For 24 days in early 2011, my life and the lives of about 77 million others around the world were marginally affected by a massive outage to the PlayStation Network, preventing us from using the online network to game with our friends.
Additionally, the games released during that window suffered a huge hit in sales, particularly if they included multiplayer features in their games.
When it was all said and done, Sony offered gamers two free PlayStation 3 games and two free PlayStation Portable games. The package had some truly wonderful titles in it, including one called Infamous from Sucker Punch Productions.
I fell in love with it, and then with its sequel.
One of the successes of a soundtrack is how well it fits, or reflects, the environment. Both Infamous games take place in the fictional Empire City, quarantined from the rest of the country due to a plague. It's bleak. People everywhere are sick and confused. And there are different weapon-wielding gangs controlling areas of the city, some of which have special powers like the main character, Cole MacGrath.
Composer Jim Dooley's score fits the city quite well. His music for the game is often thinly scored, allowing room for interaction with the sounds of Cole and the city.
Dooley also wrote the score to Pushing Daisies, a show that fell victim to the Writer's Guild Strike in late 2007 into 2008. Dooley won an Emmy for that score, and despite its untimely cancellation, Pushing Daisies maintained a strong enough fan-base that the show is back on the air.
Jim Dooley and Emily Reese talk about these projects and others on the newest episode of Top Score from Classical MPR. Also on iTunes.
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