Blog 5: Audio Analysis of Bioshock (part 3)

When Bioshock was released it showed that the game industry was focusing a lot more on the narrative in video games and creating a robust story in the game while driving the player forward. This helps the player stay focused on the game and wanting to know what happens next with the narrative.
The story accomplishes this by placing audio diaries throughout the game for the player to find. These audio diaries explore the games backstory with events that happened before the game takes place. What is good about these audio diaries is that they are played in real time. Which means that they play once you pick them up and the game doesn't pause for them. So when you pick one up you don't want to get into any action and you want to explore your immediate surroundings and look for supplies. This will make you slow down and really appreciate the sounds of the world around you.

Game Design Blog 4: Audio Analysis of Bioshock (part 2)

Bioshock can be a pretty intense game. There is plenty of killing, blood, gore and unethical experimentation going on inside the crazy underwater metropolis of Rapture. But the music in this game is a different story.

The music featured in Bioshock is old-timey 40's and 50's music and can set the mood in a variety of different ways. Personally I think that the music comes off a bit creepy mixed with the dark environment of Rapture. Some may take it a bit comical, but opinions aside there's no arguing that the choice for music in the game is perfect. One really interesting choice for sound design in Bioshock is that it doesn't rely on a musical score to evoke emotions while playing the game. Bioshock relies entirely on atmospheric sounds of the ocean to immerse the player. The music that is heard in the game is in the game itself. There is no score composed for this game. For example: The player is walking through the city and he hears a faint sound of music playing. As the player gets closer to the sound the music gets louder. The player then discovers that the music had been playing on an old time jukebox or record player. This is a great sound design choice and makes the player fully immersed into the world of Bioshock and the city of Rapture.

Interesting Sounds from Star Wars: Episode II

There are so many unique sounds in the Star Wars films, from blaster pistols to lightsabers and speeders. The sound effects that are found inside the Star Wars movies are iconic and how these sounds are obtained may surprise you.

One very interesting sound in Star Wars: Episode II was the sound of the speeder diving. This sound was obtained by using a 1942 gas air raid alert siren in a parking garage, which created an echoing sound. Without knowing anything about how they obtained this sound and watching the movie, you wouldn't notice that it was a siren making the sound of the speeder diving, but after knowing what the sound is I can really hear the siren. It's amazing the sounds that we miss and don't think twice about while enjoying the experience. I wonder how many other familiar sounds we hear every time we watch movies and never notice.
For the sound of the gunships a biplane was recorded taking off and accelerating. I think that this choice of sound effect really compliments the sound of the gunship because they are both air vehicles and the sound feels natural to me when I hear the sound of the biplane matched with the gunship on screen.
Another really interesting sound design choice was in the Geonosian factory scene. Sounds of an actual factory was mixed with the sounds of drum percussion. This created a very convincing factory environment and the drums really complimented the sounds of heavy machinery smashing down the assembly line.