Halo Series Composer Martin O'Donnell Talks Halo 3: ODST
"We really want the player to feel differently when they’re playing as the Rookie as opposed to playing as one of the four other ODST’s. Every time you find yourself back in the streets of New Mombasa at night we want you to feel lonely, lost, and perhaps a bit damp."
Few games were as hotly anticipated this year as Halo 3: ODST. This pseudo-spin-off holdover game (a holdover till the next true Halo chapter, of course) was once thought to be an online expansion. It quickly turned into a full-fledged project that required all the elements that a high-end Halo game demands, including a killer soundtrack.
But unlike the first three Halo games, players would not be hearing familiar sounds this time around. "Halo 3 finished the fight for Master Chief and all his friends," said Halo series composer Martin O'Donnell. "ODST is an entirely new story in the Halo universe. It gave me the opportunity to write all new music that sets a completely different mood."
Once you had solidified a style for the music, how much did it change – or perhaps evolve – as the writing process began?
Martin O'Donnell: Joe Staten, the writer and one of the lead designers, came to me and said that ODST was going to be a detective story set in a film-noir style version of New Mombasa. From the beginning of pre-production I was looking for a compositional approach to match that vision.
What are some of the feelings and emotions you hope this score conveys?
Martin O'Donnell: We really want the player to feel differently when they’re playing as the Rookie as opposed to playing as one of the four other ODST’s. Every time you find yourself back in the streets of New Mombasa at night we want you to feel lonely, lost, and perhaps a bit damp. We also want you to feel like you need to find your squad mates as soon as possible, so maybe some urgency too.
Each of the previous Halo games features memorable songs that players will never forget. Is there any particular song in Halo 3: ODST that you hope will achieve similar acclaim?
Martin O'Donnell: I don’t think I have one in particular, but I sure hope one of the pieces will be memorable for the audience. It might be a different one for different people.
Have you done anything new with the interactive element(s) of the music?
Martin O'Donnell: I used some accompaniment tracks in sync with some improvised sax solo’s that play differently every time you play the game that I thought worked pretty well. We also used more randomization for the many pieces that might play in the hub (night time New Mombasa).
And what do you think about the current state of interactivity in video game music? How much further can we go?
Martin O'Donnell: It’s not easy to make elegant music adapt to player’s choices but game composers have made a lot of progress in this area. I think there is still a lot of interesting things that we can do with music in games.
Most gamers know you as the composer of the Halo series, but you are also Bungie's audio director. Tell us about this side of the job and how it differs from composing.
Martin O'Donnell: I’ve done most of my composing with Mike Salvatori, but in ODST I also collaborated with C Paul Johnson and Stan LePard on new music. Jay Weinland is Bungie’s Audio Lead. He and C Paul do the lion’s share of sound design for the game. I’m privileged to be able to oversee and direct the work they do. Since I want to have a singular audio vision for each game I’m responsible for every single sound that comes out of the speakers. That means I need to work with the writers, designers, artists, producers, actors, programmers, and even the testers to help ensure that our game is as polished as possible.
As the man in charge of Halo 3: ODST's overall sound, not just the music, what other changes (if any) did you want for this spin-off?
Martin O'Donnell: We want every new game we make to raise the bar in some way. We tried to advance the way we tell story and create atmosphere. There are some subtle things we had to do to make the nighttime city streets sound wetter than the same streets in daytime. We also had a lot of fun creating the radio plays that tell Sadie’s story.
The characters of Halo 3: ODST are voiced by some prominent actors. Talk about this.
Martin O'Donnell: We had hired three of the cast from Firefly for Halo 3. They did such a great job for us and were so much fun to work with that we decided to not only get them back for ODST but adjust the writing to fit them even better. We got Nathan Fillion as Buck, Alan Tudyk as Mickey, and Adam Baldwin as Dutch right away. We also love working with veteran game actor Nolan North and thought he would be perfect as Romeo. We still needed our “femme fatale” and after a little searching we asked Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica to be Captain Dare. It was a blast working with these great actors and for the first time we had two actors in the booth at the same time. Nathan and Tricia worked together and the chemistry was real.
