Games Music

Hi guys

 Today I would like to talk about a quite different subject than my normal topic of conversation. Music, specifically the music which accompanies games these days. I think that the score of a game is the secret weapon up all developers sleeves. They can use the score to create such fierce emotions that you can't help but fall in love with the game. It is a shame how many games don't take full advantage of these features, but that could be the saving grace for other(better) games. As they will then have something more unique. Take a game like Mass Effect 3 for example, that game has a score which is a truly beautiful thing.
     The first game I ever played on my PS3 was Assassins Creed Brotherhood, and even to this day there is a specific song(Ezio's Family by Jesper Kyd) gives me the chilles. It was the first song in a game that I thought straight away has incredible. A song can encapsulate the feeling of the moment, and make that feeling even sharper. There are many feeling which a song can create or strengthen.
     You could also have music which tells feeling to go away in no uncertain terms, and just make you feel like a total bad ass. Yes music in a game is capable of doing many things, and when you get a great game which has a great score to go with it you have a combo to be reckoned with! At the same time as games having really great scores, games can have really bad ones. You rarely notice that it is a bad score, you just don't notice it. Unfortunately this is the category a lot of games fall into.
     In summary, a score can really make a game, or it won't add to the game, it is rare for the score to detract from the full game.
     Is there a game score that you really like? Let me know down in the comments below.
Thanks for reading,
Ed
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Assassins Creed IV: A Pirate's Life at Sea Trailer

Hi guys
 Just a quick one to tell you all that there has been a new trailer for Assassins Creed Black Flag, the trailer is 2 minutes 38 seconds, and it shows the life of a pirate.... at sea! This trailer focuses totally on the naval side of the game, but it is really looking like an epic edition to the series. Black Flag is being released on November 1st, and Q4 for next gen consoles.

Thanks for reading
Ed

Battlefield 3 Diary: Too many assignments!

Hi guys
 One day, I woke from my slumber to find my self in a very long quite thin area of my world. It was one of the few times I had been to this particular section of world, so I was quite befuddled, and confused. Then the Computer popped up on my Hud and told me that there were certain things I had to achieve to unlock a very special prize at the end. Destroying 5 helicopters with a very weak car style thing. Another thing the Computer told me to do was, jump out of a very big plane in a not so big tank type thing! When it first told me this, I thought it couldn't be done. However I did come to enjoy all of the challenges the Computer threw at me. After I had done 3 sets of what the Computer called "Assignments", it deemed that I was aloud to know what the end prize was. It was a side arm called the M1911 S-TAC! Then the bad news came, there were still 2 more of these Assignments things left between me and this S-TAC, which together comprised of, blow up 20 vehicles, run someone over with a bike and hit 20 people in the head with a side arm bullet! The first 2 of those 3 things, I did with few problems. However it was what came after that which proved to be the problem.
     Those 20 headshots with a side arm proved to be the post irritating of all of those Assignment things, I was plonked into a map with a load of shipping containers strewn across the floor! I then took me just under 2 hours to get all these headshots. I played it in a version the Computer liked to call Hard Core. After playing this version for just half an hour I realised why, you needed real skill to be competent with this version of the game!
      After many hours spent fretting over how the Computer would punish me if I failed these Assignments, something suddenly popped up on my Hud, it took a moment to work out what it was, but then I realised. I had it, it was over, I had done as the Computer had asked, my life could go back to how it was before the Computer woke up on the side of it's virtual bed. The S-TAC was mine. Join me soon for more of my; Battlefield Diarys.

Rick

If you would like to be featured in the next in my series of Battlefield Diarys, send a PSN message to DrakeThief90, and we can play in the battlefield together!
Thanks for reading
Ed
Oh and if this post made very little sense, read the first diary here which should explain what everything means!

Assassins Creed IV Black Flag Pirate Experience Trailer: Breakdown

Hi guys
You may have seen there has been a new Black Flag trailer released by Ubisoft, before I breakdown what I saw in the trailer you can firstly watch it here!

As you can see it is a really, really good looking game, I can tell you that is was running on a PS4, which just shows that when the consoles are released it is going to look gorgeous! I noted a number of things that you may have missed whilst just watching the trailer! 

