>>Eric Brosius released his System Shock 2 soundtrack several months ago.

oh my god oh my god oh my god

That is my favorite sound track of all time. I have hours and hours
of fan remixes, but didn't know about this. Woot!

The original Wipeout had TWO official soundtracks. One composed in-house by melodic trance-breaks master Cold Storage, and is un-be-fucking-lieveably excellent. The other is various licensed tracks including The Shamen, Orbital, Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and New Order (remixed by Hardfloor). These were all excellent tracks from artists at the peak of their form, and they sat well with Wipeout's fast gameplay.

Licensed gaming soundtracks are often rubbish because they just license whatever is popular at the time to bring in extra sales, but Wipeout was a pleasant change.

soladrin:

1. Frank Klepacki (this is a no brainer, the first thing i remember when i think C&C is the music)

Seconded. Excellent military big-beat / war-rock, or whatever. Red Alert (the original) had still more great tunes as well, but after that the C&C music seemed to become mere background fodder (C&C3's suffer with this, good game though it is).

To the author: do you believe someone could reply by no to this question?

It's a no brainer to me that music is important. Halo would have not maintained the same mood without this formidable theme.

Music being overlooked... I don't know, but that's been going on for decades. Fortunately, not all editors or studios think of music in very superficial ways.

Rez, Lumines, even Ico's saving theme, just a few examples among many.

Ah, yes, Turrican II.

To me music is important, but it should always be in the background during actual gameplay. It should match appropriately whats happening. I think it should add to the overall ambiance but never get to the point where you notice more than the gameplay. In opening and ending credits and cutscenes it can be brought out more.

I recently produced a piece on this very topic for my video podcast. Tallarico and other game audio folks are in the video. IMO, a killer soundtrack adds SO much to a game. Just play Halo 3 or Mass Effect. Anyway, check it out here:

Reboot: Video Game Audio

Shadow Link:
I think Grant Kirkhope with his tracks from Banjo Kazooie/Tooie / Goldeneye just a few to name and Koji Kondo from his works in Zelda which really I found beautiful.

You know...I'd tend to agree with you on appreciating Grant's music. I still find myself whistling a tune or two from Banjo.

"Of course music in games is important. It's just taking on different roles that some of us old-schoolers might not recognize."

So experience is a disadvantage? ^^

I understand what you mean, and I agree. The problem as I see it is that the muzak trend has started to penetrate into too many genres. I mean, in UT you hardly have any dialog that needs listening to, the only mood to convey is badassnes on crack, so why the hell did they simplify the soundtrack so it could be divided into moods? Now everything sounds hollow and airy, bass is seriously lacking and the music switches constantly, because as well all know, a new opponent pops out as soon as you finish of the current one.

Frank is holding the fort, but Blizzard isn't! The music from wc2 was brilliant: it was actual music! Why the WoW music is played in concert over the wc2 music is far beyond me. The wc3 music sounds like an unethusiastic attempt to convert the starcraft soundtrack to a fantasy setting, and failing horribly. Sure you should choose when to use ambient muzak and when to use full-blown music pieces, but the business seem to be moving towards throwing out any tune that strings more than three chords together...

Honestly I think it depends on the game. For shooters I don't really think there should be any music at all frankly its almost all crap. I tend to play my own music when playing shooters, I wish someone would come up with an api for hooking into your own music playing programs for pc games. Right now I just remote into my desktop from my laptop and play music that way while playing Quake4 and it really is not the optimum solution.

If you are talking about a game like Final Fantasy then yes music is most certainly important.

SecretLemur:

Anymore, it's simply not an all or nothing thing. The music for Assassin's Creed was excellent. You don't hear it very often, but when you do, it's fantastic. Ditto for Bioshock. Because overall sound design has become so important, music is now, rightfully, taking its proper place as piece of the environment instead of being a soundtrack "outside" of the game. You may not be able to remember a single tune from Bioshock, but if the music wasn't there, the game would sound dead all over.

SL - this is a very valid point. Even though music is taking it's place on many big budget games it's still largely ignored by normal releases. That aside, in all cases recognizable title music seems to have died out completely. In days past, we 'old-schoolers' were treated to loading music and title music and even the odd in-between levels ditty but now the only viable place for theme music is at the title screen (and maybe the options menus). That's fine with me, the thing that baffles me is why no attemp at serious theme music?

Last night I was on my Wii playing Heatseeker. A pathetic 'title screen track' greeted me so I clicked through and began play. Later I moved over to let my wife play Twilight Princess - the moment I heard the music I was encapsulated by the game's atmosphere....and I wasn't even playing! Point is, the title music served to draw me into the experience - it was an arrival call, a taste of the experience to come and a reminder of what had gone before.

To all you budding composers of game audio - bring back the beloved title music!

That too is a very good point. Option music is terrible. You can be sat there playing a game, realise that somethings wrong, and depending on the game, the second you press escape, you're greeted by something far louder than the sound of you machine gun could ever muster.

I still think music plays a large part in gaming, but as everything else has become that much more complex, so has the role of music. The Call of Duty series for me has always served a wonderful range of music. In a game of war, all music should feel... out of place, yet what occurs in call of duty almost feels like it should be there. And thats just as true in the 4th game (or third depending on how you look at it). Everytime you were on a stealth motion, the music was subtle, yet still kept you aware of it. When the action was high, the music fit. It also has some memorable title music (which i think was used on top gear not long back).

