What's Rocking Your Game?
BY BURAK ŞAHİN (IR/III)
burak_s@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Music has really important roles for various markets in today's world, and console/PC games are one of these areas. We all know Chumbawamba's lyrics to "Tubthumping" from World Cup 98: "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down." We all learned Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank" song from FIFA 99. Since music's role has grown important for marketing games, producers give importance so much and started to choose tracks carefully for the games. September is the month that sports games are released such as FIFA, PES, NBA Elite 11, and NBA 2K11. Let's take a look the soundtrack of the most popular 2011 games.
Pro Evaluation Soccer 2011
I know that Pro Evaluation Soccer is the most popular football PS3 game in Turkey and the most successful game so far, but PES 2011's track list is disappointing. In PES 2010, we were listening to bands like Kaiser Chiefs, Klaxons, Chemical Brothers, The All American Rejects, Hoobastank, and Keane. Diversity of the songs was perfect in 2010, but PES 2011 doesn't satisfy. The songs are limited, and it seems like they could not find songs like "Ruby," "Again and Again," "Dirty Little Secret," "Never Miss a Beat," "Midnight Madness." Even Konami could not maintain the success in the soundtrack part of the game.
Key Songs: "Crystalised" (Rory Phillips Remix) by The XX, "Cousins" by Vampire Weekend, "Armistice" by Phoenix, "Celestica" by Crystal Castles.
FIFA 11
Although PES became more popular and FIFA lost its loyal fans, EA Sports presents really good reasons for them to return FIFA. What we heard from the FIFA players that the game is developed skillfully, but the other important point is the soundtrack of the game. EA Sports gathered Gorillaz, Groove Armada, Linkin Park, MGMT, Massive Attack, We Are Scientist, Yeasayer, Scissor Sisters, and LCD Soundsystem in FIFA 11. The bands are generally based on Alternative/Indie Rock and Electronica and the songs are chosen perfectly. It can be said that EA Sports finally remembered the 1999 that we were all singing "The Rockafeller Skank."
Key Songs: "O.N.E." by Yeasayer, "I Can Talk" by Two Door Cinema Club, "Paper Romance" by Groove Armada, "Flash Delirium" by MGMT, "Splitting the Atom" by Massive Attack.
NBA 2K11
Before talking about the track list of the game, I must say that 2K11 started one step forward with the Michael Jordan cover. Seeing the 
all-time b-ball legend on the cover of the game is right on. Moreover, the soundtrack of the game is as successful as the cover. Generally, basketball game soundtracks are based on Hip-Hop and R&B songs. The theme of the game is sung by Snoop Dogg, which is well done. 2K11 includes interesting basketball player Ron Artest's "Champion" and also Chicago Bulls intro. song "Sirius" performed by The Alan Parsons Project.
Key Songs: "I Can Talk" by Two Door Cinema Club, "Game Time" by Cassidy, "Shutterbug" by Big Boi, "Symphonies (Remix)" by Dan Black feat. Kid Cudi.
NBA Elite 11
EA Sports announced that Grammy Award-winning producer/DJ 9th Wonder and Roc Nation MC J. Cole have created the soundtrack for NBA Elite 11. The game will include a full soundtrack designed by 9th Wonder and a title track "The Plan" by J. Cole. This is the first EA Sports NBA title to have a custom soundtrack that has been created solely by two artists. The theme song sounds good, for the other tracks we have to wait the game's release.