The Cellar - View Single Post

vsp · 09-09-2002, 03:54 PM

Crazy Taxi (the first one, at least) had a soundtrack by Offspring and Bad Religion, seven or eight tunes in all. It's an absolute gem -- no mad driving skillz required, just a frenetic romp in an indestructable taxi that anyone could learn in five minutes. And, yes, the music matched the mood of the game perfectly.

Zuntata, who does much of the music for Taito games, has had some wonderful soundtracks over the years -- their music for the original Darius was the first time I ever recorded a game track for listening purposes.

I thought that GTA3's music was perfect SPECIFICALLY because it was mostly unknown-to-the-general-public artists, or obscure tracks from the knowns. I wouldn't have known Scientist from a hole in the ground before GTA3, but I ended up buying the CD that his GTA3-featured tracks (Jah Radio) came from. Before that, previous GTA games had homegrown parodies of popular songs and styles -- the country song from GTA1 still cracks me up.

The next GTA game (GTA: Vice City) is going in the complete opposite direction, and I think it's a significantly negative step. They're going with all 1980's music, apparently all (or almost all) from name artists - A Flock of Seagulls, Hall and Oates, Judas Priest, Kool and the Gang, Laura Branigan. They'll still be separated by genre, but they'll all be familiar songs -- and that's the problem. I've had twenty years to burn out on every damn one of them. (I burned out on some of them six seconds after hearing them for the first time.)

Worse yet, name artists bring with them lots of preconceived notions and baggage. The first time I get into a GTA Vice vehicle and it's playing Culture Club, for instance, I'm jumping out of the car and throwing a grenade into it on general principles.

Of course, there's a reason for the big-name artists this time around -- Sony and Rockstar announced recently that they'll be releasing not one, not two but SEVEN soundtrack CDs for GTA: Vice. SEVEN CDs. One for each music station in the game. This not only shatters my hopes that the 80's cruft would be on one easily-avoidable station, but strikes me as a bad marketing ploy -- sort of a "NOW That's What I Call 80's Music" line with the GTA logo splashed over it.

09-09-2002, 03:54 PM	#5
vsp Syndrome of a Down Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: West Chester Posts: 1,367	Crazy Taxi (the first one, at least) had a soundtrack by Offspring and Bad Religion, seven or eight tunes in all. It's an absolute gem -- no mad driving skillz required, just a frenetic romp in an indestructable taxi that anyone could learn in five minutes. And, yes, the music matched the mood of the game perfectly. Zuntata, who does much of the music for Taito games, has had some wonderful soundtracks over the years -- their music for the original Darius was the first time I ever recorded a game track for listening purposes. I thought that GTA3's music was perfect SPECIFICALLY because it was mostly unknown-to-the-general-public artists, or obscure tracks from the knowns. I wouldn't have known Scientist from a hole in the ground before GTA3, but I ended up buying the CD that his GTA3-featured tracks (Jah Radio) came from. Before that, previous GTA games had homegrown parodies of popular songs and styles -- the country song from GTA1 still cracks me up. The next GTA game (GTA: Vice City) is going in the complete opposite direction, and I think it's a significantly negative step. They're going with all 1980's music, apparently all (or almost all) from name artists - A Flock of Seagulls, Hall and Oates, Judas Priest, Kool and the Gang, Laura Branigan. They'll still be separated by genre, but they'll all be familiar songs -- and that's the problem. I've had twenty years to burn out on every damn one of them. (I burned out on some of them six seconds after hearing them for the first time.) Worse yet, name artists bring with them lots of preconceived notions and baggage. The first time I get into a GTA Vice vehicle and it's playing Culture Club, for instance, I'm jumping out of the car and throwing a grenade into it on general principles. Of course, there's a reason for the big-name artists this time around -- Sony and Rockstar announced recently that they'll be releasing not one, not two but SEVEN soundtrack CDs for GTA: Vice. SEVEN CDs. One for each music station in the game. This not only shatters my hopes that the 80's cruft would be on one easily-avoidable station, but strikes me as a bad marketing ploy -- sort of a "NOW That's What I Call 80's Music" line with the GTA logo splashed over it.