Author: Andy Brown

NME

If you’ve got spurs that jingle-jangle and a Geiger counter that won’t stop ticking, you’ve probably come here straight from Prime Video‘s TV adaptation of Fallout. But if you’re anything like us, the show has only left you hungrier for more. Luckily, there are a bunch of Fallout games that are sure to scratch that post-apocalyptic itch.

• READ MORE: ‘Fallout’ review: learn to love the bomb in this fun yet flawed adaptation

Admittedly, the Fallout series can be a little intimidating to get into because it’s been running since the ’90s. However, it’s not as complicated as it seems – every Fallout game is largely standalone (besides some recurring factions), which means you don’t need to start from the beginning. Speaking of which, there are some fantastic jumping-in points – from exploring the Mojave Desert in Fallout: New Vegas to bouncing around Boston in Fallout 4, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

Below, we’ve hand-picked some of our favourite Fallout games and made a case for why you should play each one.

Fallout: New Vegas

Release year: 2010
Available on: PC, PS3, PS4/PS5 (via backwards compatibility), Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Highlights: Fallout‘s boldest story to date

We’re starting off strong with Fallout: New Vegas, which is arguably Fallout at its very best. You play as an unnamed courier who is shot and left for dead (by the late Matthew Perry’s character, no less) during a seemingly-routine delivery. After climbing out of their shallow grave, the courier embarks on a brutal quest for revenge across the devastated Mojave Wasteland, but is soon caught up in a state-wide war as various factions battle to control New Vegas and Hoover Dam.

Some of the series’ best writing and quests, along with a colourful post-apocalyptic western atmosphere, makes New Vegas a phenomenal starting point – in fact, it’s one of our favourite games of all time. To quote the game itself: “You’ll dig us, baby”.

Fallout 4 

Release year: 2015
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Highlights: Building your own settlements

Set in Massachusetts, Fallout 4 follows a pre-war couple who survive the nuclear apocalypse by being cryogenically frozen in one of Vault-Tec’s underground shelters. Depending on who you choose to play, one of the pair awakens after two centuries to find that their infant son has been stolen by The Institute, a mysterious hi-tech faction that operates from Boston’s shadows.

While Fallout 4‘s main story isn’t quite as compelling as New Vegas, it’s the best pick for anyone looking for more of an action-oriented RPG. With top-notch shooting and some refreshingly colourful visuals, Fallout 4 is the series’ most modern single-player game to dive into. Yet the game’s best feature is its settlement-building, which lets you craft your own bases and towns across the Commonwealth. Come for the Supermutant shootouts, stay for the homemaking.

Fallout 76 

Release year: 2018
Available on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Highlights: Multiplayer shenanigans in Appalachia

The only multiplayer title in this list, Fallout 76 is unlike any other Bethesda game. A Grand Theft Auto Online-style sandbox set in the hills of Appalachia, Fallout 76 begins on Reclamation Day, where America’s best and brightest – that includes you – are sent forth from Vault 76 to restore the nuke-ravaged country. It’s been just 25 years since the bombs fell (a far cry from the usual 200-year gap) which means we’re also shown a previously-unseen side of the apocalypse.

Long-time fans of the series may have skipped Fallout 76 because of its rough launch in 2018, but years of updates have turned things around and the game is now in excellent shape. We suggest playing a single-player Fallout before jumping into 76 so that you can step into Bethesda’s universe at your own pace – but if you’re hankering for a multiplayer adventure, there’s no substitute for this Appalachian adventure.

Fallout 3

Release year: 2008
Available on: PC, PS3, PS4/PS5 (via backwards compatibility), Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Highlights: An utterly bleak setting (and Three Dog’s banging radio station)

It’s been 16 years since Bethesda released Fallout 3, which was a groundbreaking title as it introduced first-person view and transformed the series from turn-based to real-time. Today, it holds up remarkably well: while following games may have improved upon visuals and combat, the bleak atmosphere of post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. is yet to be recaptured.

You play as a recently-escaped Vault Dweller on the search for their dad (played by Liam Neeson), but you’re quickly caught up in a battle between long-time antagonists The Enclave, and the tech-hoarding Brotherhood of Steel. This makes Fallout 3 a perfect introduction to two of the Wasteland’s biggest factions, with a gripping setting to boot.

