Why Video Game Music Deserves A Dedicated Grammy Award

Seeing as how “Awards Season” comes to a close tonight with the Academy Awards, it seems an appropriate time as any to bring this up for consideration for next year. Because history was made at one of  this year’s other big trophy-fests, the Grammy Awards, when a piece of music originally composed for a video game won an award; the first time music created for a game has received such an honor. The award bestowed upon Christopher Tin was a milestone moment and a beginning, a beginning from which other artists who bring game audio to life deserve to be honored, a beginning which couldn’t have happened if not for a push for recognition for game music that began over a decade ago.

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Exclusive New Information About Find Makarov -- Not A Modern Warfare 3 Teaser?

Since the countdown clock with a Modern Warfare-esque font and sounds first appeared on FindMakarov.com, more pieces of information have slowly trickled out. First, Activision released a statement that claimed the thing was a hoax. Today, various sites have been reporting that the whole thing is actually a project of a Toronto-based production house called We Can Pretend, which has a few samples of their previous work on their website. The most interesting one is a video called "Occupation." which is well worth watching (the Doritos Tablet is funny as well).

We reached out to FindMakarov.com, and through them we've heard from a source who is actually one of the owners of We Can Pretend, and while they didn't reveal exactly what is going on with the site, which was recently updated to a new red look complete with a sweeping radar and the same countdown, it is obvious that we'll know more later this week. 

Additionally, they provided us with an exclusive image from the project, which you can check out after the break. It's clearly from a live-action video, and presents a scene that looks familiar to those of us who have played Modern Warfare 2. Is this related to a sequel? Is it a company seizing a good opportunity for self-promotion? One thing is for sure: it's highly doubtful that this is some sort of viral surprise reveal for Battlefield 3, because I doubt any publisher would go this deep into a rival's game backstory.

At any rate, we'll have more information for you this week, so stay tuned.

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Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Da Vinci Disappearance Screens

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood The Da Vinci Disappearance is the first round of paid DLC for the game.  Announced last week, the downloadable content will feature new single and multiplayer content for the game.  The single player portion will have you on rescue mission of sorts.  When Leonardo Da Vinci is captured by cultists, it's up to Ezio to recover stolen paintings to find his friend.

The multiplayer component will bring the biggest expansion to date for the already beefy multiplayer in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.  This will include one new map, four new characters, and two new game modes.  The content is due out early March for PS3 and Xbox 360 and will cost $9.99.

Multiplayer Hurting Single Player Experiences

Gaming has exploded in popularity recently, this due in part to the social interactivity that modern video games bring to the table. As technology has advanced consoles have come equipped with online networks that allow you to play with friends, make new ones, and enjoy the social aspects of playing with your friends in you living room, whether they live five miles away or five hundred. A disturbing trend has steadily been becoming a gaming reality, multiplayer is a must have for a game to be considered a "success".

Frank Gibeau of EA recently stated that "the model is finished", as in the single player only model. If he's right, the experiences will go the way of the dinosaur soon. Recent games like Dead Space 2 included a multiplayer component into the offering. And while it was good, it pales in comparison to the single player campaign. There was a time not too long ago, where multiplayer was a great addition to a single player campaign. Now more often than not, it's the star of the show. Just take the most popular franchise in gaming, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Everyone wants to sell millions like that, and their example is to make a multiplayer component that will keep gamers coming back for more. To add this multiplayer experience into a game costs time. And since time costs money, gaming budgets have skyrocketed.

And lets face facts here, multiplayer games are all about repetition. Sure, there is a dynamic to multiplayer games that give the sense of each and every round is different, but really it's not. Think about it. Of all the rounds of Halo or Call of Duty, was it really different? Or just a variation of itself. Over and over again. I think the answer is clear on that one. All of these multiplayer titles will just slowly gravitate towards the Madden philosophy of game development: Small tweaks, big sales, rinse and repeat. I actually like Call of Duty,as well as the other franchises I listed above. They have their place in my library. But you know what you are getting going into them. But mid range games that are already tight on resources and aren't doing themselves any favors by imitating games like these.

