Gears of War Enlists Donnie Darko

This week Microsoft released a new trailer for their upcoming shooter, Gears of War. It was full of amazing graphics, stunning enemies and some truly devastating weapons. But this trailer isn't noteworthy because of its visuals; it's because of the music choice. This Gears of War trailer decided against using traditional sound effects and game music, instead opting to use a song they heard while watching the Donnie Darko DVD. The song gives this trailer a nice cinematic quality, but it also sounds out of place and a little goofy. I love the nod to Donnie Darko, but it's hard to listen to that song and appreciate how amazing Gears of War really is.

Over the last few days Defunct Games was able to secure a reel of early edits of the new Gears of War trailer. This clip features a whole bunch of rejected songs, most of which come from famous movies. It's clear that the team working on Gears of War wanted to get a song that would be instantly recognizable, and this video of outtakes shows you just how far they would go. This is an 18 minute long clip that features nearly twenty different music choices for Gears of War, see if you feel they made the right decision.

NOTES: Is it just me or are there some audio clips in that piece that make more sense than the Donnie Darko song? I personally thought Psycho and Eyes Wide Shut fit the tone and synced up real nice. I also thought that the Peter Gabriel Say Anything music fits perfectly, but that may have more to do with how often I hear his music in movie trailers. And how about The Big Lebowski? Who would have thought that you would ever hear The Dude and Gears of War mentioned in the same sentence? To end this I would like to thank everybody involved with making these movies. Thank you Epic and Microsoft for making a game trailer that featured music from Donnie Darko.