Club Silicon

The year of "Unreal"

Ladies and gentlemen, Unreal Tournament 3 has been released, and it is quite a fun title. Andrew Sega, Michiel Van Den Bos, Peter Hajba, Tero Kostermaa, Dan Gardopee and myself wrote music for the first Unreal Tournament. Since then there have been several sequels: UT2003, UT2004, Unreal Championship and Unreal Championship 2. Why this is called Unreal Tournament 3 I really don't know other than the fact that it is made with the Unreal 3 engine. Also that if they called it 2007 (as originally planned) it would look odd. Cliff's original plan was to release one every year as EA does with its sports franchises. However, discipline and original, new enjoyable ideas don't always mix.

A good chunk of music in UT3 is remixed versions of old scores done by myself and Michiel, as well as Mechanism 8 by Andy Sega. These can be heard on the website, but they can also be purchased.

Even better, at Gamestop if you purchase UT3 you can also get a free copy of Unreal Anthology. Even more folks to enjoy the original games as well as the bundled score. My congratulations and thanks to Epic and Midway for enlightening a whole new generation of players to these classics, in more ways than one. And last but not least thanks go to the composers that made for such great scores almost ten years ago.

'Tis the season

I'm sure everyone reading this knows this already, but this holiday season has an unprecedented set of game releases, all fully taking advantage of next generation technology. I don't think we've yet seen such a bold step into such a big "across the board" change in gaming since the 1990s venture into 3d. A brief list of the games I want to eventually get my hands on are:

Halo 3
Mass Effect
Crysis
Unreal Tournament 3 (with pieces remixed from originals by yours truly, more on that soon)
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Super Mario Galaxy
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
The Orange Box

My home time is severely limited. I spend so much time away from my family that I want to spend time with them almost exclusively at home. This hopefully will change when we get a multiplayer console to supercede our aging GameCube. In the meantime I will schedule specific play time for these titles (well, at least the relevant ones) at work.

Have you CS readers played them yet? Write in and provide your own reviews! Revel in the great influx of holiday hits. :)

Mask of the Betrayer released!

I am proud and happy to announce the release of the expansion pack to Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer. Ever since I was, what, 10 years old, I'd had a moderate but not fanatical interest in Dungeons and Dragons.

I enjoyed watching the covers of the Monster Manual, Players Handbook, and Dungeon Masters Guide change from rather hideous to gorgeous (Easley covers) to kinda lame (3.0 and 3.5 covers), and all the fun content therein. My friend Jason (who still has yet to grace the "Heroes" section, but rest assured it'll happen) created an alternate rule set which began with "Welcome to my D&D." I of course copied his idea, but rather than create something new, I copied almost everything verbatim from the Companion rule set of Basic D&D in the 80s.

Later we would both attend the game sessions of WASP (Wargamers Association of Severna Park) in Maryland, which ran all manner of games from Friday Night Firefight to the Dragnonlance board game (surprisingly fun), to custom D&D Battlesystem variants that would last months. Then there were the old fogeys in the back who would play miniature naval strategy games with their cracks showing. We tried to dim the lights there so no one would lose their lunch.

Painting miniatures, the adrenalin rushes during a campaign when a REALLY good DM was in charge, geekily comparing different dice sets. It all ended around college (with the last role playing experiences being Shadowrun).

Bored yet? I'm sure you are, let's get to the damn meat. Mask of the Betrayer is the first D&D product I've worked on, and I was salivating at the opportunity. It turned out to be a game that had a great storyline and dialogue, impressive graphics and some new game mechanics that took the standard Baldur's Gate isometric system to a new level. All I had to do was get the audio in there and make it sound pretty.

Over 4 months I worked with Womb Music who provided VO and music (I wrote around 50 minutes worth, Womb provided about 75), and Nathan Lee Smith (NL3 Audio) who provided SFX, Kevin Saunders, producer, Nathan Davis, associate producer, and pretty much the entire team on and off to integrate everything. It turned out better than I expected.

First, head to http://www.nwn2.com and hear the music for yourself. Or, if you're feeling dangerous, buy the game.

Next, here's some reviews:

Gamespot: "The audio experience in Mask of the Betrayer is excellent, from the abundant and solid voice acting to the bombastic orchestral music that swells during battles."

Neverwinter Vault: "In my review of the NWN2 OC, I was extremely critical of the recycled music and seemingly unenthusiastic approach to diversify the music selection. I can proudly say that they made having interesting and unique music a priority, and it was used so well that Mask of the Betrayer forms it's own outstanding musical identity that sets it apart from other games (much like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale). This critical aspect of uniquely identifying itself with its mood attuned audio helps to make Mask of the Betrayer take on a life of its own."

Game Informer: "Lots of good voice acting enriches the story immensely."

IGN: "Well performed voice acting, an excellent score, and solid battle sounds."

I can close the book on "I wish I had worked on a D&D game". The game really doesn't feel like an expansion, but a sequel, and a fine sequel at that. I want to thank everyone on the team who pulled serious hours to make it happen and help me get the support I needed, and above all my wife for putting up with me being gone most of the time for a month and a half. She's due for some pampering.

