The ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ soundtrack gives fans what they want
When Microsoft’s in-house Halo studio 343 Industries took the franchise over from creator Bungie, it made a bold statement by abandoning longtime composer Marty O’Donnell’s iconic score for one mostly written by Neil Davidge of the English trip-hop group Massive Attack. Think of it like Disney replacing John Williams’ iconic Star Wars score with something by Randy Newman and you’re about halfway there. His changes were drastic, eschewing established musical tropes for something simultaneously foreign and familiar, leaving no sacred cows behind. It was a ballsy move, and at the time 343’s freshman bravado made a statement about how it would handle the franchise moving forward. But something happened in the three-year gap between then and now: 343 released Halo: The Master Chief Collection to disastrous technical results. How broken that game was (and in some cases still is) had an effect on the development team, and likely killed some of its confidence.
I recently had the chance to speak to 343’s in-house composer Kazuma Jinnouchi as well as audio director Sotaro Tojima and lead audio producer Mary Olson. Our conversation covers everything from fan reactions to Halo 4‘s soundtrack to using music composition as a means of differentiating returning hero Master Chief from new protagonist Jameson Locke. Previously, Jinnouchi’s worked on a number of Metal Gear Solid games, so we talked about the differences between writing music for a first-person versus third-person game as well. To hear how fan-centric the approach to the score was for yourself, you can stream the game’s entire soundtrack as you read the interview below.
I’ve been listening to the soundtrack quite a bit and I’m curious what the approach was for the game and how it differed from Halo 4.
Jinnouchi: The major difference was me being the main composer. And me being in-house at 343 Industries from the very start of the project. When the story was only five pages long, I was there. Having that insight helped me understand the game a lot more than how I was involved in Halo 4. Because I joined the team a year before the game shipped, I pretty much jumped in in the middle of the production that was already happening between the studio and Neil Davidge. We were working remotely with Neil so there were a lot of challenges on our end. Communication was very … it wasn’t the easiest project for us. Getting to know people and then being told to make the biggest game was quite a challenge. Going through that experience and moving forward to Halo 5 was a lot easier.
When I listened to the soundtrack, I noticed that there were a lot of familiar themes, musically. The monks are back, for example. Why go back to what was in the original games?
Tojima: Neil Davidge did a great job on Halo 4. We felt that we were missing one piece from the Neil Davidge library: strong music pieces which the Halo fans really love. This is the reason I took Kazuma and said I really need one piece of really strong music which has a strong Halo classic aesthetic for Halo 4. “This is clearly your biggest goal.” So we worked together and he composed “117.” It was one of the users’ favorite pieces, eventually.
Outsourcing a strong composer has a benefit because they have a bunch of experience working for film, TV or music. To me, especially for Halo fans, the most important thing is that the main music composer keeps thinking about Halo fans and the franchise a whole year, every day, with strong communications with the audio director, creative director or the whole studio.
Halo 5‘s score was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studio
What was the fan reaction to the Halo 4 soundtrack? It sounded different than you’d expect a Halo game to sound and was really experimental. I think that’s what I liked most about it. Halo 5‘s sounds like a traditional score for the series.
Tojima: Actually, the music feedback was a combination of negative and positive. On the positive side, the many Halo fans said that the music itself is really cool, but some people complained about it having not enough of a classic Halo aesthetic; it was too different. “I can’t hear what I listened to for 10 years.” That kind of thing. Negative feedback was that each piece is great, but for some reason it didn’t feel so memorable in-game.
This is kind of my bad rather than Neil Davidge’s. The mixing or music and music direction; everything is not sophisticated enough. For example, Neil did compose a bunch of thematic, melodic pieces. Great pieces, but we couldn’t use his great music most effectively. We should’ve used some specific music more repeatedly or arranged it more thematically. But like Kazuma was saying, we had a communication challenge. He’s a great guy, easy to work with; we had a couple of Skype meetings per week. Compared to the daily communication with an in-house music composer, though, it’s a challenge.
