partial Halo 2 soundtrack announced... wtf?

[Perkar]

taken from www.theprp.com

Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin are among the artists set to appear on the soundtrack to the upcoming Xbox videogame, "Halo 2". The outing will arrive in North American stores through Sumthing Else Music Works on November 09th. A full track listing is expected to be revealed shortly.



i'm not so sure i understand. why is this music in halo? this isn't grand theft auto or tony hawk or burnout 3... why licensed music?

[Half Japanese]

In other words:

"to avoid hearing always-generic and often outright awful modern swill, please completely mute the music in the game."

This makes no sense at all. There goes at least a half a point (review-wise) based on the stupidity of that decision alone, assuming of course, that it's true.

[ubersaurus]

Marty O'Donnell explanied this on a forum post over on Halo.Bungie.org. I'll repost it in it's entirety.


Wow everybody, thanks for caring about the music in Halo2. Here’s the official word from this old horse’s mouth.

Halo1 was a big hit. Many people liked it a lot. Nile Rogers, a truly legendary music producer (my generation by the way) absolutely loved it and had his company release the soundtrack. Over the past three years, Nile and myriad marketing type folks from Microsoft, kept telling me about all these popular bands and artists who love playing Halo. Wouldn’t it be cool if they contributed music to Halo2? My instinct was to say no, go away and stop bothering me. Then they started talking about having a soundtrack that would be ready for release at the same time as Halo2’s release. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to finish all the audio for the game, and mix a decent soundtrack at the same time, so Nile and I came up with a plan to have two soundtracks. Volume One, which would feature whatever music I had finished in time to have it included (which by the way is a majority of the album) and “inspired by” music from the bands that really love playing Halo and wanted to contribute something. Volume Two, to be released at a later date, will include all the remaining music of mine and perhaps some more “inspired by” stuff if that turns out to be cool.

The most important thing is that there is NO music in the game that I didn’t want in the game. I knew that I had to focus on making music for the game and not for a soundtrack. That’s where Nile came in. He really is quite a talented guy and knows a lot of people. I’ve worked with many great guitar players, but when Nile called me and said that I could work with his buddy Steve Vai (my generation again), I just about lost it. Once I did the session with Steve, which I’ll tell you about sometime, I decided to trust Nile to fill out the Halo2 Soundtrack Volume One any way he saw fit. I know that I’ll like at least most of what’s on there. Two of the bands that worked with Nile and contributed to the album also sent me instrumental mixes of their stuff. The music was based on my themes and I was pretty blown away by them. The deal was that I could use those pieces in the game at my discretion, and that’s what I did. I like how I used them, maybe you will too, we’ll see. Trust me, they’re an amazingly small percentage of the overall musical landscape of Halo2, but I think they work great.

The temptation to succumb to the siren call of Hollywood and the marketing hype machine is hard to resist. Bungie tried hard to stay Bungie throughout the production of Halo2. Our goal is to make the coolest game for the best fans. It turns out that some of our fans are already part of the big hype machine and ended up being pretty cool too. I hope we don’t let you folks down, and I don’t think we “sold out”. Of course you should know that buying the Halo2 Soundtrack Volume One will help me in my quest for paying for my two daughter’s college tuitions.

Oh and I hope you like Sergeant Johnson’s hip hop rap duet with Justin Timberlake.

(kidding!)

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm going to move past my knee-jerk reaction, and say that a lot of popular (?) bands out there DO put out great instrumentals...and if O'Donnel greenlighted it, the selection likely are good.

[Half Japanese]

I'm still not buying it. "Inspired by" usually means "single from our upcoming album" or "look for our ad in the manual." I don't care were the music not shit heard on MTV, licensed tracks have no business in a game of that sort.

The last line about paying for his daughters' college is ridiculous too. Everybody's got to take care of business, it's just some people don't look ridiculous and desparate doing it. Everyone be sure to buy both copies so he doesn't have to give handjobs to educate his children.

[Ed Oscuro]

With cynicism you'll never be let down, right? :P

No problem with that, but I'm still feeling pleasantly about Halo 2's soundtrack.

