Lulling and the Importance of Sound

March 31st, 2009 | by admin

Today was not a day for work. It should have been, but it seems that the gods had other plans with me today. Those plans involve playing near on all of Mass Effect – a game that has completely split my opinions in two. On one hand, the graphics and characters models are exquisite – considering this actually runs on my machine, I’m willing to say on an aesthetic level, it is better than Crysis. The game is also full of the nutritious RPG elements that Bioware absolutely love, and a fairly decent story/exploration sub-theme, and this again I enjoyed. However, it would appear Bioware decided to ship this game, completely avoiding QA. Some of the most amazing space-battle sequences are being played out before my eyes, based on decisions I have made, and all I get is silence-accompanied by pretty graphics.

Never before did I realise the sheer importance of sound in games. Sure, everyone jig’s along to the Mjolnir theme from Halo 2, but that is taken for granted, especially when you don’t play with sound. Now, I don’t know if this is just me here (Googling the problem unearths countless stories of woe – so I can assume no) but I have no idea how this game became so popular with this many issues… I was a little excited by Mass Effect 2, but now, it’s more Meh Effect 2. lol, see what I did there.
In other news; its April 1st tomorrow. Last year we had the Zelda trailer… Actually looking forward to whatever festive [...] treats are on offer.
JB