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On The Quality Of Licensed Game Soundtracks 132

Posted by simoniker from the ea-behemoth-lumbers-on dept.
Thanks to GameSpot for their 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing the correct blend of licensed music for videogame soundtracks. The writer argues that "there isn't anything inherently bad" in using licensed music, but suggests: "Whether you produce your own music or use existing music for your soundtrack, thematic consistency is of the utmost importance." He then picks Wipeout XL ("[changed] how people perceived music in video games") and the more recent True Crime ("a well-made licensed soundtrack") as good examples of this, before singling out the EA Sports Trax program, as used in Madden 2004 and others, as "destined to fail - 'cus you can't make a good soundtrack out of singles." Do you have a favorite licensed soundtrack, or is the whole concept a concern to you?
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On The Quality Of Licensed Game Soundtracks More

On The Quality Of Licensed Game Soundtracks

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  • GTA:VC (Score:5, Insightful)

    by vslashg ( 209560 ) * on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:06AM (#7725041)
    I don't understand how this article doesn't mention Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. That is probably the single best video game soundtrack ever.

    For those of you who haven't played it, Grand Theft Auto has you running into and out of various cars. Each car has a radio, and you can choose from maybe a dozen stations. Vice City was set in the 80s, and all of the songs on the radio were actual radio hits from the 80s.

    This was really a genius move. It added such a level of authenticity to the game, and since these songs were already a couple of decades old, it won't feel stale and dated a few years from now (like a soundtrack made of current hit singles might).
    • This was really a genius move.

      I'll say! Sometimes I find myself humming the songs long after I finish playing. The "chat" station is also a nice touch.

      GTA:VC has one of the coolest game settings since Intersate '76 (which featured a GREAT sountrack, altho not the lincesed kind).

      Jet Set Radio Future also has a catchy soundtrack (in a mediocre game).

      • I'll second the nomination of Interstate '76 as a damned good soundtrack. Also, I really like the soundtrack to Homeworld, and one of the things that makes both these soundtracks so memorable for me is the fact that I was able to rip the music from the CD. I still listen to both on a regular basis. I really wish more game publishers would do this. Instead, you get music files in some weird format. Or worse, they put it inside the executable. (I realize it's probably piracy concerns that cause this, but it s

        • Homeworlds tracks were awesome, but I didn't know they could be ripped. Guess I know what I am doing tonite! You know, besides wanking and all.

          • I should point out that I got the Game of the Year edition of Homeworld. That one came with the soundtrack on a separate CD (along with the latest patch). I don't think Cataclysm or Homeworld 2 are rippable.

            • I don't have Cataclysm or HW 2, mainly cause I can hardly pay my bills let alone splurge on games(except bargain basement ones, will have to check them the next time I am out for cataclysm). I wonder if the music is on the game disc proper, else I fail it horridly.

    • Re:GTA:VC (Score:3, Funny)

      by Micro$will ( 592938 )
      It even included annoying DJs talking over the good songs. I was hoping for a mission where I had to whack all the DJs so the station can replace them with a CD changer.
    • I agree...after some Week long GTAVC jags, i find myself rockin' out to the local 80's pop radio stations in my car...it's disturbing how listening to a certian set of music for long enough makes you a fan...

  • I love good soundtracks (Score:4, Interesting)

    by msuzio ( 3104 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:08AM (#7725063) Homepage
    I really don't follow things in games all that much (I like what I like, but I don't have enough time to devote to games to get fanatical about anything). However, one of my favorite CDs ever is my copy of "Inferno", which is a game soundtrack done by Alien Sex Fiend. Totally sounds different from any other ASF stuff I own, and I totally dig it. Lots of electronic samples, explosion noises, and cool audio drops.