Fallout Shelter

Release year: 2015
Available on: Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC
Highlights: Watching your vault become a well-oiled machine

If you want a Vault 33 of your own (hopefully without the “cousin stuff”), Fallout Shelter is for you. Out of every game on this list, this one is the hardest to put down, and we may or may not have it open while writing this. You’ll start with nothing but a mountain and a dream, but give it time, and it won’t be long before you’re managing a thriving subterranean shelter.

This involves making sure that food, water and power services are all running smoothly, matchmaking vault dwellers, and running expeditions to ransack the Wasteland. A word of warning, though: Fallout Shelter will take over your life quicker than you can say Deathclaw.

Fallout

Release year: 1997
Available on: PC
Highlights: Going back to where it all started

Last but not least, the very first Fallout set the tone for all that would follow. A trimetric role-playing game with turn-based combat, this Californian adventure tasks players with saving Vault 13, which is doomed unless one plucky resident (that’s you) can find another one on the surface.

Though the game’s dark humour and quirky setting line up perfectly with Prime Video’s show, this can be notoriously hard to get into due to the game’s age. Because of that, we’d recommend trying something else from this before playing 1997’s Fallout – but when you have, come back to this one. It’ll be worth the wait.

The post The best ‘Fallout’ games to play after watching the TV show appeared first on NME.

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Texan band Late Night Drive Home are careering ever faster down their own lane. After coming together in 2019, the four-piece from a small town near El Paso began to attract attention on social media. In particular, Gen Z has rallied to the band’s TikTok, which has racked up more than 220,000 likes with clips of bedroom pop jingles, melancholy lyricism and the occasional shitpost.

Three of Late Night Drive Home’s members – singer Andre Portillo, guitarist Juan ‘Ockz’ Vargas and drummer Brian Dolan – were brought together as a video team in high school. Vargas’ cousin Freddy Baca then rounded out the band on bass. Their earliest singles, 2019’s jangle-led ‘We Love U’ and contemplative ‘Guardians Of Space’, were lo-fi indie gems that introduced Portillo as a deeply contemplative songwriter.

Then, follow-up offerings including their 2021 smash ‘Stress Relief’, which has amassed more than 73 million streams on Spotify, proved Late Night Drive Home don’t mind experimenting with their sound. Released in February, the band’s latest EP ‘I’ll Remember You For The Same Feeling You Gave Me As I Slept’  features dynamic indie rock bangers influenced by The Strokes and Dinosaur Jr. Other key singles, such as 2023’s ‘Perfect Strangers’ and 2021’s ‘With A Dream Of You’, have a warm synth-driven sound.

It’s a warm morning in El Paso when we catch up with Portillo over Zoom; Late Night Drive Home are just weeks away from their biggest gigs yet. The band have a European tour booked for the autumn, including seven UK dates in September and October, but before that there’s the small matter of playing Coachella.

“I’m so excited,” Portillo tells NME with a beaming grin. “We just found out that we have extra tickets [to Coachella] for our friends. So I was already excited, but on top of that, some of my other friends are gonna be there – I’m so stoked!” Laughing, Portillo admits he sometimes forgets he’s not just going to Coachella – he’s actually playing the US mega-festival. “I don’t think I will process it until I’m on the stage,” he says

NME: You’re from a small town outside of El Paso – how has that influenced your style?

“Since there’s really nothing to do out here, it gave us more time to grow up, learn how to play with each other as musicians and get a better taste of each other’s music. When you grow up in a town over here – especially where we grew up, which is much smaller than [El Paso] – all there really is to do is drive around and listen to music.

“Being in an area that’s kind of secluded from the rest of the big cities and a lot of stuff going on, you tend to find yourself and get to know yourself a bit better. I’ve never really worked with any other musicians in El Paso other than our band. So I feel like it really helped us to kind of form a process [for] creating music ourselves.

“For example, me and [Ockz] recently went out to LA for a writing trip, and as fun as it was, we’d prefer to write music on our own. I can see how writing sessions could help somebody, but it felt a little weird to me. I guess that’s just what comes with growing up in a small town like this. Also, a lot of the lyrics that I write come from a sort of smalltown mentality, which I think adds another [layer of] depth to our music.”

What sort of music were you all listening to in your early years – and has it changed?

“We still listen to similar artists now, but when we first formed the band, it was heavily influenced by Cape Town, Twenty One Pilots, Arctic Monkeys and The Killers. A lot of indie bands too – like Car Seat Headrest, Teen Suicide and The Strokes. Now we all listen to different stuff and our tastes meet somewhere in the middle, which is then put into our music.“

Late Night Drive Home’s music started very lo-fi, but has since grown more layered. Has that been a conscious choice, or are you just seeing what works?

