Video: Creating the sounds of Halo: Reach

It's really interesting what kinds of sounds sound designers use in movies and games.

Lightsabers, for example, get their sound from a microphone being passed in front of a certain model amplifier. The feedback creates the hum.

The roars of certain dinosaurs from Jurassic Park were created by combining dolphin squeals, dog growls (I think) and other animals.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Yeah they do!
It's actually because of Jay that I'm planning on going to school to do what they do.
So, Jay Weinland, if you are reading this, I'm coming for your job in 2 years. You have been warned!

@Drakkenfyre
i know what you mean. i think there was an interview on sound effects from gears of war (2?) where they talked about how hard it was to make the sound effect for the skull exploding from head shots and curb stomps.

@Drakkenfyre

Dude, one of Irrational's podcasts does a really good job of talking about that. It's pretty entertaining.

@Drakkenfyre

when the giant smoke stacks in the titanic collapses its the sounds of elephants and lions :)

@Burnflare: No game soundtrack even comes close to ODST's for me. Marty did right by me with that one. In fact, I think I'll listen to it now.

@The MARIO
Don't count Mass Effect 2 out just yet.

@The MARIO Halo Reach WILL NOT be Xbox360 GOTY...... Will not be. As much as I love Halo and am in know way bashing Reach, it's still just another Halo. Red Dead Redemption, Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2, just to name a few, still hold more merit then Reach. Sales don't make GOTY. Unless you work for a shitty magazine or Spike TV.

@IVIonsterAddict

A few things, and I'm not saying you're wrong about Reach not being GOTY, I have my money on ME2 simply because of the massive amount of DLC support it has received, but I can't help but poke some holes in what you just said because some of it is very poorly informed.

DA isn't in the GOTY running this year because of when it came out. No game wins GOTY coming out when it does because, depending on when different people choose GOTY it is either too new, or too old and buried under the other games that released after it. I don't think Red Dead will get it because the multiplayer, which was still cool, failed to deliver. We still didn't get a multiplayer world where there was a bunch to do other than infuriate other people.

The story was great but they failed to set it apart from Grand Theft Auto by changing the way they went about designing the game. It wasn't empowering, you were still just an errand boy like you are in every Rockstar game. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Red Dead, but I don't think it should win simply because it didn't make me feel like I had the freedom that I should have in The West. That was especially disconcerting considering games like Fallout 3 that allowed you to choose what you want to do and gave you a real choice and rewarded you for making choices. There were no real impactful choices to be made in Red Dead. The ending was the same no mater what.

Personally I would also like to see Enslaved get thrown into the mix, because it looks great and the people who have gotten hands on with it say it's a must play, but I don't think it will garner the necessary attention.

Lastly, Spike TV's GOTY last year was Uncharted 2. Last time I checked that game isn't noted for it's sales numbers, it's just damn good. So... yeah. Holes poked.

@SpydaKat ME2 gets my vote too. Reach better be BETTER than spectacular to beat it out IMHO.

@Shiv Thrice

Yeah, but I don't think these were them. =(

p.s. I keep forgetting to re-read the Halo books, along with the newer ones I missed. Sounds like a good task for the next week!

@Shiv Thrice
The only other Spartans I can recall having survived Reach is Blue Team. Namely Master Chiefs squad. Can't remember their names but it's all in the Fall of Reach book.

@Shiv Thrice

Kelly was the only other SPARTAN II to make it off Reach, but she got blasted in the gut by a Hunter before they made their escape. None of the rest of blue team that was on Reach made it off. Kelly was also in cryostasis when The Pillar of Autumn crashed on the first Halo ring. If you read the book it ends with John firing her off PoA in an escape pod(if I recall correctly) then finding her and pulling her pod into the Pelican. He then turns her over to Doctor Halsey who gets her some form of treatment during the events of Halo 2 and by the end of that arc Kelly is awakened by Halsey when their ship crash lands on the "shield world" Onyx, the site of the SPARTAN III training facility where Kurt is stationed and just happens to be a giant piece of forerunner tech.

Most of the book content isn't referenced at all in the games. If you just played Halo CE - 3 you might not even have a grasp on who Doctor Halsey is because she is only mentioned fleetingly. Though Guilty Spark does say in Halo 3 that he thought the big array thing that produces Halo rings would be contained within a "shield world". Based off of the Ghosts of Onyx book and what Guilty Spark said I'm guessing there are multiple "shield worlds" and they are safe heavens from the effects of the Halo rings. That's why Guilty Spark was surprised that the array thingy wasn't along with a shield world to protect the people activating it.

