Star Wars the force Unleashed Promo

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

For MoH I'd say the original or the most recent full Giacchino one, Airborne. But you really can't go wrong with any of them.

that's what i was going to say.

But if this helps:

Medal of Honor and MOH: Underground and MOH: Allied Assault are Williamesque

MOH: Airborne is Giacchinian

MOH: Frontline is a mixture of both, Since its the middle of the series.

[Jamesyboy 3]

Here are some of my video game score picks (in no particular order):

The Medal of Honor series (both Giacchino & Lennertz)

Warhawks (Lennertz)

Lair (Debney)

Knights of the Old Republic II (Griskey)

Call of Duty 1, 3 & 4 (Giacchino, Joel Goldsmith & HG Williams)

Mercenaries 1 & 2 (Chris Tilton)

Bladestorm The Hundred Years' War (Jamie Christopherson)

Blazing Angels 1 & 2 / Silent Hunter 4 (Jason Graves)

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (Clint Bajakian)

Kameo: Elements of Power (Steve Burke)

Soul of the Ultimate Nation (Howard Shore)

Just to name a few.

And after several listens to The Force Unleased...just freakin' great!

Jamesyboy

[Koray Savas 2,251]

People always give credit to Harry for Call Of Duty 4, when all he did was copy and paste a section from Kingdom Of Heaven for the main theme. Stephen Barton deserves the credit on that score. Nonetheless, it is a very fine score, you can get a 7-track sampler from Infinity Ward's website I believe. I know a game rip bootleg exists, my brother has it, I still need to get it from him.

Warhawk is a great score from Lennertz, it's available on iTunes. An even better Lennertz score though, would be Gun. I got it a few years ago from some guy in Belguim, and I don't know where he got it. It has track names and it sounds like an official release, yet no such thing exists, not even a bootleg. I feel special because it's like I have the only copy.

All of the Metal Gear Solid scores are solid masterpieces, so I recommend those to anyone. Same goes for the Silent Hill scores... brilliant.

I never knew Shore scored a video game, Jamesyboy. Is it recent?

[Henry B 50]

Harry Gregson-Williams copying and pasting? No... couldn't be... By the way, what's with referring to all RCP composers by their first names? Are you friends with them?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Harry has a distinctive sound, some things sound similar, and there are some short musical sequences that he re-uses, it's no big deal. However, what I was referencing earlier, is actually a copy and paste. You will never find a more similar reuse of score than this, because it is simply exactly the same. Infinity Ward probably asked him to come up with some music, so he probably just "Ehh lemme take this, there's your theme, Stephen do the rest."

Oh, and the first name thing, I find it easier to type Harry than his full name. He's the only composer I do it for, with Hans it goes either way.

[Jamesyboy 3]

I never knew Shore scored a video game, Jamesyboy. Is it recent?

The Cd was released in 2006. It is a Japanese release that I had to order from yesasia.com. Very LOTR-ish, but really, really good. Recorded by The National Philharmonic of Russia & Academy of Choral Arts.

http://www.yesasia.com/us/soul-of-the-ulti...-0-en/info.html

http://www.tracksounds.com/reviews/soul_ultimate_nation.htm

http://www.musicweb-international.com/film...lultnation.html

Hope that helps!

Jamesyboy

[Neimoidian 14]

I am glad to see fellow Uematsu fans His music from FF is incredible, even though the original scores were mostly on synth and very old-fashioned in their sound. Still, his FF VII and VIII scores (even in their original sound) are one of the best I have ever heard.

Too bad that after leaving Square his music has got too many pop and metal influences.

I have the complete scores for VI-IX, honestly I think VIII is the overall weakest of the bunch, although the best parts are among the best he has ever written.

After FF X I think he was starting to show some burnout, and afterward he got all wrapped up with the Black Mages thing. Advent Children is overall a very disappointing score with lots of hard rock crap, the only really good cues are Divinity and the end credits. Both of which are actually amazing, so he's still got something left in the tank.

I haven't heard VI except some concert arrangements and I am not sure if I want to listen to the original "recordings" anyway (I believe they sound worse [synth-wise] than Uematsu's subsequent scores). I am not a great fan of IX and I find it his least good effort among the three. On the other hand it's the most coherent one with many different reprises of various themes.

