did you ever notice these sounds in team fortress 2?

[@OmegaGlops]

2:48 With TF2 being the way that it is, I'm fully convinced that canonically there are speakers haphazardly strapped to the back of these cow cutouts playing mooing sounds on a loop. That would be pretty on-brand for the lore.

[@justlikehumansicantbeleive7531]

Naw, Saxton probably personally pays someone to hide in the sheds back there and make cow noises

[@JoseTV]

Yeah I choose to believe that as well

[@PowerTrain611]

It really would be though. All the idiots of Teufort with their lead poisoning probably killt te kows bekuz evree buddy nose thei're aleinz inn disgiZe

[@TF2HolyMackerel]

Mannco Moo-Noisemaker when?

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Pretzel talking about how they must be alive (good for them!) despite being wooden cutouts is such a Soldier thing to say

[@methanolslurper]

I swear we gotta have shared braincells, I thought I was weird for looking for and appreciating small details in games

[@demogaming8895]

Same same, I would often join a private server and walk around the empty maps just to listen to all the sounds and appreciate all the small details. The distant hum of machinery, flowing water and birds chirping on 2fort, or the faint noises of a busy city on koth_king, I swear it's like ASMR, the best kind

[@awsomebot1]

theres a guy who looks at spaces in video games that typically go unnoticed and he rakes in the views. it's not that niche

[@scarletcrusader5431]

So weird and quirky!

[@s4d1st_yay]

wow youre so different

[@fowoxis]

Bruh

[@railworksamerica]

1:54 “the fan isn’t moving. The tech wasn’t there in 2007” Prop_dynamic being a thing in half-life 2 in 2004⚰️⚰️⚰️

[@fendtfahrer8117]

Yea there was this one part in Nova Prospekt, where you have to block the fan to proceed.

[@tev5040]

i feel like he was joking atleast a bit but yeah lol

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

Also, a fan like that doesn't cool anything, it just pushes whatever air is there, hot or cold, in the direction that it's blowing.

[@Pigness7]

As a level designer I've noticed that you notice a lack of ambient sounds more than you notice the sounds yourself

[@impatienstheshmuck5348]

Whether it's in games, film, or TV, room-tone is god.

[@invalid_user_handle]

It's because it's genuinely extremely rare that you're in a space in reality that is completely silent. There's always _some_ sound, even if it's almost imperceptible you will notice the difference in the room tone when going between two adjacent rooms. This makes a room that doesn't have any ambiance stick out to us.

[@soupcangaming662]

@@invalid_user_handle And when it's silent, your brain makes the noise for you. You hear the constant, otherwise blocked out and drowned out ringing of your ears, and the movement of your limbs. You hear your own breath.

[@Persun_McPersonson]

Most people don't have tinnitus.

[@quarkmolotov1049]

​@@invalid_user_handleI also find in real life if things go really quiet quiet it means there's danger. Like birds suddenly go silent and some part of you just knows to be on alert

[@ssssssssssssssssss50]

TF2 ambience is so comforting, especially the first 6 maps

[@Grampa_Swood]

There's just something better about Valve-created maps compared to the community ones imo. Maybe not gameplay-wise, but it definitely just feels like it's more immersive.

[@TheBreakingBenny]

Hydro's ambience can absolutely feel comfy, probably also because no one is there.

[@ssssssssssssssssss50]

@@Grampa_Swood defintely. They are the very essence of Tf2

[@ssssssssssssssssss50]

@@TheBreakingBenny yeah. Well too for me. Also a very nostalgic map

[@TheBreakingBenny]

@@ssssssssssssssssss50 It could definitely work as a 5CP map, and Valve fucked it especially when you don't have an overview map like in CS. It's especially ironic because Hydro easily ends in stalemates or steamrolling.

[@lukecasaus3338]

1:21 "2fort isn't really a map with heavy machinery" has never seen the invasive species known as engineer

[@Rupture_Farms_1997]

Their breeding ground being the intel room

[@Sparkpluggy]

The only sound I want my teammates to notice is the uncloak sound from the same fucking spy that has killed all of them 3 times now in the exact same place

[@ae2847]

You could have said many things, and yet you chose to speak of the truth

[@Asymmetric7]

ha!!!

