Music in games. Created 18 years ago2006-10-01 17:42:29 UTC by Tosse

Ever noticed how games with awesome music becomes awesome? Like Quake II and Painkiller, that raging music really pumps you up and makes you want to kill all enemies ever more and harder! And it's a shame that you can't add music in HL1, well you can but few would download a map that's 30mb. Don't you just hate it?

What do you think of this kind of music in games?

I love it, i always play a track from Quake II or painkiller to get in the mood for mapping. It's awesome!

Luckily HL2 supports mp3 files

Remember we discussed this in December?
http://twhl.co.za/forums.php?action=viewthread&str=tomb+raider&type=1&pg=1&id=9871

Yes? Long time ago.

Game music sucks, but it certainly gets the adrenaline going. I always play better (more strafing, more aggression, more luckshots) with some good music playing in the background though.

Its really simple. REALLY simple. Put an mp3 in your mod folder and ingame open the console and type "mp3 play <mp3 path>". Unless you are talking about multiplayer, in which you are right. at least for HL1 you're right.

Not all game music sucks, the Halo 2 sound track comes to mind.

Some games have great music! My three favorites:

1. Metroid Prime
2. Grim Fandango
3. Perfect Dark

Heh, When I was playing CS:S online without music I was just getting killed all the time, With music I just get everyone. So I guess it helps while playing online

Listening to music, that you like, while playing, makes you feel more relaxed and agressive.
Yes, it definately makes you perform better.

Mmm Saribous, the original Perfect Dark had great music.

Perfect Dark Zero's music though... bleh.

Embarrassed to say, I've played neither of those 3 games. But my favourite soundtracks is definitely Frank Klepacki's tunes to Red Alert.

I know its not really game music but tony hawks 1 had a good sound track, Halo has a very good theme song. Fzero-X had this one song called big blue which is the greatest. I like some Zelda OOT, in metroid prime, phendrana drifts is nice. I cant remember perfect dark, its a shame. thats about it for game music and me.

Jet Force Gemini (an old N64 game from Rare that no one played), besides being amazing, also had an incedible soundtrack.

Jet Force Gemeni was fantastic. I still play it! That and Goldeneye are the only N64 games i still own. sold the rest.

Same here.

Oh Man, Jet Force Gemini Rocked! The music was good too.
I think some of the music from HL2 was good (like in the trainyard at the beginning) although, they didnt use it often.
And, the all-time best game music was from the original ExciteBike.

I don't think anyone'll disagree with me here;
Zero Wing.

Game music is good, but sometimes not having any really makes it creepy. For example, when i was playing Resident Evil 1 and going through a corridor where i had killed a zombie but couldnt torch (you know what that means...) So, i was walking along and suddenly all i hear is this roar and a zombie charging at me from round a corner which, thanks to stupid camera angles, i couldnt see.

Music or not, when I first played ResEvil1 I thought it was utterly boring. Those zombies were so un-intimidating, only made hard to kill by the fact that there was so little ammo spread around, and they usually took 7 - 8 shots from your slow firing pistol just to kill.

Plus, as you said, Camera = Shit.

I like music. I write my own music and take a consider amount of pride in it. However, i believe music can easily ruin a scene. Instead, (like in Turnstile) music is played to introduce each new area with a big fanfare of ambience and art-like mapping. Once the gameplay elements fall into play, the music is done and the mapping is a little more form=function and all that. Never use music as a filler instead of ambient sounds, thats lame.

Halo 2 was mentioned. it pwns. hard. they hired a gregorian choir. as mappers we don't do that last time i checked.

Metroid Prime had music that had almost too much music theory to psychology put into it. Perhaps thats why it was good. Like how certain sounds and styles of music remind you of certain areas. I'm aware of the theories and I strongly try to add this essence to turnstile. Kinda failing tho.

You wrote the music for Turnstile?

i believe music can easily ruin a scene. Instead, (like in Turnstile) music is played to introduce each new area with a big fanfare of ambience and art-like mapping. Once the gameplay elements fall into play, the music is done...

I have to mention the first "Tomb Raider" soundtrack again. Little music throughout the game, but when it played, it was perfect. I haven't heard any other videogame soundtrack that matches the game like that one.
Combined with silence, footsteps and creature sounds, it had a great atmosphere.

Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest music is cool too. But when music is used ALWAYS, it becomes a bit less special.

You wrote the music for Turnstile?

From scratch. In fact, I updated the soundtrack since then. I'm getting really good with my sound stuff.

Also, thats an aspect often overlooked, if you can edit the music yourself, you can adjust it as needed. I often tone down the bass for clarity on the upper parametrics.

What instrument do you play?

Spirit of Half-life supports .mp3, .wma, and .org which is wicked. Look into it.