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On The Quality Of Licensed Game Soundtracks
Thanks to GameSpot for their 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing the correct blend of licensed music for videogame soundtracks. The writer argues that "there isn't anything inherently bad" in using licensed music, but suggests: "Whether you produce your own music or use existing music for your soundtrack, thematic consistency is of the utmost importance." He then picks Wipeout XL ("[changed] how people perceived music in video games") and the more recent True Crime ("a well-made licensed soundtrack") as good examples of this, before singling out the EA Sports Trax program, as used in Madden 2004 and others, as "destined to fail - 'cus you can't make a good soundtrack out of singles." Do you have a favorite licensed soundtrack, or is the whole concept a concern to you?
I don't understand how this article doesn't mention Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. That is probably the single best video game soundtrack ever.
For those of you who haven't played it, Grand Theft Auto has you running into and out of various cars. Each car has a radio, and you can choose from maybe a dozen stations. Vice City was set in the 80s, and all of the songs on the radio were actual radio hits from the 80s.
This was really a genius move. It added such a level of authenticity to the game, and since these songs were already a couple of decades old, it won't feel stale and dated a few years from now (like a soundtrack made of current hit singles might).
I sincerely believe in original soundtracks (if done well). The best example is Grand Theft Auto III. Since what I was being immersed in was a fictitious city, with fictitious ads, I felt the fictitious, but realistic, radio stations really added alot to that feeling of immersion. I felt like I was in "Liberty City", a realistic but still wholey unique and fictitious world.
Before anyone goes and nay-says me, saying that GTA3 had some licensed tracks, they were for the most part obscure enough to count as original in my book. They were not big name singles like in GTA Vice City. And personally I didn't recognize anything but the classical/opera tracks.
Which brings me to a great example of why I feel original works better than licensed: GTA Vice City brought us a bunch of memorable 80's tunes. I (We) already have real-world memories associated with those songs. We've seen videos, we've seen the artists, and we've heard them on the radio or in other media for that matter. So it's hard to feel that we're in a unique new city. Instead, it feels more like I'm playing a virtual Miami Vice.
What further broke the entire coherence of the immersion in a virtual world through its sound and music was the addition of voice-ver work for the player's own character. In GTA III your player never said a word. That's because you WERE that character. Whatever you thought in your head in reaction to what you saw and heard in the game, was your own. It helped immerse yourself in the game's world.
But in Vice City, suddenly you hear "yourself" saying things. To me, half the time I don't even realize it's my player character talking. I first think it's just more banter from the pedestrians in the game, and then when I understand the context of the phrase uttered I realize it's my player character saying it. It just doesn't work as well as keeping him silent. If the cops are honking and I'm standing in their way... let ME tell them to fuck off. It works better than making that decision, that "impulse" for me.