By Alec Meer on February 28th, 2008 at 9:19 am.
Anything is better when soundtracked by the Requiem for a Dream music. Seriously – stick it on your MP3 player and go for a wander around town. Cross a road. Visit the cheese aisle in the supermarket. Tie your shoelaces. Nod solemnly at an old lady. All such things seem possessed of impossible drama and dark purpose when listening to Clint Mansell’s ubiquitous score. Don’t believe me? Then watch this trailer for Devil May Cry-but-with-more-boobs thingy Witches.
Thametrailers.
Sure, the game itself appears almost entirely uninteresting. Remarkably, it even considers despicable quick-time events a selling point – wilfully demonstrating them in the trailer, rather than doing the sensible thing and not ever mentioning them in the desperate hope that no-one notices until the game’s already on sale. It’s a move so absolutely foolish that I almost respect it.
Listen to the music, though. Doesn’t Witches seem dynamic, exciting? Frankly, I’m surprised every game doesn’t use this music – certainly, every film trailer does these days. Don’t yet know whether Mansell’s score will feature on the actual game, but it is all over the official website. They’re “sultry warriors”, apparently.
Oh yeah – try Requiem for a Dream on Audiosurf. ‘sgood.
28/02/2008 at 09:26 weegosan says:
makes me smile that through all my changes in musical taste since 16 when PWEI was omg the best band evaaaar I now list requiem for a dream and the fountain in my top 6 favourite albums.
good work mansell.
28/02/2008 at 09:28 Jens Arnesen says:
Requiem for a Dream is excellent, but way overused.
28/02/2008 at 09:39 James T says:
EXCEPT REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, LULZ
28/02/2008 at 09:52 Phil says:
Trying listening to Mansell on a packed morning tube, slowly considering the faces around you, whilst profoundly huge over – All of a sudden you’re in a virtual reality simulation of a David Lynch movie.
28/02/2008 at 09:55 Hugh says:
Shockingly enough, I’ve never actually seen the film….
And I never realised that that was where that music came from. It does seem to appear all over the place, though! It’s really reminding me of something else at the moment, although I can’t quite think what….
28/02/2008 at 09:57 Mooey Poo says:
I’m looking forward to the level where her mum gets addicted to amphetamines, and then she loses an arm thanks to a spiralling-out-of-control heroin addiction, and then you realise you should have watched Fight Club instead because at least that didn’t make alcoholism seem quite pleasant.
Also, I think the game looks a bit pants, but nice tits lady.
28/02/2008 at 09:59 Mooey Poo says:
Also, if you type CLINT in the right (wrong?) font it looks a lot like another word.
In fact, CLINT MANSELL sounds a bit like a caveman who traded in their manbits for a ladygarden.
28/02/2008 at 10:01 James says:
Thametrailers is an awesome play on words.
The cynic in me noted quickly noted that “Devil May Cry-but-with-more-boobs thingy” might be a quick way to sell a game to a certain group. I’m not quite sure how to feel about that.
EDIT @ Hugh: Same here, actually. I love the piece of music, but now I can actually lay a name to it.
28/02/2008 at 10:18 BrokenSymmetry says:
I agree that it takes guts to put QTEs so prominently in the trailer, when they seem so universally despised at the moment. I like QTEs, though, and certainly half-naked sword-fighting witches. Sold!
28/02/2008 at 10:18 Okami says:
What’s wrong with “Devil May Cry-but-with-more-boobs thingy” ?
28/02/2008 at 10:27 Fizish says:
@ Hugh, James: I believe it was used on a trailer for LOTR: The Two Towers, which is likely where you remember it from if you haven’t seen RFAD.
28/02/2008 at 10:42 Merlin says:
> It’s really reminding me of something else at the moment, although I can’t quite think what….
The strings in it always remind of the ones in Elenor Rigby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Itt02QOO0&feature=related
Thanks Youtube.
28/02/2008 at 10:53 Tom Armitage says:
Yeah; I remember watching the Two Towers trailer thinking “this is just an LOTR trailer, why the hell is it freaking me out so much?” and then I realised what the music was and felt angry for having my emotions so cheaply manipulated.
(If you’ve seen RFAD, the music tends to bring different mental imagery along with it to if you haven’t.)