There's no doubt that when multiplayer is involved in a game, it's detracting from the single player. And more often than not, it's piss poor. Honestly, there's only a handful of truly good multiplayer experiences out there. You have your games that were designed for it, like Halo:Reach, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Killzone. Then you have a very small handful of developers who think outside of the box and create games like Left 4 Dead or Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Then you have everything else. There are a ton of games that shouldn't have multiplayer. Of the more high profile names, Bioshock 2 definitely didn't need multiplayer. And although some love it, I don't think Uncharted 2 needed it either. So was it thrown in for good measure? There's nothing wrong with playing a bad ass 8 hour campaign. But what has been increasingly happening is campaign lengths are getting shorter, containing less features, and then bundled with a mediocre multiplayer and shipped.

Hopefully, developers will look to their peers in the recent successes of games like Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Bulletstorm. They nailed it, and each took a different approach. Assassin's Creed wanted to extend the shelf life of it's game and it did so in amazing fashion with their first offering. They brought their single player world to a multiplayer arena and it worked extremely well. Maybe even more amazing was Bulletstorm's refrain from adding in a multiplayer, knowing that it wouldn't work. Instead you have the core principles of the single player dynamic incorporated into a cooperative mode that can offer just as many hours of fun as any multilplayer component. Perhaps these should be the titles that are looked to when trying to decide on that all important multiplayer mode that your game has to have to be considered a "success".

Or better yet, just don't go there. When developers make the conscious decision to include multiplayer into a game, they aren't just asking for a gamers money, but time. And being that there are plenty of other, better multiplayer games out there, all that time that is put into multiplayer could have been used to make a lasting impression on the person that bought your game for the story, premise, or characters. Take Batman Arkham City, Rocksteady is going to sell millions of the next Batman game, why? Number one, it's the only superhero game in the history of gaming not to suck ass. But more importantly, gamers know they are going to get a AAA experience when it comes to the campaign. Every resource that Rocksteady has is being poured into the single player experience, and they aren't deviating from their gameplan to please a few people who want otherwise. Am I opposed to Rocksteady making a multiplayer in Batman Arkham City? Heck no, but I can certainly respect their professional opinion as why not to.

And it works both ways, single player in some cases is probably hurting multiplayer experiences in some way as well. There are plenty of multiplayer centric games that have no business wasting their efforts on a single player portion of the game. Why in this day and age, where games are a multi-billion dollar industry is there a clear lack of management in the development efforts? How doesn't the producer for a game like Bioshock 2 step in and say, you know what this isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff maybe we should just can it. It really does stink to hear the biggest publishers in the business claiming that multiplayer is a necessary component for a game to be successful. All it really means is either game quality is about to take a huge nosedive, or prices are about to go way up.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Site Launch

Bethesda has just launched a beautiful new landing platform for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim fans looking for new information on the upcoming RPG.  The new Skyrim site is chock full of goodness in the form of media for the game.  Sure, most of it you have seen up to this point, but keep an eye out for new stuff daily, I know we will.  What you'll find there are screenshots, concept art, and trailers for the game alongside a rather tastefully designed affair.

It looks like those days of clamoring for Elder Scrolls goodness is over.  There's a wealth of information regarding the game on the site, which you can find at elderscrolls.com/skyrim.  Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the upcoming RPG from Bethesda Softworks which is set to release in November 2011.

Shippin' Out Feb. 27-Mar. 5: Fight Night Champion, Black Ops PS3 DLC

The splendid shooter Killzone 3 and the foul-mouthed Bulletstorm led all releases last week, but this week's focus shifts to hand-to-hand fighting, Call of Duty multiplayer, and a revival of Beyond Good & Evil.

Leading the pack this week is EA Sports' Fight Night Champion for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Champion is the first Fight Night game to be rated M for Mature. The game is being billed as one that is "gritty" and "dark," with animations and player damage that "truly conveys the brutality of the sport of boxing."