-     First thing was a "Stealth Swim"  as seen below, I don't recall ever having this feature being featured in any of the previous games, so it could be a highly useful feature! (The Stealth Swim is bound to the O button in the top right corner)

-In that very same photo, we see that on the screen there are water splashes, this gives an extra level of immersion to the game. However it won't be an irritating feature, as you only get the marks when you dive into the water, not when you just swim in. (As he does later in the trailer)

 -    Later we hear the Game Director Ashraf Ismail telling us that during storms on the high seas, we can sustain damage to our ship, and even lose crew members(though that is okay with another feature later in the post)!

-     As Edward(who has a wide range of tattoos on his body) enters a red zone on the map, the traditional WARNING RESTRICTED AREA warning come up on screen.

-    We later see that Animus Fragments will be returning to the game, I would suggest there will be around 150 fragments, as there are 50 locations with 2 each, and then the 3 main city's. For me the return of the fragments weigh heavy on my heart, I personally found them highly irritating to seek out and find. I would love to see loads of rewards for finding these fragments, like in the Batman games. At one point in the trailer we do see that the iron mortar required 16 blue prints, now this may be that was the 16th blue print they had collected. However it would be very nice to see some kind of reward to these fragments. As one last thought, make some multiplayer skins unlockable, along with some concept art etc.

-    This new feature that has been announced in that every synchronisation point, will now act as a fast travel station, this will greatly speed up the travelling between the individual islands!

-    As you can see above there is the option to bribe someone, we saw this person just after Edward got of the Jackdaw(your ship), so he could be the ports master of sorts. So if you are looking to go un-noticed in a certain location, you could bribe the ports master to not write you ship down as having arrived at that location. However if you do bribe him, you could just then pick pocket him to get you money back!

-    This is the map whilst Edward is in the new fisherman's villagers, as you can see there are a number of interesting icons on this map including the triangular object just down from the musical note, is the symbol for an animus fragment!(as shown in one of the pictures above.

-    Lastly I leave you with the main map from just PART of the world in which Edward and his crew will inhabit. This world looks a truly massive feat, and I can't wait to get my hand on this game on November 1st.

I hope you have found some or all the information helpful.

If you want to follow me on Twitter you can Here.
Or follow like me on Facebook here.

Thanks for reading

Ed

Interview: David Goldfarb

Hi guys
 I am really excited to bring you an interview with the brilliant David Goldfarb, PAYDAY 2 Game Director, Overkill Software, you may have seen his work on Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3. Both as the lead writer and lead designer, you can also check out his soon to be released work, Payday 2, which is being released on August 13th! I hope you enjoy the interview, I will let you read in peace now!

   My name is David Goldfarb and I am Game Director at Overkill Software on Payday 2. It's a weird title, but basically it means I'm responsible for the overall direction of the game project, features, quality, etc. What is the game supposed to be? I need to be able to answer that question and build a game around it. Fortunately there are a lot of people smarter than me who are there to help make that happen!

1)What games did you play when you were young that inspired you to go into the gaming industry?
      Xcom. Wizardry.  Elite. Pool of Radiance. Dungeons and Dragons. Archon. Diablo 1/2. Tempest. To name a very, very few.

2)What academic route did you take to end up as a lead writer at DICE?

      Actually I was hired as lead designer, I just wound up also writing the game on top of the lead designer role because of my love for narrative. As far as the route I took, I was an english major.. left school.. got hired at QA at what was Acclaim Entertainment, worked there for a bit, went into web 1.0 interaction design, made little games and things there for a few years.. then made my way back into the industry by making a mod for Dungeon Siege called Elemental which led to my first real job in the games industry at a company called Milestone in Italy.

3)How do you go about researching a storyline for a game such as BC2?

     I always loved adventure stories and love researching weird stuff. I did a lot of digging in conspiracy theory,  treatises and web blogs and youtube videos. Fun stuff.

4)If you could see one feature included in next-gen consoles, what would it be?     Decent VR like the Rift.

5)What are you working on at the moment?  I am aware of Payday 2, but do you have other things in the pipeline that you are able to share?