[@Mabra51]

Hahaha, i am the spy !

[@jeremypanjaitan4039]

cloak and dagger moment

[@Birdguy112]

Spy must have a good gaming chair

[@mariuso0o0o0]

3:08 "birds occasionally chirp here too" distant mooing sound

[@somax1259]

Its the (not) famous 2fort bird-cow, dont ask

[@somethingelseithink7131]

@@somax1259 most sane tf2 fan

[@LegoAnimations6370]

After playing 7,000+ hours, I can't believe the water cooler is bubbling 7:44 All these cool unique sounds are muffled because of that green unusual Hustler's Hallmark Demo main who yells for ''MEEEEEDIIIIIC!''

[@wep_vs]

I loooooooooove ambient sounds in games, especially Half Life. Just walking around the lab and hearing the beep-boop science noises, heavy machinery, wind in vents is absolutely perfect to me. Wouldn't be the same game without those.

[@jess648]

all of Half Life’s sounds really flow into each other to create the soundscape fitting of the cold technological feeling of the BMRF. the low sample rate ironically adds a lot

[@Gravity_studioss]

Half life 1 had me sitting in the computer lab for minutes

[@avalonmandrake3989]

Someone’s probably already beaten me to it, but that insect trilling noise at the 2Fort Bridge is a Cicada of some kind, as far as i can tell! 😄

[@whiskeywolfgang]

It's crazy how many little sounds there are to set the ambience in these maps. You'd never be able to hear it over the sentries blasting, scouts banging things with frying pans, and heavies yelling about dispensers.

[@MenatllyIllEngineer]

I notice the 2fort basement ambiance more then I should bc I always make a sentry nest down there 💀

[@maximilian_at7919]

Holy shit its the cool guy

[@tomharrison9280]

Portal has some very intentional sound design to associate certain ambient sounds with certain testing elements to give hints. Fallout 3 would also be super cool to see

[@jjjjjjjjj99]

After playing for years with speakers I got headphones and heard all these ambient noises for the first time. And footsteps. So many footsteps

[@sirdoggy45]

I noticed that halloween maps in TF2 sound much different from all other maps, but I actually really like that, it gives them amazing atmosphere

[@Tetra_76]

Horror games would be interesting to analyze through this lens. They probably have the most complex and most essential soundscapes out of any genre.

[@bshap495]

2:00 Spinning fans were too CPU-intensive.

[@punkrockinrobin]

ironic

[@kainhall]

yet they had it in Gold Source / Half life 1.........

[@drecognis]

@@kainhall woooosh

[@Alternate_Eye]

This video brought me a lot more comfort that I thought it would. Being a long time TF2 player, it feels as if im home with a lot of these maps. Great video

[@natahndolar2142]

It’s honestly a neat detail that they have fans and AC to make places like spawn more comfortable

[@gamingwithlizardsd6478]

Sawmill has always been my favorite map, the ambience definitely adds to my appreciation of the map!

[@asdfsadfasdfasdfasdf4180]

this video feels so relaxing. i feel like im watching some asmr video or something. ive never really noticed this but you putting attention to the detail and feeling of the sounds really made me imagine more how id feel on one of these maps. great video!

[@Rubiideum]

Honestly the one thing that stuck out to me was like that classic Halo winter soundscape noise, most of the games in the early 2000s used the same kind of 'wintery wind noise' and I used to patrol empty multiplayer maps when I was a kid, along with games like GTA and such. It was just a great nostalgia trip to see this video and see there are others who are like me!

[@Time_pug]

I've spent over a hundred hours on 2fort for my 2fort in MC project so I've constantly heard that soundscape. I love it

[@michuXYZ]

Bro this video makes me remember my first hours in TF2... I had no clue what it is, remember just walking throught maps on offline mode, listening to those sounds of wind, buzzing of this spawn air conditioner. It was all new experience, felt amazing.

[@spud7402]

After 3.3k hours since I began playing in 2015, the ambience of TF2’s maps are very nostalgic to me. From the intelligence computer room with its humming and beeping of the machines and fluorescent lights, to the badlands with its wind and crickets. It’s all oddly comforting.

[@ColgateLP]

3:25 I think we Hear a cicada insect here. They are absolutely ear numbingly loud. We've got some years with tons of these outside in the summer. In other years there are none. I think some species hibernate up to 7 years in the ground.

