Age series received somewhat of an overhaul for its second major release, Dragon Age 2, Inon Zur scores his own sequel in a style not too dissimilar from his previous work. As I have [...]
04.11.11 | Gideon Dabi | 1 Comment Released in late 2007, Electronic Arts’ Crysis – a PC exclusive – became notorious for the benchmark with which one could judge his own computer rig. Crysis‘ graphics were unparalleled at the time (and remain superb) and it was one of the few outings that made console gamers green with envy. Seizing an obvious opportunity [...]
03.30.11 | Gideon Dabi | 1 Comment Joris de Man holds a special place in our music-nerdy little hearts. Aside from giving us some high quality soundtracks in the Killzone series, de Man also holds the honor of being the first composer to win the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for a video game score. There is much satisfaction to be had realizing [...]
03.16.11 | Gideon Dabi | 2 Comments Magnus Palsson, know better by his stage name SoulEye, teamed up with the great Terry Cavanagh early last year to create one of the most difficult and frustrating brilliant and challenging platformers, VVVVVV. Coupling old-school graphics with an old-school soundtrack, Cavanagh and SoulEye managed to create something entirely new. The critical success of VVVVVV owes [...]
03.06.11 | Gideon Dabi | 1 Comment This week at the Game Developers’ Conference, the 9th Annual Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Awards was held and the new guys blasted the scene. Rockstar’s Western triumph, Red Dead Redemption snagged multiple awards including Audio of the Year as well as Music of the Year. Although I was pleased to see such a competent [...]