[tholly]

hmmm...those artists dont seem to match in with Halo 2, but, i wont pass judgement until i play it...who knows .... it may be implemented perfectly....

anyway...nothing would stop me from buying this game and i trust bungie to make a great game, so i dont think we have anything to worry about

[max 330 mega]

LOL ROFL LOL

yet another reason now that i dont have any interest in this game. if they wanted a sound track that even half way fit why didnt they use some speed metal or hardcore bands, not sappy untalented top 40 bullshit!? cmon,would you rather run around and kill people while listening to slayer, or hoobastank?? x_x slayer!

[PapaStu]

I'm still not buying it. "Inspired by" usually means "single from our upcoming album" or "look for our ad in the manual."

No "Inspired by" means that its new exclusive songs made in some sort of conjunction with the game. Rarely are they on the album, unless its released afterwords, and even then its not a sure bet. Your thinking more of the "Music From" tag. That from stuff is the songs on whatever bands new album kinda thing.

Both of which are different than a Score, the usual musical accompaniant to the movie/game itself. They can get away with calling it the soundtrack IF its the only thing released and theres no commercial music album. Otherwise you get the Score and Soundtrack tag.

[petewhitley]

They could fill it with fucking Carpenters tunes for all I care. This game will rock.

[WiseSalesman]

They could fill it with fucking Carpenters tunes for all I care. This game will rock.

Okay, that would be awesome.

Anyway, if any of Steve Vai's work is in the game, I'd have to say it will probably only enhance it. That guy's guitar skills are pretty amazing.

[Crush Crawfish]

Well....I don't care about halo 2, seeing as I don't have an xbox and I don't like FPS games. But I also really dislike it when companies put in liscensed soundtracks for their games. I don't really listen to any music besides game music and some occaisional J-pop here or there. Oh well. As long as the japan-developed games still have good original music, I'll be perfectly fine. :)

[Pedro Lambrini]

Sounds like pure Indulgence from all parties to me. O'Donnell is all a-flutter 'cos Nile and pals really love his game music. And the musos get to be part of that really cool game they like (yawn!) I've got a feeling that the 'inspired' music will just fall by the wayside like most 'inspired' music and the reall soundtarck will be just as atmospheric as the first game - I don't think Bungie are silly enough to blow the atmosphere of a game just 'cos Incubus want to sing about it.

BTW: I can't belive that O'Donnell can be flattered by a shitty group like Incubus (mainstream corporate piss) and then go and crack a joke about Justin Timberlake (mainstream corporate piss) being on there!

[Half Japanese]

BTW: I can't belive that O'Donnell can be flattered by a shitty group like Incubus (mainstream corporate piss) and then go and crack a joke about Justin Timberlake (mainstream corporate piss) being on there!

Especially when it was reported about a year ago that Timberlake toured MS's offices and how big a fan of Halo and Xbox he was. If companies can get anyone to nibble at their teat, you'll be sure to hear about it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Now that's interesting...he says he approved all the choices, but he's making fun of one of the entries? ...lemme reread that! LOL

[Jasoco]

Someone just clear this up for me..

Will I be hearing the shitty music during the actual game play? Just a Yes or No. Will this shitty music be played during the game?

[ubersaurus]

Someone just clear this up for me..

Will I be hearing the shitty music during the actual game play? Just a Yes or No. Will this shitty music be played during the game?

Marty said that his music makes up almost all the ingame soundtrack of halo 2, but he couldn't compose all those and still do all the sound effects for the game at the same time, so there's going to be a few tracks from outside groups in the game. He says he's mixed them in pretty well, but we shall see.

[Jasoco]

But will I hear talking? If it's just instruments, I'm all for it. But I just hope to god there aren't any "lyrics" in the music.

[Ed Oscuro]

As far as I understand, they're only instrumentals.

None of us have actually heard the game - we can only read the same comments you have!

[Jasoco]

Well, let's see. One month and 7 days left. :D

I know I'm ready.