We should always talk about what Halo fans want. We’re checking the user feedback pretty much every day and adjusting details, the direction.
What was it like working under fan expectations?
[Interrupts] Olson: Sorry to cut you off, but to be clear about this vision and what they set out to do was really more to combine. It wasn’t to just go back to Marty’s pieces and hang out there and give up. It wasn’t just to go back and give the fans total classic Halo. It was more like a leaping point. There’s absolutely the intent of establishing a new direction and taking a new direction, but taking a nod and showing the respect for that classic and bringing that into Halo 5 and incorporating it.
Jinnouchi: My process was to take all the musical elements from Halo 1, 2, 3 and 4 and say, “Okay, we have this theme for this type of moment, this theme for that character.” We have a lot of that for our legacy. So moving forward, I have to take them and make sense against what we see and what we experience in Halo 5. I rearranged a lot of them in a way that the tone is still Halo 5, but you do pay homage to the previous titles.
Given your background and how differently Japanese culture views first-person shooters, did that play a role in how you approached the music?
Jinnouchi: My approach was very different from the previous games I worked on. Working on a Halo game felt like you need a lot more subtlety. You arrange differently because of that and write differently. Previously, I’d mostly worked on third-person games. When you work on a first person game, you’re not looking at the character; you are the character. The music shouldn’t be in the way of what you do or your thinking process. When I say I felt like I needed more subtlety, it’s driven by that aspect; there’s a lot of room for thinking as a user from that perspective.
With first-person shooter games, my approach is to have music not explain what’s really going on on the screen because you are the character and you are fighting through the intense moment. You know it’s an intense moment. The music doesn’t have to be there to explain that. Well … sometimes it needs to be there to drive that intention even more. In general, there’s a different role for the music. What’s the story behind [what’s happening on-screen]? Why’s it creepy? The music doesn’t necessarily explain what kind of situation you’re in from a gameplay perspective; it should explain why it’s happening. It’s not just third-person versus first-person; it’s more about how modern gaming music should be.
Was there a specific reason Davidge wasn’t brought back?
Olson: [16-second pause] I think that it touches on all the things that Kazuma and Tojima have said in terms of the advantages of having an in-house composer. At that point, because Kazuma came in in the last year of Halo 4, he was here and [having him compose] was an option that was available, whereas it wasn’t on Halo 4. And again, like Tojima mentioned, he’d written “117.” He’d taken some time to creatively prove himself.
“117” is a great track; I love the Halo 4 soundtrack and listen to it pretty regularly. When Halo 5 was announced, my first question was if Davidge was coming back.
Olson: It’s fun to talk to somebody who did love it.
So this wasn’t anything to do with appeasing fans that weren’t happy with Halo 4 and just go back to classic?
Jinnouchi: No, it was more about creatively how we should move forward.
Tojima: Not just on the audio team, but I think all of 343 has a very challenging question: Where is a great spot between something totally new and epic, or a classic Halo aesthetic? So some fans really want to keep that similarity. As a new team, the creators, we try to hit something new creatively. That’s why I think we are struggling between a classic Halo aesthetic, but something new.
We also tried to hit that sweet spot in Halo 4 with Neil Davidge. We arranged a couple of [existing] pieces in Halo 4. But we didn’t use the iconic Halo choir on the title screen, but we didn’t arrange one of the most thematic, iconic pieces. We arranged the more iconic pieces [from the past] this time because we feel these pieces should be the core of the experience for Halo fans. This is part of their gaming history, so we should really respect the melody.
You’re introducing a brand-new character, Spartan Locke. What are the things you did differently musically to differentiate him from Master Chief?
Jinnouchi: Two things. One is choice of instruments. Another big factor is chord progression and melody. I used a different scale for Locke’s theme as opposed to Master Chief. It’s got little major/minor scale things that consist of two different chord progressions. It doesn’t just stay within the minor or the major. It has this ambiguity to it.
