sound is one of the most important things in games and even more so as technology advances. i think sound plays an important role of setting the mood for what is happening at that present moment in the game. it has to emphasize the feelings intended whether they are fear, amazement, happiness, sadness etc. sounds can also help to emphasize environmental effects. high pitched instruments such as wind chimes or a piano help to create a cold environment where as low bellowing percussion instruments such as bass drums can help to create a fitting atmosphere for a hot or industrial environment.

i think one of the most iconic 'sonic moments' of my gaming history has to be whilst playing survival horror genre games such as resident evil or silent hill. it wasn't really the sound that did it, it was the lack of it. i remember playing resident evil 1 (the remake on the gamecube) and i simply couldn't play the game when it was noisy. i had to be able to hear the zombies coming round the corner and the most frightening feeling was cast into my soul when i could hear the hasty footsteps and panting of a crimson head running along a corridor towards me. another scary moment i had was when i first came across a regenerator in resi 4. i could hear the gargling and panting and the slow lumbering footsteps which literally nearly made me shriek like a school girl. as far as soundtracks go, i would have to first of all say screw halo. it was a good game and the soundtrack was good but it had nothing on metroid prime or the ocarina of time. i remember the chilling piano solos when getting to the glacier type levels of metroid and thinking WOW because it made the experience much more worth while. i also remember the sheer marvel inspired in me when hearing the soundtrack to hyrule field. i never played the original zelda games much but when i heard that music for the first time it was amazing and it made looking over that vast plain seem like it went on forever. when i was in college, for our final major projects, we were allowed to write our own brief. mine was something like begin to develop the basic outline of a game including plot, character descriptions, visuals and present them in the form of a presentation piece that could be used as a pitch for a future game production. i ended up developing a survival horror sandbox type game set in my local district; the wyre forrest. the games was a play on words of the word wyre which i changed to wire as in barbed wire. anyway, i developed a story board of the intro cutscene which i intended to put onto i movie and create a slideshow to the song ghostship part 1 by a band called the fall of troy. the slideshow on its own seemed a bit wooden and boring but as soon as i put it to music, it really came alive. its a really creepy piece of music and i think it is what made the final outcome stand out.

im not so sure that good times is the most influential piece of the 20th century and my one reason for saying so is this: Music is created to inspire certain emotions in people but depending on what people you ask, different music creates different emotions and although good times is a brilliant song, its not everyones cup of tea. if i had to put a label on it i think the most influential song of the 20th century is either wot get fooled again by the who, or free bird by lynard skynard. many members of the band lynard skynard met with an unfortunate fate after their plain crashed killing three members of the band and their road manager (which resulted in their current album at the time being recalled as it ironically featured the band standing behind some flames). the remaining members of the band stayed together and grew back to full strength with new members. the thing that always puts a smile on my face is that once the band started to tour again, they performed a gig in Dallas, Texas, and at the end of the gig, the lead vocalist said this " there is only one man who can sing this song on stage and thats ronnie van zant. so i wont be singing this one although its been a pleasure singing all the rest of them for you tonight...so i want all of you to sing it for me. this song goes out to ronnie van zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines and the man who helped compose this song along with ronnie van zant, Dean Kilpatrick. what song is it that you want to hear tonight Dallas?" and the whole crowd shouts "FREE BIRD!" litterally everyone in the stadium starts to sing and its one of the most amazing things i have ever listened to.