     Payday 2 only. After that, vacation. Then we'll see what's next.

6)What inspires you in your day to day job?

     The team, the concept. Amazing to see people take a concept and make it better than you thought it could 

be, or surprise you with ideas. I love learning stuff from co-workers and enjoy the arguments we have about what will work versus what might work. I love how agile the team is and how committed. I'm inspired watching people play it, too, and playing it myself. I think the most inspiring thing for me is watching  people enjoy the game, or figure out how to do something we couldn't have imagined.

7)If you could work with any game development team in the world which would it be and explain your reasons why?

     I'm pretty happy where I am, to be honest. I don't need to work anywhere else - there are many teams I admire, but I'm at a place in my career where I think I am doing exactly what I want the way I want.

8)What do you think of the recent poll that made EA the worst company in America?  I do not wish to put you in a difficult position, so answer that how you will!!

     I don't think EA is the worst company in America or even the worst company in games. But I think they have a culture that creates problems and a bad reputation that they have a hard time escaping. They need to do a lot of house-cleaning there to reform their image and their operations. 

9)Which do you think is more important, Single Player or Multiplayer and why?

     I don't think either is. I love both, play both, admire both. 

10)What is the biggest difference between working on Payday 2 and working on BC2?

     Payday 2 is vastly more complicated but it is very focused - co-op only. BC2 had single player and multiplayer, both with very different requirements. We are a much smaller team working on Payday 2, 35 compared to 90 or so for BC2. We ironically work a lot faster in such a small team. I think, though, that PD2 and BC2 have a lot in common - both underdog products, both coming out of left field to blow people away, both games really upping the ante a huge amount for their respective franchise (in my opinion and hope, anyway!)

Thanks to David for doing the interview, and thanks for reading.

Ed

Interview: Keshav Bhat

Hi guys

 This is an interview with the co-leader/writer at the amazing website Charlie INTEL. He is a real pleasure to talk to and he does some really amazing writing on Charlie INTEL. I hope you enjoy the interveiw, here it is:

1)What academic route did you take to become the lead writer on Charlie Intel?

     I am a rising junior in high school. It was all a learning process on how to be a part of blogging and be part of representing the site. It takes a lot of patience as well to gain more and more viewers and a bigger following for sites. 

2)How did you find Charlie Intel so soon after it had been released?

 I found charlieINTEL on Twitter - back then known as charlieINTELcom. I joined the staff when Victor asked for someone to join right after E3 2011 concluded. 

3)Which is your prefered console and why?

 I prefer PlayStation consoles. I have always had a PS1, PS2, and now a PS3. I do own a Xbox 360, but prefer the PS3 because PSN is free. More importantly most of my friends have PSN, and the exclusives available are better. 

4)Which is you favorite CoD and why?

 My favorite Call of Duty game is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 1 because of how well balanced this game is. The simplicity of the that game, with it's 3-5-7 streak, allow it to be the best game I've played. 

5)How do you find all the rumours and leaked information?

 We use Twitter a lot to find latest news and rumors. Social media really aids bloggers to find the latest news about the topic quickly. 

6)What are your first thoughts on the next Xbox?

 My thoughts on Xbox One: not much to say other than a big confusion as to how it'll actually work. Microsoft changing their policy has definitely impacted lots of customers decisions about what console to buy. The price is still a little high.

7)If you could have helped with the creation of any game, which would it be and why?

 I would love to help creation of any  of Duty game because that is one of the best franchises out there. 

8)What first got you interested in CoD, and which was the first CoD you played?

 I started liking FPS games with playing Modern Warfare 1 - this was the first CoD game I played. After that, I've played every Call of Duty game and have started playing others, including Battlefield and Halo. 

9)What inspires you in your day to day work?

 The thing that inspires me the most is the amount of support and fans that visit charlieINTEL daily. The support continues to help us do what we do everyday - deliver the latest and greatest Call of Duty news. 

10)Do you think there will ever be a FPS to truely rival CoD and what do you think it will be?

 What game do I think will beat CoD? I think that'll be Bungie's new FPS, Destiny. 

Thanks to Keshav for doing the interview, and thanks for reading

Ed