PS3 Fanboy

Whatever qualms you may have with Silent Hill: Homecoming, which probably ranges from the awkward combat system to the absence of Team Silent, one thing that's undeniable is the quality of the soundtrack. Akira Yamaoka delivers yet another broodingly morose soundtrack that critics and fans alike have applauded since the first game. Those of you who ordered the game with Amazon were treated to 3 bonus tracks -- but now you can download them for free, even if you've never touched a Silent Hill game -- right here.

The three tracks included are The Sacred Line, Witchcraft and Cold Blood. We are pretty sure that's frequent collaborator Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's vocals on The Sacred Line, but you can be the judge for yourself after you listen to the track.

[Thanks, anonymous!]

EA has announced their plans to release a Mirror's Edge remix soundtrack alongside the release of the game on November 11th (November 14th for Europe). The soundtrack will be available for download only and includes the Mirror's Edge theme tune, along with five different remixes. You may recognize the name of the song -- "Still Alive" -- but you won't recognize the tune. It's been recorded for Mirror's Edge specially by Swedish pop star Lisa Miskovsky.

Not sure whether you fancy it? If you pre-order the game in the US at Best Buy you'll get a CD with the track and one of the remixes. There's no word on a price, but those interested will no doubt be able to find out on iTunes when the soundtrack releases in just over a month. The full track list is as follows:

• Lisa Miskovsky "Still Alive" – Mirror's Edge Theme Song
• Benny Benassi "Still Alive" – Remix
• Junkie XL "Still Alive" – Remix
• Paul van Dyk "Still Alive" – Remix
• Teddybears "Still Alive" – Remix
• Armand Van Helden "Still Alive" – Remix

[Via Press Release]

Wow! Bravo to the NeoGAF forum for creating this incredible custom soundtrack for WipEout HD. While the PSN game offers an excellent soundtrack as-is, it's refreshing to have this new collection of tunes to listen to while racing down these futuristic tracks. The soundtrack was created by a very talented group of NeoGAFers: "We're a bunch of NeoGAF posters who make electronic music. Some of us veterans, some of us amateurs, but we all share a passion for videogames and electronic music."

We're offering a mirror download here on PS3 Fanboy to show our support for the project. But, make sure you check out NeoGAF for the full credits list. Download here, and check out instructions on how to use it in the game after the cut.

Afrika is a safari sim hitting Japan in late August. While we haven't heard much about the game recently, we have heard sounds from the game -- the main theme to be exact. Coming from ScoringSessions, this video shows composer Wataru Hokoyama leading an orchestra on Afrika's title music. It sounds rather Indiana Jones-ish in lieu of what we'd expect to hear; like, uh, say something out of The Lion King.

Still, it's a good track, and, no, the video has no sights of Africa ... just sights of Hollywood where the music was recorded. If you want to check out more on Afrika, you can hit up the official Japanese site. A North American release has yet to be announced.

[Via MultiplayerBlog]

How does one craft the music for a game like echochrome? It must have been a challenge to create the ambiance necessary for such an abstract puzzle game, but Hideki Sakamoto was up to the challenge. Speaking with Siliconera, the musician noted the need for simplicity to match the game's visual style. echochrome is a game that needs no language, and Sakamoto wanted to convey that through a sound that's universally appealing. "Considering that the visual aspect of the game is strikingly simple, I had it in mind not to let the music overpower the overall design. I wanted to avoid distracting the player by using unusual sound effects or unfamiliar instruments. Classical music seemed to me the best choice because it is universal."

One of the challenges of crafting the musical landscape for echochrome was creating a sound that doesn't necessarily move the player in a particular way. "In Echochrome, the important thing was for the player to have such feelings, just for their own sake. There was no sense of striving to manipulate the player's emotions, and that was something of a realization for me as a musician."

Please read the entire interview at Siliconera for more. It really is quite fascinating. Samples of the soundtrack can be heard here. The soundtrack is available for import at Play-Asia.

Wish you could have the soothing strings of echochrome with you everywhere you go? Looks like the popularity of Sony's intriguing puzzle game has greenlit production of the soundtrack CD. Available on May 21st in Japan, the CD will include 13 tracks from the game, including such hits as "prime #3" and "prime #9973." These hits will undoubtedly open your mind to new kinds of perspective -- please don't listen to them while operating a motor vehicle.

