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Posted Saturday at 11:30
Best Audio Design
Hey, listen! Oh yeah, if you're like me you'll simply love picking up good vibrations and the world of videogames give us plenty of opportunities to do so. Be it the noise of a sword carving through flesh or the noise of a bullet carving through more contemporary flesh, we're spoilt for choice with the wide spectrum of audio experiences the medium has to offer. Sometimes games will even arrange their sounds into longer forms - or 'tracks' - that a 40+ year old man on RLLMUK will unironically describe as 'banging'. But which 'bleep' or 'blooblip' or 'ba-dongawong' was YOUR favourite noise this year? Let's take a look (listen)!
5. Animal Well
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Very much my 'I Don't Get It' of the year, Animal Well nevertheless sticks in the mind with its fever-dream atmosphere. Featuring some truly fucking terrifying noises - I'm not completely sure I will ever look at anostrich in same way again - and Twin Peaks-esque music to unsettling effect.
Siri
For something wholly made out of 2D, I've never had a game creep me out nearly as hard as Animal Well - rudimentary beeps, clunks and shrill animal calls over how the game drags along its tones a little too long, leaving you in a real state of discomfort and the unknown - like a mentally coherant and natural Drakengard.
4. Balatro
One of the great mysteries of the year is how the fuck this theme never seems to get boring. The gentle folding in and out of different arrangements is inspired but the whole track is just effortlessly cool. A game that could have easily been completely silent elevated just that little bit further with a single astounding piece of music. Fucking Balatro, man.
Zok
Everything else is glorious too. The music - only one track, but one wonderful track. Mournful, ominous and mocking, it’s a stone nuclear attack warning groove baby....The sound effects are fantastic, that lacerating hand deal as you dive in to waste yet more time is kind of horrific. The iPhone version also has the benefit of lovely haptics clicking away as cards are dealt, chips are cashed and that infernal counting machine goes brrrr, again and again and again.
3. Silent Hill 2
More like NOISY Hill, am I right?! I may or may not be writing about this when it may or may not appear elsewhere in the awards and I've got some observations on the audio I'm proud of in the write up so you're just going to have to wait, I'm afraid. What a tease! Fortunately, there's you to pick up the slack.
Alan StockThey only went and got original composer Akira Yamaoka back for the remake. I don’t know how much was his work and what was by the sound team at Bloober, but together they did a great job. The music’s been given a modern twist, with all the classics as well as new tunes (I especially like the ambient synthy bits in some of the puzzles). Then there’s the ‘soundtrack’ I suppose you’d call it, the pieces that aren’t music, but instead is some guy banging on some rusty corrugated iron, torturing a violin, stamping in a dead pig’s guts, burning a baby, or whatever other horrors they perform to recreate the iconic backing tracks to the worst places in the game. Very effective and there’s a bunch of new ambience too. Then there are all the monster sounds, and weird shit, and on top of that some amazing voice acting from the cast. The sound design is incredible, constantly fucking with you in the environment through unsettling noises or making you second guess yourself - ‘did you hear that?’. Top stuff.
Jamie John
Because I'm wellhard, like, I didn't really think this game was that scary, but the sometimes melancholy, sometimes fucking horrible soundtrack definitely added to the atmosphere (ever wanted to know what it sounds like to toss a hammer into a blender? Play this). So, too, did all the squelchy, scuttery, spidery sound effects made by the 'orrid things poor old James had to constantly beat to a bloody pulp with his lead pipe. Screamy and gooey and sad in all the right places.
2. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle
No, I've not played this in the past two days so it's the return of Ignorama Jolly and the Passed Buck.
pinholestar
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - let's be honest, it would be difficult to fuck this side of things up when you have one of the most iconic scores in movie history to draw from, but those cues were lined up to perfection and it deserves every sound award going for the sheer aural gratification of punching Nazis in the face alone. Special mention to Troy Baker who did a remarkable job of impersonating Harrison Ford.
Thor
Just when everyone was sick of Troy Baker, with it even being cool to hate him (he is a bit of a bell-end), he absolutely smashes it with an uncannily great performance as Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones. The score here is also fantastic, with little musical cues that really aid that feeling of being in an Indy adventure. The supporting cast are also brilliantly acted.
Mr. Gerbik
MachineGames absolutely nails the atmosphere and tone of the Indiana Jones movies, the dialogue is pitch perfect in tone - with many scenes feeling like they'd fit perfect in an actual Indiana Jones movie. Troy Baker is so good at portraying Indiana Jones, that I keep forgetting that it's not actually a young Harrison Ford I'm listening to.
1.Astro Bot
Getting the double-header of 'would you listen to this' as well as the 'would you look at that' awards, Astrosurely has the greatest implementation of the controller speaker the medium has ever seen. It's all so incredibly tactile and I genuinely can't parse how they've done it. When you charge through a pile of chocolate sprinkles you can feel it. When you walk across a slightly deflated balloon it's so bang on you'd have thought you'd done it a million times before. When you twang the string of an empty bow it's just right. This is then paired with some of the most ludicrously catchy sing-songs we've had for years. It's safe to say that I've been wandering round the house proudly singing 'GPUUUUUUUU, S S Deeeeeeee!' for the past four months now. Rarely has the phrase 'cooling fan' been sung with such sentiment. It's inconsequential, but a sign of how much care and attention has gone into every single moment.
keptbybees
Just a joy to play and interact with and the grpahics and sound are a large part of this. The levels them selves are cleverly designed and interesting to explore while the individual bots are just bursting with personality. Add in the sounds coming through the controller and only the most cynical wouldn't break into a smile while playing.
Streets of Ragethe songs in Astro Bot are absolute earworms, everybody together now….. I am Astro Bot, ASTRO BOT…….
Jamie John
I. AM. AS-TRO BOT, AS--TROOO BOT...........I am AS-TRO BOT, AS--TROOO BOT......
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