“I feel like the more we got to know about each other and ourselves as musicians, the more we locked in on what we really wanted. It was also like going through the motions and learning what we like, and developing our tastes even more. Now, it’s more of a conscious choice to start including synthesisers and sounds that are a little bit further from garage-rock.

“We’re really influenced, at least right now, by a lot of electronic music. Right now, there’s this sound that we want to strive for, but we don’t let it heavily control what we make. We have a vision, but tend to let our creativity play [out] as the main factor.”

What’s that vision sound like?

“I’d like to consider it a fusion between indie garage-rock and electronic pop. It’s more in depth than that, but for lack of experience with terms, that’s all I’m gonna say!”

How do you find the reception to Late Night Drive Home’s experimentation – has it been embraced by existing fans?

“It’s always a scary thing when you decide to stray from what you’ve been doing for the longest time and try to develop as an artist in terms of being more experimental. For me, there’s always a concern, like: ‘I love the way this sounds – it sounds very different – but are my fans gonna like this?’

“I also find that switching it up a bit does tend to bring more interest. One of the biggest [examples] I can think of is The Strokes – they had this whole [indie] thing going on; then they started becoming more electronic-influenced, putting weird sounds in their music. Some people liked it, some didn’t. The way I see it is if we develop long-term fans – that’s all I can hope for – they’ll be people who support our music and whatever we create.”

A lot of your songs are about relationships and reflection – is that what comes to you naturally?

“Most of what I write is based on past experiences. But most of the time, I’ll make a narrative in my head for what I’m writing. I still share my personal experiences with people, but [I try to] make it broader so people can interpret the experience in their own ways and maybe find comfort [in it]. But yeah, it is based on a lot of my relationships – meaning friendships, relationships with family, or you know, random people that I meet.”

“I’ve gotten a lot better at accepting what this band is turning into”

Have you always been drawn to storytelling through songwriting?

“It’s something I strive for, but not something I’ve always done. Some of our older songs, though they still have meaning in their lyrics, aren’t as in-depth as I would have liked them to be. Our most popular song ‘Stress Relief’ was just written in the moment – I was going through a lot of emotions, and the words just kind of flew out. I just wrote my thoughts on one continuous page, but now I like to get more in-depth and revise the lyrics a little bit.”

How have you handled the social media attention you’ve been getting over?

“There was a point where, at least for me, it was a bit concerning. My thought process was like, ‘Wow, is this a life that you want to live?’ It’s not a normal kind of lifestyle and everything’s so unexpected in the music business. So it was very difficult for me to process it. But I think now I’m in a good spot where it’s like, ‘OK, yeah, I’m doing it for the art.’ That’s all that should matter.

“I’ve gotten a lot better at accepting what the band is turning into. It all still seems a little surreal to me – just the fact that so many people listen to our music and connect with what we’re putting out is the craziest feeling ever.”

Late Night Drive Home are playing Coachella this year – the band’s second set at the festival is coming up on Friday (April 19). But beyond that, what’s your dream accomplishment for the band?

“It would be really, really awesome to play Madison Square Garden. I don’t know if that’s like a big, ambitious goal. But I swear it’s one of our dream places to play. So yeah, I’ll say that, because that in itself is so powerful. I don’t know – it just holds so much meaning to us.”

‘I’ll Remember You For The Same Feeling You Gave Me As I Slept’ is out now via Epitaph.

The post Late Night Drive Home are speeding out of smalltown Texas and into the big league appeared first on NME.

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If a game could land us in legal trouble, we’d be writing our review of Life Eater from prison. While playing this horror simulator from Strange Scaffold – yes, the same studio that made thyroid trafficking trendy in Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator and taught children to gamble (allegedly) in Sunshine Shuffle – we’ve carefully jotted down the sleeping schedules, commutes, and even bathroom habits of people marked for grisly fates. It’s all for a good cause (we think), but does that hold up in court?

• READ MORE: Xalavier Nelson Jr is opening Pandora’s box

Yes, Life Eater is as grim as it sounds. Playing as a modern-day druid, the goal is to stalk and sacrifice victims as part of an annual ritual, which supposedly keeps a mysterious god from destroying the world.

Before each killing, you’ll use a video editor-style interface to build a week-long profile of someone’s every movement. Their schedules start off hidden behind blocks of crackling TV static, which can be peeled back with a slew of creepy activities. You’ll peer through their window to find out when they sleep, watch from a nearby tree to see if they live alone, and blackmail their boss to learn about their job. Why stop there? Slash your target’s tires to see if they commute to work, and bug their home to see how many bathroom breaks they take.

