I initially started writing this article on game music, but I soon realised that all I was doing was listing a range of facts with little opinion behind them. So I’ve decided to write about a much more broad subject. I’m going to write about how we experience the games we play, through our equipment and our senses.

Visual

Video games are primarily a visual form of entertainment. In recent years the search for more and more realistic graphics to immerse us in has gotten more intense. Polygon counts and bump mapping are now terms that gamers are now familiar with. We’ve seen huge advances with 3D graphics thanks to the nVidea GeForce cards. Games like Max Payne and Black and White look stunning. This all helps in the immersion that is so important in good video games. But it’s not all 3D graphics. Games like Mario Kart for the GBA and Jet Set Radio have cartoon like graphics. Not at all realistic, but fit in with the whole style of the game and don’t jar with our senses. Jet Set Radio’s game play and music all fit in well with the cel-shaded graphics and bizarre J-Pop soundtrack.

Overall, what we view the games’ graphics on it important too. I tried playing a demo of Max Payne on a mates PC using an old 15-inch monitor. Not fun. Neither was playing Devil May Cry on a 10-inch portable TV. I left my mates house with a severe headache. But a good screen is important. Playing my Dreamcast on a wide screen TV at 60 hz is much more enjoyable than playing it on a tiny portable TV. Playing PC games on a monitor is different due to colour settings, gamma settings and the numerous graphics options that exist in most games. The worst problem I find is glare from sunlight, especially with Deus Ex and Max Payne. Finding a position that the sun won’t reach is vital.

All in all, the main human sense is sight. What we see on the screen is how we immerse ourselves in the game. This is why graphics remain the single most important part of a game.

Sound

Most people would think that sound tracking a video game is rather easy. Simply get some background muzak to pass the time. Wrong. Sound tracking a game is notoriously tricky. If you get it right, then you’re lucky to get some praise. If you get it wrong, then you’ll have a whole heap of criticism. I’m going to go over a few examples to illustrate some points:

Deus Ex: a movie score.

The soundtrack to Deus Ex is almost like a movie score. Slow parts are kept ticking by a slow melody. Get to some action and the music up’s its pace. Personally I found this helpful when fleeing from enemies. Hide in the shadows until the music drops pace and I know that I’ve evaded capture. Simple. But the music helps convey atmosphere. The music in the game gets darker and more urgent as the game progresses and we learn more about the conspiracies involved. The soundtrack is to be released with the Game Of The Year special edition soon.

See also: Shenmue (DC) and Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2)

Metropolis Street Racer: real radio.

This is quite a cool street racing game for the DC. The feeling of street racing was enhanced by the in game music taking the form of radio broadcasts, each unique to the city you were racing in (Tokyo, London, San Francisco). Presenters would talk between tracks, there were commercials breaks and the music was associated with the location. Soul and Rock for San Francisco, Dance and Britpop-esque music for London and J-Pop for Tokyo. This was also done slightly different for the last two Grand Theft Auto games but these games had amusing presenters and authentic dance music supplied by developers Rockstar’s own label, Moving Shadow. But what made this game was the feeling of driving about in cars simply listening to the radio. Something we all do. Well some of us.

Wipeout: using real musicians.

When Wipeout was released as part of the Playstation launch, it gained a lot of attention. Mainly because of the inclusion of mainstream dance artists like the Chemical Bros., The Prodigy, Goldie and Future Sound of London. This was one of the first times mainstream artists had been approached to use their music to score a game. This wasn’t just a publicity move; the music worked great with Wipeout’s fast paced thrills and undoubtedly raised the Playstation’s awareness with club goers. Like it or not, but this was one of the titles that helped games lose some of their “geek” appeal.

After this mainstream music was used more and more in games. The FIFA Soccer series by EA used plenty of pop artists until finally digitising Robbie Williams and putting him into FIFA 2000’s opening movie. This even lead to a spin-off FIFA Soccer soundtrack CD. The same happened with The Gran Turismo games.

Quake II went further a few years ago, by having Nine Inch Nails main man Trent Reznor compose the music for the game. It was a perfect match. NIN’s dark electro-gothic sound matched with the disturbing visuals in Quake II and the game was a smash.

So what do these examples tell us? Well, music has to match the visuals. A game like Silent Hill 2 would not benefit from a Marylin Manson soundtrack despite the match in content. If a game relies on suspense and a narrative then a movie like soundtrack is the answer.

These days new technology like Dolby 5.1 surround sound and DVD means even better sound quality is heading our way. I’m drooling a the thought of paying Rogue Squadron 2 on the Gamecube, flying down the Death Star trench, TIE fighters firing from behind me. All in glorious 5.1 Surround sound.

Control

Control might figure amongst the least important thing in a gamer’s mind when they are considering a system. Not so with a developer. Head of the Resident Evil Series, Shinji Mikami, talked recently about the decision recently to port all Resident Evil Games onto the Game Cube:

“I am planning to give players maximum fun. To do so, the Game Cube was the only feasible platform. A game must be played for fun through the pad. It is not only a question of the visual.”

So there you go. The way that we physically interact with the world we see on the screen is paramount to developers. Controllers have come a long way from the old NES d-pad, 2 button combination but little has actually changed. Modern controllers have simply added more buttons, although Nintendo certainly too a giant leap forward with the analogue joystick on the N64 pad. Some attempt should be forgotten though. The R.O.B. controller that helped with the Gyromite game was clumsy and expensive. Anyone remember the Power Glove? An NES controller attached to a glove that sensed movement and translated it onto the screen, Brave but foolhardy attempts, but developers have looked for other ways to enhance the way we play our games. Light Guns for almost all systems have made an appearance but have been let down by a lack of quality games. However recent attempts with the Dreamcast (House Of The Dead 2 & Confidential Mission) and PS2 (Time Crisis 2) have proved successful with arcade games translated onto home systems. Arcades are now proving to be testing grounds with new ways of interfacing the gamer and the game.

Ø Fighting Mania: an update on the classic Sonic Blastman. 8 pads swing out and the player must hit them in order to defeat their opponent. Not to be played drunk.

Ø Police 24/7: A police based light gun game, but with the fantastic motion sensors that translate your movement onto the screen.

Ø Arctic Thunder: Snowmobile racing isn’t too innovative, but when you add a life-sized snowmobile into the equation it increases the realism. It even vibrates and has fans that blow cold air into your face whilst you race.

And what about the PC? (Yes, I know you all wanted me to talk about this.) Well, strangest of all PC gamers found the two best controllers were the one’s designed for other purposes: the keyboard and mouse. True little has changed in the last couple of years, save Microsoft’s Intellimouse, but PC gamers have had little reason to change this simple combo. True, joysticks, joypads and other controllers exist for flight sims and sports games. But the PC needs no other controller.

So what I’ve tried to say is, the game worlds that we interact with are complex and varied. So are the way’s we physically interact with them. Our environment in which we play them in also comes into the equation. (I know: try playing a Game Boy Advance in a dark room!) All of this comes into effect when we play the games.

Ali D