    So yeah, a good game soundtrack can be awesome, if it's fairly original. I don't usually like game or movie soundtracks that are just collections of existing songs or songs that really don't link to the game or movie (most Jerry Bruckheimer movies are very guilty of this level of blandness).
    • Oh, and Tony Hawk games have cool music too, but I've never seen the soundtracks offered separately. Too bad, I really cranked the songs sometimes while I played it on my Dreamcast :-).
      • Another skateboarding game with a great soundtrack was Thrasher: Skate and Destroy. It had mostly old school rap (Run DMC, EPMD, Gang-starr, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Sugarhill Gang, etc.) and a few old techno tracks. I couldn't find a separate soundtrack to it, so I ran the audio cables to an RCA-in/Stereo-out Y-cable to my microphone slot on my PC and recorded them all to mp3s. Ghetto, yes. Worth it, definitely.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:14AM (#7725120)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I think the radio stations for GTA:Vice City are very well thought out. Some rare forgotten gems that were everywhere back in the 80's but are so out of fashion now. Alcatraz and Romeo Void come to mind. Whoever chose the source music (soundtrack is all of the audio) did their homework well.

  • I've noticed (Score:5, Informative)

    by hookedup ( 630460 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:17AM (#7725155)
    a recent upserge in video game soundtrack popularity. There are even a couple of winamp streams out there playing them. ALT + L in winamp, under 'Internet Radio' there will be a couple. Also, check out Shoutcast [shoutcast.com] for streams. Last time I tuned it, they are streaming some final fantasy tracks.

  • Original sound tracks work better in most cases (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:20AM (#7725187)
    I sincerely believe in original soundtracks (if done well). The best example is Grand Theft Auto III. Since what I was being immersed in was a fictitious city, with fictitious ads, I felt the fictitious, but realistic, radio stations really added alot to that feeling of immersion. I felt like I was in "Liberty City", a realistic but still wholey unique and fictitious world.

    Before anyone goes and nay-says me, saying that GTA3 had some licensed tracks, they were for the most part obscure enough to count as original in my book. They were not big name singles like in GTA Vice City. And personally I didn't recognize anything but the classical/opera tracks.

    Which brings me to a great example of why I feel original works better than licensed: GTA Vice City brought us a bunch of memorable 80's tunes. I (We) already have real-world memories associated with those songs. We've seen videos, we've seen the artists, and we've heard them on the radio or in other media for that matter. So it's hard to feel that we're in a unique new city. Instead, it feels more like I'm playing a virtual Miami Vice.

    What further broke the entire coherence of the immersion in a virtual world through its sound and music was the addition of voice-ver work for the player's own character. In GTA III your player never said a word. That's because you WERE that character. Whatever you thought in your head in reaction to what you saw and heard in the game, was your own. It helped immerse yourself in the game's world.

    But in Vice City, suddenly you hear "yourself" saying things. To me, half the time I don't even realize it's my player character talking. I first think it's just more banter from the pedestrians in the game, and then when I understand the context of the phrase uttered I realize it's my player character saying it. It just doesn't work as well as keeping him silent. If the cops are honking and I'm standing in their way... let ME tell them to fuck off. It works better than making that decision, that "impulse" for me.
    • I agree that original soundtracks work better. But I'm gonna go back one in the series to GTA2. Who could forget the great songs like "Taxi Drivers Must Die" and everything on the chat stations. Although I liked the chat on GTA3 much better. Great times..
    • People are still listening to game sound tracks of the 80's. Giana Sisters, Outrun, many 8bit computers and consoles. Almost everything is original music. You can checkout the online radio at SceneMusic.net [scenemusic.net]

      As for new music, I think its pretty cool the xbox games has most music in windows media, easy enough to copy and convert. Amped series has tons of cool Indie music. Just goto the music directory on the dvd.

      I think my favorite video game that had purchased music from Crystal Method, N20 [psillustrated.com] on PSX. It has
    • "Instead, it feels more like I'm playing a virtual Miami Vice." While I have no problem with your opinion on the subject, I just wanted to point out that the "virtual Miami Vice" was a big part of the thematic approach to the game, from the opening credits and music to the clothing and even the sidekick.
    • I have to put in a good word for the soundtrack for ICO, which is easily the best original game music I've ever heard. It's hard to find in the states, but well worth it in my opinion.
  • and the more recent True Crime ("a well-made licensed soundtrack") as good examples of this,

    I can't really agree or disagree because I never played the game, but he states the choice of using music that "consisted almost entirely of hardcore West Coast hip-hop and rap and really made you feel like you were listening to LA radio". I'm sorry, but L.A. radio isn't that different from radio anywhere else. Most of it is the same old Clear Channel crap. Independant radio survives a little better because of the
  • Do you have a favorite licensed soundtrack, or is the whole concept a concern to you?