This is the closest any gamer will come to bloodying the non-virtual Manny Pacquiao.

EA is promising a refined physics-based animation system and a new "Full Spectrum Punch Control" scheme. The title will focus on a single-player mode intended to re-create the dramatic and emotional aspects of the sport.

PlayStation 3 gamers looking to add to their copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops can pick up the $15 First Strike downloadable content this week via the PlayStation Network. As for the content, the map pack includes four new multiplayer environments ranging in locale from the Berlin Wall in Germany to a North American hockey rink. The add-on also bundles one environment for the game's zombie mode dubbed Ascension.

While Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still far off, fans of the series can pick up an updated version of the well-received original this week on Xbox Live. Beyond Good & Evil HDwill feature 1080p graphics, including enhanced character models and upgraded textures, and Ubisoft has also remastered the game's musical score.

Also out this week is Trion Worlds' massively multiplayer online game Rift for PC. As its title might suggest, the game's premise is that of "rifts" in space time that are playing havoc with the land of Telara and threatening to tear the fabric of the universe. The world will be highly malleable, as these rifts can be triggered by players or the development team, and they can also occur spontaneously. Their arrival will apparently alter the landscape, as well as open up new areas for exploration.

Those who would rather add to an existing game than pick up a new one can grabWarhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution for the PC. Retribution follows on from the events that transpired in Dawn of War II's first expansion, Chaos Rising. Set 10 years later, the game sees the Imperium reeling after an apparent betrayal by Gabriel Angelos' Space Marines. Gamers will be able to assume command of their chosen faction to experience the events of the game as they play out.

Gamers looking for something a little lighter this week can pick up Rango The Video Game. It will be released the Tuesday before the Johnny Depp-voiced animated Western releases in theaters on Friday, March 4. Like its film inspiration, the action adventure game will follow the travails of its titular out-of-his-element lizard. The game will be set in the Wild West town of Dirt, and gamers will find themselves meeting quirky characters, as well as engaging in shoot-outs and other old-timey activities.

For further details on the week's games, visit GameSpot's New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28
Fate of the World--PC--Red Redemption
Martial Empires: The Catastrophe of Babylon--PC--gamigo

TUESDAY, MARCH 1
Chuck E. Cheese's Sports Games--Wii--UFO Interactive
Fight Night Champion--PS3, X360--EA Sports
Rango: The Video Game--PS3, X360, Wii, DS--Paramount Digital Entertainment
Rift--PC--Trion Worlds
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution--PC--THQ

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2
Beyond Good & Evil HD--X360--Ubisoft
Perfect World International: Genesis--PC--Perfect World Entertainment

THURSDAY, MARCH 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops: First Strike--PS3--Activision

Killzone 3 Steel Rain DLC Map Pack Announced

Sure Killzone 3 has only been out for a couple of days but fans of the game are already clamoring for more content.  The simply put, "fantastic" multiplayer suite that Killzone 3 offers is about to get even better with the upcoming release of "Steel Rain".  The Steel Rain DLC was revealed last night on GTTV, and was announced to feature two new maps.  The Junkyard and Stahl Arms are both described below.

Junkyard - Guerrilla Warfare - 16 Players

The junkyards of Helghan are a wasteland to some, but a valuable resource to others.  In the main junk porcessing facility of Helghan, ISA and Helghast forces are clashing in an attempt to salvage vehicles and supplies for their war effort.  Jetpacks are the key to taking the high ground, but the huge Exoskeltons can quickly turn the tide of the battle on the ground.

Stahl Arms - Warzone - 24 Players

As the Helghast write a new and appalling chapter on humanoid experimentation, beleaguered ISA Forces mount a desperate attack on the notorious Stahl Arms research facility, where they hope to free ISA soldiers who have been taken captive.  Stahl's Helghast forces will stop at nothing to ensure that the ISA attack fails, even if it means exterminating the very prisoners they need for their weapons research.






Source: Killzone