Song of the Day: Jade Empire Main Theme (by Jack Wall)

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Arleigh

Today marks the end of E3 for 2011 and I have chosen one of the best intro music for any game ever created. The previous two songs chosen were from Bethesda role-playing games and while I stick to the same game genre I’ve moved onto who I consider the best RPG developers currently working today. The latest “Song of the Day” is by music composer Jack Wall and is the “Main Theme” to that oft-overlooked, but a classic rpg nonetheless, Jade Empire.

The “Jade Empire Main Theme” just hints at the epic that would become the Jade Empire story. Jack Wall does a great job of not just sticking to the usual classical European orchestral sound. He brings in traditional Asian musical instruments from throughout Chinese history. He even brings in some Japanese taiko drums to give this theme just a touch of that martial sound. This main theme really highlights the Asian themes and influences BioWare used to create the fictional realm that Jade Empire takes place. The way the music plays out it wouldn’t be too farfetched to hear it scoring an Ang Lee or Zhang Yimou wuxia epic.

Jade Empire is one of those games, despite having not as big a following as some of the bigger and more popular rpg franchises, whose fans are very vocal about their love not just for the game but for the soundtrack which I consider one of the best soundtracks ever composer for a video game.

E3 2011: Asura’s Wrath (E3 Trailer)

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Arleigh

Asura’s Wrath is a title by Capcom and developer CyberConnect2 and first made it’s appearance at E3 2010. It’s actually a title that has flown way below my radar when it comes to interesting games coming up in the forseeable future. It’s a good thing that Capcom brought it to this year’s E3 once more and showed more details about what the g ame is really about and some of it’s core gameplay.

Let’s just say that from the trailer this game looks to be one over-the-top of an action game that reminds me of the SEGA/Platinum Games title Bayonetta. More people seem to compare this game both aesthetically and spiritually to the Sony God of War franchise and they wouldn’t be wrong. Asura’s Wrath really ends up being a mash-up of both those series with a sci-fi helping from Too Human.

The art design for the game looks beautiful. Looks like developer CyberConnect2 decided to go for the 3D cel-shading that looks quite similar to Capcom’s own look for the recent Street Fighter IV. The game is not flat and actually has depth to all the scenes, but the flat-look of the cel-shading really gives this game a unique look that’s quite uncommon in gaming of this latest generation.

Asura’s Wrath doesn’t have a set release date, but all points to sometime around 2012 (hopefully)

E3 2011: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (Official E3 Trailer)

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Arleigh

Namco Bandai is less than 6 months away from releasing the next entry in their long-running and critically-acclaimed arcade combat flight simulator series Ace Combat. This upcoming entry will simple be called Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.

They’ve released a story trailer just in time for this year’s E3 and anyone who has been a fan of the franchise should be very excited about this upcoming game. It looks like new types of gameplay has been added to the tried-and-true fixed-wing aerial combat. Players can now get behind the controls of attack helicopters and even AC-130 gunships. The in-game graphics (used in the trailer itself) looks to have made some major improvements from the last title in the series. If I’m looking at the trailer correctly it looks like pretty much everything a player sees on the screen is destructible whether it’s an enemy vehicle or just a decorative fountain in some African warlord’s palace.

This series has always been good at delivering an extensive and exhaustive single-player campaign. Multiplayer has always been hit-or-miss. The last game in the series made some serious in-roads into multiplayer. Now that this next title will be released not just for the Xbox 360 and it’s Xbox LIVE on-line component, but for the PS3 and it’s counterpart in the PSN, there should be some expectations of a hefty on-line multiplayer component.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon will have a release date of October 11, 2011 for North America and October 14, 2011 for Europe.