Games and Sound

Games and Sound

Far Cry 2

I have actually only played this game for a few hours. And I am pretty impressed, sadly ? I never played the original and am finding myself wanting to play it just to see what I missed. The story is interesting, so far, and the concept and art is pretty nice ? very lush surroundings, and very interesting lighting effects. Most sound in the game is actually pretty decent, I think. The guns sound good ? distance effects and DSP are pretty awesome. The one thing I don't like is the adaptive music engine. I don't know what engine they are using (it would be interesting to see if it happens on different game, same engine) but for whatever reason, I can be standing in the middle of a road ? no bad guys are anywhere close ? and the danger music will start playing. What the hell? Every time - I trip out, reload my weapon, take a syringe, pace back and forth across the area, and every time ? I find nothing. Problem: bad implementation, or at least, an engine that hasn't been fleshed out enough. Who knows?

These are a few examples of large, shipped titles that exemplify problems in sound design. While they may be great games (and truly, they are) as an individual looking at tackling the great sound problem on your next title - look to these, and other titles, and as examples of what can go wrong. 10 bucks and a copy of Final Fantasy 7 says that even after creating a game plan for generating your audio assets, you will still miss stuff, need to throw in library effects, and probably not have a chance to correct audio-engine problems. In looking towards other software for faults, you will help yourself make a plan of attack, and maybe, topple the big problems first.

The point of this article was not, in anyway, to bash other games. I play every one of these games regularly, and love them. I wouldn't play them if I didn't. Combine the fact that there are millions of people out there also playing these games, who care so much less about sound ? why should the companies making these games care about sound? Why should you care?

The simplest answer is this ? we spend the first 9 months of our lives experiencing what we can about the world, with our ears alone. Think about that. Our auditory sense is one of the most taxing on our brain ? why? It's just sound. Do some research on "The Fletcher Munson Curve". This is a natural "EQ" built into our ears that basically says that we hear certain frequencies better then others. These frequencies happen to line up with the human voice, or maybe the sound of a baby crying. The natural EQ is the product of years of evolution, dating back to a time where if you didn't hear a predator, you were killed ? not to far from the reality of gaming.

Now this isn't to say ? drop all other budgets = invest in sound. Further this isn't to say that sound makes or breaks a game (while certainly it can). There are, however, a few hierarchical levels of "good sound". In my opinion if you achieve any of these plateaus, it can only make your game better. The reality is that electronic entertainment, for years, has sought out ways to reproduce the way we live in. Many gamers take computer graphics as is, the things they generally critique more often are things like bad physics and sound. These are things that we are very capable in reproducing well, so if it doesnt cut the mustard, it stands out badly.