Kongregate

An oasis in the midst of a desert of dreck for the readers of CS (graphic compliments of PixelJoint). Darren Monahan and Feargus Urquhart (Mobygames them and enjoy their bios), two owners at Obsidian, recommended the following site: http://www.kongregate.com/, and in particular a game called Desktop Tower Defense 1.5. The game has had me hooked for days, threatens my productivity, and has the worst graphics and sound of just about any game I've ever played. Beat THAT.

Kongregate is awesome. Unlike its commercial counterpart PopCap, it provides desktop games for free and allows users to upload their own for distribution. Back in the old days (of 1984 or so), Jason Emery (future CS "hero", you'll read plenty about him coming up) would have used this to distribute PC versions of his paper games such as "Pie Man", "Things That Happen", "Maze Craze" and "Adventureland" (which found its way to the HP48sx calculator as a game called "Nortquest"). Simple and fun, and in some cases long lasting; the hallmarks of the genre that can make a huge game with a bloated budget like Diakatana look rediculous (believe it or not John R. would agree, his heart still lies partly in the days of the Apple II).

For another fun short escape, check out Lost Garden for its post on Knytt Stories.

Eine Kline Nachtmusic and a bit of coffee house talk

Let's start this post with music. Here's a piece of music originally written for Unreal:

Download UnrealSuspense.mp3

Now while you're listening to this and making any number of comments such as "I don't understand it" or "this is ok old school game music" or "I love it!", here's some food for thought:

The internet and the web have provided far too much information for the average social intellectual to process, as has been stated God knows how many times. But, where do you set your limit? At what point do yout tell someone that you just aren't interested in Stumbled Upon and that you're sticking to just Gamasutra and Gamespot?

To this end there should be a filtration website for different interests. You answer a number of questions and it gives you links to regularly updated websites and / or mail lists and / or podcasts. You get an email at the start of the day with links to everything and you can look at what you want. Then every so often it gives you the opportunity to mix that information up and change your list.

This website could be called "InfoFilter". Something that gives people a reasonable amount of information to process about the outside world. Does it exist? Should it? Should there be something that can actually measure what information will be meaningful? Write in and let me know.

Education never ends

As Sherlock Holmes put it, education is a "series of lessons with the greatest for the last."

I had the honor of being invited to speak at USC. Lennie Moore (game composer now working on a game score for "Dirty Harry", being performed on the Eastwood stage I might add) teaches a class on game music and had me as a guest lecturer.

The group was larger than my last lecture at UCLA with 22 students. They were all masters students in composition so we actually got to talk theory a bit, and we had some clever ideas about how to potentially approach the score to a game such as Stranglehold.

It's a great pleasure to teach. I love doing it and hope I can do so again, on one condition: I will never again drive to and from Los Angeles without another person in the car. :)

Unreal Anthology released

This is pretty huge. Yes, the post will be huge. So get your favorite drink, start a nice comfy playlist on your PC, sit back and enjoy the ride.

The biggest announcement is thanks to Steve Allison, Randy Severin, Tom McClure, Mark Rein, Jay Wilbur, Drew Rydberg and last but not least Mike Larson, the Unreal Anthology "Greatest Hits" music CD is a reality.

It ships with "Unreal Anthology", a collection of the most major Unreal titles ever released, and included is music from yours truly, Andrew Sega, Peter Hajba, Michiel Van Den Bos, and Kevin Reipl, who recently completed "Gears of War".

Fans have been asking for this for years and at last they have it. This phase of Unreal is closed and closed well. After eight years, I have to say my involvement with the "Unreal" universe has been one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences I've ever had.

Next up? Did I mention I'm writing articles for Mix magazine under the column name "AudioNext"? Primarily about games, it will also feature other new tech such as cell phones, satellite radio, and more silly things like the upcoming Zune vs. iPod debate.

After that there's a pending interview with Jun Funahashi and Club Kukeiha, who did music for most of the original Castlevania games (actually 1-3, so that's all of them). Jun says he'll try to contact Miki Higashino (Gradius) also, so if I can score that one as well it'll mark the next best Japanese interview I've ever had (next to Tanaka-san).

Right now I'm sitting on the floor next to our television watching some of Jeanette's home movies from when she was sixteen or so. I'm sitting here doing the update because our router is on the fritz and I'm hooked up via ethernet rather than wireless. Fun, but at least I get to catch up with my wife's earlier years and her family life. Honestly her roots are about as all American Norman Rockwell as you can get. Even their family problems might come from a Readers Digest. Those aren't insults, I'm flabbergasted at how much her family has defined a typical American household and lifestyle. Neilsen should be banging down their door! Every time I visit it's not just a vacation, it's an escape from my frantic way of life to the point where, while I'm there, I wish I could be like that. Then I leave and say "eh, nah...maybe a bit, but not too much." There's a piece within all of us exemplified by the Eby way. 