I've heard that you don't like to plan out your scores too much in advance and that you prefer to write the music after a game is completed. Is that true? And if so, what makes this strategy work for you?
Martin O'Donnell: I don’t know many movie composers who compose music before the film is in post-production. Usually composers need a scene to be close to finish in order for it to be scored. I feel the same way about a game score. There are other ways of composing for games, but this works best for me. I don’t actually wait until the game is finished, but I prefer waiting until the levels are at least somewhat playable. This means that during much of the game’s development there isn’t much music.
Have any developers, umm, complained about this strategy? From what I can tell, most developers prefer that a composer starts working on the score before the game is complete.
Martin O'Donnell: Regardless of how popular this particular strategy is, I think the result speaks for itself. I work on music almost from the moment we begin pre-production on a game but I don’t finish the majority of the music until close to the end of post-production. And yes, some developers have complained a bit about this method.
In addition to your work on the Halo series, you also own a music production studio, TotalAudio. Tell us about this and some of the other work you've done or plan to do in the future.
Martin O'Donnell: I’m a full-time Bungie employee and partner. I’m also President of TotalAudio. My composing and business partner, Mike Salvatori, keeps TotalAudio running. The only official new work that TotalAudio has done for the past eight years has been work for Bungie. Who knows about the future?
Speaking of the future, you've worked on four Halo games, and I think we all can assume you'll be working on Halo: Reach. Is your music exclusive to Bungie? Are there any other games – maybe a new franchise – that you'd like to work on?
Martin O'Donnell: Halo: Reach is certainly enough for me to be working on for the near future. It’s no mystery that Bungie has big plans for the project after that. Right now I’m pretty excited about those plans.
If you are a gamer, like playing video games, own an Xbox 360, or have ever just wondered what are the top 5 video games for Xbox 360 then maybe this article can help you out. I personally own a Xbox 360 a own a quite a few games for the game system. I have also wonder myself what are a few of the best video games to buy or play for my Xbox 360. Since I am a huge sports fan my favorite game is Madden 09 and then all the Guitar Hero games as well. So I did a little research and this is what I discovered as some the top video games for Xbox 360. These are a list of the top have video games to have for your Xbox 360 according to gamespot.com and game rankings.com.
On gamespot.com the top 5 Xbox 360 games are as follows:
Halo 3
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Gears of War
Grand Theft Auto IV
Elders Scrolls 4: Oblivion
On game rankings.com the top 5 Xbox 360 games are as follows:
Grand Theft Auto IV
The Orange Box
Bio Shock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Gears of War
So out of those games listed as the top 5 Xbox 360 games I personally own two of them. Which I own Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and I must say it does not surprise me that those two games in particular are listed in the top 5 games to own for your Xbox 360. In my opinion since I own those two games they each have very good graphic and detail. Also since Xbox 360 has a feature called Xbox Live I enjoy playing against different people with these two games.
Well if already own these games for your Xbox 360 then you most likely know about the games but here is a little review and facts about each game for those of you who don't own them or for those of you that are just curious.
Halo 3
Game type: first person shooter
Released: November 2001
Developed By: Bungie Software
Published By: Microsoft
Features: High variety weapons, vehicle and foot based actions and missions, multiplayer option where you can from a team, choose a role, and fight cooperatively with your friends.
About the game: Halo 3 is third chapter to the Halo franchise where Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse pounding climax.
This is a great to play and own for you collection especially, I you enjoy first person shooter games. I have actually had Halo 3 parties where I invite a bunch of friends over and we do tournaments to see who is the best Halo 3 player between us.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Released: November 2007
Developed By: Infinity Ward
Published By: Activision Publishing Inc.
About the game:
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare has a lot of great aspects for a video game. What I like the most is the story plot of the game and how the missions just flow. Not to mention the graphics and weapons that you can use in the game. If you own this game then you already know what I am talking about. However, you do not own this game I suggest that you go out buy it and play it especially if you like action video games.
