Role of Audio and Sounds in GTA 5

Role of Audio and Sounds in GTA 5

Grand Theft Auto, or GTA as it is popularly known, is one of the most popular games in the market. The game is produced by Rockstar games, and the first release was in November 1997. The game is an action drama with an open-world setting where the user can explore and basically do whatever he or she pleases. The purpose of the game is to complete a set of tasks referred to as missions as you follow the life of the main character. However, in this game, one can choose to explore the landscape without ever completing even one task. The purpose of the game, like many open-world games, is left to the gamer to decide. GTA 5 can be looked at as one’s virtual life, and depending on the person’s personality, mood, and reason for playing the game, the direction the game will take can be very different. However, a large number of gamers believe that the main purpose of grand theft auto is to make the highest amounts of money.

One of the most captivating features is its rich audio soundtracks which make up over 1 GB of audio files. The game is set up in the Los Angeles landscape and depicts some of the more violent and rough cultures in the area. The audio soundtracks represent this culture even further with a wide range of radio stations and ramped-up dramatic soundtracks during the game and some tongue-in-cheek commercials running in the background. The audio soundtracks of the game have made the game gain a cult-like following, with some users downloading the audio files and listening to the music and commercials in their vehicles and houses. It is said that music moves the soul and can easily influence both the mood and enjoyment of an activity. This is why game developers take their time and effort to put together audio tracks that will bring out the soul of the game. Most successful games have rich audio tracks and, as a result, gain a large following due to the emotions the soundtrack evokes during gameplay (Kopaniecki, 2019).

Grand Theft Audio 5 consists of 241 songs, which is far less than the development staff had initially planned, and are played in the 17 radio stations found in the game (Makhmutov, 2019). Pavlovich, who is the audio director of Grand Theft Auto 5, has had a long and successful career gaining experience along the way. He was responsible for making the soundtracks in Oceans 11 and Oceans 12, which later became box office hits. The team that worked with Pavlovich consisted of 5 composers who came together to put together the entire soundtrack of the game. The development of the entire game, including the audio and soundtracks, took three years. The time period is largely due to the game’s massive landscape and audio files. The team of developers that was involved in making the game consisted of over 1000 members. The members were divided into departments and worked together to form parts of the game, which were later combined to form the final product. Globally, Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold over 160 million copies. These copies have made the company over 6 billion dollars in returns. The game has also been published for various gaming devices, such as PlayStation 4, Play Station 5, and for personal computers (Makhmutov, 2019).

In order to attract more gamers to play the game, Rockstar decided to interview different personalities to host their stations. This was in order to attract the different preferences of individual gamers. Some of the radio stations play low-tempo soft rock, such as the Kenny Loggins radio station. Kenny Loggins is a music composer who makes soft rock the perfect fit for the radio station. The different radio stations play different genres of music and mix the genres in some radio stations. During gameplay, when the gamer reaches a point where a video is playing, and an action scene begins, the tempo of the music increases and brings out a dramatic melody (Kopaniecki, 2019).

The different versions of Grand Theft Auto have visited different cities and towns, with each city having a different audio mix and dominant genre. The first version that was released in 1997 did not incorporate many audio files, but as the game grew in popularity and hard drive space required, the game developers realized the use of suitable audio tracks attracted more gamers. Due to the game’s popularity, there are many YouTube reviews on the internet. One of the best GTA 5 reviews on the internet is the IGN review of the game. The IGN YouTube page has over 16 million subscribers, which shows that they release high-quality videos. The Grand Theft Auto 5 review from the YouTube channel is an 8-minute video in which the host talks about the game’s features, graphics, and audio, among other topics. The video can be found at the following link: https://za.ign.com/video/101095/gta-5-video-review.

References

Kopaniecki, J. (2019). Walking the streets of a virtual metropolis. The audiosphere of the game Grand Theft Auto IV. Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology, (19), 173-184.

Makhmutov, M. (2019, October). Adaptive game soundtrack generation based on music transcription. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 216-218).

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Produce a critical write-up of the sound/music in a game of choice.

The document must meet the following requirements:

Pages must be formatted with 1-inch margins, 12-point font (Aerial or Times New Roman), and double-spaced.
The document’s length must be between 750 and 1000 words.
Describe the context of the audio in the game:
– What is the genre of the game, and what is its purpose?
– What is the role of the audio in the game?
– Describe how and why the music/audio enhances or detracts from gameplay.

– NOTE: Mere play-by-play description is NOT enough!!! Do not simply describe WHAT the audio is doing; describe WHY it is doing it.

Include commentary related to the following concepts:
Diagetic vs. Non-Diagetic
Immersion

Include commentary that utilizes (some or all of) the following vocabulary:
Tempo
Meter
Form
Dynamics
Frequency (pitch or register)
Melody
Harmony
Mix
Form
Signal Processing Effects (i.e. reverb)

Include a link to the game being critiqued (e.g. YouTube gameplay).

Where appropriate, include clear references to points in the game discussed. [e.g. The tempo and style of the music suddenly change when Mario gets star power (“MarioGameLink” @ 2’12’’)]