As for Advent Children I was disappointed too, however, I'd name more worthy cues from it than just Divinity I & II and End Credits - Cloud Smiles for instance. Also the piano arrangements were terrific, since I haven't heard them before (even though they were previously relased).

[John Crichton 4]

IX gets mega bonus points for having all those cutscene cues that were recorded with a live orchestra, it's easily the best part of the whole score. As for VI, yeah it's made with the SNES's 16 bit sound engine, but he does an amazing job of getting the best possible simulation of a lush orchestral sound out of it (moreso I would say that VII, which as much as I love it sounds more like straight synths). And thematically it's his most diverse and powerful.

You're right about Advent Children, Cloud Smiles is good though it's taken a while to grow on me. And there's a good recording of the FF VII opening fanfare, and the early choral cue The Promised Land is good too. Uematsu has a wonderful choral sound, the opening of The Fall of Neo-Kuja from IX just gives me chills.

[Ollie 1,059]

Yes, when they played a piece from FF at the concert John and I attended in March he damn near fell out of his seat with excitement.

[John Crichton 4]

I wouldn't go that far. And I resisted the urge to run around the room with my shirt off. To the relief of everyone.

What they did with Super Mario Bros., with the gameplay on the screen and all, was the highlight of the night.

[Ollie 1,059]

I wouldn't go that far. And I resisted the urge to run around the room with my shirt off. To the relief of everyone.

My son and I would have tackled you before you even left your seat.

[Miz 139]

How have people got a hold of the promo for Force Unleashed? If anybody has a very accurate answer to that, could they please PM me?

[Henry B 50]

You can just download it with a plug-in like DownloadHelper.

[ST-321 4]

You can just download it with a plug-in like DownloadHelper.

Holy smokes!

[Wojo 2,453]

You can, if you use FireFox.

If you still use IE, however, you can still use the timeless method of going into your cache (most likely C:\Documents and Settings\*USERNAME*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files) and physically copying the files that show up there each time you click on a streaming file. If you have hidden files/folders showing up, otherwise Windows doesn't let you see the folder. The TrackSounds website deposits them as MP3 files. Youtube puts FLV files there, while browser based games put SWF files there. If you sort by size, all the interesting files float to the top since they're the largest.

I'm in the middle of my third listening session of The Force Unleashed, and it's quite good. I admit I don't remember Kotor II that well, so I don't recognize Griskey's style from it, but I do hear writing that sounds like Clint Bajakian's work on Dark Forces (the original MIDI masterpiece, which somebody resequenced to MP3 before the site was taken down). A lot of the trumpet chords in TFU remind me of the trumpets from Dances with Wolves, but that's purely a compliment.

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

You can, if you use FireFox.

If you still use IE, however,

...you can switch to Firefox (or some other browser) and make the web a better place for everyone.

[Vaderbait1 1]

Is this worth doing? I mentioned in another thread that I'm thinking about venturing into video game music since there's no good film music anymore. Does it have any promise?

[John Crichton 4]

Well, I thought the last two pages of discussion answered that question.

Nintendo/Kondo, Soule, Uemastu, Giacchino. All good places to start.

[Vaderbait1 1]

Well, I listened to it. NOt sure what to think. Some parts are pretty good, and I like the overall sound. The action music lacks direction. But in a world of crappy movie music, it makes me think there's talent out there somewhere.

The composer did the music for KOTOR game, right? Is that one better/worse than TFU?

[Henry B 50]

Knights of the Old Republic II. It's not as Williams inspired and there's no use whatsoever of his themes, with the exception of a quick statement of the Force theme ripped from "Leaving Coruscant." But there's so much heart in it I can't believe it. Definitely check it out. There plenty of game rips floating around, though I can't say where exactly of course.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Actually, one can officially receive the music for free. Obsidian Entertainment released a "High-Quality Music Patch" for the PC version of the game. The "patch" is an "executable ZIP file". Upon downloading the file, one must extract the individual tracks into a seperate folder. Then, one must rename the audio ("wav.") files into "MP3s" using the "DOS Box". After that, one could play the music from the game on "Winamp". However, there are some files labeled ".bed", which are only mere ambient noises.

