Prey: Videogame Music Finally Grows Up

Now that the PC version of the Prey demo is out, those of you who have played it have had a chance to sample the brilliant musical score in the game. There's lots LOTS more in the full version, but the demo does give you a taste. If you enjoyed the music, then you'll want to check out a new article over at soundtracks.net entitled, "Prey: Videogame Music Finally Grows Up". This article goes into detail on several aspects of the music in Prey, which was authored by Jeremy & Julian Soule. Here's some tidbits from the article, which is definitely written for someone who is heavily into music, and in particular soundtracks.

"Prey is destined to effect industry-wide change: from defining a new standard by which music commissions for flagship interactive titles can be judged, to sounding a welcome death knell for the use of through-composed material. It is a key milestone and one that is the culmination of a decade's work spent to bring the true sound of Hollywood into the home."

Scott Miller, 3D Realms' CEO, acknowledges that the importance of Jeremy's contribution to Prey is a testament to their shared vision, "It was a fantastic stroke of luck that Jeremy was coming off of the back of another project and was able to sit-down with us and bring to the game that level of Hollywood excellence he's renowned for. We had felt that it'd be very difficult to get him, but he was so enthused about the project from the moment we approached him, so in-tune with our needs that he ended up coming on-board straight away."

In this latter vein, the game owes much to Julian's co-composing sensibilities, who points out that "working on Prey was very much like scoring a whole season of a network drama in a few weeks. Thankfully, though, we didn't have to deal with constantly moving goalposts because everyone involved had a clear sense of direction from the start."

Finally, don't forget that you can purchase the soundtracks to Prey right now over at Direct Song's Website. You don't have to wait for the full game to come out to hear all the music. Here's what the article above says about the soundtrack:

"With ardent PC and Xbox 360 gamers chomping at the byte for Prey's arrival, two volumes of music featuring Jeremy and Julian's soundtrack have been released in advance of the game's summer debut. Prey - Volume 1 and, unsurprisingly, Volume 2 showcase almost 145 minutes of courageous and thrilling music.

The albums are available exclusively for download at DirectSong.com, the gaming industry's leading music portal. Whilst you'll require Windows Media Player (version 7.1 upwards) to play the music and transfer it between devices (the tracks have built-in DRM), DirectSong must be applauded for offering their content at 320kbps - as close to the rawness of CD quality audio available today via digital distribution and surely a kick in the teeth for their competition."

And finally, for reading through this story, you get another chance to win a free copy of Prey. The soundtrack.net website is giving away five copies of Prey. Head over to their contest page to enter!

Posted by Joe Siegler on June 26, 2006 at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
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