As a sort of unofficial part II to a great blog entry Dave wrote in January called "
Game Music through the Ages... Why is Game Music so Popular?", I've decided to write one focusing on custom soundtracks and user recommendations.
In the last decade or so, custom soundtracks in video games have increased in popularity both due to the digital age as well as advances in game systems and personal computers. Of course there are also the memories and nostalgia of times when one would have their 8-track, LP, Cassette, or CD playing in the background. Add digital files to that and you've come all the way across 30+ years of gaming. Any of you listen to
Pac-Man fever while chasing ghosts? Or "Gangsta's Paradise" when Ridge Racer came out for the PlayStation and you found out you could take the game disc out and pop in a music CD? No shame in that, we've all made mistakes in the past. Hell I remember when "U Can't Touch This" was all the rage a few months after Super Mario Bros. 3 came out 18 years ago. Did that make you feel old, or maybe really young? Just wait until the 25th anniversary of that song and the game when you, or one of your parents, break out the elephant pants and make an ass of you/themselves, hopefully all in good fun. Maybe Fred Savage will reprise his role in the sequel:
The Wizard II: Arthritic Speedrun Pwnage.
That's not to say the default game music that is included in a title is bad, in fact in many cases far from it. It means that if a game's soundtrack doesn't suit you, you can always change it. So if your willing, feel free to share with your fellow RFGen members, your favorite custom music you listen to while gaming. Everyone's tastes are different and it's always great to find new songs or albums that may make a particular game that much better, or a song that really suits a genre perfectly. So
here's a few favorites of mine and the games I like to play while listening to them:
Aerosmith - back in the saddle - Wild west games, Darkwatch. Oblivion & Two Worlds while your exploring.
AC/DC - Back in Black - Shooters, Battlefield series, Serious Sam.
AC/DC - Shoot to thrill - Same as above, good for Billiards & Hockey as well.
America - Horse with no name - Games that have a lot of exploration, especially horseback RPGs and also Wild west titles.
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Ain't seen nothin' yet Project Gotham, Burnout, Puzzle games.
Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive - Tetris, Quake III, Twisted Metal
Big Wreck - Blown wide open - Silent Bomber, WWII shooters
CCR - Sweet hitch hiker - Racing games, in particular fast ones like Need for Speed and Burnout.
Commander Cody - Hot Rod Lincoln - Racing games also especially those with a pursuit mode
Dr. John - Right place, wrong time - Man this song works just about anywhere. Imagine it in a game where you are overwhelmed with on screen enemies!
Dwight Yoakam - A Thousand Miles from Nowhere - Exploring games and the 4x4 Evolution series.
Elton John - Rocket Man - Space Hawk (Intv), Asteroids (2600), Astro Warrior (SMS)
Elvis Presley - Way down - Dig Dug and for some reason Super Mario Bros. 2
Golden Earring - Twilight Zone - Just about any game with a strong sense of danger
Guns 'n' Roses - Out Ta Get Me - Pursuit titles or Cops 'n' Robbers types of games
Heart - Barracuda - Shooters and Racing games
Jackson Browne - Running On Empty - Makes me laugh when my character has low health and besieged by enemies!!
Jimi Hendrix- Crosstown Traffic - Burnout's 2 & 3, was also good when playing Crackdown for the X360.
Johnny Horton - Sink The Bismarck - Silent Hunter series or Silent service
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express - An odd song that finds it's way into many games, good for racing too.
Led Zeppelin - Carouselambra - A great song for those long races & tracks like Nürburgring
Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away - Ace Combat & other flight series
Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach - Wave Race series because it has that summertime fun feel to it.
Martha and the Vandellas - Nowhere To Run - Awesome for Counter-Strike and car chases!
Marty Robbins - big iron - Dead Man's Hand, Gun, Darkwatch, Red Dead Revolver, Mass Effect
Megadeth - Hangar 18 - Missile Command, Atlantis, Ace Combat, Mechwarrior
Megadeth - Psychotron - Armored Core, Mechwarrior, Gundam, Battletech, Chromehounds, Gungriffon Blaze. Basically anything that's badass mecha!
Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod - Another great song for long races or intense fighting/shooting.
Muse - Knights of Cydonia - Racing, Shooters or just about anything needing a catchy fast song.
Nazareth - This Flight Tonight - Cosmic Ark, Colony Wars series
Ozzy Osbourne- Crazy Train - Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8
Pink Floyd- Run Like Hell - Space Harrier, Hang-On and Super Hang-On
Queen - Another one bites the dust - Mafia shooters, The Punisher, Quake
Rammstein- Rammstein - When your needing something heavy and angry!
Rhett Akins - Driving my life away - Pretty obvious but really great for games with semis in them.
Rob Zombie - Dragula - I'm sure everyone has played a racing game to this in the last 10 years or so!
Rolling Stones - She's so cold - Snowboarding games, Ace Combat series
Rush - Tom Sawyer - Jedi Outcast/Academy, Just Cause and other sandbox type games.
Sammy Hagar - Heavy metal - FPS, Mechwarrior, Chromehounds and other mecha games
Sepultura - Symptom of the Universe - Another one when you need something catchy and heavy
Simon & Garfunkel-The Sound of Silence - Splinter Cell, Thief, Morrowind
Smashing Pumpkins- Eye - Splinter Cell, Thief, Morrowind. Basically any stealth game same as above.
Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers - Need something for the high seas? Look no further, just about anything from Stan is suitable for pirates & plunder!
Styx - Renegade - Need for Speed games, GTA, Morrowind
Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands - Just about anything Pre-NES. Just feels right with older games, also works well with Wetrix.
System Of A Down - B.Y.O.B. - RTS games when your using peasants as cannon fodder! Also Worms 3D and Perfect Dark Zero
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations - Snowboarding, Wave Race series, Outrun 2006
The Beatles- Day Tripper - Outrun 2006, Snowboarding games
The Doors - Five to one - Shooters and RTS games
The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another - Project Gotham Racing, Columns
The Fureys- The Green Fields Of France - Turn the game sound effects down and turn this up, if it doesn't clutch at your heart when storming the beaches of Normandy, your dead inside!
The Watchmen - Stereo - Doom, Doom II, Burnout,
Trans-X - Living on video - Like most 80's music, it works well with Atari and Intv. Especially games that use the Intellivoice or take place in outer space.
White Zombie - Super Charger Heaven (Adults Only Mix) - A great fast intense song, works for many games.
Wings - Band on the Run - Feel like a criminal? Here's a tune to match!
The 1920s, 30s and 40s station on Shoutcast - Great for those games that take place half a century ago like WWII shooters or games like Fallout where everything came to a standstill in music. I suspect Fallout 3 and Bioshock would match them as well, compliment the great soundtracks those two already have.
Some of my favorites are played loud, others quietly in the background. It's always rewarding to mix yourself something to listen to, especially as bandwidth is cheap and so are blank CD's. I love the default soundtracks of many games, but sometimes you want more bass, or something heavy or funky to match your mood. Sometimes you want to relax with a quiet game but it has boring, repetitive music. In any case, I'm looking forward to reading replies and comments and maybe adding a few new songs to the hundreds I already enjoy!