A target can only be abducted when enough has been learned about them, which makes piecing together their life darkly captivating. However, it’s not all sunshine and sacrifice. Every action removes hours from a timer, and adds to a suspicion meter. Run out of time or hit three strikes on the meter, and it’s game over. Constantly having to balance the two is a thrill – some activities are quicker but very suspicious, while others take more time but won’t raise as many eyebrows. You’ve also got downtime options like work and sleeping, which remove suspicion at the cost of precious time.

It’s still not as simple as nabbing someone random off the streets, though, as each target must match the description of a cryptic hint. There are often several potential victims, which means that each year’s timer is largely run down by working out who matches the criteria. In one level, a week is spent tailing a band to see which stand-in musician won’t be missed. Elsewhere, a brutal dual killing involves figuring out which two people in a group are related. These investigative puzzles are phenomenal – logic and analytical skills are always rewarded, and you’ll feel like a genius whenever a hunch turns out to be correct.

However, diligence is the most important trait of all. After abducting someone, the last step requires carrying out a ritualistic murder where each step is based on their life. Do they commute? Remove the pancreas. Live alone? Carve up their small intestine. It’s not enough to abduct the offering – you need to know them intimately, or else fall at the final hurdle. We found ourselves jotting down increasingly unhinged notes so that we wouldn’t forget anything needed for the ritual. “Doesn’t live alone. Light brown hair. No commute,” reads one of our entries, scrawled between someone’s sleeping schedule and a tally of another person’s bathroom breaks.

This meticulousness makes Life Eater deeply immersive, but that feeling occasionally falters. The ritual’s criteria never changes, which means it feels slightly formulaic by the end of the game. Likewise, failing a sacrifice means starting that year again, which can be frustrating as it involves repeating everything again with very little deviance. However, a short runtime (it takes three to four hours to finish the game) means that by the time these mild issues become noticeable, you’re nearly at the credits anyway.

Along the way, an unsettling story is told through jagged cutscenes and fantastic performances by actor Jarrett Griffis and Strange Scaffold’s multi-talented director Xalavier Nelson Jr. The biggest question – whether the protagonist’s god is even real – looms over the plot, but there’s a compelling tale about faith, love and duty beneath it. Meanwhile, a scuzzy electronic soundtrack from composer David Mason – who scored last year’s equally unnerving fishing horror Dredge – ties the bow on Life Eater‘s skin-crawling atmosphere.

It’s surprising how deeply this tension worms its way under your skin, given that it plays through the villain’s perspective. But Life Eater’s true horror lies in how easy it makes ritual sacrifice look. Because really, if all of this can happen to poor Doug McCarthy – 33, heavy sleeper, commutes to work, lives alone, no children – then it can happen to anyone, can’t it?

Life Eater launches on April 16 for PC.

The post ‘Life Eater’ review: twisted kidnapping simulator strikes at the heart appeared first on NME.

NME

Goosebumps. Scream. Furbies. There was plenty to be scared of in the ‘90s, especially in the world of gaming. PlayStation (PS1) titles Silent Hill and Resident Evil shaped the survival horror genre we know and love today, and in London-based developer SFB Games’ upcoming horror Crow Country, we’re heading back to that golden age.

• READ MORE: The scariest moments in video games

Set in 1990, Crow Country tasks players with breaking the first rule of Surviving Horror Stories 101: exploring an abandoned theme park. When titular park Crow Country shuts down after its founder mysteriously disappears, plucky protagonist Mara Forest heads in to find answers. Waiting for her are all the things you’d expect from a love letter to ‘90s survival horror: gruesome monsters, tricky puzzles, and nostalgic PS1-style graphics.

Adam Vian, the creative director behind this blocky horror show, tells NME that Crow Country’s biggest inspirations will come as “no surprise” to players. “I [aimed] to make a game that’s a bit more horrible than Resident Evil and a bit more video-gamey than Silent Hill,” he says. However, another critically acclaimed PS1 game – Final Fantasy 7 – also influenced Crow Country thanks to its “dreamlike” background art and pixel-y character models.

“I’m a big fan of the chunky field models for the characters in Final Fantasy 7, and I just can’t get on board with the idea that they’re ‘bad graphics’ and need to be corrected or improved,” he argues. “They’re delightful! They’re charming! They’re super visible against the backgrounds!”