Gears of War
Game Type: Third person shooter game
Released: November 2006
Developed By: Epic Games
Published By: Microsoft
About the game:
This is a third person shooter game that is all about team work were all modes, levels, and scenarios were designed to encourage co-op play. Some of the features for this game include: a disturbing cinematic story, fire team co-op action, realistic and intense combat, unprecedented visuals, and Xbox Live action.
Now I do not own this game but I have played it before and it is a very good game to play or to own. It will keep you entertained and you can play it for hours upon hours.
Grand Theft Auto IV
Game Type: Third person action adventure game
Released: April of 2008
Developed By: Rockstar North
Published By: Rockstar Games
About the game
This is the fourth installment by Rockstar which features improved graphic, new game play, and new features. One of the main characters is Niko Bellic where his cousin has convinced him that there is a place where life is good and Niko decides to go to America, to Liberty City one of the main places in the video game.
I have yet to play this game but I have played some of the other Grand Theft Auto games and there are good games to play as you always have something to do. You can just drive around and explore, you can walk up to and just beat the crap out of them if you fell like, you can walk up next to a car pull out the driver and steal their car. Just from playing some of the other Grand Theft Auto games I find it amusing to do those things in the video game.
Bio Shock
Game Type: First person shooter game
Released: August 2007
Developed By: 2K Boston
Published By: 2K Games
About the game
Bio Shock is a narrative driven action experience that allows players to do the impossible as you journey through a terrifying world. As your caught between powerful forces and hunted down by mutated citizens were the player will come to grips with the mysterious world of Rapture, which is a distinct Art Deco underwater utopia gone mad.
Wow, just from reading and writing that it makes me want to go out and buy the game right now. I have never played or own this game but its seem exciting and fun to play. I guess I am going to have to go buy Bio Shock so experience this for myself and add it to my collection. Its seems like it will be very action packed with a lot of weird things since it contains mutated citizens.
The Orange Box
Game Type: First person shooter game
Released: October 2007
Developed By: Value
Published By: Electronic Arts
About the game
It is also known as Half-Life 2: Orange Box, Orange Box--Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. Players assume the role of Gordon Freeman a scientist destined to save Earth from hordes of alien attackers.
This seems like a good game to play with a descent story plot, I have never played this game. However you like to experiment before making a decision to buy a game then I suggest maybe calling one of your friends and see if they own it and try it out for yourself you never know you might enjoy it. After all how can you go wrong with having aliens in a video game.
Elders Scroll 4: Oblivion
Game Type: Role playing game (RPG)
Released: March 2006
Developed By: Bethesda Game Studios
Published By: Bethesda Softworks/2K Games
Features: Create and play any character from assassins to warriors, next generation graphics, first person melee and magic, radiant AI, and open ended game play; short challenges.
About the game
The gist of the game is that the emperor has died and the throne of Tamriel is empty and ready to crumble, so the gates of Oblivion open and demons march upon the land laying waste to anything in their path. To turn the tide of darkness you must find the lost heir to the throne and unravel a sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.
These seems like it is an excellent role playing game, especially if you are in to those kinds of games. From reading about the game its would appear that Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is one of the top role playing games out there.
Sources:
game rankings.com
The-top-tens.com
Halo3.com
Xbox.com
Xbox360.ign.com
Bollywood <b>News</b> | Bollywood Movies
The Bollywood <b>news</b> is about a <b>new</b> kind of Bollywood movie. They are starting to make sense. Will these <b>new</b> Bollywood movies affect audiences? And what is the reaction to this Bollywood <b>news</b>?
Breaking <b>News</b> -Beatle Mania Again, Alexander McQueen's 'High <b>...</b>
BRITISH INVASION Recently, Commes des Garcons announced a collaboration with The Beatles for a line of handbags. Now, the the British pop icons have i.
Energy and Global Warming <b>News</b> for October 8: Over 90% of <b>...</b>
“For each job lost in the coal industry our green energy scenario, known as the Energy evolution, creates three <b>new</b> jobs in the renewable power industry. We can choose green jobs and growth or unemployment, ecological and social ...
RSS Feed