Initially, I wanted to create the feel of, “Is this a good guy or a bad guy?” I wanted the music to make you ask, “Who is this?”
[Image credits: 343 Industries]
This interview has been condensed and edited.
Here’s how ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ multiplayer rankings work
Halo 5: Guardians is almost upon us, and once the campaign credits roll (or the game itself finishes installing on your Xbox One, depending on your style) you might be curious how multiplayer ranking works. Wonder no more because it’s similar to League of Legends according to a post on Halo Waypoint. Your starting placement in matchmade Arena games is determined by how you fare in your first ten games. That “Competitive Skill Rating” breaks down into seven categories: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Onyx and Champion. The post stresses that the only way to increase your rank after those initial ten matches are set is by winning.
“Whether you drop 30 kills in a game of Slayer or single-handedly capture every flag in a CTF match, wins are the only way to improve your CSR,” it says. “If you are skilled enough to continue winning at tier 6 [the highest per rank], you will advance to the next rank.”
And doing the opposite? It’ll cause your progress to drop, but not at the expense of your current rank. League of Legends isn’t quite so kind in that regard. So, say you have a bad night and you’re losing matches left and right in the Diamond rank. That won’t drop you back to Gold. In theory, this’ll help you keep in that sweet spot of consistently grouping with folks of your skill level regardless of a nasty cold streak.
Oh, and in ranked Arena matches you don’t have to worry about joining a game that’s already in progress and getting dumped onto the losing team, hurting your CSR. How’s that? Every match starts from the beginning and there isn’t such a thing as joining one halfway through. That feature still lives in Warzone and Custom Games, though. You’ll be penalized for dropping out of matches too. What’s more, Arena plays out in “seasons” now. They’ll debut sometime later this year and from the sounds of it, only live within specific playlists. Seasons last a month each, and your CSR resets with each successive season. Should you earn some of those points in the playlist, you’ll be rewarded with cosmetic items like an in-game banner for your Gamertag.
Sounds good, yeah? Well, I don’t know about you folks, but I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna be stuck in Bronze for quite awhile come October 27th — no eSports stardom for this guy.
Source: Halo Waypoint
This is what success looks like on Twitch
Twitch is exactly what you make of it. Looking for some dating advice while a broadcaster drinks wine and plays Minesweeper? There’s a channel for that. How about a corny sci-fi show about a guy sent back from the future to conquer video games before they turn sentient and kill us all? You’re covered there, too. And while those two channels on the livestreaming service are wildly different from one another, they share a commonality: Each requires a grueling amount of work to produce on a regular basis. Respective creators Sonja “OMGitsfirefoxx” Reid and Futureman Gaming took different paths to make it into Twitch’s highly coveted Partner program, a revenue-sharing system between some 12,000 contracted broadcasters and the service. But their motivation to succeed hasn’t stopped since they’ve “made it” and now earn a living from streaming on the site.
Futureman Gaming
Before he adopted the Futureman Gaming persona, Chris (who prefers we don’t disclose his last name) was a full-time second grade teacher at a special needs school in New York City. He discovered Twitch by accident one day while looking for info on the military shooter Battlefield 4. Drawn to the fact that he was seeing live, unfiltered gameplay and commentary, he decided to try his hand at broadcasting on the site. From there, he made an account and broadcast for a few months, but only casually at first. Frustrated by the lack of viewers to his personal channel, he took some time off to reevaluate how he could get more than just personal friends to stick around and watch his gameplay.
“I was getting pushed in terms of teach, get off of work, stream for five or six hours [and] work on some stuff. Sleep was always down on the list of things to do.”
