sound design |

Sound design is all about immersing the player into the world. It’s not about quality but about how the sound is implemented and how much care is put into it. Do the developers use the same footstep sounds throughout the whole game or different steps for each type of terrain? That’s the type of detail we’re looking for.

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 2’s sound is both eerie and unbelievably engaging. From the sounds of opening doors, the moans of zombies, and footsteps in empty halls. Even the rustling of clothes is present and it’s tall enough to create one big sound design package that helps suck you into the atmosphere of RE2.

Runner-Ups

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

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Mortal Kombat 11

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A Plague Tale: Innocence

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

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2017 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Sound Design

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/28/2017

Posted in: 2017, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: call of duty, destiny 2, forza motorsport 7, game of the year awards, goty, horizon, sound design, the new colossus, wolfenstein ii, wwii, zero dawn. Leave a comment

Sound design isn’t something we normally think of every day, but without great sound design we wouldn’t be as immersed in games, it’s something that’s on the back burner and never gets enough credit.

Call of Duty: WWII

Call of Duty may get a lot of backlashes, but WWII impressed on sound design. I felt like I was actually in the war thanks to the fantastic explosions, realistic gun sounds, tinging of shells off the ground, people screaming, doors creaking, and snow crunching. WWII went above and beyond…the Call of Duty in sound design.

Runner-Ups

Horizon: Zero Dawn

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Forza Motorsport 7

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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

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Destiny 2

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2011 Game of the Year Awards Round-Up

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/26/2011

Posted in: 2011, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2011, action, adventure, alice, arkham city, artistic, atmosphere, awards, batman, battlefield 3, best, codemasters, comics, DC, dice, directx 11, dirt 3, disappointing game, dishwasher, downloadable, driving, elder scrolls, epic games, fatality, fighter, fighting, fps, game of the year, gears of war 3, graphics, id software, la noire, madness returns, mortal kombat, multiplayer, music, new character, nominated, origins, pc, platformer, playstation, playstation 3, portal 2, ps3, puzzle, rage, rayman, rockstar games, round up, rpg, Sega, shogun 2, shooter, skyrim, Sony, sound design, steam microsoft, story, strategy, technical, total war, valve, vampire smile, voice acting, xbox, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

Don’t want to look through each reward category? Here’s a round-up of Binary Messiah’s 2011 Game of the Year Awards.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Awarded

Game of the Year
Best RPG
Best Music

Nominated

Best Atmosphere

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Gears of War 3

Awarded

Best Shooter
Best Story

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Atmosphere
Best Sound Design

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Total War: Shogun 2

Awarded

Best Strategy

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Mortal Kombat

Awarded

Best Fighter

Nominated

Game of the Year

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Portal 2

Awarded

Best Puzzler
Best Voice Acting
Best New Character

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Music
Best Story
Best Multiplayer

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Rayman Origins

Awarded

Best Platformer

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Graphics, Artistic

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DiRt 3

Awarded

Best Driving

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Batman: Arkham City

Awarded

Best Action

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Voice Acting
Best Atmosphere

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Battlefield 3

Awarded

Best Sound Design
Best Graphics, Technical
Best Multiplayer

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Shooter

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L.A. Noire

Awarded

Best Atmosphere

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Voice Acting
Best New Character
Best Action

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Alice: Madness Returns

Awarded

Best Graphics, Artistic

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The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile

Awarded

Best Downloadable Game

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Rage

Awarded

Most Disappointing Game

Nominated

Best Platformer

2011 Game of the Year Awards — Achievements — Best Sound Design

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/22/2011

Posted in: 2011, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2011, 360, achievements, atlus, awards, battlefield 3, best, dark souls, dice, directx 11, ea, epic games, fps, game of the year, gears of war 3, killzone 3, Microsoft, multiplayer, online, pc, playstation, playstation 3, ps3, rpg, shadows of the damned, shooter, Sony, sound design, steam, suda 51, unreal, xbox. Leave a comment

Great sound design isn’t the music but everything else you hear. Not only is variety good, but it has to match and be unique to the game and atmosphere. Everything from the wind blowing through cracks, swords clashing, breathing, grass rustling, and bullets whizzing it all makes the audio experience.

Battlefield 3

What makes the Battlefield series in the general top most games in sound design is the audio directional placement and just the sheer realism of battle. No other war game has pulled off such rich and visceral sound from bullets whizzing by your head to being able to find a sniper from distance and direction. Everything sounds hyper-realistic, but also completely ensnares you into the battle. This realistic and technically phenomenal achievement puts it over the top of everything else.

Runner-Ups

Shadows of the Damned

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Killzone 3

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Dark Souls

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Gears of War 3

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2010 Game of the Year Awards — Achievements — Best Sound Design

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/17/2010

Posted in: 2010, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2010, achievements, alan wake, awards, bad company 2, battlefield, bioware, cowboy, dice, ea, fps, frostbite, game of the year, god of war iii, greek, horror, kratos, mass effect 2, Microsoft, multiplayer, online, open world, pc, playstation, playstation 3, red dead redemption, rockstar games, rpg, sandbox, scary, shooter, Sony, sound design, steam, western, xbox, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

Sound design is probably the most important thing next to the gameplay. Without some sound, there’s not really a game, and the best sound design makes things sound authentic for the universe it’s in and makes the sound convincing, and usually, it’ll pack a good punch, sound epic, or just subtle details in sound helps.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

How can a war game have the best sound design? The first Bad Company truly made a game sound amazing with realistic weapon sounds, epic explosions, and differential sounds such as shooting in a building sounds different than outside and the echo traveled when walking through a door. That is the kind of detail that most games don’t make. The sequel follows suit with more detail in this department, and there’s nothing that can trump the epic explosions and sounds of gunfire.