[@typhoonthunder]

Glad to see Pretzel doing his own version of "The Sound It Makes", a Jerma classic

[@ookamitadashiotaku8571]

These tf2 ambulance sounds is something that you can fall asleep to

[@mecha_moira6443]

As someone who's just getting into sound design more and more for Podcasting, this was a fun video to watch, and genuinely a really nice aspect to explore. While I don't call myself anything close to a professional sound designer, or any kind of expert, I do feel sometimes that sound design is overlooked/underapperciated in some areas, so it's really nice to see some genuine and honest love for it!

[@itskyaru2404]

At first I didn’t appreciate it because the map layout is extremely weird to get used to and a lot to take in. But I’ve learned to really enjoy the ambience and theme they’ve got going on in Embargo. I highly recommend checking it out and admiring the views and scenes. I didn’t know that at first the people of the town think it’s corrupted (because of graffiti), I hope the people who made the maps had fun. I’ve tried making maps in FNCS and it’s not as easy as it seems.

[@dovilo_o2087]

this is the minutia of all things minute, especially in games like these meant to be filled with action being an online shooter. Wonderful to really dive into the detail and care of each map

[@dogman15]

I'm pretty sure the 2Fort cow's "moo" is meant to be deliberately fake-sounding. In-universe, it's playing on a tape loop to fool the enemy into thinking it's a real farm with real cows.

[@Usulcardo]

One thing I always found funny is that many maps in TF2 with bird sounds have Eurasian species in them, not North American ones. 2Fort for example which is obviously set in the USA has Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting singing, birds which are found in Europe and not America. The Yellowhammer song is also in Meet the Soldier when the severed head of the Medic falls down.

[@railworksamerica]

heavy kidnapped several birds and brought them to America with him

[@Usulcardo]

@@railworksamerica Makes sense. He did bring a European Robin on his shoulder.

[@0bashie]

Reading my mind. I love this sort of thing and has been paying more attention to ambience every other time I play

[@_Fly_trap_]

You should absolutely do this concept with Overwatch maps. say what you want about the game but the maps are amazing places to hang out and take in the ambience of.

[@nixel1324]

I love this idea for a series! I used to play around in these maps for hours in single player in Garry's mod, so yeah, I've definitely noticed these sounds before. Also, maybe boost the volume of the sounds when you're not talking, so we can hear them better. I understand you can't keep them loud when you're talking, otherwise it would be hard to follow what you're saying.

[@just_zone]

Oh, Halo CE is top tier in the sound ambience department. That'll be a treat for everyone.

[@chickenfarmer321]

How is the anniversary version compared to the original? I only have the anniversary edition (that I know of) with the master chief collection, finally getting around to playing it.

[@AustinH7]

@@chickenfarmer321you can use the original graphics and sounds of halo CE on the master chief collection

[@WinonyRyder]

This concept is me all over, thanks for another wonderful video my friend

[@Dra_none]

The beeping in 2fort I thought NOBODY else EVER heard

[@PianoSama]

First content in years that kinda tickled my brain in a positive way, i'd enjoy more games or maps with your commentary

[@RonZ234]

Sometimes, i like just roaming around the maps observing the ambience and environmental details After a game has finished and everybody leaves before the next match.

[@soopcan4980]

When first loading into a server, before picking a team or class, you can always hear the outside ambience of the map. I really like it because I can associate a sound profile with each map.

[@anonymousspectator8486]

I remember your community post from some time ago, but I couldn't quite get my thoughts together at the time. I think I figured it out. Your actual strong suit is unpredictability. Your videos might have a vague "common theme", I mean it's in your channel banner and bio, but thruth is, I never really know what to expect. Two videos of the same series will feel absolutely different to each other, games you pick will appear out of nowhere, and then you'll just drop a completely new series. As all things, this comes with a negative side, too. Covering so many different games and topics you can't expect all your videos to do well, some of 'em will be a miss. But boy, does it hit when it does. When you first pitched the idea for "Survive or Thrive", I thought it was the stupidest thing imaginable, but still gave it a chance. Wouldn't you know it, I can't wait for the next episode, whanever that'll come around. As with most audience, I came across your channel after seeing one of the more popular videos, but I hope you never stop making obscure and experimental stuff, I enjoy (most of) it a lot. Unrelated, you could cover Black Mesa and compare it to HL in terms of atmosphere and sound design. These two games essentially tell the same story, but do it differently. l8r, 🐊

[@Fasteroid]

For a moment I thought this was a secret gaming channel of Technology Connections.