Futureman Gaming, Twitch
Rather than rely on a collapsible green screen — what he refers to as a “game changer” — to remove background clutter like most other streamers, Futureman uses it as a canvas to set himself apart on the service. “I thought, ‘I can create anything. Why not develop a whole story?’” he said during an interview at TwitchCon. Thus, the Terminator-esque narrative for his channel was born: Futureman travels back in time to play games from start to finish in an attempt to save humanity from impending doom; from video games that will, otherwise, destroy us all. His main setup for broadcasting is a crudely assembled CGI spaceship cockpit that isn’t without its do-it-yourself charm. For an analogue, think early-’90s public access TV levels of kitsch and you’re basically there.
Despite his best efforts to court it virally, Twitch success came for Futureman in a roundabout way. Ahead of his channel launch last September, he posted a cryptic message to the Twitch subreddit saying that he’d come from the future to save humanity from video games. He also linked to a charmingly lo-fi video that serves as his intro for broadcasts. “I wanted to do something that people would get excited about,” he said. But it was to no great effect — he still only had a modest 2,000 followers and a crew of about 30 regulars who’d hang out in chat during his broadcasts. It wasn’t until a Twitch employee caught one of Futureman’s broadcasts in February that traffic picked up in a big way. Chat numbers then quickly grew to 2,000 viewers. Within a few days he was Partnered, and it wasn’t long before he quit his day job.
“I was getting pushed in terms of teach, get off of work, stream for five or six hours [and] work on some stuff,” he said of his once punishing schedule. “Sleep was always down on the list of things to do.” Since achieving status with Twitch, his follower count has ballooned to over 40,000. His schedule is a bit scattershot though, and for the month of October, Futureman has only streamed seven times as of this writing for around 45 hours total.
Sci-fi kitsch isn’t all that Futureman broadcasts on Twitch; he also dabbles in music streaming — a fairly new category for the service. He has a recurring show dubbed DJs in Space where he’ll invite a local DJ to his apartment to play music while he produces trippy visual effects on the fly. The last edition of the show ran for nearly six hours long with no signs of fatigue from Futureman.
Sonja “OMGitsfirefoxx” Reid
Whereas a Futureman production can be considered “polished” for Twitch, an OMGitsfirefoxx broadcast is a little more back to basics. Most of the time it’s just Reid sitting in a desk chair, microphone in front of her, playing games and talking with fellow broadcasters. Reid’s casts have themes to them like “$uper $ellout $ubscriber $exy $andstorm $undays,” where she doles out giveaways for every new 350 subscribers she gets. Or a “Minesweeper and Chill” one-off where she and other female streamers, including HayliNic, answered dating and sex questions for donors for nearly seven hours, each pledging to call ex-boyfriends on-stream when certain follower thresholds were met.
Reid began streaming mid-2013 while working retail, but it wasn’t until she started a daily Minecraft show with CaptainSparklez and a few other top streamers, dubbed Mianite, that her popularity began to soar. She achieved Partner status in January 2014 and that summer she quit her day job to broadcast on Twitch full-time. Since then, she’s amassed over 660,000 followers and has become the most popular female broadcaster on the service. In contrast, her male counterpart is none other than Twitch co-founder Justin Kan (the “Justin” in Twitch progenitor Justin.tv) with nearly 4 million followers.
“I love this job so much. But it can be really toxic because you only grow as much, earn as much and you only get as big as the effort you put in.”
OMGitsfirefoxx, Twitch
The 24-year-old can spend 40 hours or more streaming any given week, whether it’s playing Winesweeper (as she calls it), Minecraft or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But while most people’s workweeks end after logging that much time, that’s just the beginning of hers. Beyond her Twitch responsibilities, she runs a Minecraft server, as well as records and edits clips for YouTube and “off-brand” promotional content like sponsored streams or social media activity. “It’s hard to say how many hours in a week I work,” she said with a laugh. Working six or seven days in a row isn’t uncommon for Reid and she’s always in front of her computer, even if it’s to relax by watching anime or playing World of Warcraft. What little personal time she has after multi-hour streams and other responsibilities goes into sewing (“I feel like a grandma”) or just laying down for an hour before a broadcast.
