I got myself a copy of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty the other day, and while yes it is a fantastic game that’s every bit as fun as the original, one thing that struck me was the music. It’s SO EPIC AND GOOD. Take for instance, the main theme, “Wings of Liberty”:

I mean, this is movie-quality music right here. Sweeping, epic orchestral score, punctuated by choral parts, it gives me chills whenever I hear it. Plus the nod to the original Starcraft menu music at the beginning was a nice touch. My personal favorite from the soundtrack, however, has to be “Heaven’s Devils”:

It’s in the same vein as the Terran music from the original game (makes sense, considering it’s the Terran music for this game), but as a friend of mine put it, the new game is much more “Firefly’d” in that it has a cowboys in space feel rather than just rednecks in space like the original. The fiddle parts and clean guitar parts really make the track for me.

In short, thanks to Blizzard for including such fantastic music into an already amazing game. Great music in computer/video games can really elevate a game from good to great, and this does so handily.

A friend of mine works for a local weekly alternative newspaper, and being of the geeky persuasion as well, managed to get tickets for the evening show of Star Wars Live in Concert. The show was preceded by a guided tour of the exhibition from a guy from Lucasfilm, which included original costumes from the films. The show itself was incredible: C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels, hosted the show, and in addition to the orchestra playing all of the best themes from the films, a huge screen showed clips related to the tracks and that synced up to the music.