[Henry B 50]

True that.

[Wojo 2,453]

The information on "Soundtracks" you seek is here:

http://www.mixnmojo.com/

Note that it no longer gives links to the music for Kotor 1 and Kotor 2 for legal reasons, aside from the patch that Nick mentions, which gives much higher quality music than just Kotor 2 itself. If you own either of these games, you can obtain the soundtracks quite easily. The MILES sound tool can also give you the music to countless other games if you just start poking around.

[Laserschwert 475]

The information on "Soundtracks" you seek is here:

http://www.mixnmojo.com/

Actually my site's address is http://soundtracks.mixnmojo.com

[Quintus 5,399]

[John Crichton 4]

The information on "Soundtracks" you seek is here:

http://www.mixnmojo.com/

Actually my site's address is http://soundtracks.mixnmojo.com

Hey! Nice site you've got, sir. Too bad about the SW music.

Even though the promo represents a fraction of the TFU score, right now I'm thinking:

The Force Unleashed>Knights of the Old Republic (Soule)>Knights of the Old Republic II

[Henry B 50]

Oh, really? I'm not so sure about that. I mean, I don't think TFU, with its Williams imitations, beats the incredible mood KOTOR2 establishes. But it's still awesome. Favorite track: "General Kota and the Control Room."

[John Crichton 4]

And you like KotoR II more than I do.

But again, just based on what I've heard, I'd call this better than Soule's. I could change my mind when/if we get the full thing.

[Jacob 0]

You can, if you use FireFox.

If you still use IE, however,

...you can switch to Firefox (or some other browser) and make the web a better place for everyone.

Save A Developer. Upgrade Your Browser.

Knights of the Old Republic II. It's not as Williams inspired and there's no use whatsoever of his themes, with the exception of a quick statement of the Force theme ripped from "Leaving Coruscant." But there's so much heart in it I can't believe it. Definitely check it out. There plenty of game rips floating around, though I can't say where exactly of course.

Do you have a suggested listening order for that one? I'm trying to get into it but the different versions I've listened to are long, repetitive and choppy.

[Jamesyboy 3]

The information on "Soundtracks" you seek is here:

http://www.mixnmojo.com/

Actually my site's address is http://soundtracks.mixnmojo.com

I just want to say, what a great find your site was a few years ago. I was lucky enough to stumble across it before you had to take down the SW music and was able to get KOTOR + all the others you had, along with the Indiana Jones games. Thanks for the opportunity!

Also, your custom CD covers were great!

Jamesyboy - who also got The Dig

[SF1_freeze 131]

In fact you can feel some of the spirit of Kotor2 in the Force Unleashed Promo.

Regarding the Kotor 2 Soundtrack:

I agree that it is very good in the game and a lot of the cues are worth listening to. But there is also the other side of the medal. Especially the action cues sound very similar, no matter what planet you are and you can always criticize the lack of known star wars themes or different arrangements of at least the force theme.

But overall the soundtrack is an astonishing achievement for a video game score (the same is the case for Kotor 1)

The Force Unleashed Soundtrack also seems to be on that road. Especially the love theme gave me goosebumps although it's obviously inspired by Leia's Theme. It is safe to say that in that promo we only heared a bit of the new thematic material. The focus was more on action cues. So i'm looking forward to lots of thematic variations, especially in the cut scenes of the game. There has to be a fair amount of it. They wouldnt use motion capture with real actors just for 5 min of cinematic material.

Some Speculation (may contain game spoilers!):

As you may or may not know the Emperor will play a larger role in the game. I really hope that Mark Griskey took the opportunity and used the Emperor's Theme, maybe even in new variations and more epic presentation (last heard that way in Episode VI). It would also make sense not releasing that on the promo because if the emperor has some leading scenes it will be essential to the secret story and even music could spoil some things unintentionally.