28/02/2008 at 10:56 Schadenfreude says:
The original piece of music used in Requiem For A Dream is called Lux Aeterna. The one that you hear on all of the trailers everywhere was a re-orchestration for The Two Towers trailer and is called Requiem For A Tower
28/02/2008 at 11:34 ImperialCreed says:
Is anyone else a fan of Clint’s other great opus, the soundtrack to the DooM film?
28/02/2008 at 12:05 Chaz says:
Is that Lux Aeterna of 2001 fame? Apart from that I have no idea what everyone else is talking about. What is this Requiem For A Dream?
28/02/2008 at 12:19 Sander says:
Sure it looks pants, but with a bit of luck, and maybe squinting a bit due to having partaken of a substance of your choice, it could also turn out to be the schlock that is kind of awesome.
Those don’t look like your regular stupidly annoying QTE’s, though, ’cause whenever the prompts flash in this trailer they all look to signal finishing moves. If that’s the case I could live with it.
Also, Merlin, did you maybe mean to say ‘Thoutube‘?
Oh and about the music: sounds only very vaguely familiar, mainly because it sounds like a lot of other stuff, doesn’t make me want to see/buy anything at all.
By the way: take a look at this summary (.pdf) for a few grins (“sultry girls against satanic monsters”, come on if this were a ’70′s B-movie you’d be all over it).
28/02/2008 at 12:19 Nallen says:
What those girls need, for fighting, is less armour and more bare flesh on show. Few things stop an attack like a bare middle.
28/02/2008 at 12:36 Nick R says:
I haven’t seen Requiem For A Dream, but I thought the music was used in the trailer for the first Lord of the Rings film (in the trailer’s clip of the orcs smashing through the door in Moria), not the second?
OK, Wikipedia says it was The Two Towers trailer. But I’m sure I’ve heard the music mentioned in connection with the Fellowship of the Ring trailer too… if it’s not that, what is it?
28/02/2008 at 12:39 brog says:
> Is that Lux Aeterna of 2001 fame? Apart from that I have
> no idea what everyone else is talking about. What is this
> Requiem For A Dream?
Presumably they’re referring to the music in the featured trailer, which is called, surprisingly, “Lux Aeterna” and was written by Clint Mansell for the movie Requiem for a Dream, along with other excellent music (such as Meltdown, imo better than Lux and also not so overused). Don’t pretend you haven’t heard it. It’s everywhere, as people have already said.
Don’t go trying to seem all highbrow by knowing an older piece with the same title. A quick check of w/p reveals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux_Aeterna_(disambiguation) more than one other piece with the title.
Hmm. The title seems as overused as the piece.. maybe Clint was trying to tell us something there?
28/02/2008 at 12:42 Janto says:
Well, you see, since games teach us that men may be strong, but women are agile, extra armour would make them less quick and nimble like…
28/02/2008 at 12:58 Meat Circus says:
THOOBIES.
28/02/2008 at 13:08 Zuffox says:
As much as I love Lux Aeterna it’s gotten to get much too overused in trailers (though I like the pun of having it used in that “The sun is snuffing out” movie trailer). It won’t be long before its poor udders are equal in length to O Fortuna.
28/02/2008 at 13:10 Wrestlevania says:
They’re showing the QTE stuff in the trailer in a desperate attempt to appeal to those who enjoyed God of War on PS2.
The whole thing looks like an amateurish GoW cash-in if you ask me (which, granted, you didn’t).
28/02/2008 at 14:10 Okami says:
I spent a few minutes on the game site, clicking through the screenshots. Looks like it’s USP is that you get to control a squad of three chainmail bikini chicks..
Which is great, as this will add frustratingly stupid AI companions to it’s cheap and uninspired button mashing GoW ripp-off combat. Combine this with an art direction that thinks “more grey and brown is better” and you get yourself a charmingly european game..
28/02/2008 at 14:14 LordUbiquitous says:
Wasn’t that QTE fight sequence ripped directly out of God of War, when you kill minators, or trolls, or something similar? It’s been a while since I’ve played the game, but I’m pretty sure there was one where you dodged the creature’s hands, climbed up its back, and then stabbed it/snapped its neck, in a way very similar to the one portrayed in this terrible rip-off.
