Well here is my attempt at writing out Unyielding. I know that its not 100% correct but please do appreciate it.

Here is a transcription of Earth City from Halo 2 for the piano (Now with E3 part). It's pretty difficult, so just keep practicing. :)

Many thanks to Spencer "Poop Scoop" Anunsen for his transcription of Earth City for the orchestra; I got most of the notes from there.

Some parts of the MIDI might sound a bit wierd, I was messing around a bit with the dynamics and stuff but generally it sounds ok.

Pedaling, dynamics and articulation are left to the pianist's discretion. Enjoy!

22 Aug: Slight updates.

Difficulty: Quite Hard

At Edge Online, N'Gai Croal in his blog discusses some interesting issues relating to realism, verisimilitude, and detail, many of which echo some of my own experiences.

Because even those titles which are widely seen as exemplars of game realism, be they Crysis or Mass Effect or Grand Theft Auto, are themselves stylised in some way. So what is it that we mean when we say that a game is realistic? Are we talking about verisimilitude? Detail? Atmosphere?

I tend to think that of all these, "realism" is actually the least important, followed by detail, atmosphere, and verisimilitude. This is the opposite of the order they are usually discussed (perhaps it's a prejudice against long words).

Realism, especially in a combat game, is the last thing you want. You don't want things to be real, just to seem real, or real enough. The exploits most combat games require of their players in order to "win" are ridiculous by their very nature, even for the super-soldiers those games have as protagonists. The last thing they need on top of that are realistic treatments of weapons, damage, fatigue, and the like.

I think that's a big part of the reason that so many very successful franchises (Halo, Mass Effect) largely operate outside those parameters by operating in the future, where unrealistic situations and damage models can be explained away by advanced technologies-- better shields, better weapons, better vehicles.

It is where realism is misapplied, or rather selectively applied, in games like GTA, where I think there's the most dissonance. Things look and seem like they are happening in the real world, but the perception of verisimilitude recedes as more and more unrealistic things happen, or else the fun turns into frustration when the virtual reality restricts the player's actions.

HBO and the HBO forum have both provided links to an editorial by "William Usher" at Cinema Blend about how Halo is killing console gaming.

So now that this specious attempt to nab page hits has worked, there can be little further damage that I can do except to examine the author's premise and see if it holds any merit. For the most part, it doesn't.

When you have to start off your article by saying "this isn't Halo bashing" it's not a good sign. Not because Halo doesn't deserve thoughtful criticism. It does. It is not a perfect edifice placed on Earth by some deity for the entertainment of humanity.

This is a transcription done by myself concerning Unforgotten from Halo 2. There are 3 horns, full string orchestra, and a piano. I do not have a MIDI or MP3 of this file as of yet. Shouldn't need one anyway. Just listen to the Halo 2 CD. Anyway, hope you like this one.