With that type of schedule, burnout is a serious concern for Reid. Her depression doesn’t make it any easier, either. Other casters suffer from this too and it’s why Twitch introduced video uploads and playlist features, due out next year (Futureman currently has access to a beta version), to make the life of a pro streamer more manageable. As welcome as those tools will be, however, Reid isn’t exactly sure how helpful they’ll prove. “I don’t really think it’s going to alleviate anything about being away from Twitch,” she said. When a channel isn’t active for an extended period of time, it runs the risk of losing followers, and, more importantly, donors; a little downtime or vacation can come at the sacrifice of subscribers and ad revenue.
“I love this job so much,” she said. “But it can be really toxic because you only grow as much, earn as much and you only get as big as the effort you put in.” In spite of this, Reid pushes herself to maintain her rank. “I’m the top female broadcaster; I’m proud of that,” she said. “I’m going to keep that.”
‘Success’ is a $5 word
Neither Reid nor Futureman were willing to put an exact number on how much they make streaming. Reid has about 2,000 subscribers paying $5 per month for unique chat emotes, community perks and access to her private Snapchat account. Of that $5, she keeps $3.50 and the rest goes to Twitch. Other top broadcasters, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that they’re getting a 70/30 split with Twitch as well. Reid won’t reveal her exact income, but doing the math suggests she’s pulling in at least $7,000 per month from Twitch subscriptions alone before factoring in ad revenue. Then there’s the money she makes from YouTube and her “off-brand” income streams.
“I’m able to do this full-time and work on it full-time. But I’m not rich.”
Futureman Gaming, Twitch
Futureman said he makes about the same as he did teaching, putting that Twitch income figure at less than $60,000 per year. “I’m able to do this full-time and work on it full-time,” he said. “But I’m not rich.” That said, he is able to afford rent and the high cost of living in New York City.
As both Reid and Futureman have highlighted, the life of a professional Twitch streamer isn’t the gig for everyone. However, both broadcasters have advice for new streamers with partnership aspirations: Play games you enjoy and don’t be discouraged by low viewer counts when you’re starting out. Even now, Reid guards herself against the latter by putting a sticker on her monitor where the running viewer tally displays. “It has totally changed my attitude because I’m not constantly looking over at it, asking myself why I’m losing followers,” she said.
Futureman agrees: “If people are chatting, that’s my number one priority, and trying to make the show as entertaining as possible for everybody who’s there.” He also had more heartfelt advice to dole out, too.
“For a second, I thought I was too late [to the streaming scene],” he said. “It’s never too late to go and try to make something happen.”
[Image credit: Twitch (Futureman)]
ICYMI: Draw-an-instrument, levitating light and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: A conductive-ink pen and matching sensor from Japan allows you to draw an instrument on any piece of paper. Carnegie Mellon scientists invented the Ballbot: A robot that moves and balances on a single spherical wheel. And we also wanted you to see the levitating lightbulb that floats above its base with magnetic levitation.
We also touch on a few big pieces of news in our final show for the week. Space nerds will want to read about Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, now that it’s shrinking. And tech folk should read about Apple being found liable by using a patent owned by University of Wisconsin.
If you come across any interesting videos, we’d love to see them. Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd.
Prepare your PS3s, North America: ‘Yakuza 5’ lands next month
Yakuza 5 launched in Japan for the PlayStation 3 in December 2012. Three years and one console generation later, it’s heading to North American PS3s in “mid-November, if all goes to schedule.” Sega announced the release window today in a blog post, noting, “It’s a little later than we would’ve liked, and a few weird development bugs that popped up in localization caused the delay.” Specifically, but not technically, Sega ran into issues with the on-screen text, which had to be flipped from Japanese to English. Once the bugs are squashed, Yakuza 5 is on track to hit PS3 digitally via PSN next month across North America.
At TGS 2015, Sega announced it’s working on Yakuza 6, which is due to hit Japanese PS4s in the fall of 2016. Plus, it’s developing an HD remake of the original Yakuza for PS3 and PS4, also confirmed for Japan only so far.