    I indeed do. I love the soundtracks to the Might and Magic games (especially 6 through 8), Heroes of Might and Magic series, Age of Empires series and others. All these soundtracks have two things in common: they are original and coherent. They work as one piece, and are not as eclectic as most sports soundtracks. They do what soundtracks are supposed to do - enhancing the atmosphere of the game.

    • Just a quick note, the Age of Empires soundtrack is actually one piece, at least in the way it's placed on the disc. The whole thing can be ripped by most MP3 rippers as a single 30-minute-or-so track.
    • My favorite would, honestly, have to be the soundtracks written by Nobuo Uematsu, most famous for Final Fantasy. His soundtracks have been adapted into so many different styles, that it shows that you not only need to enhance the mood of the game, but having a song that you can remember and recognize 10 years after playing the game, even when it's a remix of a remix of a techno remix, is TRUELY the sign of a master of the art. (If that was incoherent, sorry, today is not my day for intelligence.)
      • I find the Nobuo was really a master at the RPG Game soundtrack. My personal favorites are from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. I really can't find any faults in them at all. The others don't really inspire me as these two, but they are good in their own right(Specifically Man with the Machine Gun, love that upbeat-ness).
  • My favorite original soundtracks would have to be the Medal of Honor series and Tropico series, both have great music that just happens to be in a video game.

  • Indie games, Indie soundtracks! (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It doesn't take a commercial game to get a great soundtrack, ESF (website [esforces.com]) has an amazing soundtrack which introduced me to my new favorite band, The Faulty. (website [thefaulty.com]) I also think the original music from Desert Combat is high quality.

  • Quake (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mopslik ( 688435 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:48AM (#7725515)

    Do you have a favorite licensed soundtrack, or is the whole concept a concern to you?

    Not sure about how things were licensed and whatnot, but my favourite soundtrack was probably Trent Reznor's (NIN) score for Quake. Creepy ambient music, perfect for blasting zombies. The soundtrack to the sequel sounded too cheesy-90s-action-flick.

    • Not sure about how things were licensed and whatnot, but my favourite soundtrack was probably Trent Reznor's (NIN) score for Quake. Creepy ambient music, perfect for blasting zombies.

      The music was written specifically for the game, and, iirc, the Doom 3 soundtrack is supposed to be written by Trent Reznor as well. One of the best parts, imo, was that the entire sound track was included on the shareware CD, so you could essentially get a full NIN album (though quite different from his other work) for $5-9
  • NHL hitz on the Xbox has a great soundtrack
    • I don't think I've seen a hockey game since the Genesis days that actually played organ music, but I'd like to see it make a comeback. I'd certainly rather hear it than the crappy pop-rock that EA puts into it's NHL games.

      I know that most arenas don't even play much organ music these days (I work in a hockey arena, and they keep playing Avril... ugh...), but it's a part of hockey history.

  • 8 bit days (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tom7 ( 102298 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:53AM (#7725565) Homepage Journal

    Personally, I still mourn for the 8 bit days of epic tunes composed under byzantine constraints.

  • i think the game that really made me appreciate its soundtrack was "quake" [idsoftware.com] with music entirely by "trent reznor" [imdb.com] (well known for being "nine inch nails" [nin.com]). the best thing about it, was being able to take out of of your computer and play the audio tracks on any cd-player. old playstation games sometimes did this, and the modern equivalent is finding all the game tracks are stored as mp3s.

    the article is a bit whingy and i think misses the point that it is a case of "right tool for the right job". sometimes ex

    • I have to admit, the Quake soundtrack was very well done. The game was significantly scarier to me when I started playing with the soundtrack - I had to turn it off a few times, as it creeped me out quite a bit.

