Despite my job description, I’m not the kind of person to obsessively analyse video game trailers. I leave that to the fans – I’m way more interested in how a game turns out when it’s in players’ hands than what it advertises itself to be. I also think there are way too many trailers at The Game Awards. It’s an awards show, but it seems entirely focused on the future and rather disinterested in the achievements of the past or present. That said, there was a weirdly pervasive thread that ran through everything shown, one obvious enough that even I, who was only half paying attention, noticed it.
If you didn’t get this from the title, it was the music. It slapped.
So, of course, I went through every single trailer dropped at The Game Awards last night – and there were a lot of them – and picked out the ones that had bangers. You’re welcome.
Big Walk
This trailer’s music immediately reminded me of JEMAPUR’s soundtrack composed for Humanity. That soundtrack used staccato, distorted, chopped vocals and overlaid them to create gorgeous soundscapes, and Big Walk does a very similar thing here. Clipped vocal samples are put in beautiful patterns and looped with gorgeous choral backing tracks. I love it,
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
Right after a haunting, hair-raising performance from the experimental folk music band Heilung, composers of the game’s soundtrack, we got to see another one of their songs in action in this highly-anticipated sequel’s new trailer. It was absolutely as brutal and as beautiful as it needed to be for a game like this.
The Casting of Frank Stone
This unsettling trailer from Supermassive and the Dead by Daylight team used Daylight by David Kushner, which is an interesting choice, to say the least. Obviously, the song is called Daylight, but it’s also very obviously a Christian song from a Christian artist. Put in the context of a horror game, the trailer twists the meaning of the song in a way I very much dig. If I heard this song on the radio, I’d probably change the station, but add some distant screaming in the background and I’m pretty into it.
Suicide Squad
I’m a sucker for Gorillaz, sue me. Nobody can say if the Rocksteady game, infamously delayed from last year, will be good now, but hearing Gorillaz’ Clint Eastwood remixed with those archetypal superhero strings and a driving drum beat actually got me kind of hyped. I’m still wary, mind you, but shout out Gorillaz.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
It looks like Lost Records is going to be a music-focused game, which works just fine for me. The protagonists of the game, a group of young women, seem to be close friends. Two of them look to be in a band together, and the song they play in the trailer gives off grunge vibes. Given that it seems to be set in the ‘90s and one of them is leaning into punk aesthetics, perhaps it’s even straying into riot grrl territory? I’m into it, give me more immediately.
Skull & Bones
SEA SHANTY SEA SHANTY SEA SHANTY
The First Descendant
I like Bloc Party. I just paid a lot of money to see them and Interpol while they were touring Asia. So imagine my surprise as I was minding my own business, watching the stream, while my partner was eating lunch on the opposite side of the house, and our heads both lifted in confusion at the same time upon hearing Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke’s distinctive voice. It turns out the trailer used an excellent M83 remix of The Pioneers, which incidentally has also been used in one of my favourite Netflix shows Dark, and the recent Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi film Saltburn.
Light No Fire
In yet another moment that had me scratching my head, asking myself why I knew the melody to this song somewhere deep in my bones, Hello Games’ Light No Fire uses Alt-J’s 2014 Hunger of the Pine in its debut trailer for its newest game. I got a chill down my spine the moment I heard the vocal sample, and was still wondering why I felt like a teenager again when I realised what I was listening to. What a banger.
The Alternative The Game Awards Predictions
Everyone knows The Game Awards isn’t about who wins, but about what happens at the show.
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