It seems these days that sound, has taken a hit in the modern games industry. As games are primarily judged upon visuals, developers put more time into cramming the most polygons on screen at once and making everything look pretty, putting sound on abit of a back seat. But audio done well certainly pays off.
Sound Effects normally sound coming from objects that are (interactive) in the level; the firing of a gun, acceleration of a group b rally car, explosion of a grenade etc. All make the game believable. Bad Company 2 (and probably BF3, haven’t played it yet) has its sound effects down to a tee ! Possibly the greatest I’ve, heard ?
You feel like you’ve got so much power when you fire a weapon, but at the same time terrified when a grenade goes of in the room next to you, the weapons punch then echo around the map, the helicopters create thunder as they fly overhead. Such an immense experience; making this game so immersive. You feel as though you have been placed in a modern day battlefield !
I think even if the game didn’t have top class graphics or gameplay, id still buy it just because the sound is so immense ! For me, it definitely set this game apart from all the other hundreds and thousands of First Person Shooters.
Voice Acting It seems more and more games these days, which are heavily based on storytelling; employ professional actors to voice characters in their games. So much connection to the character can be created If they can portray their role correctly for the story
Heavy rain and L.A Noire are good examples of superb voice acting. Games based by making choices based primarily on reading characters statements and expressions, yeah the voice acting has to be nailed.
Well… the games wouldn’t really work if the actors were as dull as the mono toned drones from, lets say… oblivion. And films would be shit if all actors were as convincing as Nicholas Cage.
LA Noir also featured celebrities voices aaannd their actual faces ! Was quite amusing to bump into Alan from Two and A Half Men casually down the street.
Background Music generally encompasses the overall atmosphere of a situation. Wandering through Limbo wouldn’t be the same with the Tetris theme, it just doesn’t work ! This is what horror games have to work on to actually be scary. At the end of the day, lots of spontaneous quick time events doesn’t make a game scary, it just makes it jumpy. The fear is created from the unknown and anticipation of events.
the top AAA titles often employ professional composers and orchestras to accompany the moments creating in game moments. The sound track can become so memorable and popular they actually get released and you can actually buy them !
Just another way to make money though I suppose.
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