Best game music

[Canadave]

Good point about the Metroid Prime games. I even love the main menu music.

 

[Kegg]

A bit of my own nostalgia:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r68ujKxnX6o&feature=related[/yt]
"This is Rupture Farms. They say it's the biggest meat processing plant on Oddworld." Loved that game. Sucked at it, but the atmosphere was great.

 

[Kelthaz]

I can't believe I forgot about Touhou. A series few have heard about, but with music that rivals Final Fantasy. Here's the music for each level from the fourth game in the series, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hEve92rJeY&feature=PlayList&p=D370D66D59206124&index=0[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc_ec1Fh5Qc&feature=PlayList&p=D370D66D59206124&index=2[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A96s41YLj60&feature=PlayList&p=D370D66D59206124&index=4[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHlkba7biyk&feature=PlayList&p=D370D66D59206124&index=6[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF8nxduBm5U&feature=PlayList&p=D370D66D59206124&index=8[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9TLMmOyIHQ&feature=PlayList&p=D370D66D59206124&index=10[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV16HghvnC4&feature=PlayList&p=D370D66D59206124&index=12[/yt]

 

[Hermiod]

Left 4 Dead, Skin On Our Teeth
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp6-0_-1Dxo[/yt]

Left 4 Dead, Tank
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhiGnj7QX2A[/yt]

Killzone 2, The Helghan March
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op7F54aacDY[/yt]

Mirror's Edge, Still Alive (Lisa Miskovsky)
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1xyCOE8fNQ[/yt]

Half-Life 2, Dark Energy
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyld3tkw7aU[/yt]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Soviet March
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDQ7hXMLxGc[/yt]

Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun, Maps
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTcZ6-H5rqI[/yt]

Mass Effect, Main Theme
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVm_ljDSdwA[/yt]

 

[Brikar99]

Always a fan of Michael Giacchino's work on the early "Medal of Honor" games:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z-xTChFstk[/yt]

 

[Bones2]

I really liked the music from the Fire Temple (the original, chanting version) and Forest Temples from Ocarina of Time:

Wow, I've never actually heard the chanting version before. That is very creepy. Perhaps even more so than the Forest Temple, which also got me. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what version my N64 cartridge has. It's a grey one, so it might be. I've only completed OOT on my own on the GC Collector's Edition. Me and a friend completed it on the N64 way, way back, but I've no idea which Fire Temple music it had. I may give it a run through when I'm home over Easter.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KUXX9T8Cm4&feature=related[/yt]

 

[eastman23]

I really liked the music from the Fire Temple (the original, chanting version) and Forest Temples from Ocarina of Time:

Wow, I've never actually heard the chanting version before. That is very creepy. Perhaps even more so than the Forest Temple, which also got me. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what version my N64 cartridge has. It's a grey one, so it might be. I've only completed OOT on my own on the GC Collector's Edition. Me and a friend completed it on the N64 way, way back, but I've no idea which Fire Temple music it had. I may give it a run through when I'm home over Easter.

The chanting was removed in version 1.2 after complaints from some Muslim groups because it sounded like Islamic chanting.

Personally, I think it fit the Fire Temple really well which is why I like it.

 

[Bones2]

Yeah, I remember hearing about the Muslim chant removal, but I'd never actually heard that version. It's really, really effective though. I can understand the offense, but...I really like it. As to whether my grey cart has it, I'm quite eager to find out now. Also on the GC versions was the changing of the Gerudo symbol, which was a bit much.

 

[Skellington]

Castle Master. This may bring back memories for gamers of a certain age. Mine was the Atari ST version.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eUuHug0J5s[/yt]

 

[Harvey]

I've always been a fan of Michael Land's work for the Lucasarts game, The Dig. Someone else mentioned Michael Giacchino's video game work--his scores for Medal of Honor (and sequels) as well as Secret Weapons over Normandy are well worth the trouble finding them. I'm not big on his score to The Lost World, but it has a lot of fans, too.

 

[Brikar99]

I've always been a fan of Michael Land's work for the Lucasarts game, The Dig. Someone else mentioned Michael Giacchino's video game work--his scores for Medal of Honor (and sequels) as well as Secret Weapons over Normandy are well worth the trouble finding them. I'm not big on his score to The Lost World, but it has a lot of fans, too.

There's not much trouble nowadays, since they're available from iTunes. But the original CD releases are pretty dang pricey.

 

[SlaveOfSeven]

Tropico 3 (see my thread on the subject )
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
FEAR - though it's more ambient sound than real music for the most part
Civ 4, but yeah, it's kinda cheating; and in similar vein, just been playing Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silver Earring, which has chamber music by Dvořák, Grieg and so on, which was nice.
XCOM had great music, though probably a bit too old school for most people these days.
Thought STALKER's menu music was quite good, though paradoxically it also seemed a bit crappy and amateurish at the same time; as if someone young and talented but inexperienced recorded it on their computer in their bedroom.

 

[crouteru]

Most Final Fantasy and Zelda themes are my favourites.

 

[Salinga]

Sonic Mayhem - Quake 2: Quad Machine
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VpX-feA2M[/yt]

Michael Giacchino - Medal of Honor Underground: Labyrinth of the Minotaur
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juQeOstBj-o[/yt]

Kärtsy Hatakka & Kimmo Kajasto - Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Theme
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omQ-7wZTXvI[/yt]

 

[Salinga]

Someone else mentioned Michael Giacchino's video game work--his scores for Medal of Honor (and sequels) as well as Secret Weapons over Normandy are well worth the trouble finding them.

I first recognized Giacchino when I heard the MOH soundtrack and was immediatly impressed with the quality. It was almost in the department of a John Williams (no wonder Spielberg took him for the MOH soundtracks).

It would not surprise me if Giacchino becomes the new big name in the movie industrie for soundtracks - maybe one day even bigger than a John Williams. Giacchino's plus is that he can do diffent styles not just classical arrangements. I think he has a very bright future and we will hear a lot of great soundtracks from him.

 

[Brikar99]

It would not surprise me if Giacchino becomes the new big name in the movie industrie for soundtracks - maybe one day even bigger than a John Williams. Giacchino's plus is that he can do diffent styles not just classical arrangements. I think he has a very bright future and we will hear a lot of great soundtracks from him.

He kind of already is the new big name - he scored several major motion pictures this year alone, including "Star Trek", "Up" (nominated for an Oscar) and "Land of the Lost" this year, as well as his ongoing work on TV with "Lost".

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Sonic Mayhem - Quake 2: Quad Machine
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6VpX-feA2M[/yt]

That really takes me back some 10 years or so.

And speaking of nostalgia....

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsfjHCFosw[/yt]



And two favourites from that other shooter:

Unreal Tournament - Foregone Destruction (from the iconic Facing Worlds CTF level)

Unteal Tournament - Go Down (from the deathmatch Hyper-Blast level)


Another game that had a great soundtrack was SimCity 3000:

"Magic City"
"Central Park Sunday"
"City Lights"
"Night Life"

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Final Fantasy 6 (us3)

 

[Davros]

Total Anihilation

 

[Lonemagpie]

Jesper Kyd's work on Freedom Fighters (the March of the Empire track being blatantly ripped off by Hans Zimmer as the "knights march" track on the King Arthur soundtrack) and Hitman: Silent Assassin are definite favourites of mine.

Also Michael Giacchino's score for Medal Of Honor Frontline, which is still his best work, IMO.

These days, though, I often find myself playing other music with games rather than the actual game's music...