      I still have fond memories of Wipeout XL's soundtrack, which went really well. I also really liked the soundtrack for N2O Nitrous Oxide. The game was a trippy shooter, and having a soundtrack that was entirely The Crystal Method went along with it extremely well - I think it made the game better.
      • Although I don't think it was licensed, the soundtrack to C&C Red Alert was the first one that I actually bought as a soundtrack (though I bought the Quake shareware CD for the NIN soundtrack and it eventually migrated to my music CD collection with the full version CD in with my games CDs). Instead of simply picking up the expansion, I bought the set that included the game, the expansion, and the soundtrack CD simply because it had the CD in it (and the expansion that I was already looking to buy), and
    • Definitly, Trent helped bring out that game. I can't wait to hear what he has done for Doom3! :)
    • The first Aliens Vs. Predator [planetavp.com] PC game had a really well-thought-out soundtrack. All three species had a set of music that was in keeping with the movies that they came from, and was uniformly good. I loved the last Predator song the best, though.

  • History (Score:4, Informative)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @11:54AM (#7725573) Homepage
    Before Wipeout XL, there was arguably two starting points for licensed music in games. The most obvious, was Road Rage for the Playstation. While the licensed music didn't make it into the the game proper, all of the menus / setup screens / shops used tracks from Soundgarden. At the time it was quite shocking, and the music fit well. If anything, that sold the game far more copies than it deserved.

    Predating that, there was the little known BioMetal [vgmuseum.com] for the SNES... Yes, that's right, the SNES. That U.S. Developed games used MOD versions of 2Unlimited's excellent first album, a collection of mostly repetitive blips and beeps anyway (being dance techno). The soundtrack, however, turned out to be phenomenal, and particularly well suited to the shooter aesthetic. Sadly, the rest of the game wasn't quite as tight, and sales flagged.

    Both soundtracks were excellent, but the games were terrible. I leave the consequences of this difference with Wipeout XL as an exercise to the reader.

    • I believe you overlooked the classic Blizzard game, Rock'n'Roll Racing. Great racing game, and great heavy metal soundtrack.
    • Hmmm...I forget the full name of it, but there was a spider-man game for snes(and possibly other platforms) that featured a soundtrack by Green Jello.

    • And before then, in 1988, Interplay's computer game Neuromancer [lemon64.com] (yes, based on William Gibson's novel) included (a lo-fi, short, looped sample of) Devo's "Some Things Never Change".

    • Though it is an excellent example, I don't believe Biometal was developed in the West in any way other than music. The game was created using the SNES incarnation of the Japanese 'shooter maker' (whose bizarre title escapes me at the moment). Was included as an example game, IIRC. The US release simply stripped out the editor and changed the music.

      As an aside, Biometal 2 was released for the Sega Saturn with that system's incarnation of the shooter maker. Haven't gotten a chance to play it yet, but someday
  • Perhaps it's just me (it seems the 'geek' community's official party line is to hate this game), but few things stir my blood like the music from FFVII. Maybe it's just because that game was instrumental to my procrastination sophomore year, but any time I hear...

    Estuans interius ira vehementi
    Estuans interius ira vehementi
    Sephiroth!
    Sephiroth!

    I get all tingly.

    I....think I've said too much.
    • Ahhh, don't worry, its just the fanboys who can't stand their genre getting mainstream popularity. All the guys (ok, read 'nerds') I know who played that game love it. And as for the music, wow. I still find myself humming Aerith's theme or the overworld theme today.
    • Slightly off-topic there, as none of the FF game soundtracks use liscenced music. I do agree with you that FF7 (and numerous other Square games) have great soundtracks. What's especially cool is that in recent years they've been taking to creating their OWN pop songs ("Eyes on Me" from FFVIII, "Hikari"/"Simple and Clean" from Kingdom Hearts, a whole bunch of songs from FFX-2, etc.), which is probably the way to go if you want pop music in your game without having to go the liscencing route.
      • I don't know why one can't consider the FF pop songs to be licensed. The music has already been out and available for a while by the time it reaches the U.S., and usually it has to be re-done and re-negotiated for use. (I think this is why a lot of Japanese games wind up having the vocals removed from their tracks, like the old Wild ARMs games-- but, per my sig, I could be wrong.) In any event, the songs hold up well on their own and probably could be considered close enough to count.

