Movie Addicts. Celeb Dishers. Gamers. We're All Here.

Music is an oft-overlooked part of video game, but a good soundtrack that’s suited to the action can make the difference between an okay game and a great game. For instance, the bizarre surf-rock soundtrack of the Capcom beat-em-up God Hand is one of the reasons it has such a dedicated (if small) following.

That’s why I was interested to read this story about the music in GTAIV. Though the main thrust of the articleis about using the game as a way to sell music to players, it also talks about the work the developers put into assembling the soundtrack.

Consider the back story on how the 1979 cult classic “Walk the Night” by the Skatt Bros. came to appear on the soundtrack. Skatt Bros. member Sean Delaney — also known as the “fifth member of Kiss” for his writing and production work with the rock band — died in 2003, leaving his publishing share to a brother, a sister and a nephew living somewhere in Utah. They proved so hard to find that Rockstar went through the trouble of hiring a private investigator who flew to Orum, Utah, to locate them.

“It was just one of those songs we just couldn’t let go of,” Rockstar music supervisor Ivan Pavlovich says. “It fit the game perfectly, so we were obviously determined to track them down.”

It’s also good to see that, for all the constant obsession in the press of hookers, murder and murdering the aforementioned hookers, Rockstar remembers that their painstaking attention to detail is what really makes the GTA series shine.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Categories: Video games //