[@Hamond1989]

Great concept for a series! Always amazing how you manage to get me interested about stuff of games I never even touched or have any interest any, you have a great way of analyzing and describing!

[@peppa_poeg2441]

Yes, yes I did.

[@Vincifier]

Left 4 Dead 2 would be a very good thing with sounds as well with all of its levels and different ambiance.

[@CheezYtEdition]

Pretzel, you have become one of my favorite KZbinrs. Thank you for making these videos, they’re so comforting

[@erikhof410]

I always imagine the cow sounds are just comming from speakers, to give bypassers the idea that it's a normal farming company

[@MikaTheKittyCat]

Look at L4D2's ambience... Not only is there a whole heccin' lot of it, there is certain ambience that plays when a certain amount of common infected are spawned in, or when you enter/leave certain areas.

[@ugoboom]

Halo 1 has my favorite game ambience , both the campaign and the multiplayer. Working in the mod tools and all you hear is the ambience is a treat. Half life 2 of course also has some god tier ambience. If you do want to check out some more old TF2 stuff, make sure to use a build from 2007. Modern tf2 has a lot of visual downgrades, crowbcat has a video on it.

[@M-J-B]

seriously love this video, came up on recommended, I'm subscribed and love your content, But Please: make this a series too I think it could be really interesting

[@fenn_fren]

0:20 I do. I fire up TF2 a lot usually to just go either to 2fort or Upward on my own and listen to the ambiance.

[@AXLplosion]

Would be awesome to see more indie games, or just any games that are a bit more obscure but have cool details in their environments.

[@Mini_Sentry_Gaming]

Makes sense that cardboard cut outs of cows are alive considering this is the game where 2 brothers still hate each other after they die and the one where you can capture souls and put them in pumpkins

[@DropsOfMars]

I've heard some people appreciate the soundscapes in the Call of Duty series, surprising amounts of detail in little arenas meant to be filled with people shooting each other

[@totallyjon]

Thank you for being you! Really love your videos

[@maz7394]

gm_construct ambience is fried into my brain just as much as the footsteps, sprint noise and the toolgun.

[@eliteal2188]

Make a vid of this series for celeste! the sound design in that game is impeccable!

[@crusfm2801]

I always liked listening to those computers in 2fort. Reminds me of the ones I used to use back in Elementary school

[@emissne]

this guy is just to quiet and nice and pleasant when talking, no editing even except cuts in footage. it feels so strange because every other tf2 content creator is either cooking up the best editing and sfm footage ever, or just cut up gameplay footage of some guy dying and then scout laughing at the corpse with coconut mall or something in the background. just absolute chaos normally, but this dude is just alone, just sitting there, talking normally about the area around them.

[@JaqlynDandy]

Even if I wasnt a Nerd for these kinds of things, I could totally just sit back and watch these as ASMR.

[@hazelet9228]

You should do Overwatch next! A lot of their maps have sounds recorded from the actual locations

[@Funk0_]

We really in a content drain bro 💀

[@toxicbananas3219]

The Halloween maps have some interesting sounds. You should greatly consider making a Halloween special episode exploring horror themed maps. It might also greatly help you if you have noclip enabled.

[@changeofelusion2780]

Voices of the void would be an interesting candidat for the next Episode 👽

[@mumblety]

I second this ☝

[@nooshstuff]

true!!

[@michaelcunningham4739]

When I die and go to hell I'm going to be forever cursed to be stuck in the 2Fort Intel room forever hearing the beeps and scratching noises there.

[@theinferno150]

loved the vid and would like to see more games too, imo i wouldnt mind you listening to the sounds a bit longer without talking over it! like 10-15 secs uninterrupted to let us pick the sound a bit better?