        But getting back to
        • The music has already been out and available for a while by the time it reaches the U.S., and usually it has to be re-done and re-negotiated for use. (I think this is why a lot of Japanese games wind up having the vocals removed from their tracks, like the old Wild ARMs games-- but, per my sig, I could be wrong.)

          I can see Square having to renegotiate the rights for the vocals (as they use genuine Asian pop stars), but the songs themselves are usually written by the developer's in-house musicians, and Squa

    • I hated FFVII, but not for any deep reasons, I just got tired of getting jumped every two seconds then waiting for a long drawn out battle...but my dislike is not constrained to FFVII - it's any game of that style - I think I first noticed how annoying it was in Lunar or something like that on Sega CD.

      I realized I preferred something like Gothic - the enemies only rarely respawn (usually after a chapter), and they are in sensible locations, plus you can avoid them (unless you get on a Biter's bad side...)
    • I HONESTLY think that Nobuo Uematsu could have done just as well as a classical composer. He could probably drop his career as a game composer now and become one, and get a decent career now.
  • The soundtracks of this serie have been played by an orchestra and a choir/soloists and it sounds awesome. I especially like FF VI soundtrack and FF VIII has a nice theme too.

    Warcraft II and Starcraft soundtracks were pretty cool too, even if they sound a bit too techno/pop.

    Other games that I remember having a good theme are Max Payne, Diablo I (the town song), Curse of Monkey Island 3 (the pirates song was hilarious), No one live forever 1 & 2, Rayman ...
  • I really can't say i care for licensed-music soundtracks much at all. I'd much rather listen to something by Mitsuda or Uematsu or Sakuraba than listen to the garbage that EA and the like license for their games. Especially, like, annoying for me is the fact (at least, it seems to me) that most licensed-music games are based around rap. And... my opinion of rap is probably common to Slashdot, heh.

    As a whole, either way, i'd have to say that the whole game-music scene is declining. I haven't really got int

  • I remember the first time I played the demo for the LucasArts adventure game Full Throttle. After the short little stint of getting Ben's keys for his Bike, he drives off and we hear Legacy by the Gone Jackals playing for the rest of the demo in front of cut-scenes of the full game. The entire soundtrack was done by them, and I jumped at the chance to download a small program to let me rip the music as wave files (it wasn't encoded as Redbook Audio), and then dump them to MP3. I still listen to these gu
    • Full Throttle was a great game, one of the last great LucasArts 2D adventure games. Pity it was so short. Still, it was a lot of fun. Great cinematic style, too. I hope the Gone Jackels got a good boost from that game, they really did a great job. What's the point of cruising the highway on a motorcycle without a kick ass soundtrack?

  • How about a waste of money? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @12:17PM (#7725823) Journal
    I am old enough to remember when music in games was made with the midi part of your soundcard. It meant music was small, took little to no cpu time to play, didn't create crashes (music would keep playing AFTER a crash) and could easily be altered. The idea was in some games like x-wing that the music would change according to what was happening.

    For some reason midi died. I blame consoles but I blame them for anything. More likely just to many cheapo soundcards came out that did not properly support midi. Instead some games. Tombraider comes to mind played music from the cd. Not file from the CD. Actual cd music. In fact speech was played from the cd as well. This more then anything else is my reason for hating consoles. Anyone who played it on a pc would probably agree.

    Anyway. Nowadays music is most often an MP3 or even more recent an OGG or somthing like that. And I noticed something. Almost always switching the music off will improve not only speed but stability as well. The speed issue has dropped a bit since Command & Conquer days but the stability still seems to be there for me. Over several new pc's I always noticed that if a game reguarly freezes switching the music off will help.

    That and the fact that most music is crap and even more crappily mixed. Soft music during heavy combat then swelling up as people start to talk.

    So leave the music out eh? Or least keep it to the movies. I can play my own cd's thank you very much. My tastes are probably different anyway. Worst example of that was playing Kotor and finding a techno beat in some places. Ewh.

