If there was a list of the most underappreciated fields in the video game industry, surely sound design would be up near the top. Despite creating and capturing one of a game's most crucial aspects, you never really hear from the men and women working in the field, and you rarely get a chance to see how their… » 2/15/13 12:30am 2/15/13 12:30am

The Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, turns 30 this week. While it's used across devices and mediums, for a long time it was crucial to your experience with video games, as it was a popular way of getting electronic music stored on game cartridges and discs, especially in the 1990s. » 1/29/13 2:00am 1/29/13 2:00am

If you detach the sound of pain from its source, I'm willing to bet the result sounds kind of uncomfortable. » 12/19/12 6:30pm 12/19/12 6:30pm

Supergiant Games' award winning action role-playing game Bastion is now available on the iPad, and it's one of the best experiences you can have with the Apple tablet. Just don't ruin it by playing without headphones. » 8/31/12 4:00pm 8/31/12 4:00pm

Back in 2006 Skyrim game director Todd Howard called up composer Jeremy Soule and told him he wanted the music for the game to sound like The Elder Scrolls theme as sung by a barbarian choir. Lacking barbarians, Soule just hired some men with deep voices. » 11/03/11 5:40pm 11/03/11 5:40pm

The answer to the question posed in the headline is a simple one: the Guild Wars 2 sound team. It's how they do it that's a little tricky. » 8/04/11 12:20pm 8/04/11 12:20pm

Vacuum your floors. Reduce background noise. Make sure you have adequate lighting. Are we playing video games here or hoping to score? This Xbox Live video shows the steps needed to ensure a pleasurable Kinect Experience. » 9/28/10 2:30pm 9/28/10 2:30pm

Ever wonder what video game composers have to work with when creating those big sounds for big games? » 3/12/10 6:20pm 3/12/10 6:20pm

As I mentioned in my review of Dante's Hell, I loved the scoring and sound of Visceral's take on hell. » 3/12/10 1:00pm 3/12/10 1:00pm

Games have long preferred visual innovation to audio. I mean, they're called video games, not video and audio games. But that's not to say game audio doesn't deserve recognition! » 4/01/09 5:30am 4/01/09 5:30am

The Wilhelm Scream. Cinephiles recognize it instantly (you only need to hear it once in the above video). It's been reused so many times since it was first recorded in 1951 that its inclusion today is almost beyond cliche, easter egg, or inside joke, and has become a combination of the three. (It's been in every… » 6/29/08 6:00pm 6/29/08 6:00pm