Favourite Game Soundtracks

[Alrowan]

well seeing as favuorites are going arround atm, i decided to start another, this time its based on the soundtracks for games


For me my all time favourite Soundtrack would be Mechwarrior 2 i still listen to that these days, really one of the best sets of compositions ever, some others ive liked

(Original Compositions)
Mechwarrior 2
Mech 2 Mercenaries
BattleField2/Desert Combat mod for BF1942 (similar themes)
Eve Online
Command & Conquer + Red Alert (1)

(Outside Tunes)
GTA Series
Tony Hawkes 1,2 and 3 (4 was too hip hop for me)

[Geoffrey S]

Outcast. Easily the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a game, what with the Moscow choir & orchestra and stuff; just a shame it tended to make the dialogue a little hard to hear at times. I rather liked the music in Knights of the Old Republic 2 as well, sometimes that was very subtle.

[Productivity]

Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory - I like Amon Tobin.

[Marcellus]

Well, I suppose

Legend of Zelda (generally)
RTW
MTW
FFVIII
Eternal Darkness

[John86]

Tony hawk 1 was pretty good, 2-thug sucked music wise. Morrowind had a great soundtrack.

[econ21]

Secret of Mana - especially the Japanese/metallic music when you fight the big boss at the end.

System Shock 2 - the techno music that kicks in when you unlock the door unleashing the first hybrids was too much. First time I encountered it, I had to switch off the game, what with the heart-pounding music and the sheer terror, I needed to escape. Strangely, enough the same thing happened last time I tried to replay it.

Morrowind - had a nice theme. Very short and very often repeated, but somehow I still liked it every time it started up.

Fantasy General - perhaps the only strategy game that was markedly improved by virtue of its music.

Vampire Bloodlines - the dance music in the daughter of Janus's nightclub was excellent. After a traumatic episode, you and your character could lose yourself and regain some humanity by succumbing to it.

[swirly_the_toilet_fish]

Any game in the Dragon Quest console series. The games had excellent soundtracks, especially Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior IV (US).

[lars573]

Legacy of Kain defiance. Best title track ever. Tony Hawk 1 was pretty good. Most of the music in Backyard wrestling 1 was great (yes I played it shut up).

[Strike For The South]

Tony Hawk one was good so was Madden 03 Although best original would have to be Halo

[FesterShinetop]

Mafia and Hitman 2 had some nice soundtracks as well!

[Geoffrey S]

The Hitman 2 music was good, yes.

[Divine Wind]

Battlefield vietnam is a fave of mine. Flying around in a huey while listening to Wagner...quite an experience

Another memorable soundtrack for me was in Final Fantasy VII. Moments such as Aeris's death scene, the first meeting with old Cap'n Cid, the various fights with the turks, going to Red 13's hometown, the golden saucer, sephiroth's evil tunes, and the last great sephiroth fight, with the fantastic opera style theme tune.

Fantastico!

[Taurus]

Battlefield vietnam is a fave of mine. Flying around in a huey while listening to Wagner...quite an experience

[FesterShinetop]

Of course also the tune from Monkey Island and Tropico also had an awesome soundtrack.

[Ser Clegane]

Fantasy General - perhaps the only strategy game that was markedly improved by virtue of its music.

This one is an absolute classic - I agree completely, never did a game benefit so much from its music (and the best thing is, you could just out the game CD into your CD-player and listen to the music)

The intro tracks of BG2 and its expansion were also excellent (each time I start these games I take the time to listen to the music before loading a savegame)

The STW music is so good, that I actually used some tracks as a "score" for a slide-show of our vacation in Japan...

[Meneldil]

I can't believe no one said FFVII or FFIX. Most of the soundtracks are great, and some of them are trully awesome (One Winged Angel, Those Chosen by the Planet, The Place I'll Return to Someday). Nobuo Uematsu is great anyway.

Once again, I'm going for Eternal Darkness. Overall, some great quality soundtracks. The Chosen, The Gift of Forever and The War to end all Wars are my prefered ones.

And finally, a game that likely none ever heard of earn my "best video game soundtracks" award : "Magic and Mayhem". It has some great celtic tracks, recorded by Afro Celt Sound System. Caught in a Web is really my favorite video game soundtrack.

Edit : Actually, someone said FFVII. Silly me

[Azi Tohak]

I can't believe no one said FFVII or FFIX. Most of the soundtracks are great, and some of them are trully awesome (One Winged Angel, Those Chosen by the Planet, The Place I'll Return to Someday). Nobuo Uematsu is great anyway.

Once again, I'm going for Eternal Darkness. Overall, some great quality soundtracks. The Chosen, The Gift of Forever and The War to end all Wars are my prefered ones.

Edit : Actually, someone said FFVII. Silly me

I'd have to say FF VI [Celes, Cyan, Terra, Gogo, Kefka all had awesome themes], but anything done by Uematsu is going to be good. Also, Mitsuida is pretty good too (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross [I think], Xenogears).

And yes, Eternal Darkness was great. For scaring the *@#$ out of me. But still it was pretty good.

Meneldil, do you like any of his work on FF VIII? I've got Maybe I'm a Lion, Eyes on Me and Liberi Fatali all in high quality, and those are great.

Azi

[Meneldil]

Yeah, Liberi Fatali is great. I just simply didn't think about this one because I don't like FFVIII and don't really remember its soundtracks (except somes like Liberi Fatali, the Landing and The Man with the Machine Gun). As for Maybe I'm a Lion and Eyes on Me, I'm not really fond of those.

