Game music Created 18 years ago2005-12-04 13:35:41 UTC by Kasperg

I'd like to know how important you think music is in a game. Half-life games dont have a lot of music moments, but the ones they have are usually good.
Other games like F.E.A.R. need ambient music all the time...
My favourite game soundtracks are probably Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII and the first Tomb Raider game.
The Final Fantasy games for example, would be crap without their soundtracks...

Music is hugely important in games! think tetris! where would it have been without its music?

Music can create great ambience and can get adrenaline rushing where otherwise it would be relatively boring.

They're quite useful for raising atmosphere. Often needed in horror games.

My favorite game music of all time would have to be Frank Klepackis soundtrack(s) for the C&C Games...

Hell march is wonderfully wonderful.

The FFVII music was great too, and Half-life 2 scores high on the list.

Depends really..

Sometimes I find it very anoying because of bad timing..

Silent Hill 2
FF VII
Perfect Dark

^
have good soundtracks

i actually have a couple of the hl2 tracks in my mp3 player.....lol

You know what, i've been waiting for a thread like this...
Sound is so important in my opinion! It really helps when say your fighting a hard boss and some heavy cool rock music puts you in the mood no matter how many times you lose and have to try again.

Same goes again for my map, i'm trying to make a song that suits the need and theme.

Man DOOM 3 scares me mostly because of the sounds, Silent Hill 1 again had such damn scary music, it made me think of negative things, like what is going to be around this corner and I wonder why my radio is going crazy.

Then again sound is useful for adding atmosphere, Quake 4 has a lot of explosions and combined with a big bass system really makes it realistic.
Half Life 1 had a few soundtracks and I think it was best that they spread them out, you can have games with music all the time aka ZOE 2 or you can have triggered songs when you fight a boss or are playing a training level.

I actually target my attention towards sound, I make sure my maps have the best sounds to suit it, I consider myself a Sound Engineer because I make good decisions where music / sounds should go - for example: -

Say you had a game with a training level, I would use sound to the advantage here and make it so there are many training choices like walk, shoot etc, now first off calm music would play when selecting what training mission you'd play and then a slightly heavier re-mix would suit it when you actually trying the training subject out...

To sum up - Calm music at menu

- Slightly louder, faster version of the previous song when actually playing.

So yes, music really helps, War games are good with American sort of army music. Scary games are even more frightening with scary music, Tetris is nothing without sound

So I conclude with: Sound is important, imagine playing a game without a bit of music, would you find it interesting, what if you just killed a load of enemies with a cool trap, a sound helps to make it sound cool, no music to add celebration? A game without music should be burned!
Don't overdo music mind.

your fighting a hard boss and some heavy cool rock music puts you in the mood

Painkiller has music changes of that type.

The interesting thing about game music is how differently it is used. Final Fantasy games have music all the time, and Tomb Raider and Half-life use it only in crucial moments. They somehow get it right either way.

Perfect dark had sweet music,, shame I don't remember any of it though..

I think Halo and Halo2 had superb music. Half Life 2 aswell.

Music in games is very crucial, when used right anyway, having background noise, or having simple music, both work wonders.

@madcow

Download the song called "Alien Conflict" from the PD soundtrack, it pwns

I quite like to listen to game soundtracks too and also think of them as vital to creating ambience in a game. But, sometimes, having no music in some parts is the best way to promote the ambience

@Saribous: Ahh, I remember now, that track is teh pwn!

FF VIII has the best FF sound track ever.

Half-life has some great music tat can be used.

the C&C games really did have some great songs to.

and all of those I just said were good games. So that really shows that game music really does influence how good the game is.

Subtle music. I wouldn't go too far and have rock music during boss fights, because it would make it seem pretty silly, really. Maybe for some games.

Copied from my winamp playlist...

Really good stuff.

Anyone have Klepackis released albums? I lost mine a few formats back, and I want them back...

Not for Prince of Persia Warrior Within, that soundtrack was priceless and really added gloom. The rock made me feel all cool when I kicked a group of enemies with a run up the wall flip and slice move.

There are two main aspects to a game,
Visuals and Sound.

To me, both are equally important.

Sound pulls the player into the world, rather than having him just look at it. You NEED music and sound effects in order to make a game rather than an interactive picture.

Music is important. It can totally screw up a game, or make it great.

If you are mapping with HL, you need a good array of music in your map. It can't just be a silent boring adventure of Gordon Freeman, I mean, I'm pretty sure that suit could play some music (or DVDs).

So, you NEED music in a game in order to create an affect that grabs hold of the player, and keeps him inside your creation, enthralled by the world, not by awe, but by reality itself.

Serious Sam had some great music. Dunno about SS 2?

The SS 2 demo had some great music. The game was nothing to write home about though... I kind of wish they made other games with that engine.

Every single Rare game (SNES to Gamecube era) has had some extremly awesome tunes. Remember the Donkey Kong series? The very first level in the first game had the best Jungle music ever. DKC 1, 2, 3, Banjo Kazooie, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye (to an extent) - they all had such fantastic music.

Half-Life 2 also has some great music which really suits the atmosphere. I loved the part when you're being forced to the roof by the civs and when you finally get out the music kicks in and you get this sense of magnitude at what you're looking at: awesome stuff.

Oh yeah!

Perfect Dark had great game music!

Donkey Kong Country had some awesome music that I still have stuck in my head... especially when you get to the metal machine place! the first level of that was great music!

FF7 probably had one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in a video game. Chrono Cross had some pretty good music too.
And yes, I think music is extremely important to a game.
Half Life 2 had a beastly soundtrack but the placement of most of the songs in the game was horrible.

can someone send me some HL2 songs over msn or email?? knowing how my computer cant run Hl2, or id buy it and extract it myself >_<

msn--- Backstabber_2@hotmail.com
email--- dementedcarrot@gmail.com

Stupid me, When i went through Half-life I turned off the music I think i might have to go right through again

Edit: I remeber playing a game called run like hell, it had some good music in it, but i don't really remeber the game itself.

Painkiller has the far best soundtrack so far! Best game ever too!

Guys, let me tell you about this game called FF7...

Painkiller has the far best soundtrack so far! Best game ever too

I'm playing it right now. Soundtrack is not really impressive. I dislike the game's theme (demons and stuff), but I'm playing it for its level design, which is in some places superb. Some locations are really inspiring. (good 3d engine too) But it's just a Serious Sam set in Purgatory instead of Egypt.

Reafer: That'd be warez..! Shame on you. Uh, database, too.

Painkiller sucks donkey dong. 0 story, 0 relevance, 0 fun.

I prefer ambience over music. You can make a much scarier feeling with it. Music is good for DM though.

Shame on you. Uh, database, too.

No entiende, zorra.