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Is it just noise?

If I ask you what is the best looking game you have ever seen, you would probably answer me right away, best story, best gameplay, best characters, you probably have an answer for all of that. But if I ask you, which one has the best sound? Not sound effects , voice acting or soundtrack, but everything regardind the audio.

Audio is often one of the most ignored aspects of games, but it has a great importance which is often forgot.

If the audio is good or bad, it would probably go unnoticed. But if it’s terrible or great, it begins to gain some attention. Quicky now, whistle the theme song from super mario world. Easy right? That’s because it is simply a masterpiece. Now the game audio can become so terrible, that it also begins to be noticed, like Ride to Hell lack of it.

Some games use the audio to immerse the player in the game world. I advise you to play a horror game on mute. It is not that scary at all. The sound plays a big part in them.

Imagine throwing a punch in a game and it goes “muuuuu”. If you’re not punching a cow, it would be weird, so sound effects are important. I first realized how awesome sound effects were in Assassin’s Creed, where I was climbing a building and I started to listen the metal clunk sound. I was really amazed, because I never payed any attention to it, and now that I was listening to it, I finally realized how some details makes something unique. A shot beeing fired, an explosion, the song of a car tire in a high speed turn, take all of this out from a game, and you’ll see how bland they are.

Now soundtrack is something less etheral . There is the classic example of super mario themes, or a bunch of 8 or 16 bits songs, but the one that really got into me thinking about, was Shadow of the Colossus one. God , it was breathtaking. When you were traversing the world you had sillence. Yes there were argo’s trot, but you really felt the sillence. It was immersive. You really felt alone in that world. When you found the giants, that’s where the shit got real. You were this tiny little guy, trying to kill this giant with a bow and a sword, which for the giant was probably just a needle. But when you started to climb the colossus, the music starts. You begin to fell a like a hero, something amazing, you really believe you can climb that motherfu*** and shove that sword in his head (or any other weakspot).

In Dark Souls I made a really nice experience. I was fighting a boss (Queelag to be more specific) for the third or fourth time, and I was really tense ( If you played Dark Souls you know how this is). So a decided to turn of the sound. It was good, because I was more relaxed and mannaged to kill it, but it felt I lost something of the gameplay.

Final fantasy series is a good exemple of good soundrack. When the initial screen appears and the theme starts to play, you know it’s a FF game. The battle theme, boss themes, and I need to quote “To zanarkand” from FF 10, absolutely lovely.

Last but not least, Last of Us. I don't even need to say much about it, just go to youtube and listen it for yourself.

A good soundtrack may inspire you, or make you feel desperate. It can enter your mind, and years later you will still remember it. It’s not just a detail about the game. It’s not something to be ignored.

A good voice acting is also something that somepeople only notice when they are expetionally good. Like Vaas in Far Cry 3, or Troy baker in basically anything he does. Giving a character a compatible voice is something rather important. A fully grown man with a lady’s voice (No offence Japan), it’s just something unnacetable, unless that’s really the intent. Feeling the character angry in his voice, or happiness, makes it more appealing, and only contribute to character development.

Basically the sound in games is something mostly ignored by people, and if you pay attention to it, you’ll understand when I say that it is an aspect of great importance. People tend to care only about the graphics, wich is the looks of the game. But the sound, the sound my dear, is often the soul.

So have you payed attention to the sound of your latest games? Wich one do you think have one that should be honored? Can you whistle super mario’s theme? Any other comments?

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Next time you play a game, I would like to invite you to pay attention to his audio. Put a good headphone and just enjoy it. Tell us your experience.