    • I am old enough to remember when music in games was made with the midi part of your soundcard. It meant music was small, took little to no cpu time to play, didn't create crashes (music would keep playing AFTER a crash) and could easily be altered. The idea was in some games like x-wing that the music would change according to what was happening.

      Even games that don't use midi will sometimes continue playing the music after a crash, it simply depends on how the game handled the music. The idea behind using
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • " I blame consoles but I blame them for anything....I noticed something. Almost always switching the music off will improve not only speed but stability as well."

      Since you're a PC gamer, you may not know, but this problem doesn't appear on consoles. Games don't slow down with music on, and music doesn't crash them. It's pretty much a PC phenomenon.
    • Uh, what do you think they used before CDs became comenplace as storage mediums for consoles?

      You don't seem to know much about consoles (especially modern sound generation techniques). A good percentage *isn't* redbook, even to this day.
    • Have you played Halo? In Halo the soundtrack is fully dynamic depending on what's happening in the game. The cool thing is, all the audio is prerecorded orchestral stuff - but there's enough transitional audio that it can smoothly segue from the more laidback themes up to the advanced themes and vice versa. There's not music all the time, but there is where it counts, and overall the audio in the game is absolutely top-notch.
  • How can the guy say that about a soundtrack that consists completely of one genra of music: hip-hop? And the controls to setup the music were wonky. I found myself constantly disabling songs because they seemed to be all I would hear. And every time you got in the car a new song started fresh. How the hell does that "really [make] you feel like you were listening to LA radio?"

    Don't get me wrong, I loved the game, the mechanics were great and the map was huge, but I hated the music. But listening to a car r
  • The irony of Wipeout XL's soundtrack is that it just didn't fit the game as well as the beautiful in-house "Cold.fusion" soundtrack to vanilla Wipeout. When I gave my playstation to the kid next door, the wipeout CD silently failed to make the trip, because I knew I'd want to play it on an emulator someday... And just yesterday I ripped the audio and was unsuprised to notice this playstation game was in the CDDB.
    • I think you're thinking of Cold Storage, an in house psygnosis musician.

      He also did the soundtrack to the PC version of WOXL, which for whatever reason didn't license the tracks the PSX version did.

      I find most of the big name tracks really well suited to that game, though. Actually, big FSOL fan that I am, I can't think of when ELSE you'd want to listen to We Have Explosive.. :D

  • Jet Set Radio (Score:2, Informative)

    by Samhaine ( 726003 )
    Hands down. Mostly obscure licensed tracks, but perfectly fitting the aesthetic of the game. Jet Set Radio Future wasn't quite as good, but still nice. I just wish they'd kept Dragula out of the US release (Jet Grind Radio). It's a nice song, but not in tune with the rest of the tracks.
    • Jet Set Radio Future also had a very nice soundtrack. Sure, it's "just" a collection of singles, but they were well chosen and fit in well with the whole style and attitude of the game.

      One nice touch is that they made special segues between each song, so they flow naturally into one another. It's not just a crossfade, but more like something a real DJ would do, sampling an element of the ending song and mixing it into the beat of the new song.

      • Ah, the beauty of ADX- I own the Dreamcast version of the game and riped it to my HD, just so I could pull the songs out (plus all of my other DC games), and found that it's a pain to stich the music back together again. You see, they have about five or six ways they can play the music (I guess based on how well you are doing?)- so you have a huge amount of music files which turn out to be parts of the song. Cool to see it work though...

        Other Sega games that have incredible musc:
        Crazy Taxi, I and II
        Ecco,
  • From Grand Theft Auto 2. It had some pretty good stuff, as far as I can tell it was mostly original. For what it's worth, I have the GTA1 CD-rom in my car as its music is all CD-Audio. I still listen to it every once in a while, when I get the urge to hear "The Ballad Of Chapped Lips Calhoun, by the late Sideways Hank O'Malley and the Alabama Bottle Boys" You gotta give the guys at Rockstar credit for having good soundtracks long before they had mega-hits like GTA3 under their belt and could license mus

  • Singles sometimes work (Score:3, Interesting)

    by h3 ( 27424 ) on Monday December 15, 2003 @12:27PM (#7725924) Homepage Journal
    I agree with the selection of Wipeout XL- I remember my heartrate picking up whenever Prodigy's Firestarter rotated in. That track made any race that much more intense.