Kurt was thought to be dead before after his jet pack malfunctioned in open space, and was a member of Blue Team before Reach, but he was secretly rescued by and ONI prowler and put to work training the SPARTAN IIIs on Onyx.

So at this point in the Halo lore the only confirmed remaining SPARTANS are Master Chief, Kelly, Kurt, and the few SPARTAN IIIs that survived the events of Onyx. Of those they are all "trapped" in some way. John in his cryo pod; Kelly, Kurt, and the SPARTAN IIIs trapped inside Onyx.

So yeah, that's my geek off about that. I'm not a huge fan of the Halo games, but I LOVE the back story.

@imDraxx

Well, the only Spartans from that story's perspective. I'm secretly holding out hope that, well, any of the Spartans in Reach make it. Not so secretly anymore, I guess >.>

And I think it was mostly First Strike that discussed who'd made it off Reach...though it's been a few years, so my memory is fuzzy.

@oJMan240o

*ghosts of onyx spoiler*
*************************
didn't kurt die at the end?

also, i Fred and Linda survived.

@TheBrainninja

You have to keep in mind that most of them are SPARTAN IIIs and are meant to be HIGHLY expendable. With the exception of Jorge Noble doesn't have as heavy armor and they don't have as many genetic enhancements as the SPARTAN IIs like MC and Jorge. They are smaller, stealthier, but not as well trained. If you've read Onyx then you know about the part at the beginning where a company of SPARTAN IIIs is sent on a suicide run to take out a covenant power plant/refueling station. Of that company only 2 made it out alive.

SPARTAN IIIs are the Halo equivalent of Kamikaze troops. They're made to respond in a more animalistic and impulsive manner in combat, rather than the calm and collected manners of their bigger predecessors. They're sent on the impossible missions and are designed to do the same amount of work as a squad or two of SPARTAN IIs without the massive amounts of training, money, and time that the previous program required. Their power comes from numbers. In the Halo-verse a lone III couldn't survive the same things that Master Chief went through. So... don't hold your breath, sorry.

@maveric101

I was under the impression that Fred and Linda died because they weren't talked about at all after Reach and what exactly happened to them wasn't very clear. Weren't they picked off as they were making their escape. I remember something about a dramatic run across open ground, then the hunter encounter, and then all of the sudden MC and Kelly are aboard the Pillar of Autumn.

@oJMan240o

Also, I don't think Kurt was dead dead.

@maveric101

I just got the book and looked it up. Fred was left in charge of the ground operation while Linda, James, and John went to breach an orbital station to help the Pillar of Autumn escape. Fred was killed on the ground, Kelly made it out with severe injuries. James was killed breaching the station, Linda was killed during the escape from the station.

@oJMan240o

from Linda's page on the Halo wiki:

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Linda-058

"She is one of the last known surviving Spartan-II's, along with Fred, Kelly and John. "

*more spoilers*
that think with the hunters that you remember was when Will died fighting them hand-to-hand. Kurt died when he stayed behind to set off the nukes on Onyx.

@maveric101

I just went back and read the part in The Fall of Reach where Linda dies.
And I quote:

"A new contact on the Pelican's targeting display appeared - right behind Linda. He had to warn her-

"A bolt of plasma struck her in the back. Another bolt of fire blazed her from the upper decks and splashed across her front. She crumpled - her shields flickered and went out. Two more bolts hit her chest. A third smashed into her helmet."

Later on the same page it confirms that she dies. That wiki thing is WRONG.

@maveric101 Wait, nevermind, I got Kelly and Linda confused.

@Shiv Thrice

It would be funny if they changed the storyline and had a bunch of people survive.

@oJMan240o

Reach
"One of the globules of plasma hit her in the back of the skull. Linda was recovered by a horrified John, but her vitals flatlined, and she was presumed dead."

Alpha Halo
"took her to the cryo facilities where they immediately froze Linda's body in a Cryo-chamber."
"Dr. Halsey revived Linda aboard the UNSC Gettysburg."

you were right in that she DID die (by today's definition), but she was brought back to life.

@oJMan240o Scratch that, it's just not working right for me on Joystiq.

@FaM

Yep. Though to his credit Ebert sorta of retracted that statement

@(Unverified)

also how do i become verified