Vocal Music in Games: Gears of War

Even though most people might associate a certain song with Gears of War due to a commercial, the focus of this supposedly regular series is on original (not in the unique sense) music for/from video games.  Who then shall be highlighted?  None other than Dave Mustaine with his mega power of considering certain vowels unnecessary.  "Gears of War" is a song in the franchise-launching Gears of War.  It's rife with all of the elements you're used to from Megadeth.  Quite frankly it sounds like a generic Megadeth song, but hey, it works here.  It's definitely a musical style that fits quite well with the nature of the game.  The lyrics aren't too complicated either but what they lack in complexity they make up for in repetition and heavy handedness as they get across a feeling of "gears of war."  It's a simple tune that knows what it is supposed to be and accomplishes that goal rather efficiently.

Vocal Music in Games: Night Trap

Music: they say it's the universal language.  Well what about deaf people?  The people that say that look like assholes now don't they? Back on topic, music is present in almost all multimedia.  A lack of music in a video game is a stylistic choice that would be more striking to most gamers than a tremendous score (score in the musical sense not "point" sense, though I guess it really works either way).  I do love me a good original  soundtrack and find that I enjoy/appreciate game music a little more than regular music.  That is to say, if I was to listen to two identical songs but one was labeled "Generic Overture 5" from Even More Olde Timey Classics and the other was "Theme of Mobius 1" from the Ace Combat 04 official soundtrack, I would tend to gravitate towards the one that I remember engaging in high-stakes dogfights to.

It's a safe assumption that most people are the same and this applies to anything (tie-in marketing is more or less built around this idea).  I mean I mark more for Diamond Dallas Page's theme than "Smells Like Teen Spirit."  There's some association thing going on that causes people to enjoy certain products of an inferior quality if they are related to something else you enjoy.  But you don't need me to tell you that and right now this whole piece seems asinine.

Let me get to the point: game music is good.  Game music with a vocal track is a whole different level.  No matter how you hum a tune, doing it with other people makes you an a cappella group, and you don't want to be an a cappella group, do you?  So I will be singing the praises of some of gaming's vocal anthems.

We begin this excellent adventure with an full motion video game shrouded in controversy: Night Trap.  Much ass-devastation was had by the typical anti-gaming crowd of the early 90's over the game's supposed "ultra-violent" and "sick" content.  Hate was particularly aimed at one specific game-over scene.  Night Trap players would contest these claims, but were too busy reevaluating their life and the choices they made that would lead them to play the game.  Concern really should have been focused on the fact that the good guys were totally into SCAT.