    Two more recent examples of the use of "singles" come to mind. The SSX series (SSX3 in particular, since its still fresh in my mind) pulls it off pretty well. The music matches thematically, and though it may not be music I normally listen to, the game is enriched by it (I tried turning it off, it felt a bit hollow).

    Gran Turismo 3, on the other hand - ugh! I hated the music. The selection was too disparate. I turned it off. It was better.

    -h3
    • Gran Turismo 3, on the other hand - ugh! I hated the music. The selection was too disparate. I turned it off. It was better.

      Sony, for some reason, hates using the original music for any Gran Turismo game. "Moon Over The Castle"-- the series' main theme-- is an excellent piece, and I have no idea why they continually refuse to put it in a U.S. version. The U.S. GT3 soundtrack did have two things going for it, though-- Grand Theft Audio and the ability to turn off any tracks you didn't like.
  • Let me look at the Game Soundtracks I have on my computer right now and see what my selections prior to this discussion say is best:

    Doom Music, Bobby Prince [bpmusic.com] (original, separate OST) - another mp3.com users bites it.
    Mechwarrior II (original, ripped from the game CD)
    Mechwarrior II:Mercenaries (original, ripped from the game CD)
    various Final fantasy MIDIs (original, from the 'net)
    Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy S Generation [tokyopop.com] (oringal, pseudo OST)
    Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano, Masashi Hamauzu - Final Fantasy X OS [tokyopop.com]
  • I like games that play as a good movie (that involve you, not like Final-Fantasy X..whatever), and "Primal" did a good job. They used music from 16-Volt's "Super-Cool-Nothing", which was really fitting. The developers even worked some of the lyrics into very nice commercials and promo-edits. The game rocked, the music fit, and I recommend both the game and the music.

    Recently I've played SSX3, and I IMMEDIATELY took the "dj" factor out. I hate radio. I'm the kind of rotten bastard that absolutely hates "tal
  • it wasnt licensed music, but interstate 76 has my all time favorite soundtrack.
    http://altpop.com/stc/reviews/i76.htm
  • Having read through this I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the xbox's ability to put the music that YOU want into a game... Nothing quite like having Ludicris' "Move" while crashing into shit in Burnout 2, and then go directly into "Ducks Like Rain" by Raffi.
    • But that's not the same as licensing music to put into a game. When you LICENSE music, you're paying for the right to include that song in a game.

      It also means that they decide when a song gets played, so songs fit the mood more.

      I'd sure LOVE to have Britney Spears start playing when I'm beating the shit out of a pedestrian in GTA3.
      • I agree completely... It totally depends on the game... If it's a non-story driven type game (ie driving, sports) then there really no "mood" to enhance its all about adrenaline, whatever gets you pumped up. However for games like Halo or Prince of Persia it is critical that the music fits.
        • That's my point. It would make no sense to have something like, say, "At Last" by Etta James start playing in the middle of a boss fight. It would be rather ironic, sure, but it would be a weird mood-setter.

  • Tony Hawk... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by th3space ( 531154 ) <brad&bradfucious,com> on Monday December 15, 2003 @01:13PM (#7726435) Homepage
    This series, for me at least, has offered the best blend of different genres in terms of licensed music. If you like rap/hip-hop...you're covered. If you like rock...you're covered. If you like punk...you've more than covered. Before these games, I had a tendency to turn the music off (volume down), leave the ambient noises on and put on some cd or another. I do hope that future iterations on PS2 will utilize the HDD and allow people to play music of their own choice, though...because one Strike Anywhere song only makes me want to hear a bunch of Strike Anywhere songs.
  • The best game soundtrack is definitely Halo [amazon.com]. The launch menu, for example, is like a bunch of Tibetan monks doing their prayers or something. It's so serene, it's scary. And the in game music just pulls you into the game, chews you up, and spits you out. MS did a real sweet job of putting this together (Yes, I know MS bought Bungie software for this game). Here's a demo of the game if you want, 134 MB, PC only. [microsoft.com] You also need the latest version of DirectX (9.0b). [microsoft.com]

    Soundtrack is available at Amazon [amazon.com], Buy.com [buy.com],
  • Older 3-D RTS game, but best soundtrack *ever*!

