Halo 2:
Link to YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCxv2daOwJQ
Halo 2 is an exclusive title to the original Xbox console as well as the Xbox One.
The main theme of the game is composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori.
At the beginning of this piece of music, it starts off really slow and then gradually increasing the tempo around the 30 second mark on the video. I feel like this is indicating that the final stand is just around the corner.
Around the 50 second mark on the video, it gives me the impression that an enemy ship has just landed and it's creeping up on your position.
The use of the electric guitar in this piece of music symbolizes a boss fight or maybe even another significant event similar to a boss fight. Also, I think it is used in the game to build up that adrenaline rush as it is fast paced.
Boss fight from Halo 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vmXvQZTbm4
From my perspective after listening to this piece of music, it gives me the impression that the idea of this music was to motivate the player before starting the game, which I think is a great idea.
Throughout the rest of the game, it more or less follows the same sort of pattern with the music. Depending on the complexity of the game, I think the sounds were recorded compressed because the game was released for the Original Xbox console back in 2004, which could mean that the technology that was used back then most likely didn't support uncompressed recording or they didn't have the facilities to be that technical with the game. I assume it would apply to the voice dialogue in the game too.
This track sounds really good from my perspective and I also think that it gets the message across by motivating the player. Again, I think the sound from the game would be recorded as mono.
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| Demonstration in Audacity of what Mono audio looks like |
The Last of Us:
Link to YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97u-U0nvJM
The Last of Us is an exclusive title the Sony PlayStation. The game came around the year, 2013.
The main theme of the game is composed by Gustavo Santaolalla.
After listening to this song a few times, it gave me the impression that it was a western styled piece of music because of the Spanish guitar that was played in the song.
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| Illustration from the game showing the horseback riding mission |
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| The style of the guitar that was used to record this piece of music for the game |
16 seconds into the piece of music, there was a low pitched humming noise which indicates another instrument is about to be played. After that, the guitar playing comes back the key changes slightly and this gives me the feeling of something bad is about to happen. The key of the song switches between a minor key and a major, and throughout the song, it fluctuates.
37 seconds into the piece of music, you could hear something like someone walking on an uneven surface, which could either indicate a sense of danger.
Between the 37 and 42 second mark, the piece of music starts to go quiet and then becomes uplifting and loud.
Towards the end of song, it begins to get louder again and then it ends fading out quick.
I quite like the game because it tells a really good story and there is plenty to do in the game.
Because this game was developed for the Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, majority of the audio in the game would be recorded uncompressed because of the facilities that are available such as the hardware and the BluRay Discs, which are a massive advantage to the Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 because the discs can hold up to 25GB of data so it wouldn't be wise of them not to take advantage of that.
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| Comparison of the Blu-ray Disc and the DVD disc |
When the PlayStation 4 was released, The Last of Us was re-released as a remastered version. This was a success for Sony as they bundled the remastered version of the game with the PlayStation 4 but not so much a success for the PlayStation 3 as it wasn't capable of running the game because of the hardware that was used at the time.
When this game was announced, PlayStation 3 users were unhappy that they weren't getting the game due to the hardware limitations of the PlayStation 3.
