GWJ Conference Call Episode 607

Dark Souls Remastered, Raft, Game Sound Tracks, Your Emails and More!

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This week Shawn, Amanda, Sean and Cory talk about what makes a character in a game relatable. 

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind.

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Comments

00:03:33 Raft
00:10:35 Stellaris
00:12:55 Dark Souls Remastered
00:19:02 Slay the Spire
00:20:44 Game Soundtracks
00:51:52 Your Emails

I love a good soundtrack discussion. At every turn I felt like I just needed to go back and play those games. Bioshock, Borderlands, Civ. So good.

haha, old school intro, and then that thing after the reverb comment...

mrtomaytohead wrote:

haha, old school intro, and then that thing after the reverb comment...

When the cat's away, the mice will add the drum fill from "In The Air Tonight" to the podcast edit. I guess.

Video Games have some of the best and most memorable soundtracks nowadays. Personal opinion but I feel they are better now than most movie soundtracks.

Regarding the amount of time that passes between remastery, I just like to point out that super Mario Brothers three came out in North America in 1990, and we had a remastered version in 1993.

Also, I just purchased calling all dawns on iTunes. Thanks for the recommendation.

jrralls wrote:

Regarding the amount of time that passes between remastery, I just like to point out that super Mario Brothers three came out in North America in 1990, and we had a remastered version in 1993.

And how does that make you feel?

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The old intro music made me happy

Oh that was OG GWJ Intro Music. I dug it! What's the source on that track?

I appreciated the spotlight of Mega Man as what chiptunes could be, all the way back when. It's cliche, but the Mega Man series continues to be in my top soundtrack list. They sounded so full, so rockin'.

The original GWJCC theme is by Ian Dorsch (GWJ forum member Podunk, if you’re nasty). Here it is on His Bandcamp: https://iandorsch.bandcamp.com/track...

Ian also composed the modern theme you normally hear, and “Podunk Stomp,” the theme I used at the end of this episode. All of Ian’s work is fantastic, and he’s legitimately one of my favorite people.

Put me down for a Cory/Sean Let's Play.

Fave soundtracks...

Bomb the Bass!

FTL, obviously:

Quake, because Trent Resnor:

Wipeout 2048, inc. Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Future Sound of London, Underworld, and others:

Let’s not forget the game soundtrack thread. It was a thread of the week a while back, but clearly worth mentioning again.

I just came here to ask why no one has mentioned the soundtrack to Red Dead Redemption. 'Compass' and 'Far Away' are stand out moments. But without the incidental music, the game simply isn't the same. It'd be almost silent for the most part.

Thanks for the music there, Demiurge!

I love love love the Tropico 4 soundtrack.
Oddly, Tropico 3 and 4 aren't nearly as good.

It was really hard for me to not include Quake 1, but I tapped out on my 90s soundtracks when I chose System Shock 2. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Love these soundtrack links, everyone. Keep 'em coming! And thanks for listening.

Fantastic music discussion. Most discussion of music either just recites lists of favorites and/or does so with completely subjective and useless phrases like “it was so emotional”, “there’s so much energy”, etc. I applaud you you for including clips and having discussions about each as to why you think they worked, and whether you enjoy them only in the game or as standalone music. The only way to have made the discussion better would have to had a genuine music expert (musicologist, composer, etc. and not just a mere performer) break down those causes and connections into that specialized vocabulary.

Game Soundtracks! There isn't much that can beat those out of the Square Enix stable. I keep a number of those on rotation.

Nier: Automata
Final Fantasy (7 - 15)
Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross
Mass Effect Series
Dragon Age Series
Prey (the new one)
Horizon Zero Dawn
Skyrim
Guild Wars
MDK

There's way to many to list

I'm really surprised that Sean didn't list any of the beautiful soundtracks put out by Paradox, considering the countless hours he's put into their games. I've got the Stellaris and EU4 soundtracks queued up in Spotify on a regular basis.

No love for Vangelis Mass Effect 1?

I've been into movie soundtracks for close to half a century myself, and game scores in turn. My favorite is definitely the music for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which essentially turned it into the game I'd most love to upload my consciousness into.

Mind you, Jeremy Soule credits as his inspiration for the score a near-death experience he had just before he started composing it, so who knows what realms it came out of?

In the email questions you guys really botched discussing the differences between creating spreadsheets and other tools for a game versus drawing maps for MUDs and dungeons and things. Yes, most games we think are great provide you a recording system, a note-taking system, or a minimap so you don't have to take notes on your own paper. Creating spreadsheets and your own lists and charts and things, though, is very different from that. Creating those tools is not a rote note-taking of things the game should have justifiably have annotated for you. Creating those tools, why they are so satisfying, is because they are your intelligent, creative process identifying the most important principles behind what makes that game work or significant systems of that game work, and reverse engineering how you want to best proceed through that game or system. It's a systems-domination fun-through-mastery way to enjoy a game, much like people who enjoy learning and trying out new chess openings.

For me, the iconic Skyrim track is From Past to Present

"I'm really surprised that Sean didn't list any of the beautiful soundtracks put out by Paradox, considering the countless hours he's put into their games. I've got the Stellaris and EU4 soundtracks queued up in Spotify on a regular basis."

Andreas Waldetoft is an amazing composer, and I did do a little bit of a disservice not mentioning it. Pretty much the only reason I didn't bring him up is just because I wanted to talk about a few different games instead of always with the EUIV. However, "The Voyage" (the main theme for EUIV) is so pleasantly seared into my brain, that it almost kinda exists on its own measure of greatness.

There are a few themes that I keep in my playlist, just for how good they are even outside the context of the game they're associated with.

You want a video game intro with suspense, drama, energy, and builds to a crecendo that makes you want to JUMP OUT OF YOUR CHAIR AND SAVE THE WORLD? Well, the main theme to Deus Ex has that.

Disasterpeace's soundtrack to Fez matches the atmosphere of the game so perfectly, it's impossible to picture the game in my head without hearing it.

Even if you're not a fan of chiptunes, the VVVVVV soundtrack by SoulEYE is one of the greatest arrangements of sounds ever.

Alz wrote:

The soundtrack to Fez matches the atmosphere of the game so perfectly, it's impossible to picture the game in my head without hearing it.

Came to the thread mostly to make sure that someone mentioned the Fez soundtrack. Well done.

Also, it may be a bit of a cliche by now, but the Journey soundtrack still does things to me that make the world go all blurry every time I listen to it, for reasons that have everything and nothing to do with the game itself.

As for iconic licensed music that is both tied to its game but also has a life of its own, the Hotline Miami soundtrack is pretty sweet.

This one just makes me want to figuratively throw shotguns at people on the dancefloor