    Each track was a 'classical' piece that was for a certain 'mood' in the game. Just building an army? Mellow tunes. Going to war! The music gets going and so does your blood! One of the nices things was that each track was an actual audio track on the CD. I've ripped them and occasionally listen to them outside the game. Fantastic stuff.
  • GTA:VC is one example of good licensed music, though often I prefer music written for a particular game:

    Arena/Daggerfall/Morrowind
    Dungeon Siege
    Skeleton Warriors
    Thunderforce III, IV
    Vandal Hearts
    King's Field
    Dark Wizard
    Robo Aleste

    Actually too many game sound tracks to list!
  • I really enjoyed the orchestra in both Medal of Honor PSX games.
  • Say what you will about the mindless hack and slash style of the Diablos, they are addictive. More relevant, however, is the fact that the soundtrack for DII rocks! (Ok, it doesn't really rock, it kind of ambients. But THE perfect mood music for a day of old school pen and paper gaming!)
  • For reasons I cannot explain, I still love the little crystalline music bed that plays in Everquest during your swim from the dock at Halas to the cave into Everfrost. How a little new age hypno-track can be so immersive, I've no idea... but it works for me.
  • Video game soundtracks are nothing new, especially in the Japanese markets. And finally the US game publishers are starting to catch on.

    Ignoring the obvious CD releases to tie into the Dance Dance Revolution franchise, others here have already mentioned the wonderful GTA: Vice City boxset as well as the FF soundtrack.

    We'll be seeing more of this as labels and artists see the crossover potential. EA released the soundtrack CD to SSX3, featuring "exclusive" cheat codes and music by The Chemical Brothers

  • GT3 (Score:1)

    by jvalenzu ( 96614 )
    Gran Turismo 3 has a great sound track. One track. Singular. Namely, Dogg Turismo. The rest is just awful. I've played the game about 1/2 through, and have had Dogg Turismo on repeat for about all of it. What an awesome song.

    One of my favorite parts is where Snoop stumbles over the lyrics.

    It's even got one of those - uh - PT Cruisers too

  • Jeez... ANY TONY HAWK GAME!!! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Cyno01 ( 573917 ) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Monday December 15, 2003 @06:51PM (#7729822) Homepage
    'nuff said
  • The first hitman:47 had an increadibly immersive soundtrack. Worked well with the mixture of action and stealth and was powerful without being overwhelming. I think it won some awards but it really was something, I didn't like the second much.
  • How can you talk about licensed soundtracks and not mention Jet Set Radio? Sure, some of it was done by the very cool people at Sega's Wavemaster, but most of it was licensed. I can't think of a better licensed soundtrack, with the exception of the awe-inspiring Vice City soundtrack (also not mentioned, bizarrely).

    Jet Set Radio Future also featured some amazing licensed music ("I love love you" is classic, as is "Birthday Cake" and "I'm not a Model"), admittedly marred by a pretty boring game design and so
  • The best thing about Wipeout XL's soundtrack (I personally call them gametracks, to differentiate them from soundtracks - music playing in a movie and scores - orchestral pieces written for a movie which the characters can't hear, but wish they could because it would save them a lot of agony) is that it's actually BETTER than the music in the game, because we get the lyrical version of "Atom Bomb" on the CD. But, beyond that, it was amazingly good music, and extremely well-suited to the game. Wipeout XL, fo
  • Easily the most atmospheric music I've heard in a game. These CDs weren't a collection of singles, they weren't thrashing "momentum music." They did what a great movie soundtrack does: evoked the mood and setting, and just plain were full of very decent scored music.

    Pretty great nostalgia by now, I guess.

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