[Image credit: Sega]
Source: Sega
Playdate: We’re exploring ‘Yoshi’s Woolly World’
From all of your custom Super Mario Maker levels, to Steam Machines and now to Yoshi’s Woolly World on Wii U in one week, you can’t say we aren’t afraid to switch things up now and again here on Engadget Playdate. When he played the latter back at E3, features editor and gaming overlord Joseph Volpe likened the game to “a warm hug.” Neither Sean nor myself has had a chance to get our mitts on it yet, so we’re fixing that today live on Twitch just for you. Join us starting at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific as we make our way through the yarn-spun affair either here on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage or Twitch.tv/joystiq if you’d like to chat with us. http://www.twitch.tv/joystiq/embedWatch live video from Joystiq on www.twitch.tv
[We’re streaming Yoshi’s Woolly World at 720p through OBS, so rest assured it’ll look much more adorable on your TV at home.]
You don’t have to know ‘Borderlands’ to play ‘Tales from the Borderlands’
The final trailer for Tales from the Borderlands, the narrative-driven point-and-click adventure game from Telltale, is full of action, guns, humor, drama, raw emotion and a catchy chiptune-inspired soundtrack. It’s a bit like the game itself (which is good, since it’s a trailer for exactly that). If you’re worried about diving into this game blind, Engadget’s former sister site Joystiq reviewed the premiere episode back in November 2014 and had the following to say: “Regardless of your level of Borderlands experience, Tales from the Borderlands is a witty, well-written adventure with broad appeal. And yeah, there’s a dick joke or two.” The fifth and final installment of Tales from the Borderlands drops on October 20th for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PC and Mac; October 21st for Xbox One and Xbox 360; and October 22nd for iOS and Android.
And, to those noble souls who wait for every chapter to release before starting an episodic game — bless you. Your Borderlands-based reward is nearly here.
Source: Telltale Games on YouTube
Your PS Vita deserves to live again
There’s no PS Vita 2 on the horizon. So now what? There are a whole bunch of reasons why the now three year-old handheld may not be the mega-hit that Sony hoped for. As Kotaku’s elaborated on already, the company isn’t completely blameless, but that isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of reasons to still pick up a Vita, play the crap out of it, recharge it and do it all again. Here’s a handful of ’em to start you off. We also want to hear your own recommendations, which is what our new comment system was made for. Slideshow-328533
‘PC Does What?’ commercials take you right to the danger zone
That “PC Does What?” ad campaign from the likes of Dell, HP, Intel, Lenovo and Microsoft isn’t a rumor anymore. As Business Insider notes, each of the five spots highlights a different aspect of modern Windows PCs including their svelte designs, gaming prowess and convertible configurations. The series of 30 second ads will start airing October 19th, but if you’re the impatient type you can hop past the break and see them embedded below.
[Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Via: Business Insider
Source: Intel (YouTube)
Poorly-named ‘League of Legends’ players get psychology surveys
League of Legends has roughly 67 million players, so the developer has a big challenge when it comes to monitoring the community the size of a small country — and curbing the worser elements. While it’s involved itself with how players interact with the game, this time it’s doing something more: it’s recently started asking ill-named players to take psychological self-evaluation tests. LoL players can report others for inappropriate character names that don’t gel with the game’s terms of use. However, this week, some players noticing a different naming process for characters that weren’t okay the first time around. Gamers now have to complete a survey, play 50 matches, then follow that up with another survey. After that, players can change their name to something that follows the rules. (Before, cheekily-named users got a temporary name until they picked a better one.)
Some players are more concerned with the contents of the survey, as Motherboard also notes, lifts questions and statements from the Narcissistic Personality Inventory test. Users on Reddit have raised concerns over where the survey’s results will be used or shared — we’ve reached out to Riot for comment. Here’s some of the questions another part of survey asks:
Source: Motherboard
AIVAnet 