the background noise

Too warm, just too warm. I'm sweating like a bawdy metaphor in church and I'm just not cut out for this thing we call summer. It's a hostile environment is what I'm saying. It makes me want to pack up and relocate to a walk-in freezer. So naturally, what better time to revisit my love of videogame music than when my brain is slowly baking from the inside.  Today we shall showcase the music of a game we've highlighted around these here parts before. Indeed I recall this was the best game I played back in the bygone days of three years ago. Today we highlight the music of Oxenfree for no other reason than I haven't already done so. That and I recently got around to playing it's sequel, so the first game has been on my mind a lot lately.

Well if it isn't the dying days of summer once again? That time of year where the blue skies and fine weather persist but you can detect that ever so subtle change in the air. Full beam heat is no more, the green is a little less greener than it was a few weeks ago and the stage is set for the inevitable arrival of the Autumnal hues. This is all a very fine way of saying: why look at the time? See how it's getting on? Why what better way to mark it than to showcase some of my favourite game music. Not just my favourite game music but music from what might just be one of the all time greats. A game series that may or may not be my favourite of all-time. That's right, behold some of my favourite music from Metal Gear Solid and its many sequels.

If any three words could sum up my gaming habits in the late nineties, those three words would probably be ' Command and Conquer ' or even ' Command & Conquer ' if we're going to be pedantic about it. Top down real time strategy games that I was well into back then. The gameplay was solid, the tone (at least in the early games) had the vague feel of the real world about it and most importantly for the subject of today's post, it had a stonking great soundtrack that still holds up all these years later. 

Happy August one and all! It's been a mostly sunny carefree month here. Sunshine, blue skies and a stillness to the air, true peak August vibes all said. So what better way to lean into the tail end of summer as the evenings gently grow darker and the temperature feels a touch cooler, than with another sample of my favourite game music. This time around it comes from a game I may have mentioned around these here parts previously: Hotline Miami, otherwise referred to by myself as  'T rippy Retro Ultra-Violent Hallucinogenic Slash Bang: The Game'. 

Picture the scene if you will... It's the early 90's, precise year unclear but possibly 1992? A young boy comes home from school to find that most special of surprises awaits him but not all is as it seems. For you see said boy was indeed myself, and the gift in question was a machine that could play video games but there was a catch... Was it the Nintendo Entertainment System I hear you ask? A Game Boy perhaps? A Sega Mega Drive ? A Jaguar even? No my friends it was none of those, for you see I grew up in a family that was not flush with cash so I had to make do with what I got. What I got was a hand-me-down Amstrad CPC 464 . 

Presenting the first of an infrequent series where I showcase my all time favourite video game music, starting with this little gem from Deus Ex ...