Besides offering a nostalgic aesthetic, using old-school visuals also meant that SFB Games – a small indie studio founded by Adam and his brother Tom Vian – didn’t have to try and compete with the ornate, big-budget releases of major developers.

“The appeal of PS1-era horror is a case of less is more,” Vian explains. “In 2024, that’s never been more of an appealing prospect – in the face of increasingly flashy, noisy and bloated AAA stuff, I find myself wanting the games I play to be a little simpler, quieter and more atmospheric, like they were in the PS1 and PS2 eras.”

“I also feel quite strongly about the effect that stylisation and abstraction has upon storytelling,” he continues. “Personally, I find it quite hard to relate to and empathise with game characters if they’re super detailed and photo-realistic. If they’re too well defined, if you can see every detail of their face, it doesn’t leave room for the imagination to do its work.”

Though Crow Country doesn’t launch until May, early buzz suggests Vian isn’t the only one pining for simpler times. The game raised eyebrows (and heart rates) with a free demo in February’s Steam Next Fest, and was recently named in London Games Festival’s official selection, meaning it will be celebrated at this month’s event in Trafalgar Square.

Besides the nostalgia factor, Crow Country‘s popularity has been aided by a broader resurgence in the popularity of survival horror. As Vian points out, the genre is “really healthy” right now – terrifying follow-ups Amnesia: The Bunker and Alan Wake 2, along with remakes of Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, were some of the best games of 2023.

Whatever the reason for Crow Country‘s early hype, Vian is now “nervously optimistic” about next month’s launch. “Honestly, it’s still surreal to me that Crow Country is suddenly a real game that people are playing, forming opinions about, and looking forward to,” he says. “Even though it’s grown into a full game and we’ve shared it with the world, I think some part of my brain is stuck thinking of Crow Country as my personal little hobby project.”

Crow Country launches on May 9 for PC, PS4, and PS5.

The post ‘Crow Country’ taps into ‘Resident Evil’ and ‘Silent Hill’ to create a ’90s-inspired nightmare appeared first on NME.

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The world of Fallout is pretty grim. It’s been 200 years since society destroyed itself with nuclear weapons, yet civilization is yet to recover. Water is scarce, bloodthirsty bandits are everywhere, and even the cockroaches have mutated into hideous monsters (though there’s no sign of Keith Richards). But hey – every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.

• READ MORE: ‘Fallout: New Vegas’ 10 years on: why Obsidian’s RPG is still unbeaten

Unlike fellow post-apocalyptic shows The Last Of Us and The Walking Dead, Fallout is a dark comedy that finds laughter in ludicrously terrible situations. When Vault 33 – a sealed, seemingly-utopian underground shelter where residents have lived and died for two centuries – is cracked open by raiders, it’s not gunfire and screaming we hear, but syrupy-sweet love song ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, which continues playing even as a bandit is cut in half by a door.

Because vault overseer Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan) is kidnapped during this attack, his daughter Lucy (played by Yellowjackets’ Ella Purnell) heads into the wastes of California on a desperate rescue mission. Along the way, she meets The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) – a pre-war actor who’s been turned into a noseless, near-immortal gunslinger thanks to radiation – and Maximus (Aaron Moten), a would-be knight in the technology-hoarding Brotherhood Of Steel militarist group. It’s a brilliant sprawl of perspectives: Lucy is comically naive to the outside world’s brutality, while two centuries of survival have pushed The Ghoul, now a cutthroat Clint Eastwood caricature, in the opposite direction. Maximus is the middle-point of the two – he’s generally quite kind, but after years of being bullied, handles being given a hulking suit of Iron Man-style Power Armour about as well as you’d expect.

Throw in Lucy’s weedy brother Norm (Moisés Arias), who stays at Vault 33 to investigate how raiders got in, and you’ve got a compelling yet crowded cast. With only eight episodes in the season, the first few are spent trying to introduce and keep up with everyone, and frequent jumping around means nobody gets enough screen time. It’s particularly frustrating because each character is so gripping. Whether it’s The Ghoul delivering a charismatic tongue-lashing before a gory shootout or seeing Lucy’s positive attitude clash with wastelanders who hate her privileged guts, you’re always left wanting more – sometimes to a fault, as early episodes struggle to cram everything in.

