Stage 5 Complete!

I've listened to all of the suggestions of the Best Musical Score in a Game Evah like hew!

Number 5:

Megaman X (Youtube playlist)

I have to admit this is the only one I didn't listen to all the way through having listened to Megaman 2 about 1 hour beforehand. I felt like I'd heard it before and I have no idea which game came first. It's placing 5 out of the 13 Soundtracks I was given by fellow Gamers because it's too damn busy! Seems like Megaman never gets a rest in this game judging from the music he's gotta be on the go all the damn time, totally heart pumping action GO GO GO! No time for reflection and whether he's doing the right thing. I never had a Nintendo growing up, so when I listen to this I think Sonic... Which blue speed freak guy came first?

Numba 4: 

Quake (That NiN sound man) 

Being a fan of that guy and never played the game I enjoyed this as purely an extension of his discography. I have no idea about the impact the music itself has on the game play (comparing everything to Mass Effect 3 here by the way). If it's to tell me that Quake is a very futuristic, gritty and despairing world. OMG how much despair and misery must be in this game? Then it does its job perfectly well. I know there is no hope in saving the princess in this game. It feels like she's been flayed for several days before I got it in my head to go to the dark palace and rescue her, only to find my own death waiting for me in the form of the physical manifestation of her last thoughts on whichever planet she came from. *shivers* 

Number Three:

Populous: The Beginning (Just a few tracks)

This was a much needed relief after listening to most of the Halo soundtrack someone suggested, which was weirdly techno and chipper considering the premise of the game. Anyway, Populous pipe music was relaxing with a sense of foreboding but a not-too-serious vibe of: is there going to be a natural disaster or just a wet fart? I'll go to the toilet just in case sense of foreboding.

Numberererer 2:

Quake 2 ( my bad?)   

I know a bunch of you will be all like "But Trent waah wahh herpa derpa!" hear me out. As drenched in the 'popular music sound' as this was it wasn't as depressing. I'm going purely off what the music tells me about the game, I have no idea what the Quake series is about, I'm most likely going to Google them after this here little experiment. This soundtrack told me that even in spite of the shit hitting the fan, that shit is being taken care of! We have a good chance of saving that princess, we are in control! Hope in Humanity will win over all! Yay!

However, there is a high chance we still didn't save the princess because we were too busy pretending we were 15 again and dying our hair black and only playing at the "big boy trousers" coz man when we get to her she's badly mutilated, alive, but we just couldn't quite get all our shit together and that manifestation follows us back to the King as we hand over the husk that is his daughter. We walk away with heavy pockets and even heavier hearts as we hear two shots out of that old man's revolver and we daren't look back coz that sum bitch manifestation looks an awful lot like Mr Reznor and that Number 4 scenario looks at lot nicer from here, but it's not number two coz we're still alive right? Right?!  

Honourable mention before Number 1:

The Bioshock series soundtracks, very enjoyable and not as repetitive as Fallout 3

Stage 1:

You should already know if you read my previous blog post....

Streets of Rage 2 

As soon as Mr KB suggested this my heart was like "Holy shit YES" 

Everything you need to know about a game is in it's music I'm sure of it. This game is serious and witty, and fast paced with a little romance. It has Heart! Reflection and Action! Each track as listed when you hear it you know exactly where you are in the city and what's about to go down. You feel like you've been kicked in the teeth along with Adam, Axel and Blaze but you stand right back up again so sure you're gonna beat every 80's Villain ever with your amazing hair!

Game music:

Can be incredibly misleading. Same with everything else used in advertising in every product ever. But imagine if we bought games just from listening or viewing one particular aspect of it? I say this because I think recently we as consumers are expected to fork out a lot of money on something that publishers think looks good but is just that: an aesthetically pleasing but pay-full-price-for-an-unfinished-product! What I'm saying is most of my assumptions based on just listening to the music of the game may be completely wrong and that's how I feel what is expected of me by the industry. WE need all of those other aspects in order for it to be a worthwhile product to want to Consume!

P.S If you don't agree with my selection well that's tough titty and you should have messaged me to make more suggestions!

"Our Adventure Begins"

No not in the way that you think.

I've always tried being a girly girl since I was a kid joining in the various activities of singing, dancing, school yard games etc although not so much dress up with dolls, they freaked me out too much. But mummy had this cool box that you could plug into the TV and play games on a little cassette tape thing. Ah the Amstrad ZX Spectrum.

Recently celebrated it's 30^th Anniversary on St Georges Day

Image by Google

Best game was Treasure Island Dizzy. I'm sure we had a space invaders style game and Tetris but my mother and I are in a debate about this (as I'm writing in fact). As I got older, Birthday and Christmas gifts expanded to make up, hair accessories, anything with pink on it, my keyboard and the SEGA Mega Drive. Not just for me mind. I realise only now that my parents did make our console gaming a family affair. Me and my younger brother bonded over the classics Sonic, Streets of Rage, Dizzy (again!) and Bubsy the Bobcat. Let's pause while you reminisce.