The soundtrack CD will retail for the standard price of 2,940円 (~$28.21 US).

The official Gran Turismo 5 Prologue soundtrack features a nice blend of indie dance rock, electronica, classic rock and brand new remixes from artists, such as Weezer, Mars Volta and DJ Shadow, and more. A brand new exclusive remix of Weezer's "Automatic" headlines the game's diverse soundtrack.

"The Gran Turismo 5 Prologue soundtrack gives fans the perfect audio accompaniment to high-octane racing from Daytona to Eiger Nordwand," said Jeff Reese, director, software marketing, SCEA in a recent press release. "The edgy variety of music complements the pure adrenaline rush fans experience as they eclipse 200 miles-per-hour in the most authentic driving simulator around."

See the complete soundtrack, after the cut.

Greg Edmonson, composer of the best TV show ever, Firefly, also worked on the music to Sony's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. His first foray into games soundtracks certainly was ambitious, and a lot of tricks were used to get exactly the sound he wanted for the game. Adventurers may want to take notice of the subtle changes in the game's auditory landscape. "There were small differences depending on where you were in the game," he says. "For instance, in the monastery we used weird metal things and Tibetan bowls, and stuff like that. And when we were out in the jungle, we used all kinds of ethnic flutes. But even those things kind of crossed over, so it was fun."

Interestingly, a lot of "different" instruments were used to craft the sound of Uncharted, such as "the saz (a Turkish stringed instrument), didgeridoo, conch shell, harmonic flutes, shofar, frame drum, and a bunch of invented instruments that don't even have names."

Listen to samples from the score at 1UP. The complete album is available on iTunes.

[Via Digg]

Lair won't be the only PS3 game soundtrack on iTunes. Next week, the soundtrack to Warhawk joins the growing list of downloadable game scores on Apple's music service.

Christopher Lennertz and Timothy Wynn both worked on the soundtrack, which was performed by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. The duo ended up recording over 100 minutes of music over the course of a 6-day period.

Adding such a symphonic score is no easy task, and the team at Incognito had to create a suitable way of applying the music to the gameplay experience. According to a 1UP report, it appears that the music is triggered by the amount of enemy fire near the player. "If a certain threshold of enemy gunfire is met, the combat music starts to play." Listen to samples of the soundtrack before its release at 1UP.

Regardless of what the critics may say, there's one undeniable great thing about Lair: its soundtrack. Composed by John Debney, the rich score of Lair is filled with epic drama and a full, textured sound provided by the London and Royal Symphony Orchestras.

All 26 tracks, which include hits like "Bridge of the Ancients," "Bridge Battle," and "Bridge Attack," are now available for purchase on iTunes for 99 cents each. The entire album can be purchased for a mere $9.99.

[Via PlayStation.blog]

With Tokyo Game Show only a few days away, the rumors have been flying at us faster than people running from the theaters after watching Dragon Wars. The latest rumor making its rounds is the possibility of Square announcing Final Fantasy Melody XIII for the PS3 at TGS.

A forum member at Ruliweb posted the above image with little-to-no information other than Square would be unveiling the title at the event. While we'd love to blindly accept this rumor, we remain skeptical since this is the same site that made fooled people last month with the fake Sega TGS lineup.

With Final Fantasy XIII still in development, would Square be developing a spin-off title concurrently? If the image is legit, it could be for the FF XIII soundtrack.

[Via PS3 Informer]

The London and Royal Symphony Orchestras don't just work for anyone. Composer John Debney, who worked on films such as "Passion of the Christ" and "Sin City" was given almost unprecedented musical freedom when he was asked to score Lair. In a recent PlayStation.blog entry, he notes: "Creating new, original themes for this primal world has been one of the most stimulating experiences of my career, something I will look back on and cherish. The overall tone of the work can best be described as operatic, ethnically rich, lyrical, elegant and, at the same time, tragic." The musical landscape looks to be quite complex!

And he also offers a sample [Download MP3] of one of the tracks from the game. In typical Factor 5 fashion, it is incredibly epic. No, it's not from some big-budget movie ... this will be coming from your PS3 when the game comes out next month.