Likewise, Fallout takes a bit of time to settle on a tone. While it initially leans heavily on slapstick humour, there’s a steady improvement when these gags become fewer and more outlandish. Highlights include a snake oil salesman getting too handsy with a chicken; and Matt Berry’s charming robot who likes harvesting other people’s organs. Director Jonathan Nolan (Westworld) shows a deft understanding of the source material throughout – peppering each episode with references to Bethesda’s beloved video game series.

It’s visually engrossing too. The Wasteland itself is mostly nuke-bleached beige, but its larger-than-life inhabitants – some deadly, some deadbeat – pack all the colour you need. Incredible costume design and practical effects, paired with subtle CGI, means everything looks fantastic – not that you’ll appreciate that while looking down the throat of a monstrous ‘gulper’, which has hundreds of slimy fingers in its maw instead of teeth. All of this is soundtracked by a retrofuturistic collection of chirpy ‘40s and ‘50s pop songs, which (besides being incredibly catchy) ensures no amount of gory ultraviolence or dark twists can bring the series’ peppy vibe down for long.

Eventually, the jumping-around becomes less jarring when all of its characters are finally locked onto the same story. It culminates in a jaw-dropping action sequence, while drawn-out stories like Norm’s investigation and The Ghoul’s pre-war flashbacks get brilliant payoffs. It’s a shame that everything takes so long to come together, because by the time it does, you’ll be thoroughly hooked.

Fallout is streaming now on Prime Video

The post ‘Fallout’ review: learn to love the bomb in this fun yet flawed adaptation appeared first on NME.

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Each year, the jury at BAFTA Games gather to decide which score will take home the prestigious Music award at their annual ceremony. It’s a tough gig – just take a look at this year’s stacked Music category, in which phenomenal soundtracks from Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Baldur’s Gate 3, The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor have all been nominated.

• READ MORE: Video game songs that had no right to bang as hard as they did
  

We won’t find out which soundtrack has won until April 11, but while we wait, we asked past Music and Audio Achievement BAFTA winners about their all-time favourite gaming scores from over the years.

Jessica Curry (BAFTA Music, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture) – SPECTRA, by Chipzel

“Chipzel, aka Niamh Houston, is an amazing composer. Everything she does is just so cool! She’s a chiptune artist who uses GameBoys to create her energetic, hopeful, extraordinary sound. As an OG raver her music also takes me back to my misspent youth and I’m just in awe of her ability to create banger after banger.”

“People may be surprised that I like her tunes as her music is literally the polar opposite of what I create, but it just makes me so happy when I listen to her stuff and I would love to be able to write music like she does. I love all of her albums but the one I listen to most often is ‘Spectra’ – you simply can’t fail to dance around to it – [but] ‘Forged In Stars’ is my favourite. Go forth and rave!

Kristopher Maddigan (Best Music, Cuphead) – Final Fantasy 7, by Nobuo Uematsu

“Nearly 27 years after I first experienced it, Nobuo Uematsu’s music for Final Fantasy 7 still holds a special place in my heart. What struck me most then as it still does now is how cohesive the entire work is, with its many themes and leitmotifs tying everything together into an overarching narrative, something that directly inspired my approach to Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course.”

“With ‘Opening – Bombing Mission’ setting the scene and instantly pulling the player into the game’s world, the purposefully retro sound palate of Final Fantasy 7 is also worthy of note. Instead of utilizing the still quite new cd format to go towards a more ‘realistic’ orchestral sound, Uematsu chose a much more ‘midi’ sounding approach instead, which for me personally is what gives the game a lot of its charm. Of course, the music itself is impeccably written, with each piece fitting perfectly with the respective scene.”

“Any soundtrack with ‘One Winged Angel’ would be an instant classic, but the fact that that is only one of dozens of stand out pieces shows what a monumental achievement this work is. This is a game and OST that has not only inspired countless numbers since 1997, but will continue to do so for a long time to come.”

John Paesano (Best Music, Spider-Man: Miles Morales) – L.A. Noire by Andrew and Simon Hale

“The first time I heard the music of L.A. Noire, I was immediately hooked as I’m a huge fan of [influential film composer] Bernard Herrmann. Andrew and Simon Hale did a great job capturing the deep, moody vibe that Herrmann so eloquently mastered, and wrapped it up in a jazz-infused package that is pure 1940’s Los Angeles. Every dark alley and smoky room nails the noir style as effectively as any of the best films of the genre.”

“The score is so much more than background music, mixing suspense, melancholy, and those rare moments of triumph perfectly. You can tell that the score for L.A. Noire was carefully crafted to feel familiar, yet fresh and captivating. The music elevates the experience, making each clue uncovered and every case closed feel more personal. It’s a great game to begin with, but it’s the score that keeps drawing me to keep replaying it years later.”

