GAMEPLAY

This week on GAMEPLAY, we’ll sample music from some of the classics: games that are not only huge critical and commercial successes, but that have also withstood the test of time. 

Many have expanded into decades-long series, deepening their stories and sometimes reinventing themselves. 

They’ve been played and loved for many years, and these games keep on winning over new fans today.

  When you think of jazz, you might think of big band swing in a ballroom, or enjoying a live combo in a candlelit club with a nice cocktail.

But what about jazz... in a videogame?

This week on GAMEPLAY, we’ll take a look at three very different but equally irresistible jazz-influenced game soundtracks.

  On this week’s episode of GAMEPLAY, we’ll explore three different soundtracks scored by composer Jessica Curry: one of today’s great game music storytellers.

No matter the setting or story of a particular game, she is able to adapt her style while maintaining her unique, gorgeously lyrical voice.

We’ll look for the secrets held by an island in the Scottish Hebrides, go on a walk through the beautiful but mysteriously empty English countryside, and experience the life cycle of a planet.

  This week on GAMEPLAY, we’ll dive deep into the BAFTA-award winning soundtrack for 2018’s God of War!

Composer Bear McCreary’s epic, layered score for the visceral action title uses huge orchestral forces along with Nordic folk instruments and voices to bring vivid emotional life to the deities, giants, and beasts of Norse mythology.

  On this week’s episode: game music that sets a mood.

Though plenty of videogames are about pulse-pounding action thrills, there are also lots of games that are more atmospheric, reflective, even meditative, and music plays a major part in creating the atmosphere for your experience.

We’ll sail peacefully down majestic dunes, take our first steps up a mystical mountain, and even build a colony on the surface of Mars.

  This week on GAMEPLAY: we explore beloved music from one of the most successful fantasy role-playing games of all time: The Elder Scrolls V: SKYRIM!

Millions of gamers have gotten pleasantly lost in this rich wintry world since 2011, with its deep story and detailed history, politics, and mythology that are easily comparable to Game of Thrones or the Lord of the Rings.

This week’s full episode and playlist are available below.

  There’s nothing like the thrilling sound of many voices coming together!

On this week’s episode of GAMEPLAY, we celebrate the chorus in videogames.

We’ll hear the first piece of game music to win a Grammy, and we’ll enjoy singing in languages living, dead, and created too, from English and Latin to Swahili, Old Norse, and a magical tongue spoken by dragons!  

This week’s full episode and playlist are available below.

  On GAMEPLAY this week: two games which each deal in their own ways with the concept of time. 

We’ll begin with a look at music from 2008’s fascinating Braid, in which you control the flow of time itself, rewinding your actions to solve mind-bending puzzles against a backdrop of gorgeous watercolor visuals. 

  On GAMEPLAY this week: a celebration of some versatile composers who are just as much at home scoring for videogames, film, and TV! 

We’ll hear game music from Spider-Man, Dante’s Inferno, The Last of Us, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and many more by some of the giants of the game industry, including Garry Schyman and multiple Emmy-winner and Interlochen alumna Laura Karpman.

Join us for an adventure on Classical IPR Saturday at 1 p.m.  This week’s full episode and playlist are available below.

This week on GAMEPLAY: a tour of music from one of the most beloved, influential, and commercially successful videogame series of all time: FINAL FANTASY. 

These games are so revered by fans not only because of their complex storytelling and relationships, but because they have been jam-packed with emotional, dramatic, immersive music for over 30 years.

We’re going to enjoy some iconic themes by Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu from Final Fantasy 7, 8, 10 and many more!