The Sound Architect was very excited to be at Eurogamer last Friday. We tried various games and got a feel for how they sound ready for release as well as had a great talk with Turtle Beach about their new products and history. We also had a play on the Doom Piano which we’ll discuss more later.
The Games
Due to time constraints and massive queues, there was only a chance to play a couple of games so here is what we thought of what there was time to play:
Arkham Origins was there and sounded just as fantastic as the previous Batman games. Even though we may be bias as a massive Batman fans, these games have always struck gold with us with their sound. Anyone who gets into the combat of the Arkham games cannot deny that the deep meaty punches and the flowing thuds as bodies hit the floor leaves you satisfied. Especially at the end of a combo and that finally crack that signifies the final blow ensues.
The voice acting we were surprisingly impressed with. Roger Craig Smith delivers a great performance as a younger Batman, however his voice is so recognisable that we can’t help but think that he sounds a bit like a broodier Chris Redfield. Don’t get us wrong we love the guy’s work we just may have to get used to him as the voice of Batman.
Troy Baker definitely surprised us. We’re massive fans of Troy but when we heard he was playing the Joker, especially after the fantastic performance from Mark Hamill, we were not expecting greatness. However we were severely wrong, evidently sticking to the Mark Hamill interpretation as much as possible. We’re used to Troy playing the gravelly, brooding male, as in The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite etc. He is fantastic as the Joker. Yes you can tell that it’s not Mark, however he does a brilliant job so that if you weren’t listening so intently you probably wouldn’t notice.
Arkham Origin – BlackGate was very similar to Origins, although it definitely translates differently onto Playstation Vita. Even with some great headphones the difference was apparent. You could tell that they had to compromise for memory issues in comparison to the PS3 version. Only little things like sounds ending earlier and less of a tail on things but apart from that it’s still satisfying to beat up the goons!
Watchdogs was definitely another key game to look out for with respect to great sound. During the live demo we sat back as the main character attempted his very Metal-Gear-Solid-esque mission of getting through a secure area while a sniper backs you up. The sound was very bass heavy, as in most demonstrations, but there were still some great sounds in there. Some great digital and electric, synthesized sounds, even the Ubisoft logo for this game sounds pretty cool. Lots of chopped up device sounds for loading and hacking. Think Assassins Creed slightly with the sounds of the Animus and all of the digital side of things. It’s very similar, keep an eye out for when you hack into a CTOS server to unlock more availability of hacks and missions in that area…..Eagle tower much….?
Dead Rising 3, Apart from being a fun demo also had great sounds to listen to. With about ten weapons to start with and a couple of combo vehicles to make. After speaking with the producer of the game I was told there were only about 6 sound designers on the game. With the sheer size and amount of objects involved, this must have been a huge feat to finish. Another game with satisfying sounds. One particular item being the electric hammer, with a special move where you smash them so hard on the head it destroys everything above the waist. The combination of electricity, meat splatter and crunch is just fantastic to listen to.
Turtle Beach
The guys from Turtle Beach were there with a fantastic set of headphones. Sadly we weren’t allowed to publicise our conversation but we are in talks with them about an in-depth interview at a later date. They had they’re giant pair of XP7s on display and a fantastic trailer that demo’ed the headphone s very well. The new XP7s have a fantastic control pad where it has a lot of added features. You can now utilise the 8 equaliser presets for different games and scenarios OR create your own using the software downloadable from the website. You can also create your own presets and upload them to the site. This means that there is a load of presets already on the site that you can download as well as a bunch of user created presets that people will have made for different games.
There is also Bluetooth connectivity for your phone so you can instantly answer your phone, while playing without having to do anything more than tap a button. You can use a 3.5mm jack to input your music device so you can have a soundtrack running alongside your game easily.
Oh and did we mention they are 7.1!! We were very excited for these, 7.1 surround sound headphones. They are the best we have seen in headphones doing with 7.1 obviously it’s not going to be the same as a full 7.1 speaker setup, but they are GOOD.
The Doom Piano
A fantastic instalment over at the Virgin Media stand was The Doom Piano. This is a really innovative idea where an upright acoustic piano has been made into a game controller for the classic Doom. A TV screen has been fitted into the middle of the piano and all of the keys control different movements in the game. The hammers are where all the contacts are fitted and essentially generate the signal that tells the game what buttons are pressed, by completeing a circuit when the hammers press down.
The Doom Piano was developed as part of the Virgin Media Game Space event, whose final week focused on arcade machines and physical game objects.
We speak to the curator of VMGS, David Hayward, David about the Doom Piano:
Any problems with the player here’s the direct link: The Sound Architect Talks Doom Piano with David Hayward
Oh and we also met Boggy B from Worms!
That’s our audio round up of Eurogamer 2013. We hope you enjoyed the read and if you have any questions or suggestion on what else to cover or ask then let us know at sam@thesoundarchitect.co.uk!
Enjoy!
The Sound Architect