Lyndon Holland (Best Music, Virginia) – Final Fantasy 8 by Nobuo Uematsu

“Final Fantasy 8 was my introduction to the series, way back when it was released in 1999. I was about 11 or 12 at the time, busy learning guitar and dreaming of becoming a rock star, but after Final Fantasy 8, I knew I wanted to be a composer. The melancholic melodies of that score must have left a lasting impression on me, as I still find myself still regularly listening to Nobuo Uematsu’s music to this day, though now often in new forms – from lavishly large, orchestral arrangements found on the ‘Distant Worlds’ albums, to intimate solo instrumental renditions, I never seem to tire of these tunes.”

“After first playing Final Fantasy 8, I began my composer journey, writing my own MIDI music for hobbyist video games on internet forums. Twenty-five years later, I’m still more or less doing the same thing.

David Garcia (BAFTA for Audio Achievement, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice) – Journey by Austin Wintory

“For me, [Journey‘s score] represented a change both as a player and a composer in what it means to write and enjoy music in video games. I think it’s a soundtrack that made our medium evolve. Musically, it’s such a beautiful journey through so many emotions, all threaded through the sound of the cello. And so well implemented to the game that creates that sense of discovery, a hidden narrative told in such a beautiful way.”

Tune in to the 20th BAFTA Games Awards on Thursday (April 11) by visiting BAFTA’s official YouTube channel.

The post BAFTA winners reveal their favourite gaming soundtracks appeared first on NME.

NME

Abubakar Salim, best known for playing the lead role in open-world adventure Assassin’s Creed Origins, shot through 2023 like lightning. First he was cast in the second season of Game Of Thrones spin-off House Of The Dragon, then he played French general Thomas-Alexandre Dumas in Ridley Scott’s historical epic Napoleon. And to cap the year off, he revealed his debut game as a developer, Tales Of Kenzera: Zau, with a giddy on-stage appearance at The Game Awards in December. For most, this would be a year of career highs – but Salim is only getting started.

We meet in a vintage studio in east London, where a prop gun lies discarded on a dusty piano. Gregarious and prone to fits of booming laughter, Salim is sitting in an old leather chair, and his excitement about Zau – now just a few weeks away from launch – is contagious. “It’s all happening too fast,” he giggles.

Out on April 24, Salim’s 2D platformer follows titular character Zau (played by Salim), a young shaman who bargains with Kalunga, the god of death, to bring his dead father back to life. It’s a deeply personal project – and is inspired by Bantu (an ethnolinguistic group across Africa) mythology that has been passed down through Salim’s Kenyan family.

Much like Zau, Salim values family highly. He credits his parents – his dad, a software engineer; his mum a carer – for supporting his creativity from an early age. “My father was a very good storyteller – he was very good at getting people to listen, and he took you on this journey,” says Salim. “But the artist-y side definitely came from my mum. She loved films, westerns, and books. There was an element of artistry that my mum exuded.”

Tragically, ten years ago when Salim was just starting to find steady work as an actor, his dad Ali died from cancer. “I remember thinking this wasn’t supposed to happen, this wasn’t part of the plan,” says Salim. “He was a very healthy man – [his cancer] even went into remission – and then suddenly it came back with a force.”

The experience shattered Salim’s “vague” plans for the future. “It made me realise that nothing is written. It really made me look creatively at my work and think, ‘if something like that can happen, what can happen tomorrow?’”

“What I’m aiming to be is the guy who opened the door for other storytellers”

Salim tried to “soldier on” and bear the weight of his grief on his own. Eventually, however, pretending to be OK felt “poisonous”, and he began speaking about the experience in therapy. “There’s a lot of power in being open and honest, and baring all, because you get to share that with people – and they get to share it with you,” says Salim. “It feels communal in a way. Honesty is the best way of connecting.”

Now, whenever Salim talks about his dad, it’s to celebrate his life, rather than linger on its loss. His eyes shine with pride when we talk about their relationship – and though he speaks modestly about his own abilities, he often makes his father sound like the world’s greatest storyteller. It’s a talent that Salim, who is effortlessly compelling while telling his own tales, has inherited.