I'm also listening to a stirring baby boy: Conner. Why am I the one with the baby monitor tonight? On to the bad news: Jeanette has had a fever since Tuesday night. We're going in to Urgent Care tomorrow for a second visit. First, after over an hour of waiting (yeah, "Urgent", sure) the doc told Jeanette it was a virus that she should just let run its course and to come in Monday if it hadn't abated. They gave her vicodin to ease the pain, which has helped greatly but when she sleeps the fever zooms back up and doesn't subside until she takes another vicodin. Three days of this, fine, but six? Not good. I've been taking care of the boys in the meantime and have learned a new meaning to the word "respect" (I can't claim credit for that, I first heard it from my boss, Michael Gottlieb, whose grandfather invented the pinball machine). We got mommy roses today and prayed for her getting well soon, as the boys really miss her and I know she's tortured being away from them, especially innocent and ignorant six month old Conner. When he's tired he hates looking at her and not being able to eat and cuddle, so I keep our mommy visits short so they don't get too confused. Nicholas understands I think. Through it all I've bonded with my sons more than I thought possible with my limited "guy" imagination. It's been great, despite the extreme stress of dealing with two boys when one might drown if you take your eyes off him for a second in the bathtub and the other is removing his pants and running around the house with bits of urine dripping all over the floor.

For a guy who thought his whole life would all be about being obsessed with women and video games, I'm glad my life changed (though certainly not 100%, to be sure). I love my wife and I love my kids. I sure hope the fever ends tomorrow.

To conclude my parents will be visiting for Christmas! We're very much looking forward to it. Sadly while we wanted my aunt to visit also she can't travel on holidays with the travel discount packages she has, so we've invited her down around New Years if she can make it. Amama and Papa (as my parents are known to the boys) will get to see Nicholas tearing around the house in the tractor they had Conner get him for Christmas last year, and see Conner most likely crawling a little, since he started rocking a few days ago.

How is THAT for an update? As a postscript, for you 80s music fans, someone send me a copy of Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom" from the movie "Running Scared". It is a quintissential vacation / sunshine / full of cheese song. Gotta have it.

Next post will be about Legend and where we're at.

Game Music Radio interview

In the words of Heywood Floyd: "hi, everybody!"

Brian DiDomenico and Becky Young of Game Music Radio interviewed yours truly last week and a webcast (podcast) of it is available at the Game Music Radio website.

Plenty of fun was had by all, thanks to Brian and Becky for making it happen.

Is skill important?

Been awhile since I last posted, but things have been busy of course. An article for Mix magazine, writing an overture (which was put on hold because my studio underwent a reorganization) for my mother's opera, Game Developer column, preparing for my second son in April, finalizing birthday plans for my wife, and, oh yes I almost forgot: my day job.

In the middle of wrestling with what I am trying to establish as liesure time, I came to an objective realization:

I'm not good at video games.

Never have been, and I say that knowing full well that I still enjoy them. My friend Jason Emery (we'll cover him in a future "Heroes" article) won about 80-90% of the games he played. I remember him beating the shooter Gradius, The Legend of Zelda and Metroid rather quickly. The only game I beat that it took him a bit longer to win was Pro Wrestling, and that's because I owned it and he didn't have as much time as I did. I suppose the only title I can take credit for is Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!!.

These days I've been playing Counterstrike and after playing at least 10-20 hours of it I'm no better than when I began, meaning that when I join a game I hardly ever make any kills and am almost always killed within 30 seconds. But let's examine why:

• Counterstrike is the most competitive multiplayer title ever
• Counterstrike relies on certain techniques based in reality such as cover, knowing the ground, and firing in short bursts as well as requiring rock solid aim to succeed
• Some servers, even those that are VAC secured, have people who somehow manage to hack / cheat

Therefore if I play using my own server and bots on "Normal" difficulty the odds are much more in my favor.

Now let's take another game such as Nuclear War, a much older PC game. I never win that one. Ever. Period. Fortunately the executive producer of PC titles at Midway, Mark Caldwell, worked on it. So I can bug him about it, but I keep wondering what the secret is to actually winning?

Another obstacle to playing MAME games on my PC is the lack of a controller. Unfortunately not having a standard keyboard interface (just USB) makes it impossible to hook up the X-Arcade, so I returned it. I suppose a simple gamepad would suffice until the day I can build a genuine cabinet. Anyway, now I'm probably causing extreme boredom, so I'll wrap up this report with what's coming down the pipe:

Classic game reviews
New "Heroes" entries
All new "Recordings" category

Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows

My efforts in the past two years as audio director at Midway Home Entertainment in San Diego have been the game pictured at left. Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Head to the website and listen to the music!

It was an extremely satisfying as well as an extremely dissapointing title to work on. It had major ambitions that ultimately had to be cut short, but gameplay that grew from uncertain to pretty solid from an action standpoint. My job was to make sure the sound, VO and music were up to snuff. The reviews are in: they were (except in the case of dear Greg Kasavin of GameSpot, who has lauded every title I've worked on for it's sound and music... so this time I'm a little confused).

Overall this is a great series to be a part of and I'm proud to have added to its folklore. As for the game itself, definitely give it a try as I truly believe it is a worthy addition to the Gauntlet line.