On May 14th, Guild Wars 2 fans were delivered a bittersweet message from the game’s main composer, Maclaine Diemer. Diemer, who had been adding music to the title ever since back in Season 1, announced that he was stepping down as the soundtrack lead. “Today is the release of the final episode of Living World Season 4 content for Guild Wars 2, and with that my final batch of music as full time composer,” he tweeted. “While there will hopefully be more from me in the future, it’s the end of a major chapter in my life. I hope players love it. I’m so grateful to have nine years of continuous work with such an amazing group of people.” In honor of Diemer’s extensive work on the MMO, which spanned four living world seasons and two expansions, I thought it would be a perfect time to highlight the best of the Season 4 score in today’s column. So what does Guild Wars 2 sound like these days? Let’s take a listen! “Aurene” … [Read more...] about Jukebox Heroes: The best of Guild Wars 2’s Season 4 soundtrack
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Make My MMO: Space sim 3001SQ is put on hold, Star Citizen rolls out 3.3.5 to the Evocati
This week week in MMO crowdfunding, we’ve got some sad news from MMO space colonization sim 3001SQ: Development on the game has been halted indefinitely. Gamers will recall that the game went to Kickstarter back in 2016 but was unsuccessful at funding there; it then carried on with production anyway. But a game representative told me this week that the devs have since parted ways and will be finding new placement with other MMO companies, so we won’t be losing their insight, though it’s unlikely we’ll ever see 3001SQ itself. Over in Star Citizen land, folks are still shaking their heads over the predictable postponement of some of the content originally the planned December patch, but at least there’s something to do: Alpha 3.3.5 has made its way to the Evocati PTU testers, while alpha 3.3.0 hit the live server as scheduled. (Thanks, DK and Armsbend!) Meanwhile, Chronicles of Elyria began its map voting campaign, Shroud of the Avatar plopped release 60 on … [Read more...] about Make My MMO: Space sim 3001SQ is put on hold, Star Citizen rolls out 3.3.5 to the Evocati
Jukebox Heroes: Star Citizen’s soundtrack
With more money than several third-world nations, Cloud Imperium Games and Star Citizen certainly has the luxury of affording the best for its (undoubtedly) stellar upcoming game. To be completed June 2057. Sorry, had to get that out of my system early. So I am not at all surprised to discover that Star Citizen already has an absolutely massive soundtrack out there — and that much of it is quite well-done and suitably space operatic. Portuguese composer Pedro Camacho (Fairytale Fights, Audiosurf) was tapped to lead up this project and has his personal stamp on many of the MMO’s tracks. However, he is not the sole composer on the project; Steve Jablonsky (The Sims 3), Geoff Zanelli (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3), Faux Tales, Goteki, George Oldziey, Matthew Fossa, and possibly others also contributed to the score. It’s got chops, is what I’m saying. While Star Citizen — and presumably its soundtrack — is still a work-in-progress, I think that … [Read more...] about Jukebox Heroes: Star Citizen’s soundtrack
Star Trek Online: The search for better music
Last week when I was griping about a few of Star Trek Online’s worst features, my sour opinion on the game’s music seemed to hit a chord with at least a few readers. I know my Battle Bards co-host Steff disagrees with me — she seems to like this OST, although I suspect it’s mostly for a couple signature tracks — but honestly I’m surprised how irritating and non-Star Trek most of these pieces are. While I hate to turn off the soundtrack in an MMO, preferring to let the game present itself to me in its fully intended glory, I haven’t been able to listen to STO’s music for years now. Any time I come back, the music is always deactivated, and I provide my own score for the stars. What I’ve been doing as of late is substituting the music from the Star Trek series and movies, and I have to say that it works remarkably well. In particular, Ron Jones’ TNG soundtracks transform this game with their very unique and memorable qualities. … [Read more...] about Star Trek Online: The search for better music
Archon of the Tiers
This morning I am flailing quite a bit when it comes down actually sitting here and composing a blog post. Its been one thing or the other… like a cat that decided she had to be held before she would relinquish the keyboard to me to actually type. Or the fact that I spilled coffee on my shirt and needed to go change it. Now that I actually sit down at the keyboard I am not entirely certain what I have to talk about. Last night was a night devoted to Tyranny because Saturday we are recording our March AggroChat Game Club game show and I wanted to be able to participate in the conversation fully. I like the idea of the Game Club, but I am a poor member. I am highly susceptible to whims, and tend to get focused in on a game… or number of games at a time. I am also super bad at forcing myself to finish some thing when I am really not that into it. This is evidenced by the fact that my night stand is filled with partially finished … [Read more...] about Archon of the Tiers