[Wojo 2,453]

I knew that the desired link to find the music was nested one link deeper than the one I posted. I just didn't think I could post the link to it since it offers straight-up download of music, and some of the music is available commercially (at least, The Dig used to be sold, and Outlaws is spread across both game discs). I don't understand why the MP3 conversions of Dark Forces were yanked, since the game offered that music only in MIDI, but I really don't care since I downloaded it about five years ago anyways before it became unavailable. Personally, I think that the main theme in that game is better than the main theme of either Kotor, but that's probably because Dark Forces has had 14 years to grow on me, so it's pure nostalgia.

As for what SF1 freeze presents in the black writing, that particular theme featured quite prominently in TIE Fighter, namely in the conversation with the hooded secret agent and such cutscenes.

I hope that the music presented on the TFU promo is a good mix of gameplay music as well as cutscene/cinematic music, because it represents a step up from the simple boring music used for most gameplay moments in games like these. A lot of the shorter cues on the Kotor 1 and 2 soundtracks are just that, and when looped over and over again during the hours it may take to complete a specific level (planet), it can get old. That's notwithstanding the changes to fast-paced music the game makes during battles and other key sequences, which are great but also end up recycling cues after a while. Which is all necessary, as games like these can take 10+ hours to complete, and composers might write 2 hours tops.

You've got basically four options for music in Star Wars games:

1) MIDI arrangements of Williams' music, which led Clint Bajakian to write some quite nice music (TIE Fighter, Dark Forces, X-Wing) back in the days before games used Redbook audio or MP3, but based on your hardware and drivers could sound either really good or really crummy

2) Complete cut and paste of Williams music as MP3 or CD audio into the game, which was used in the DirectX re-releases of TIE Fighter and X-Wing, the Jedi Knight series, Rebellion, and a bunch of other games. For those with the full soundtracks, the quick and choppy edits can be annoying and repetetive, but at least it's familiar. If you have Jedi Knight, you'll find that track 2 onward are heavily edited CD audio of music available only on the Special Editions, which held me over until I could afford them.

3) Re-orchestrations or remixing of existing John Williams music. Does anyone remember the heavy metal music from Star Wars: Force Commander? 'Nuff said.

4) Fresh arrangements of new material based on Williams' themes. Kotor 1, 2, TFU, and other newer games. Seeing as where SW games have been, I like where the big budget games are musically going.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

As you may or may not know the Emperor will play a larger role in the game. I really hope that Mark Griskey took the opportunity and used the Emperor's Theme, maybe even in new variations and more epic presentation (last heard that way in Episode VI). It would also make sense not releasing that on the promo because if the emperor has some leading scenes it will be essential to the secret story and even music could spoil some things unintentionally.

SPOILER

Mmm as far as I know, PROXY can holographically impersonate people. He appears as the Emperor as a kind of test for the apprentice , i think

.SPOILER

[Laserschwert 475]

I knew that the desired link to find the music was nested one link deeper than the one I posted. I just didn't think I could post the link to it since it offers straight-up download of music, and some of the music is available commercially (at least, The Dig used to be sold, and Outlaws is spread across both game discs). I don't understand why the MP3 conversions of Dark Forces were yanked, since the game offered that music only in MIDI, but I really don't care since I downloaded it about five years ago anyways before it became unavailable. Personally, I think that the main theme in that game is better than the main theme of either Kotor, but that's probably because Dark Forces has had 14 years to grow on me, so it's pure nostalgia.

Technically the reason for pulling a lot of stuff from my site wasn't a legal threat from LucasFilm, as most people assume. Instead I was contacted by LucasFilm's PR-department, and they asked me to at least take down all the SW- and Indy-related music, as they do not own the rights to those franchises. They had no problem at all with me offering the music from their own IPs, but regarding Indy and Star Wars they informed me that I might run into trouble with the original copyright holders of those soundtracks and compositions (and so it doesn't matter if it's MIDI or digital audio). In parts that would be even John Williams himself, in other parts the record companies (BMG, Sony... not sure). LucasArts only licenses these themes (or the permission to work with them) for each individual game. This means that they would run into legal trouble themselves if they didn't make me take down those soundtracks, as they are bound by contract to ONLY use the licensed themes in their games. I guess this is the reason why we don't see official releases of most SW-game-soundtracks... and why the officially released "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" videogame-soundtrack was stripped of any Williams-related themes (whereas they were used in the game).

