One of my favorite things about WoW was the music. My absolute favorite place in the entire game was Karazhan. And I love the music especially...
My favorite track from the game is the theme from Grizzly Hills. I have the collector's edition of Wrath, and I'm glad I do. Having the soundtrack made the entire thing worth it. This music is utterly captivating...
The best part is the way the music was tied into the game environment. I'm sure anyone who played Alliance can remember the first time they walked into the Valley of Heroes and heard the epic Stormwind theme play for the first time. The way that the music shifted as you moved through the world was amazing.
I'm sad to say that I have yet to even take notice of the music in LotRO. I don't understand why that is, exactly. I wouldn't say that the music in WoW was intrusive in any way, and it certainly isn't in LotRO either. But I can't think of a single track in the game, save for the login screen music.
Now, this might have been intentional. LotRO does have something special in the player music system. So perhaps the scoring was sedate on purpose so that it wouldn't overshadow the bards running around in the game. I don't think anyone needs further proof of this than events like Weatherstock or Ales and Tales.
For the record, my favorite songs I have found so far are Stones from the Ultima soundtracks...
... although I prefer it on the lute. El Rey del Mariachi from the movie Desperado is another favorite. (I couldn't find a good video.)
But I still want to know where the score is. I know that it certainly isn't in the combat music that pops up every time I fight something. I found that mechanic very annoying in Ultima Online when they did it, and I find it annoying here as well.
I miss being able to enjoy the game music while I play. It's not a matter of the game music being bad--it's just not present most of the time. I run around in near-silence most of the time, and I have the game music turned up. Typically in a game, if I want to listen to other things I have to turn the music off. But that's not the case in LotRO. Besides, I don't feel right flipping on my WinAmp and listening to Alice in Chains while I'm in Evendim.
Now, being only level 40, I haven't made it into any expansion lands yet. Perhaps there's something waiting for me there. I have seen clips of combat in other zones that triggers a different theme...
... but since combat usually lasts a grand total of 30 seconds, that hardly seems like much to look forward to.
Can anyone point me in the right direction? I want to be told that I've somehow completely missed the boat on this one, but I'm afraid to find out.
Where is LotRO's Score?
Posted by Fyurae Friday, June 18, 2010 6:45 PM
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5 comments:
Does sound like something is wrong with your game music, as there is music present everywhere. I found just as much memorable music in Lotro as in WoW. Maybe review your sound settings to make sure something isn't off. Maybe contact support if you really are running around in silence too much.
One thing I often do is turn the other sound sliders down about half way and leave the music and player music at max. Often the ambient sounds and combat will overpower the music.
also there is a soundtrack you can download to see if your missing some of these songs. Some of them are very good, I especially love the dwarf area musics. http://www.fileplanet.com/199894/190000/fileinfo/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Online-Soundtrack
http://splintrcell.org/soa-soundtrack
That has some of the soundtrack uploaded, with more to be added later.
The score for LOTRO is one of the best I've heard in a online game. It is technically superb and definitely reflects the idiom of the IP. I do agree that sometimes the default settings of both ambient and combat sounds intrude over the score excessively, but this is easily remedied.
Soundtrack CDs for both SoA and MoM were available in deluxe boxsets, but like most OST releases, not all the music cues were included.
There is a way to extract the music from the game. However is leaves you with several thousand files in Ogg Vorbis format. None of which are identified beyond a number. To make things more complex, for MoM, Turbine fragemented the music into multiple files. Instead of a single track you get the respective cue in 20-30 pieces. They did return to the single track approach for SoM, as they did with SoA.
I am hoping to write quite an extensive piece on the game soundtrack and post what I consider to be the best tracks. Turbine have been relatively tolerant in this respect in the past.
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