It has already been mentioned that in the old days, games could have music playing from the off, with no need for change, but that is different now, its almost like we want the music to be as dynamic as our enviroments, and its not as easy as getting an orchestra and in and saying go, it needs time, it needs the game to be played several times over, so that the changing moods can be captured, and then the changes need to be just right. A lot of games at the minute have a set sound track that plays when a certain event occurs. When that event has ended, the music could still have another 2 minutes of play time.

Recent titles for me would be Assasins Creed, Bioshock and CoD 4.

Music is one of my main arguments that video games can be an artform. Music is art, ergo at least a part of gaming is art. Halo, Final Fantasy, Warcraft, Prince of Persia (1, not 2), Bioshock, Portal, Mario Galaxy. Listen and love em

I think its wrong to criticize music in games when they are not being memorable, catchy tunes. Some of the greatest music in games, like the music in movies, are there to help set the mood and augment your emotional response. Its all down to personal taste, of course, but there's some games where I thought that the music was just masterful.

Bioshock: the music you hear as you descend the first bathysphere and Rapture is revealed to you... because of the music, that has become one of my favourite moments in any game. I'm not likely to start singing it out loud, but I can still hear it in my head.

Mario Galaxy's music is terrific, and not just the nostalgic re-hashes: I love the new music in the first galaxy, it really sets the semi-epic style of the game and makes you want to do crouch-jumps from planet to planet.

I also liked the music in Mass Effect, it really gives the Sci-Fi narrative a fresh edge thanks to its Blade Runner-esque synths. The songs haven't stuck to memory, but my experience in the game is definitely tied to the wonderful music.

A classic: Deus Ex. I downloaded the soundtrack a few months ago just to bring me back to the experience of exploring Hell's Kitchen in futuristic New York.

Halo's music is cool, but I can't help but picture those losers at this year's E3 (or was it last year's?) getting on stage and playing the signature song.

I love it when games use licensed songs to good effect. Vice City is one of my favourite games of all time because the soundtrack is so transportive.

SecretLemur:
>>Eric Brosius released his System Shock 2 soundtrack several months ago.

oh my god oh my god oh my god

That is my favorite sound track of all time. I have hours and hours
of fan remixes, but didn't know about this. Woot!

http://www.sshock2.com/shownews.asp?id=390

Enjoy.

mrcheese:
Ah Nubuo Uematsu, musical genius.

Final fantasy games just wouldn't have been so epic if not for his awesome composing skills.

Agreed. And The Black Mages is an awesome band, as well.

Well for all the Frank Fan's go get yourselves Universe At War: Earth Assault, it really feels like playing the first C&C and Red Alert again, awesome stuff in there (and the game is awesome too btw)

Also, honerable mention to whoever said AvP2, That game did the best audio trick ever to make you scared, the motion tracker :) nothing says your fucked more then when a blip shows up within a one meter radius from you and then it just dissapears, and you still can't see anything, look up to see horrible death by alien in air vent?^^

propertyofcobra:
Okay, the topic creator gets super-bonus points from me right off the bat for liking Tyrian's music. That game's music was nothing short of a criminally underrated list of masterpiece after masterpiece. Not to mention that the game itself was THE best top-down shoot-em-up ever. Hands down.

thank you ^^ that game is truly epic, and i've played it just tooooooo much :D and still love it, i also have the entire soundtrack as mp3's :) nothing beats tracks like rock garden, tyrian (the level) and probably the most memorable for me: torm the gathering. god that song is still stuck in my head ^^

I pose a philosophical question for all of the FPS fans out there. Is not the sound of a head exploding after you've shot it with a shotgun sweet music?

Seriously though, music is still relevant to games today. Just look at a couple of recent games like Bioshock or Mass Effect. Bioshock used Bobby Darin to just sum up the period and set the mood of a utopia lost quite effectively, whereas Mass Effect used an awesome synth soundtrack to really set the mood for the game. Music's not just for cut scenes anymore, and it's become as integral as ambiance in aural design, especially with the current trend of games trying to emulate Hollywood movies.

So long as gaming remains to be an aural medium, then music will have its place. Just as silence before a gunfight can be frightening, a subtle score can alter the mood of the player, and thus the experience.

FurryMIG:
To game developers, No. It's cheaper to licence (shitty) music made by "real" bands that the ignorant masses listen to, because it will make said ignorant masses more willing to buy "Generic crappy game for the ignroant masses" in the unlikely even they even plan to put music into it.

Let me just set an example out, Burnout 2 was wonderful in gameplay, and beleive it or not, music, too. the tempo and volume would change whenever you hit the boost and would keep with you,then calming back down once the boost meter was empty. That's pretty sweet.

I hate to rain on your parade but most of the music in Burnout 2 was ripped off from actual songs, but were just different enough so they couldn't get sued. The two examples I can think of off the top of my head being La grange by ZZ Top and Iron man by Black Sabbath, the Iron Man cover being the most obvious as it seems to play over the menu screens ad-nausea. Still a great game though.