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Jukebox Heroes: Defiance's soundtrack
First of all, I wish my first name were a cool animal. Bear McCreary has that on me, so it seems unfair that he's also a geek icon for his work on several beloved TV series (Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, The Walking Dead). And now the guy is composing the soundtrack of one of this spring's hottest MMOs? Where did I go wrong with my life? Before I go and change my name to Sugar Glider Olivetti, I guess it's only fair that I put a lid on my hurt ego to give Defiance's score a fair listen. McCreary was tapped to create the music for both the MMO and the TV series, giving the crossover project a unified sound. "I had to make sure that players could hang out in one area for long stretches of time without getting bored by repetitive music," McCreary wrote on his blog. "As a result, melody plays less of a role throughout many of these cues. The real stars of this music are the texture and colors." Music has texture and colors? If Bear says it, then it must be. Let's dive in!
McCreary creates 'vast musical history' for Defiance
Bear McCreary has posted a Defiance-related update on his official website. The composer, known for scoring Syfy's reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series as well as video games including Dark Void, says that Defiance was one of the biggest challenges of his career. "I was tasked with writing a daunting amount of music, including two hours of energetic music for the videogame, and nearly eight hours of score for the thirteen-episode season," McCreary explains. "During all this, I constantly juggled a dozen or so character themes and followed intricately crafted story arcs." McCreary also contributed to Defiance world-building over the course of the project's five-year development history. His duties included designing distinct musical styles for each of the Votan races, producing "detailed treatises on the design, construction, and functionality of Votan instruments," and ultimately creating a "vast musical history" for the world of Defiance. Finally, McCreary hints at more Defiance-related details to come via his ongoing blog. You can preview the Defiance soundtrack by clicking past the cut and watching the Theme from Defiance video.
Trion Worlds promises that it's addressing critical Defiance issues
Executive Producer Nathan Richardsson has mixed emotions in regards to Defiance's release. "This first day of launch of Defiance has been as awesome as we expected it to be," he wrote in a state of the game post. "And by awesome, I mean we're neck deep addressing all the issues that come up when you scale something up to a million people from a test environment of thousands." Richardsson promised that the large Trion team is working hard to "update, patch, fix, and improve" Defiance post-launch. The most critical problems that he identifies are connectivity problems, missing pre-order items, the scaling of bosses and arkfalls, and broken chat and VOIP. "We appreciate the trust that you are showing us by coming with us and we will address all these issues," he concludes. Speaking of awesome, check out the main theme to Defiance, composed by Bear McCreary, after the jump!
Syfy begins production on TV side of transmedia 'Defiance'
Science fiction TV channel Syfy (Really? Still calling it that?) has reportedly begun production on the pilot of Defiance, that previously announced huge transmedia property in conjunction with Trion Worlds. The idea is that there will be both a TV show and an MMO, and that narratives and actions from each one will intersect in some way with the other. The pilot will star Dexter's Julie Benz, 24's Mia Kirshner, and True Blood's Grant Bowler, and feature writing by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, and music by Bear McCreary, who all worked together on the popular Battlestar Galactica series.The show will take place on a destroyed future earth, where "human and alien survivors of a universal war" have to work together to build a new society. Trion Worlds (creators of Rift and End of Nations) is putting the MMO together, and both the game and the TV series are expected out in Spring 2013.
Bear McCreary's SOCOM 4 soundtrack now available
If you've ever listened to and, as a result, fallen in love with the soundtracks to Battlestar Galactica, Dark Void or Human Target, you'll probably groove to composer Bear McCreary's latest opus: The musical accompaniment to SOCOM 4. The shooter's soundtrack arrived alongside the game itself today, and is now available through iTunes and the PlayStation Store for $10. You can check out a track from the soundtrack over on PlayStation Blog, but you may first want to strap yourself down to your computer chair. If left unrestrained, listening to the track in question might cause you to lose control of your body, sending you off on a wild and irresponsible terrorist hunt. [Image source: Screencap from Dark Void soundtrack trailer]
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow soundtrack nominated for 2 IFMCA awards
The elegiac score accompanying Gabriel Belmont's action-packed emprise in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has impressed the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA). Spanish composer Oscar Araujo is nominated for the "Breakout Composer of the Year" award -- notably alongside French duo Daft Punk, who pounded cinemagoers into Grid-grout during Tron: Legacy. The Lords of Shadow soundtrack is also one of five nominated in the "Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media" category. It's up against some stirring competition in the form of James Bond 007: Blood Stone (featuring Sega legend Richard Jacques) and Dark Void, which isn't usually written about unless it's in praise of Bear McCreary's distinguishing soundtrack. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole earns a nomination, thanks to Winifred Philips, as do the themes of Lego Universe, assembled by Brian Tyler. Though the majority of awards focus on film soundtracks, the IFMCA's sentiment seems just as applicable to video games. "The IFMCA strongly feels that a film score's strength lies in the combined impact of two important elements: the effectiveness, appropriateness and emotional impact of the score in the context of the film for which it was written; and the technical and intellectual merit of the composition when heard as a standalone listening experience." Winners will be announced on February 25, 2011.
