Saturday, October 23, 2010

Since I don't really talk about the vidya game much...



So this is the first weekend I've legitimately had off in a couple months. No waking up at 8am for weight training, no being at school to brush up on bio or chem.... feels good, man.

Not having touched my 360 or PS2 in months I decided to revisit an old flame with one of my friends, the Silent Hill series. I've heard the phrase thrown around a lot "A system is only as good as it's games." Well, I'm willing to take that one step further and claim that a game is as only as good as it's music. I think it's a really overlooked aspect of games (save music games, which I still adore even though I've sort of retired for right now.) The composer/sound producer for the Silent Hill series Akira Yamaoka produced some of the most chilling sounds I've ever heard in a video game or otherwise. He is like a master of eerie synths and generally creepy industrial noise. It definitely helped paint the picture for all of the disturbing encounters that occur, including everyone's favorite monster rapist, Pyramid Head. To this day Silent Hill 2 and 3 are the only games I've played that have given me nightmares growing up. 

I really wish I had a good link for the PC version of SH2 so everyone could try it out, but the best I can do is send you the soundtrack. Seriously Akira Yamaoka is an instrumental genius and if you like this check out the Silent Hill 3 soundtrack as well.

 http://www.mediafire.com/?btfqx2hl9mt7mll


 Other scary honorable mentions I'd say would be Fatal Frame, the Resident Evil 1 remake, and Dead Space (also great sound production.) 

6 comments:

  1. Loved the silent hill games and dead space :D

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  2. Videogame music is goddamn fantastic. Always wanted to give SH2 a bell, thanks for the reminder!

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  3. silent hill is one of my favorite games

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  4. I have yet to play a single SH or FF game, and I've been meaning to for years now. Alas, free time becomes a mythical creature as you grow older.

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  5. I could never get into silent hill. I really wanted to like it though.

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  6. Dude, I completely agree. Music is KEY in games, it brings it to that next level. The Final Fantasy series (love em or hate em) had FANTASTIC soundtracks. Loooove that shit. :]

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