"Actually, it's about ethics in games journalism" wasn't the only noteworthy noise issuing forth from the world of video games this year. Between Blizzard's strangely hummable Hearthstone theme to the return of championed composer David Wise, 2014 was a champagne year for industry audiophiles. Here's a brief look at some of the standouts of the year in gaming music.-=-=-=-

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (composers: Peter McConnell and Jason Hayes)

A mobile game’s soundtrack rarely operates at the same levels of atmospheric intensity as a console title, and for good reason: if the Candy Crush Saga score featured brutal break drums or a full choir instead of that calming whistling, players would probably find themselves tossing their phones at the wall when presented with a tricky level, rather than paying for the privilege of repeated, infuriated attempts. The pastoral score for Hearthstone, Blizzard’s new digital trading card game, proves meandering enough not to feel like an eight-second loop, while anchored in that hummable violin hook; the tense undertones of the tambourines and bass cello, meanwhile, lend just enough playful tension to matches when paired with that standout bassoon – and really, couldn’t we all use more bassoon in general?

*Bravely Default *(composer: Revo)

Silicon Studio's heavy commitment to reviving and refining the old-school Japanese role-playing game shines through in just about every aspect of Bravely Default, from the blessing of developers/publishers (and industry grand poo-bahs) Square Enix to its frequently-punishing levels of difficulty. The game’s score, composed by Revo of the Japanese neo-prog group Sound Horizon, offers fan service of the highest pedigree, with best in show going to final boss theme “Serpent Eating the Ground”. From the chanting choir to the apocalyptic, arpeggiated guitars (too brutal for Guitar Hero), the false-calm of the bridge to the closing coup-de-grace, it’s a potential successor to Final Fantasy VII’s “One Winged Angel”as far as sheer dramatic magnitude is concerned.

Child of Light (composer: Coeur de Pirate)

As Coeur De Pirate, singer-songwriter Béatrice Martin’s made a career of transfiguring the tradition of la chanson française into dressed-down, retro-inspired pop frameworks. For her mesmerizing score for Ubisoft Montreal’s side-scrolling RPG Child of Light, Martin makes a point to excise herself from the musical proceedings, giving woodwinds and piano most of the narrative weight (or rather, featherweight). It’s when Martin actually starts singing, however,that Princess Aurora’s dreamlike quest to free the sun, moon and stars from the clutches of the Queen of Night truly resonates with the slumber-time adventurer in all of us: her soprano, as bright and harsh as fresh snow in sunlight, cuts through the thick and renders the fairy-tale unmistakeably human.