No, not that one. I’m talking about Sonic 4, a multi-platform, episodic game featuring a certain blue critter that goes really, really fast. And that fat guy.
From the ONE track released so far, it feels reminiscent of the earlier Sonic the Hedgehog games. While that’s enough for me to get tempted into another Sonic Cycle, here’s a brief rundown of hope: 2D side-scrolling has returned, and there’s just Dr. Robitnik Eggman and Sonic (Tails and Knuckles may show up via cameo). Hopefully this’ll be a great beginning.
Mark Morgan, soundtrack composer for quite a few older PC RPG classics has aired the all-clear signal and given us all access to the Vault Archives. This is great news for fans of his superb work in Fallout and Fallout 2 for a few reasons, the least of which being that it’s a free download over at Aural Network.
Of course, for those of us audiophiles who happen to also be vgm freaks, the fact that both soundtracks have been remastered and many of the tracks mixed together is really cause for excitement. Plus, the audio quality is fantastic as the release is in 320kbps and the new mixing really makes the whole experience flow better than simply listening to a series of rips. There’s even a plus for OCD taggers like myself. We now have actual names for all the tracks from Fallout 2 (which never saw an official release in the first place).
For the rest of you who haven’t already heard the Fallout soundtracks.. if you like quality, atmospheric music, you can’t go wrong getting this. Come on, it’s free! Go get it!
Oh, and you can also grab Vault Archives from here if you want.
I apologize for the delay of entries… I’ve been stumped. You see, I have a bit of difficulty of finding the Holy Trinity of Video Gaming.
By Holy Trinity I mean the most influential video game characters (Mascots? Franchises?). I guess it would also depend on who you ask, and what era they like, or from. And then you’d have to compensate for Nostalgia Goggles, if you go back far enough. And then… it really doesn’t seem much, but that’s a lot of variables.
However, I think we can agree on one thing- Nintendo would be involved, somewhere, as one of the three. Even though my best friend growing up had a Sega Genesis and my first console was a Playstation, The Big N is the first thing to come to mind.
I estimate that they’d be Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. All began on the Nintendo, everyone knows them, and that short list probably came to no one’s surprise at all.
But being late to the party myself, I don’t think I’d be the one to judge this.
So I haven’t updated in awhile- I have been playing American Mcgee’s Alice in addition to other matters. Which does come to mind something I’ve noticed whist playing.
Now, when this game was out my PC wasn’t able to handle it- it was a shitty Gateway monitor and I was lucky to get Photoshop 5 to work on it. So, yes, like most things I had missed out on this gem. I finally got ahold of it recently and have been enjoying it so far (even if I did get lost in those damn tunnels… you know the ones). But I had always been interested in the game, looking up information and images and going as far as obtaining the soundtrack, which I took a liking to instantly.
What came to mind: it’s disorienting to hear a track when you do not expect it. For example, in an early stage of the game you hear “Battle with the Red Queen,” track 18 of 20. I had assumed I would hear that only at, if not near, the endgame.
It’s interesting to see how you’d listen to a soundtrack to anything, and come up with guesses and your own story to play along with it. Of course, there’s dissonance when imposing your views on the thing the music is to play to, and that’s to be expected.
I suppose it’s part of the mystery, especially with games I may never get to experience. When I was obsessed with Yoshitaka Amano I had come across Rebus, AKA Legend of Kartia, AKA Game-I’ll-Probably-Not-Come-Across-Anytime-Soon. It’s an Atlus RPG for the Playstation and Amano was the art designer. It’s one of my favorite soundtracks to daydream and eventually fall asleep to, forming a story from the title tracks alone.
This isn’t exactly video game music we are talking about, but I’m sure any 8-bit chiptune fan reading this will be quite amazed.
Would you imagine what it’d be like to listen to Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd played on a NES?
Brad Smith, a Canadian video game developer and synth musician, has done just that. And converted the idea to actual chiptune stuff. The project is called Moon8, and includes 8-bit style remixes of all the tracks from Pink Floyd’s classic rock album.
MP3 files are available for download on this site – but, for those of you who can’t wait, here’s an YouTube video with a preview of the music and a nice pixel art cover. Enjoy!
So who had the pleasure of playing Megaman 10? I have not, since I am still stubborn in the stone age with my PS2. After a quick Google search, though, I do discover that there is an easy mode- REALLY? Granted, I could never get past Gemini Stage because I suck…
But the music is forever awesome, and one of the few soundtracks that I did not mind hearing over and over and over and over and over… yea I’m terrible at Megaman.
You know where to ge… wait, Megaman 10 hasn’t been uploaded yet?! SOMEONE GET TO THIS.
Alice in Wonderland (the Tim Burton one)* has been out for a week and some change now. Has anyone seen it? what did you think of it?
A cautionary tale: I went in there expecting creepy (because hello, this is BURTON we’re speaking of) or at least gritty. It’s not. Don’t make the same mistake I did!
While we’re on the topic, let’s have a shoutout for American Mcgee’s Alice. It’s an action game for the PC that tells the story of a disturbed Alice as she revisits a dark, creepy, and twisted Wonderland. And for the longest time their movie adaptation has been in Development Hell. Now THAT’S a movie I’d like to see.
Chris Vrenna had done an excellent job with the soundtrack, ambiance layed over with sound effect. There is also dialogue from the game, which added to the music. You know where to get it.
*Not to be confused with the many adaptations and/or re-imaginings of the same name, nor The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.
Just so you know, Final Fantasy XIII has finally arrived! Finally, English voices and yet another FF to play! And for the Xbox360 users suffer from slightly less graphic quality, but who cares about that?!
And if you stay here, you know we’ve had the soundtrack for awhile, right? It’s by Masashi Hamauzu. He’s the one behind Dirge of Cerebus and Unlimited Saga- and was also behind more prominent works such as SaGa Frontier 2 and Front Mission: Gun Hazard.
Folks at ConsoleAlliance.com have released the first part of a remix compilation series called “The Best of Video Game Remix”. Best Of Video Game Music – Level 1 is a free digitally distributed album composed of video game music remixes by various talented artists.
We created this album to pay tribute to the artists that are fans as we are of video game music. All Names, Credits, & Urls of each artist are included in the “Info” document of the album.
We are mirroring the compilation through our torrent tracker. Get it while it’s hot!
There’s also an extended version of the album available on ConsoleAlliance, called The Best Of Video Game Music – Level 1 (Secret Level Edition). For more information, visit this page.
