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SW:TOR vs GW2: Battle of the soundtracks
theinvader
Member UncommonPosts: 240
Probably the two most highly anticipated titles in the genre, there have been many threads comparing these games. But so far I've seen very little discussion of their soundtracks. Both have some great strengths to play off and we haven't heard nearly enough of either. But let's have a look anyway:
Disclamer: This is just some harmless fun, I realise that neither soundtrack has to be better and I intend to enjoy both when their games are released. Also, please try not to derail this thread into a discussion about the gameplay or anything else.
Guild Wars 2
Jeremy Soule is f**king awesome. He kicks so much ass and I love him. Not only that but he's one of the most well know and loved composers in the industry and has one many an award for it. There are already signs that he's coming out with another winner, such as the great tracks we've heard during the trailers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teRDfdIDzy8 (apologies for the low quality audio. there hasn't been an official release of this track so it was ripped from the video and cleaned up by hand)
Not only is he an industry favourite he composed the music to the first Guild Wars so he already has some established themes to work from that will be recognised and loved by fans of the series (note I haven't actually played the GW1 nor listened to much of the soundtrack so this is purely speculation on my part).
Star Wars: The Old Republic
SW:TOR may not have any names quite as big as Jeremy Soule attatched to it, but the music of the Star Wars universe always draws from John Williams' epic soundtracks. These are soundtracks that are so distinctive and popular that they have become a part of the collective nerd conciousness. Everyone knows the tunes from Star Wars, whether they love the franchise or not. The strong, uplifting main theme; the wistful "binary sunset" theme; the dark, military Imperial March. And on top of this extremely strong base Bioware have hired a team of five composers to create the music of SW:TOR. Together they are going to craft a whopping five and a half hours of original material for the game. Throw in the music from the first two KOTORs and the soundtracks to the films and you have one very epic soundtrack. No matter how pessimistic you want to be about this game there's no denying it'll sound awesome.
Unfortunately I couldn't find any original tracks to post (the trailers all use tracks from the movies). But here's a couple of mini documentaries that'll give you a flavour of the music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK0Nn7SW8kI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrziiQcJwjs
So, MMORPG fans, which soundtrack are you most excited for?
Always read the small print.
Comments
both? do i really have to choose a side here?
Hans Zimmer > ALL?!
Not at all! Like I said, just some harmless fun. I fully expect to love both (whether I'll like one more remains to be seen).
Always read the small print.
Pretty much, but heck I'll bite.
I love Jeremy Soule and I think GW2's soundtrack will be amazing, but I'll pick SW:TOR here.
Mark Griskey isn't exactly a newbie either and I loved his music in Kotor 2, he's also not the only composer on the team, they've got specialists working on each aspect of the score.
Furthermore, they're using all the music from the films and both kotor games together with a mind boggling amount of new stuff.
Jeremy Soule is amazing but he doesn't win against John Williams and the pure scope of this.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Music in general is very subjective and you can't really say "this is better than that" because it's all up to each individual listener, but I do have to say that SW games main fault in the music department is their sometimes too great reliance on Williams' original score for both inspirational purposes and sometimes just copy-pasting his songs. Not that the same couldn't be said about certain familiarity in all of Soule's works, but I'm just saying that SW music has started to rub me the wrong during the last few years, despite KotOR's very good attempts at making an identity of it's own.
don't just wish you could have john willaims play dramatic music everytime you perform some action. epic showers,epic scenes of me walking and falling. me punchin a kid in the forehead epic music playing duel of fates. off topic but I want to make both companys combine these two games in one massive epic MMO with 300 devs working together to defeat blizzard in some kind of grand last stand of armageddon.
Gotta go with TORs music sorry guys :P
I can see where your coming from. I really love what John Williams did with Episode 3, it's very dark and moody at times and he really feels like he's trying to break away from the mold he created with the original soundtracks. Listen to Padme's Ruminations and Palpatine's Teachings (sorry for the irritating intros. they were the best quality uploads I could find). There was nothing like that on the Original Trilogy soundtracks. I wish the composers for the games would take the same initiative and try and come up with a sound that breaks away from the themes John Williams created and isn't afraid to be bold, but while still retaining some of that familiarity.
Always read the small print.
The Skyrim theme begs to be mentioned here. I've never heard a more epic score to supplement a trailer and I can't stop humming it all day long.
Dovakhin, ... DRAGONBORN! ... MUSTU THAAA!!
