PlanetSide 2 video shows first recordings of battle music, complicated-looking soundboards

Whenever something big happens in PlanetSide 2, you'll probably hear a dramatic score swelling beneath the bullets, bombs, and aaarghs of combat. That's thanks to SOE's audio team and its efforts to pack an aural punch into the super-scaled battles of Auraxis, as shown in this brief behind-the-scenes look at the game's soundtrack.

The music type for each of the three factions reflects their identities and the eternally raging war: listening to the Terran Republic's orchestral might tends to lift the hands of nearby listeners into a salute, the Vanu Sovereignty's digi-synth sounds like jogging music for a squad of cyborg assassins, and the New Conglomerate's crunchy guitars turn the shred knob to 11 before breaking it off.

I'd like to see more multiplayer shooters devote stronger attention to quality musical accompaniments. As PlanetSide 2 proves, non-stop action only turns even more epic when a perfectly timed victory tune keeps the momentum going.