Eventually, Salim started to see his loss as another story to be told, and the first seeds of Zau were sown. He considers the metroidvania genre of video games – in which players start off as weak characters and must find the right tools to explore large, often confusing worlds – a metaphor for grief in itself, and wanted to combine it with tales his father had passed down from his grandfather, who was a nganga (a spiritual healer in Bantu culture). But by the time he started taking the idea of developing a new game seriously, his acting career was in full flight. In 2017 he played vengeful warrior Bayek of Siwa in Assassin’s Creed Origins, and in 2020 landed a lead role on the TV side, starring as an android in Ridley Scott’s big-budget HBO sci-fi Raised By Wolves.

When it came to making Zau, Salim decided to found his own studio rather than risk pitching it somewhere that might jeapordise his creative vision. With self-conscious laughter, Salim says he started by constantly messaging people on social media. Some, including legendary game writers Mike Bithell and Caroline Marchal, offered advice on becoming a founder. Others loved Salim’s idea, and joined his fledgling company Silver Rain Games (now called Surgent Studios). Using his own money, Salim funded the team while it made an early prototype for Zau, which eventually allowed him to find a publisher – Electronic Arts (EA), one of the biggest in the world.

Last December, Salim revealed Zau to the world at The Game Awards 2023, a flashy Los Angeles ceremony that’s part annual awards bash, part marketing platform for new game reveals. The game’s premise, along with Salim’s enthusiasm at simply being represented at such a huge event, was widely praised online. And that momentum hasn’t slowed. “The reception has been ridiculously phenomenal,” he says. “It’s blown our expectations, and EA’s, out of the water. We’re in a place now where you cannot deny that being honest, open, truthful and artistic is the way forward, and something you should strive for.”

Like any studio head would be, Salim is now nervous about delivering on those expectations. But he also feels responsible for proving that games based on under-represented cultures can succeed in this industry. “There’s additional pressure of Zau being an African story, and feeling like this has got to really do well otherwise I could potentially screw up someone else’s chance of telling an African story,” he explains. “But the trick is to not think about that and focus on telling your own personal story, and delivering that the best way you can.”

“We’re in a place now where you cannot deny that being honest, open, truthful and artistic is the way forward”

Salim points out that the “beauty” of African tales and cultural stories lies in the oral tradition of telling them out loud. When we ask if he had any favourite stories he loved to hear as a child, Salim pauses. After a brief silence, Salim begins retelling a tale his dad told him about his own father in Kenya.

“It was raining one day in the village, and everyone was getting wet,” he says, suddenly very still in his chair. “My granddad, because he was a nganga, picked up a blade of grass and put it over his head. And he was suddenly dry. Then everyone started doing [the same thing], then everyone else was dry.”

As if he’s spent the last minute bottling it up, Salim immediately bursts into laughter. “I remember looking at my dad, like, ‘what were you smoking?’ But at the same time, he’s got that cheeky grin – it was all part and parcel of the story.”

“That just really sticks to me, because I remember the way he would tell it, I’d be so enamoured,” he explains. “Then as soon as he said the whole blade of grass thing, there was a moment of being like, ‘ah, okay, now you’re playing with me’. Because obviously his father did the same thing with him!”

As a result, Zau is a mix of Bantu culture – its protagonist goes on a quest to become a nganga just like Salim’s grandfather was – and Salim’s own story of loss. While grief is a universal emotion, we discuss the fact that everyone can experience it differently, and whether that makes Zau’s story easier or harder to relate to.

“The beauty of art is that you, the viewer, are reacting to it from your own perspective and putting your own ideas on it,” he says. “That’s what helps. I can’t relate [to] a kid fighting a giant lightning bug, but I can understand where he’s coming from. You can find a moment, or place, and remember being like that.”

Originally, Salim wanted Zau to send the message that it’s “OK to not be OK”. While that’s still true, he now hopes to encourage more people to tell their own stories as well. Salim points to critically acclaimed metroidvania games Dead Cells and Ori And The Blind Forest, both of which were massive inspirations to him – and says that he wants Zau to have a similar impact.

It’s an idea that he’s been thinking about more, lately. When we ask him what he’d rather be remembered as – an actor or developer – he says: “What I’m aiming to be is the guy who opened the door for other storytellers,” Salim says. Before its first game has even launched, he’s already planned out Tales Of Kenzera in the same way that Marvel, which announces its films years ahead of their release, does. Importantly, Salim also wants to get creators and writers from other cultures involved. “The idea of being able to open the door, like, ‘hey, come on in – I want to hear your stories’, that’s what I want to be remembered for.”

‘Tales of Kenzera: Zau’ is out April 23, 2024 for Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

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