Tasteful or Tasteless: What is Your View of Music in Gaming?

Through much deliberation on my part, I have garnered enough courage to venture into the topic of music in gaming. No, not the blips and bloops common to titles that were surely part of your childhood…

[RustedMan]

great music can make a good game great.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, MGS4, and Assassin's Creed 2's original soundtrack stand among the best this generation.

[Irishguy95]

Mass effect 1...it gave me that Sci fi vibe and Space Exploration feel, ME2 and 3 completely ditched it for some reason.(albeit, the music in 3 is better, it just doesn't suit the universe as much imo, which is what ME1's music strives to do, so I suppose ME 1's is better in a way, it sets the mood as it should in a game while being less epic than 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
More sci fi feel
http://www.youtube.com/watc... http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[ginsunuva]

Bad music can also make a good game okay. Music heightens the experience so much. What is Jet Set Radio without the soundtrack? Replace Uncharted's soundtrack with Justin Bieber and then come see.

[Foreign_Body]

A prime example of how music can give a game life is Journey. I had to buy the soundtrack after playing that game.

[Seventh_Blood_Reborn]

Woops! Sorry, I hit the "disagree button" by mistake! :(

I agree, Journey has a very inspired soundtrack.

I watched the first trailer at least 50 times with the volume almost to maximum :D

[rulakir]

Music gives games the atmosphere. Back in the 1980's and 1990's game music was much much more memorable than today's.
There are however many games today with killer soundtracks that makes games even more epic than what goes on in the game(God of War for example). It definitely sets the mood or in some cases kills it.

[TopDudeMan]

They don't do it like they used to. You only have to look as far back as final fantasy 7, 8, 9 and 10 to realise that music used to make or break games. Now if the soundtrack doesn't appeal to me, I put on my mp3 player.

[pandaboy]

Peculiar that the author writes an article on a complete non issue, effectively creating a problem where there is none. Anyway at least it makes for at least a semi interesting discussion. My favourite soundtracks are Braid, MGS and Superbrothers Sword and Sorcery.

[SeraphimBlade]

A good soundtrack can elevate an otherwise average game. For example, it's what tips Lollipop Chainsaw into my "worth playing" category. And Blazblue from "really damn good" to "I spent $50 on the limited edition of a semi-sequel that I already owned most of just to get the soundtrack."

I've rarely played a game with distractingly bad music though. I'd say NFS: Most Wanted, all rap and nu-metal, because punk music and criminal activity have NOTHING to do with each other. I also have to say Dragon's Dogma, which definitely had some good pieces but the music during exploration was just so boring. And most of it is exploration.

[Human Analog]

Some of my favorites have been. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and Skyrim, Mass Effect series, Deus Ex: THR, Split Second.

Most racing games have crappy music. Just listen to GT5, or Forza 4. I can't drive to that junk. But Split Second got it right. It was pulse pounding, and really fit the action.

[Hicken]

I dunno about Forza, but I listen to my own soundtrack in GT5. The selections in GT3 and 4 were far better, but then there was no way to add your own songs to those games.

Additionally, Split Second is a different type of racing game; to me, the same type of music doesn't really fit.

[RustedMan]

Split second did a very good job with everything sound related, come to think of it.

What a great game.