Me at Christmas circa  late1990's?

Then you got older and school did that girls only P.E sessions where they made you do gymnastics or netball. But what you really wanted to do was go beat the lads at hockey or football. So you ask to go do that and you nearly, “nearly” break someone's collar bone so they ask you to no longer participate in P.E. Benched. Me? But I'm so sweet (awesome) and lovely (badass).

Again, Birthday rolls over and you get a Sony Playstation! Full with games and a cheat cartridge! Wow. My little brother was so jealous he got one for his birthday 6 months later. We collected the Playstation Magazine with the demo discs every month! Ah man my parents are so good to us. I have to say again it was a very family orientated activity we would rearrange the furniture in the living room and play a tennis game or virtual pool. I really enjoyed: Hogs of War, Alien Trilogy, Discworld Noir, Driver, Silent Hill, most driving games, Bubsy 3D (of course), Broken Sword, and not ashamedly Digimon. Throw in a few PC games in there too like the rest of the Discworld series, Myst, and yeah some Hentai dating sims which opened the world of consequential dialogue options for a new style of RPG, if you will. Ahem.

X-Change 2: A guy gets turned into a girl due to a crazy science experiment and is finds himself in embarrassing situations. Pic from MobyGames.com

That was a boyfriend who suggested I play those types of games, for his own amusement? Probably.. In my teens I guess I played games to appease my male friends, since being a girl sometimes you got left out sitting reading comics in the corner. This was a time where boys started to integrate with our group and had an influence on what we would do. So one day I thought fuck it and picked up the controller and never looked back.

In my early twenties I met a guy who was heavily into a little known game called World of Warcraft. In all honesty he was into ALOT of games, obsessed with getting 120% trophies on the ps3 etc. I sat by his side for many a year watching him play a variety of PC and console games. Some of which I thoroughly enjoyed. It wasn't until after 2 years he actually let me play WoW.. I wasn't all that bothered about it at first since we shared his PC so I was never on it for more than an hour at a time, he got tired of watching me play so would take over. Until I got my own laptop and my very own copy of the game.

Oh holy hell I was hooked.

I was so engrossed in the whole concept of this fantasical world. I based my final year dissertation on it. Yes. That's right kids. Social Identity and Online Gaming was what I based a year and a half's work on AND I got to play a game for social science! Cybersociology became my passion especially anything related to the medium of computer gaming and the notion of gender-swapping, mechanics of AI emotions, game addiction, online communities and gaming being a social group activity. I have been reading and collecting articles on each of these subjects that I will share with you in future.

This stems from when I lived with Trophy boy there was up to 5 different people living together in student accommodation and at some point two consoles or a pc combo would be hooked up to multiple TV's and monitors and someone would be playing a game: the whole house would join in. Trophy boy did open my eyes to a new world of gaming and the negative side too. The obsession. How there is a fine line between hardcore and health risk. Sadly we were not meant to be but if he ever reads this he would be pleased to know he has ruined me for any other man after him. And my prospective dating conversations.

Pic unrelated. Or is it? 

I had no idea you could get this perk. Sorry Moira.

Chances are, now, I have played or seen played every game released the past 5 years, know how to get all the trophies/achievements and can probably play the game better than you thanks to his training. Good times. Thanks man. 

I recently came across something about why girls feel the need to announce to the world that they are geeks, gamers, nerds etc. It's true we shouldn't feel the need to scream to the universe about the lives we lead, but we all have a voice and EVERYONE feels the need to express it. Isn't that all this is? Just to add another label to ourselves that isn't just “woman”. Some deeper socio-psychology going on there me thinks.

I quite possibly have been influenced more by the boys in my life than the women, when it comes to finding my likes and dislike in games, sci-fi, music etc. Some may say that leads to my lack of femininity or sensitivity to certain things, the tomboy from my teens showing through? Maybe. But the women of my life have influenced me in different ways. My mother was the one with the Spectrum remember? I will talk about some of these women in later articles.

Now I'm 24 I have the best of both worlds. I can quite happily sit with my male friend leading him through Resident Evil 5 one day and enjoying planning my cousin's Disney Princess wedding the next.

Don't get me wrong I still know all the words to Dirty Dancing, most of the choreography to the Spice Girls videos from the 90's and I like watching tat films for shits and giggles. Yeah so I didn't get a Gameboy and I didn't play Mario. So I've never completed a Final Fantasy game (there's a story behind that). Tough shite. I enjoyed the games I played, with my family, and yeah they weren't “hardcore” that doesn't mean I'm completely devoid of the gaming culture. Everyone starts off differently but they all end up playing Warcrack anyway.

Which brings me to next time...

A true life encounter

p.s i have no idea what is going on with the formatting :(