Here's a [SNIP!], (as long as you've bought the game).

Oh, and believe it or not, but I liked "OtherWorld" from FFX. This Heavy Metal crap was actually quite funny




EDIT: The FF games have their soundtracks available for purchase as CDs, meaning the music is seen as a seperate source of revenue to the games themselves. Whether you have the game or not, SquareEnix's intent is clear: if you want to listen to the music outside of the game, buy the CDs. So no links to downloads of this music, please.

[Azi Tohak]

Yeah...I was going to try that too Meneldil...but ah well. And if I could find where to buy the *# CDs (or even better, pay and download just what I want) I would!

Any help here would be appreciated.

Azi

[Meneldil]

Amazon does have a fairly amount of FF soundtracks cds

frogbeastegg, my apologies

[Voigtkampf]

I have probably all the FF CD’s and tracks, very nice music.

The music in Medieval was also very good.

But the number one lifetime music in game award goes to Fallout 1 & 2.

[GilJaysmith]

I like the music from "Pharaoh", which was by our own Jeff van Dyck. "Turrican" and "Turrican 2" also had great music. But my favourite, if somewhat old-school, music is from a Capcom arcade game called "Black Tiger". It narrowly edges out Capcom's "Side Arms" as a brilliant example of theme and variations across eight different levels.

Can't resist plugging Jeff's music for the forthcoming "Spartan: Total Warrior" either :-)

[frogbeastegg]

I like the music from "Pharaoh", which was by our own Jeff van Dyck.

I remember being very surprised when I found that the music for TW and for Pharaoh was done by the same person. Think I learned that about the time VI was coming out. He did Emperor:RotMK too, and quite a few other games I have played. His work in the TW series has always been my favourite by a long way, with the exception of RTW. I hope his Spartan music fits my tastes more than RTW's did, and if it does I'll be hoping that CA follows a few other companies' leads, and puts the tracks up on the official site for download. Or that there is a CD. It's a bit awkward leaving your PS2 on with the soundtest option selected



I liked all the music in STW and MTW plus the respective add-ons, but I always preferred the battle music to the campaign map music. Mmm, I still have most of that music in media player. RTW only had one track I liked, but 'Forever' (the credits song) is quite a nice one, and so makes the list.

The recent Final Fantasy games have great music; I've got the soundtracks. Most of the general music is good. I loved the assorted silly chocobo themes from VII. I find the songs from VIII and IX cringe inducing when they feature in the game, but they are not so bad on CD … if I am in the right mood. The song from X is very pleasant indeed, nice and relaxing. The only exception to this is FF X-2 - I didn't like much of that music at all. I suppose '1,000 Words' is alright, but the less said about 'Real Emotion' the better, and the rest of the music was bland, boring, nasty, or just not interesting to a frog’s ears.

Kingdom Hearts deserves a mention too. The general background, theme etc music was very catchy and fitting, and the song, 'Simple and Clean', actually managed not to be embarrassing when it started to play over the credits.

I wish they had done a soundtrack for 'Curse of Monkey Island'!

The Zelda series is always reliable for good music, just a pity the soundtracks never reach the UK.

I always found the music in a little known gem of a game on the N64, Mystical Ninja Staring Goeman, to be insanely catchy. Over 7 years later I can still hum parts of it.

Many games manage to have one or two good tracks, but often not the sort of thing I want to listen to outside of a game. I quite like much of the Stronghold series' music, but once taken out of the game it's not the same at all. Ditto System Shock 2, the Thief series, the Age of Wonders series, Knights of Honour, and a few hundred more.

[Crandaeolon]

But the number one lifetime music in game award goes to Fallout 1 & 2.

I'm sticking to the same composer (Mark Morgan), but going for a different game; Planescape Torment. Great music that fits perfectly into the game.

I also like a lot of Jeremy Soule's work, but lately he's been getting a bit repetitive. It's probably because the guy is everywhere. You just listen to the theme of a new game and think: "doh, Soule again..."

[TheSilverKnight]

Europa Universalis II has a pretty good soundtrack. So does American Conquest: Fight Back.

STW, MTW, and their addons have good music.

but for Europa Universalis II and American Conquest: Fight Back, I often listen to my Baroque CD's, so I spose that counts as a soundtrack of sorts

[Craterus]

GTA Series
FF VII
Tony Hawks 2 had some good tunes

[Mount Suribachi]

I love STW and MTW for their atmospheric soundtracks - the monkish chanting when you load MTW gets me every time

But my favourite has to be Baldurs Gate. Every time I loaded it up I would watch the whole intro, just to hear the theme music

Oh, and NHL 99 with "we could be heroes" by David Bowie whilst showing a montage of spectacular plays.

[Meneldil]

Oh, and to my previous list, you may add Heroes of Might and Magic III & IV. Both of them have some great music.

[Jubilation T Cornpone]

Eye of the Beholder on the Amiga for those with age not quite on their side. The opening music to Air warrior 2 (or maybe 3) set to video footage, that seems a long time ago now.....

[Tricon]

Fantasy General was awe inpiring.
Far Cry
Baldurs Gate II
Knigts of Honor (most of the tracks, anyway)
MTW - VI
Rise of Nations, especially the track "The Russian"
Mech Warrior 2
But the absolut best game soudtrack for me was for the little known "Black Moon Chronicles"