[@sdfggdfg5fgdfg]

If you ask someone that's into modding tf2 he can probably show you a list of all the ambience and enviromental sounds that the devs used for all maps, even some you might have missed

[@diamondfists7005]

I was running around in the back lines in Swift water, and noticed that the boards on the rope bridge creaked as you walked over them

[@xtal22]

watching this video make me realize that ive never been paying so much attention to this while playing the game, but as i started to write my comment i remembered that i play this game at 0.01 volume while talking with my friend because this game is so fucking loud that i cannot stand to play this with a normal volume

[@oguzgurler8491]

As a player who interested in computer sounds during the game, I think that the video is perfect. Details make beautiful and playable TF2

[@rubikraccoon]

I highly recommend infra for a series like this, its another source engine game with a big focus on level and world design and has so many amazing ambient areas, My personal favourites have to be the sewers the dam and the early lumberyard

[@QualityDoggo]

I love the ambiance of TF2 although it can get somewhat unsettling when you're alone

[@subie_jaydm]

You should check out the spaces of Mirror's Edge Catalyst, the vibes in that rendition of the series is just crazy. Exploring that world might be right up your alley :)

[@marcelr449]

Very nice new series. Fits your channel perfectly. And I bet you could sleep really well to this.

[@Machi1804]

Would be real cool to check out the sounds of horror games like Amnesia The Dark Descent. Lots of small details like water leaking into the castle or the sounds of spooky footsteps from the floor above. Boards creaking and the sound of stone crumbling from the old walls.

[@Grampa_Swood]

I like Dark Souls 1's ambience a lot, especially combined with the noises of heavy armour.

[@JunkyardBashSteve]

I pay great attention to soundscapes. HL2 made really notice them and in turn, fall in love with ambient sounds. I still argue that even though HL2 is a lonely game, it has one of the most alive feeling worlds in video gaming to this day.

[@velDANTe]

red lab masquerades as a food processing facility, the mooing is a recording.

[@sielunpoistaja]

Half life 2 has some incredibly detailed ambiance sounds, some very weird ones as well like in the citadel

[@bluefire3501]

i thought i was weird for talking listening to specific sounds in tf2 maps but seems like people listen too :)

[@Nin_tony]

half life 2 has some amazing soundscapes, especially early city 17, ravenholm and highway 17

[@TheBreadPirate]

Beautiful.

[@somedude1805]

I really really like these videos, I developed a weird fascination with the out of bounds parts of Team Fortress 2 back in 2016 when there was an exploit called the Quantum Crouch which allowed engineers to place buildings outside of maps. There was a forum back then that sadly isn't around anymore from the Opengriefing team where we all discussed exploits and this was one of the main topics there. Although quite a lot of the spots on maps were found, a few of us still tried to find other spots, I managed to find one in Vanguard where you could build a teleporter on a roof but there was sadly nothing you could do there. I remember being credited in a video Ninja Cookie made where he showed up all the spots that we found in the game. Hunting for these spots meant I was alone in a lot of tf2 maps for a while, playing engineer hunting for spots. I got to learn the details of the outside of the maps of the game and sometimes I would forget what I was doing and simply explore outside of the maps for fun. That feeling of first of all being alone in a map where you are used to having constant noise and bullets and explosives flying all around you, being there but alone felt rather weird. Exploring the outside of these maps really made me appreciate the time the mappers took to add details to the maps and lore. When you play you do not usually wonder these things but if you pay attention you get answers to questions you never knew you would be asking, like for example: How did we come here? What means of transportation was used for us to arrive to our destination? In quite a few maps mappers actually explain this, for example, in Upward you can see a massive ship in the distance, that's probably how we arrived here as it seems to be some sort of island. In Pl_Snowycoast behind Blu spawn there is a small boat behind the glass and you can also see how the door has been left open as we came in, you can also see a truck with a payload cart inside of it which is an explanation as to how we transported the bomb here. CP_Mountainlab also features a boat which travels through a thin water channel that grows through a gap in the mountain that we used to come here, can be seen on BLU spawn. Other questions that I pondered were things like: "Why does this map look like this?" Then through the scattered lore I figured out how most Capture The Intelligence maps worked from a lore perspective. Like 2fort for example, these maps are meant to be built in such a way that any passerby would think that this is just some sort of regular factory that produces things but, in reality, there is a hidden room somewhere on this map that holds important information, like the underground part of 2fort. A room covered by very thick walls and no windows hidden underground, above ground it just looks like a regular factory with even the fake cows put there to fool people, they even moo these cows, nice attention to detail from Valve. Another thing I became obsessed at looking at were these sprites on the far far background of the maps that were there just add a little detail, like Sawmill you can see at 10:18 these sprites of many many trees to make it seem like we are deep in a forest somewhere. I got weirdly fascinated with these as these were always depicting distant lands with no sign of humanity in sight, which got me to wonder, just where are we and how far are we? Are we really that far from civilization? If you pay attention to these details you really realise just how far you are and how lonely this place is but, I always found it to be cozy, thinking of how it would be like if you were some regular worker here, probably sleeping there as well considering how far you are from civilization. When you take away all the killing and murdering in the game, these places become cozy in a strange way. I would recommend you please check out the out of bounds parts of TF2 maps again, some maps really go heavy on the details out of bounds. Check out Barnblitz, Swiftwater, Mountainlab, Powerhouse, Foundry, Vanguard, Borneo etc. We could leave these maps using the Quantum Crouch back in the day, apart from Swiftwater and I really enjoyed how cool the out of bounds looked. Infact, if you can, on some maps, try to stand on a tall building in which the rest of the map still is loaded, this gives you a bird's eye view of the map and I found this fascinating. One place where you can do this is Sawmill, in the building in the middle of the map. This really sells that feeling of "we are in the middle of nowhere here" if you look at the distant lands far into the background.