My brand new bloggity blog.
Yeah, I had a mega-eargasm when I watched that trailer.
Always read the small print.
Such a subjective thread, anyone who says their opinion is right here is just so stupid. IN THE FACE.
I do enjoy much of GW1 music, and the small bits of GW2 music I've heard, it does seem heavily influenced by gw1, which is a good sign.
But, comparing it to TOR music...Eh. Doesn't really stand a chance. It doesn't hold a candle in my book. I am not calling GW music bad at all, as I said just above. But the music from SW/TOR is just that good, for me. The SWlike music in KoTOR was great.
And yeah :P.
I Do like the music in the Skyrim trailer. Almost sounds...russian. But is the whole track as powerful?
I hate to break it to you but GW 2 is not the "most anticipated MMO" in some time. Amongst those in the know, amongst those who frequent this site and others like it maybe. But your average gamer in the street has not heard of GW or GW 2. Most however have heard of WoW and ToR.
GW is a hotly anticipated niche title, it will be a great game, but it is not going to have the market reach of the big boys sorry.
As for Music, Bioware have always nailed the scores in their games, Kotor, IWD, DA, JAde empire, and especially mass effect, Jack Wall is a genious at musical scores.
Guild wars music was... ok
In the interest of fairness that is Morrowind theme with lyrics.
Can you link me some music from SWTOR? Oh, and btw the same guy that made GW1/2 music is also the author Kotor 1/2 OST.
Obviously everyone's entitled to their own opinion and no one's opinion is right or wrong. I just wanted to invoke discussion of the music from these games with a bit of playful competition.
I said GW2 and TOR were the 2 most anticipated MMOs. Name me one MMO that is more anticipated than GW2 other than TOR. "Anticipated" means unreleased so WoW doesn't count. Anyhow this topic is about music not hype, so please ignore my rhetorical question. :P
Personally I think Guild Wars 2 stands a fighting chance. Morrowind stands as one of my favourite soundtracks, not as good as Star Wars, but considering John Williams isn't composing for SW:TOR I think Jeremy Soule could surpass the TOR team. Only one thing's certain: they are both gonna be awesome!
Always read the small print.
Yeah I know, the melody line is Morrowind's and I think that was a very smart move as it rings a bell for so many people. Brings back the good old rpg feeling for me.
My brand new bloggity blog.
See my OP - I couldn't find any pure SW:TOR music tracks but I did find some documentaries where you can hear the music.
You're right, Jeremy Soule composed the soundtrack from KOTOR 1 (not 2) so his music will feature in both games!
Always read the small print.
Kind of hard to compare since they aren't out yet no?
I think both soundtracks will be great but if I had to pick one it would be GW2 because of Jeremy Soule.
I think that it's the melody line for the Elder Scrolls series now, considering Oblivion used it too. Morrowind was the first game to feature it though. It's great when a series has a consistent theme to its soundtrack.
Always read the small print.
I wish I could, sowwies.
Granted, I have not heard all of GW2 soundtrack, but the ones I have really haven't stood up yet.
I do think much if not all of Biowares games have STELLAR music. Maybe not always the best music, but much of it seems like it was created with care.
Williams is great of course, I have my doubt that EA can find someone that can do something with equal quality.
Souel on the other hand is really good, the first GW have excellent soundtrack.
Really hard to say without hearing a few hours of music. And even then is this music and music taste differs a lot.
I can't stand Lady Gaga but I love Rob Zombie so I might vote rather different from most people here. You can make some judgement on how good technically someone is no matter if you like his music or not but what is good and not is always a matter of taste.
AoCs music was excellent but it didn't helped it keep the players. Unless the music is really annoying is it not one of the main features of a game (well, it was great to set the mood in battlefield Vietnam but generally it is of less importance).
Ok, i've heard those clips with bits of SWToR that theinvader linked and compared them with this . I mean, you need to be a HUGE SWToR fanboy or a very boring person to say that it's OST sounds better than the one in GW2. What's the most ridiculous is the argument that SWToR soundtrack is better cause John Williams made the OST for the movies. I mean, seriously guys :P. And don't try to relativize this with "tastes are different" carp. If that was the case it wouldn't matter who is composing the music.
Ah there we go, knew someone could claim one side is right and the other is wrong on the first page.
I love the SW sound track, so obviously I'm going with SWTOR.
I rest my case.
That usually happens in discussions.