VideoGame Soundtracks No.1 Total Annihilation

Total Annihilation was one of my most played games in early 90′s back when I used to play a lot of PC games. An RTS game similar in style to Command and Conquer, it was a grand space si-fi battle of the future between two machine races. Although the game was praised for its playability, scale and balance, plus the fun of blowing lots of stuff up with Nukes, it also had a very good soundtrack.

Composed by Jeremy Soule the soundtrack would change to match the pace of battle. So there were some slow paced background tracks while you built up your armies and searched the battle field for the enermy  and then some much faster paced and grander tunes during battle. Some standout tracks for myself were the perfectly name “Attack!!” and “Brutal Battle” tracks that would up the tempo of the music while in the heat of battle. Some of the other tracks such as “Licking Wounds” and “On Throughout The Night” have a gentler pace and an eerie  alien type vibe to them, which represents better some of the landscapes of the battle ground you fight in.

I don’t know if the soundtrack is available to buy anywhere, I recommend it if you can find it, otherwise it is available to listen to on GrooveShark, link provided below. Look out for more recommended video game sound tracks in future, although they won’t be full blown reviews as I’m no music expert, just my simple thoughts on some of my favourites that help me survive a hard days work.

http://grooveshark.com/#/album/Total+Annihilation/392667?src=5

Mirror’s Edge – Still Alive

I have been playing the game recently on Xbox 360 and found the album of remixes of the theme song on Spotify.

Lisa Miskovsky – Still Alive (The Theme From Mirror’s Edge)- The Remixes

The main theme song from this by Lisa Miskovsky is a really memorable tune and gives the game a real unique feel to it. I especially like the cool piano melody which is really catchy. The rest of the album has some interesteing remixes of the song as detailed below. This isn’t a proper review or anything as I’m no music expert just my thoughts on which ones I liked and which I didn’t.

Armin Van Helden – Not really what I would call normal remix of the orginal song, more like he dropped the oringal song on the floor, smashed it into a million pieces then tried sticking it all back together with crazy glue. At least it is the most adventurous of all the remixes on this album.

Paul Van Dyk – Much more of a traditional remix, doesn’t mess around with the lyrics but does add a fresh new exciting dance beat to it that really sounds good.

Benny Benassi – More of a traditional dance track with parts of the Original Still Alive song and lyrics mixed into the middle. Much more of a new track than a remix of the orginal but still very good and mixes in parts of the original very well.

Junki XI – More of a chilled version, with a relaxed tempo but still retaining the classic piano section which in itself is actually quite chilled out anyway, so fits in here really well.

Teddybears – Is probably closest to the orginal with just a hint of a dance remix to it to give it a mroe upbeat tempo and dance style.

Edit [January 2011] - Spotify have removed the above album from their system which is a shame, I guess you will have to find it from somewhere else to listen to it. However they have now uploaded the Mirrors Edge Original Soundtrack by Solar Fields which includes the Original and Instrumental versions of Still Alive. and you can listen to it via the link below. Enjoy.

Solar Fields – Mirror’s Edge Original Videogame Score

Edit [March 2012] – Here is the same soundtrack but in GrooveShark. Much easier to be able to listen to itin your browser.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Mirrors+Edge/61877475