[@Doxxy0]

when i was a kid, and got orange box, i didnt have xbox live. so i was just walking around on these maps, even then it was such a strange feeling

[@ComposerKuandohan]

I think this is a good idea for a series. It reminds me of some of the videos Joyless makes. Especially his mortal kombat and gta 3 videos. The only thing I would personally recommend is that it’s okay to stand and let the audience hear the ambience for at least a few seconds longer before you start talking again. Even if that means there’s a lot of empty space, that’s kind of the point of these videos, at least I think so. Good job so far.

[@PretzelYT]

Yeah, I definitely need to find a good pacing for this type of video. I'm using to showing off environments where I can talk over them, that doesn't work as well for this series. I'm sure I'll figure it out after a couple of videos.

[@JohnDoe-dd7ne]

I'd totally love, especially for this Halloween, for you to get a listen to the ambience of the Halloween maps of Team Fortress 2. They have a whole spooky vibe to them that deserves acknowledgement.

[@Gravity_studioss]

We have to thank Kelly Bailey for creating this amazing sound design in the first Half-life

[@The_D_ray]

What kind of bugs you ask? Source spaghetti bugs of course.

[@apurpledragon]

What I want is for my team mates to get better headphones so they can hear the Dead Ringer Kunai Spy.

[@ImTorryTF2]

And Thunder mountain is so good

[@kalyuke]

Dude half life 2 has some great ambient sound effects Just saying you could check those out in another vid

[@jess648]

the entire half life series could be an entire separate series. they’re like the pioneer of ambient sound design in video games basically

[@spartadragonrider]

What a wonderful idea! A few games I'd love to see explored are; The Jak and Daxter Trilogy Star Wars: Bounty Hunter The Legacy of Kain/Blood Omen/Soul Reaver series

[@kotorybeusz7246]

after spending way too much time on infinite deathmatch community servers all I know now it the 2fort basement ambience

[@jjrussell_gallery]

I listen to youtube when I'm doing chores, hobby stuff & working out, so I wasn't able to hear the sounds you were discussing without headphones, and I'm normally not a headphone wearer. It's a decent concept, but I think the in-game sound needs boosting for viewers who don't sit down to watch yt. That's my two cents.

[@ImTorryTF2]

I can’t hear the background sounds BECAUSE OF HIS YAPPING

[@_NEPO_]

Well I absolutely love this, TF2 was practically an addiction so hearing all the classic sounds was terrific. Plus the SFX you edit over was pretty good too... Here's ideas Half-life one and two? Maybe some Gmod maps have interesting sounds? Maybe a video showcase of different jungle interpretations in videogames throughout the years?

[@ryancool1416]

The cows in 2fort have redtape recorders behind them that's why they moo

[@MATT-2043]

Half thee experience in METRO 2033 is ambient sounds.