[Wojo 2,453]

Makes perfect sense, thanks for the info. The wealth of music that you do offer far outweighs the music that was pulled, and you do offer insight into legitimately obtaining music from purchased games. I wouldn't want to see legal action taken against you for doing the community a great favor for hosting what amounts to abandonware music.

Don't anyone go checking out the article about The Force Unleashed over at Gamespot unless you want the plot completely spoiled.

I did. And I like what I read. But there goes any chance of finding out as I go in the game, like the Revan story.

[John Crichton 4]

...like the Revan story.

Oh, I was so glad I didn't know about that beforehand. I just hope they reverse course and have a PC port. KotoR's was planned from the start, IIRC.

[Wojo 2,453]

I'm hoping that I buy a fast enough computer that could handle a 360 or PS3 emulator making a port not totally necessary.

Although I don't know of any emulator that could handle such intense consoles. If not, I'll be content to play it on my Wii with my Wiimote lightsabre, and just give a deep heavy sigh of sadness when I think of playing it on my computer.

[MissPadmé 17]

Hey there seems to be more unreleased Williams Prequel music in TFU

I am really looking forward to this game:

right at the begining

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39199.html

[Trent B 337]

Hey there seems to be more unreleased Williams Prequel music in TFU

I am really looking forward to this game:

right at the begining

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39199.html

It's stuff we all ready have from the Battlefront 2 rips. I'm beginning to think there may not be any new material.

That piece before the AOTC stuff is "Drawing Swords".

[MissPadmé 17]

Hey there seems to be more unreleased Williams Prequel music in TFU

I am really looking forward to this game:

right at the begining

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39199.html

It's stuff we all ready have from the Battlefront 2 rips. I'm beginning to think there may not be any new material.

That piece before the AOTC stuff is "Drawing Swords".

Well I expect atleast ONE 15 sec. snippet of something unreleased...

I know that it was released trough VG before, because I used it myself to edit a Expanded album together

but it just proves that there will be some music that wasn't on the album.. and MAYBE something interesting... Padmes Plea for example

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

drawing swords wasnt released on a video from starwars.com about the making of the grievous duel?

[Trent B 337]

The whole cue for "Drawing Swords" can be found with the Galaxies and Battlefront 2 material.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Do any of these videos contain any unreleased music?

I'm not familiar with AOTC material

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/N...iler_116973.asp

[Trent B 337]

That AOTC bit music is what we all ready have, in the Battlefront 2 material.

[QMM 4]

Interview with the main actor for the game, he also talks about the music

Be wary of spoilers

[Wojo 2,453]

I know more about the story than I already humanly should, which is my own damn fault. I also know that Gamespot gave the Wii version a 6 and the 360 version a 7.5. I'm scared now. I was hoping for the next Star Wars game on par with KotOR (I know, no easy task), though I'll still get it if only to play through once and rip the score from.

[QMM 4]

I've listened to a game rip a little bit and it seems like it's original score combined with Williams music from both the prequels and original trilogy. I'd hoped it'd be completely original.

[John Crichton 4]

I know more about the story than I already humanly should, which is my own damn fault. I also know that Gamespot gave the Wii version a 6 and the 360 version a 7.5. I'm scared now. I was hoping for the next Star Wars game on par with KotOR (I know, no easy task), though I'll still get it if only to play through once and rip the score from.

The game is definately getting reviews that suggest it does not live up to the hype. Just by some eyeball math it looks like 60-70% out of 100 on average.

[Red 75]

I know more about the story than I already humanly should, which is my own damn fault. I also know that Gamespot gave the Wii version a 6 and the 360 version a 7.5. I'm scared now. I was hoping for the next Star Wars game on par with KotOR (I know, no easy task), though I'll still get it if only to play through once and rip the score from.

The game is definately getting reviews that suggest it does not live up to the hype. Just by some eyeball math it looks like 60-70% out of 100 on average.

That's pretty disappointing. I think a lot of people had high expectations for it, I know I did.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It's a Star Wars game, which doesn't really constitute high expectations. I didn't even care about it when I saw the trailer. Then I downloaded the demo and actually had a lot of fun twirling some enemies around with the force. Fun to pass some time with, but not worth $60.