One of my favourite things about games is ghost sounds Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. One of my favourite things about games is ghost sounds /rumbling... Feature by Christian Donlan Features Editor Updated on 16 Nov 2020 9 comments Maybe you're playing a game and you've just finished a boss fight. There's a cut scene waiting, but it needs a little loading. The screen goes black for a second, and the loading doohickey starts to turn or sparkle or flutter in a corner. Listen carefully. There's a good chance you might hear a ghost sound. Ghost sounds is my own terminology, but I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about. They're sounds that leak through from the ether inside games when loading or transitions are happening. I love ghost sounds. I love spotting them. I love the way they suggest that a game is so complex and unwieldy that it almost feels like a huge theatrical production with bumps and creaks going on in the wings whenever things have to change. Where do these ghost sounds come from? Often they're sound effects played seemingly out of sequence. Often they're something from the scene that's just departed or the scene that's to come. One of the greatest things about ghost sounds is that they often give you the DNA of a game - they reveal what a game feels is most important. Shadow Complex was filled with ghost sounds whenever you loaded into an old save. You save in Shadow Complex in specific rooms on the map - rooms which often have items stocked to replenish health and ammo. The ghost sounds were always wonderfully item-replenishy, with a spritz of super-soldier over the top. As the screen went black and the logo appeared, as you settled in and prepared to play, you'd hear ammo clips rattling or maybe a bag being purposefully zipped. I am pretty sure these ghost sounds were an accident, but even so they frequently spoke of readiness, of a belief, borne out by the rest of the game, that all of life's problems could be solved if you were just sufficiently tooled-up and wore clothes with a lot of pockets. I'm playing Shattered - Tale of the Forgotten King at the moment. It's a French Soulsalike that's in early access and so far it's pretty wonderful: gloomy and poetic and atmospheric, and a bit too wordy in just the right way. It is a little buggy too, and buggy games are the games that ghost sounds most like to haunt. I loaded into a new area for the first time a few minutes ago and the screen went black and then a bunch of numbers appeared. For a moment I thought the game was broken. Then I suspected the numbers might have meaning and I should have been paying more attention to the lore. Then I started to think the game was broken again, and then the silence was broken by a ghost sound: a grinding, rumbling, cavernous kind of ghost sound, suggesting the world was hollow and dark and just the right kind of glitchy. Then, as quickly as it began, the rumbling abruptly cut off, and I was back in the game. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. 12 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 34 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Preview Football Manager's new Console edition is the best you'll get without a PC Getting Touch-right. Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 59 Modder dives into Demon's Souls files following PS5 jailbreak, discovers fabled Ring of the Chieftain Who knows what's nexus? 3 Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store