Video Game Field Recordings

what about documenting interesting sound environments in games? i want to find places that are very pleasant to listen to, and then stand there for a long time. this is how i want to play video games for a while, just walking around listening for good sounds.

the first thing i think of are open world games like skyrim or the witcher or red dead redemption where you can stand still in the woods for a while without being attacked, and recording the sounds there (making sure any music is muted). but you could also stand in a populated area and with NPCs chattering away or cars driving by, or ocean waves, wind, airport noises. or to go in a different direction, you could record a clip of an online game where dipshit teens are playing the goddamned music too loud on the voice chat channel and listen to them drift in and out of the scene.

sounds cool to me (at the moment, at least - if recent past is any indication i will feel silly about sharing this very soon). anyone have any recommendations for interesting locations? tbh it's not like i have a bunch that are immediately popping to mind (which tells me this is possibly stupid) but i do want to at least keep this thought in mind the next time i play something.

and this is just my own personal limitation on the idea, but for me, the location should be somewhere "unique", positioned in 3D space between different sound elements whose amplitudes are a function of distance and obstructing objects in the environment (for example: a certain spot on the side of a mountain where you can hear both a nearby creek and cars from a nearby highway).

in contrast, a preset sound environment for a 2D platformer level that's the same every time you play through it wouldn't be very interesting.

i guess the term i'm looking for is "interactive audio environments"?

i would really like to find a place to stand in a game that is halfway in the water, so that maybe the waterline occasionally rises and falls beneath the player's "ears"

GTA Online is very good for this. Sometimes I like to just stroll around the map for long stretches between vehicular homicides.

i'm sure even way back in the original GTA3 i felt this, spaces of the city where the traffic was slightly muted by distance and you could listen to the random chatter of passers-by. it's definitely one of the best things about the whole GTA series, it reminds me of real cities and the way you suddenly find yourself in corridors of relative stillness.

Yeah I remember this - I used to go to a newly unlocked bit of San Andreas and stand on a corner listening to new pedestrians. Needless to say the idea of that kind of free time is dizzying to me now.

Oblivion did this for me, the combo of some of the lovely peaceful music and a meadow by a brook would be just lovely. There's a few guys on youtube who have made long loops of the music with some running water/breeze/snow/etc ambience.

And of course there are areas of BOTW that definitely do this for me, such as Lurelin beach at sunset:

https://i.imgur.com/29AnxPE.jpg

(pic doesnt capture the shooshing waves and lilting tune )

far cry 3 also had some lovely moments of sun-splashed seaside serenity

i also enjoyed jumping onto the glider and flapping around in the sky listening to the wind

Oh yeah, Just Cause 2 is great for that, as well. Parachute off a mountain and just take in the scenery on your way down.

assassin's creed black flag is also notable for providing a lot of chill little islands you can enjoy quietly trotting around on

'videogames which sometimes feel like tropical vacations' is almost a thread in itself now that i think about it

Endless Ocean 2, so good it makes me sad there'll never be another

It's more abstract but Proteus arguably encompasses nothing but this quality.

yes! that's the kind of thing i was hoping to find. although, judging from this video i just watched, it's too "busy" for my taste - it's hard to map all the sounds to what's happening in the environment. /entitledinternetdoofuscomplaints

That video is weirdly not quite Proteus. It's definitely busier than the version I've played (I'm assuming the video is a PC version, but I'm used to the Playstation version). Check this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvnRX2np2HQ

(The only time I've ever fallen asleep playing a game. And my thumb was still pushing the control stick when I woke up so I guess I technically sleepwalked for a while.)

Dark Souls has really excellent ambient recordings with some pleasant (and sometimes ominous) low frequency drones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRq4rGeOiAA&list=PLKVlGdtJMT7sfUUI_eBT0PwMWkZrbD-55&index=11&t=0s

hmm, the video doesn't work for me, but i think maybe it's just on my end? lately a bunch of youtube links have been broken on ilx, at least for me

Trying again, there's a whole playlist if you search 'dark souls ambient' though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRq4rGeOiAA

oh there we go, that worked! and yes, that's pretty much exactly what i had in mind! love that they just stand there by the glowing flower for so long.