PSA: Dark Void soundtrack now available on iTunes, Amazon
We know we've already been diligent in keeping you abreast of the status of Bear McCreary's epic soundtrack for Dark Void, so consider this our penultimate update on the topic: The game's score is now available to download through iTunes, Amazon and a number of other retailers. It's very, very good. If you have some extra cash lying around, and enjoy the occasional non-lyrical musical offering, you should purchase it post-haste. In addition, you can consider this our final post in which we proclaim our musical man-crush on Bear McCreary. That is, until he reveals the next game he's working on, at which point we'll probably pick right up where we left off.
Dark Void soundtrack taking off February 9
Though Capcom's jetpack-infused action title Dark Void may be getting universally panned by critics, one element of the game seems to be garnering praise from reviewers: Its Bear McCreary-composed soundtrack. Thanks to an announcement from music publisher Sumthing Else Music Works, we now know when said soundtrack will get its own release: February 9. Unless, of course, that's when Modern Warfare 2's soundtrack gets released, in which case they'll probably push it back a little bit. Personally, we can't wait to pick up the album, which will be shipped to retailers and available for purchase on Sumthing Else's site. Soon, we'll be able to sit back, close our eyes and listen to McCreary's orchestral jams without worrying about jetpacking into a cliff face.
Bear McCreary explains inspiration for Dark Void score
The pangs of despair we felt upon seeing the recent delay of Dark Void came in two distinct, yet equally heartbreaking flavors. For one, we became that much further removed from the title's jetpack-infused gameplay we've come to know and love. However, almost as upsetting was the fact that we'd have to wait even longer to hear the game's seemingly breathtaking musical score, created by former Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary.Machinima.com recently helped ease the pain by releasing a video interview (posted after the break) with McCreary conducted at San Diego Comic Con '09. It doesn't really feature any of the game's musical accompaniment, but provides us with an interesting look into Bear's creative process -- a process that thankfully extends further than "learn title of game, write entire score in one sitting, give music to developer, earn check, cash check, buy Jet Ski."[Via Capcom Unity]
Another video game soundtrack to suffer Bear attack
Listen, we don't have a dude-crush on Battlestar Galactica and Dark Void compose Bear McCreary -- rather, we have an ear-crush on his musical creations. Once you finally get your hands on Capcom's jetpack-infused action title, you'll understand why -- though during a recent interview with Examiner, McCreary revealed that those who suffer from unbearable jetpackphobia might be able to hear his work on yet another video game in the near future.In the Examiner interview, McCreary revealed he's "doing another video game this summer," as well as "a couple other non-science fiction projects [he] can't announce just yet." We hope one of those projects is following us around, composing live musical accompanyment for our every action. We'd just love to hear some sweeping violins as we enjoy our daily bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, you know?
Bear McCreary's Dark Void soundtrack getting separate release
We understand you're currently wandering through a maelstrom of exciting megaton announcements, but we want you to take a moment to soak in this wonderful, albeit non-major announcement: Capcom senior producer Morgan Gray confirmed that Bear McCreary's incredible-so-far Dark Void soundtrack will be getting a standalone CD release.NO! WAIT! Rein in your narrow attention span for just a bit longer. See, McCreary had been trying to get the fans he acquired during his work on Battlestar Galactica to ask Capcom to release the original Dark Void score on CD -- it seems Capcom got the message. Gray explained that Capcom had actually paid McCreary more for his Dark Void score than Galactica ever did, so why wouldn't they want to put it on CD? That's sound logic -- not to mention sound economics. We're already planning on buying a few dozen copies.
Joystiq interviews: Dark Void producer Morgan Gray
At a recent media event, Joystiq sat down with Capcom's Morgan Gray, senior producer of Dark Void. Gray fielded our questions on jetpack gameplay, multiplayer, DLC (confirmed!), and much more, including the frightening revelation that the helmet design could be confused with -- oh, let's not even go there ... Continue on for the full interview, and stay tuned for our latest hands-on preview coming soon.
Battlestar Galactica composer previews music for Dark Void
Hey, guy -- what's the matter? We've noticed you've been looking positively sullen these past few weeks. Has the series departure of Battlestar Galactica got you down in the frakking dumps? There's not much we can do about that, though your spirits may be lifted by checking out a recent blog post from Battlestar composer Bear McCreary, the recently revealed songsmith behind the score of Dark Void. His blog contains a video (posted after the jump) previewing a few clips from the game's soundtrack, which is shaping up to sound just as awesome as the title looks.If soaring orchestral tunes aren't really your thing, you might still want to check out the preview for a few new Dark Void gameplay clips. Then again, if you've yet to be swept off your feet (and propelled hundreds of feet into the air) by Capcom's jet pack-centric action title, you may be entertained by McCreary's declaration of love for Mega Man -- any composer who creates 8-bit versions of their pieces then saves them on hard drives named after Robot Masters is okay in our books.
Dark Void scored by Battlestar Galactica's Bear McCreary
Capcom has outed TV's Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary as a sign-on ... for third-person jetpack-em-up, Dark Void. McCreary will create the soundtrack for the Airtight Studios-developed shooter, which is slated to launch on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC later this year. "I have been looking for the opportunity to compose a game score for a long time, but I've been waiting for the right one," said McCreary, who is held in high regards by fans of the recently departed syfy sci-fi show. He noted that Dark Void's "epic story and unique gameplay" drew him in, a somewhat generic admission that only serves to highlight a terrible injustice. Not only will he score Dark Void, but he'll probably score an early copy too.