28/02/2008 at 14:33 DigitalSignalX says:
Nice music. But all I could focus on while watching the video is “Is this game actually telling me what buttons to press and when?” @ the flashing “A”‘s and “X”‘s on screen.
Barf Console Port Barf.
28/02/2008 at 14:42 Jonathan says:
“Wasn’t that QTE fight sequence ripped directly out of God of War, when you kill minators, or trolls, or something similar? It’s been a while since I’ve played the game, but I’m pretty sure there was one where you dodged the creature’s hands, climbed up its back, and then stabbed it/snapped its neck, in a way very similar to the one portrayed in this terrible rip-off.”
To me it looked more like Prince of Persia warrior within. Especially the neck stabbing and the monster itself.
28/02/2008 at 15:30 Okami says:
All the bashing aside, I’ll allmost certainkly play and enjoy this game once it’s released. After all I consider Blood Rayne one of the best games ever developed by man.
Hmmm… I wonder if Witches will feature Nazis…
28/02/2008 at 16:16 Sucram says:
There’s a psytrance remix of Requiem for a Dream by Growling Mad Scientists called Juice which well..
/loads up audiosurf/
OMG!
28/02/2008 at 16:39 Kadayi says:
Not sure about the game, but agree about RFAD music. The fountain is quite enjoyable on Audio-surf as well.
28/02/2008 at 16:48 Chaz says:
“brog says:
Don’t go trying to seem all highbrow by knowing an older piece with the same title. A quick check of w/p reveals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux_Aeterna_(disambiguation) more than one other piece with the title.”
“A choral work by the Hungarian composer György Ligeti, composed in 1966; it was also used in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey during the scenes depicting the travel from the Clavius moonbase to the TMA-1 excavation.”
Thats the Lux Aeterna I was thinking of as it’s on my 2001 soundtrack. I’m guessing that’s not the one that’s really popular everywhere at the moment then? Well obviously not because it’s not by this Cliff Mansel or what ever his name is. That and it’d be a rather odd piece of music to use as a backing track as it were, unless it was for an advert selling obelisks.
28/02/2008 at 17:00 Zaph says:
I especially like the exciting footage of Mrs. Witch Boobington climbing a wall. I’m sold!
28/02/2008 at 17:00 Alec Meer says:
The world needs more adverts for obelisks, I feel.
28/02/2008 at 18:02 YouMeanMe says:
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I rather watch a half naked women prance around than watch an albino effeminate manga reject like you get in DMC.
28/02/2008 at 18:22 Wozza says:
That’s the most overused tune ever, and her breasts are not big enough.
28/02/2008 at 22:15 Lachlan says:
For me, the entire sequence was ruined by the way the monster was using the same roar sound as the Snakemen in UFO.
The sudden arrival of a Skyranger full of laser-toting shock troops would have made for a much better trailer.
28/02/2008 at 22:57 Ferrous Buller says:
Ladies, sharp things, monsters, hitting, scale-mail loincloths – I’m failing to see what more this game needs.
[Dignity is overrated.]
29/02/2008 at 00:07 Cat Vincent says:
Requiem/Dream is a good soundtrack for many things – but not sex.
The Mansell s/track you want for sex is The Fountain.
29/02/2008 at 01:58 Garth says:
Looking at that screenshot makes it really obvious why women are chased from gaming.
29/02/2008 at 06:38 mister slim says:
I’ve heard Lux Aeterna in a lot of weird places. It’s been used as incidental music in football broadcasts (American football), for example. The creepiest use so far, at least if you know the content of the scene it originally soundtracked, was a high school gymnastics performance.
29/02/2008 at 11:49 Alex McLarty says:
“There is a light….that shines on the largest breasts”
29/02/2008 at 18:30 Alarik says:
Meh, I would certainly like similar game (it’s been a looooong time since the Severance came out), but I somehow doesn’t appreciate nekkid skinny ladies, equiped with silicon implants and pathetic mix of g-strings and scales parody >_>
Pity.
/don’t like Lux Aetherna too
02/03/2008 at 10:43 Dermo says:
AHHHHHKEEEEEEEEELYA!