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My first game today is Unreal Tournament 2004 developed by Epic Games and published by Atari in 2004. The Unreal franchise has and still is going strong and it’s one of the most successful FPS of all time. The online multiplayer feature still has a huge fanbase which is growing. I own the original Unreal Tournament and UT 2004. The song I’m going to show you here is played in both games in the main menu, so it is quite safe to assume that it’s been used in all games between the too aswell. What makes this song great in my eyes is the calm, yet strategic sound to it. It also creates a certain tension which just pumps me up in the morning!

Main Menu Theme

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Next is Rareware‘s Killer Instinct from 1994. I’ve never played this game, but since nothing bad ever comes out of Rare’s warehouses, I am sure this game rocks! And the success of this game’s arcade port is testimony to this. It’s a fighting game very much like Mortal Kombat, but not as violent. The player chooses a character from the roster, and fights the other characters in a 1-on-1 match to get to the top and win the tournament, it’s as simple as it gets, but it sure is a lot of fun! Again I have chosen the main theme for this game simply because it literally “rocks”!

KI Main Menu Theme

Blizzard Entertainment

‘s Starcraft has always been on of my favourite RTS games out there. I own this game, and since there’s a sequel coming out this year I am totally psyched! The game plays in the future, where humans (called Terrans here), the highly sophisticated alien race Protoss and the hive controlled Zerg race battle for interplanetary dominance. The plot is very complex and epic, with many memorable and well conceived characters. I usually play as the Terrans, and one of the reasons I do this is because of the awesome music. I have to say, the Terrans have the best variety of music by far compared to the other two, so here’s my favourite.

Terran Theme 1

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Let’s kick it off with a C&C classic, Red Alert. Released in 1996 by Westwood Studios, Red Alert was an instant hit. It was one of the best real-time strategy games of its time, and yet again Westwood did not fail its fans. Although I don’t particularly like the Red Alert franchise, it has a huge fanbase. Set in the early 50s, the player enters an alternative WWII scenario in which Einstein is killed, which ultimately alters the future. Now, the Soviet Union wages war agains the Allies, which are both playable factions with their own unique units and abilities. The song I have chosen is considered to be a classic in the Red Alert series, and has been included in every game of the series ever since. Again you may notice why I like this song, because of its raw and heavy nature.

Hell March

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Next up is FarCry, released in 2004 by Ubisoft and developed by Crytek. This first-person shooter (FPS) was tons of fun to play. It set you on a mysterious archipelago where an ominous corporation set up labs protected by mercenary squads to create biologically superior super soldiers. The ability to conceal yoursef in the dense and very detailed jungle was new and outstanding for the time. the graphics were also top-notch for 2004, making this game one of the best FPS around. The song I’ve chosen plays in the main menu, and also serves as the main title song. To me, this soundtracks really sounds like intense adventure and mystery.

FarCry

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Another great game I personally own is Red Faction, developed by Volition Inc. and published by THQ in 2001. It is the year 2075. the huge Ultor corporation established a monopolistic mining complex on the planet Mars. There, the player takes control of regular miner called Parker, who, by accident, gets involved in a complex-wide rebellion of the miners due to the inhuman treatment by the guards and because of the general working conditions. Parker decides to help the miners against Ultor and ultimately takes control over the mining complex. What made this game so unique was the use of the “Geo-Mod” technology. This newly designed game engine allowed the player to interactively destroy his surroundings, i.e. destroy bridges with explosions or “dig” a tunnel using explosives. This may sound trivial now, but believe me, back then this was amazing! Anyway, the main theme which also played during the main menu is really cool. It has this distinct “spacey” and high-tech sound to it, and I like the way it starts off really slow and quiet and then gets more serious.

Red Faction

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The first one in the list will be Serious Sam: The Second Encounter made by Croteam and published by Gathering of Developers in 2002. The Serious Sam series is tons of fun because it is, in short, mindless mowing down of monsters with a huge variety of weapons. There is a storyline in fact but it can and actually should be neglected because in the end, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Although not as good as its predecessor, The Second Encounter was an extremely fun game and the next two songs play while fighting off hordes of crazy enemies and for me, the music just doubled the fun!

Fight 1

Fight 2

The franchise's logo

Next up is the Medal of Honor series made and published by EA. It is comprised of a number of games in which the player takes on the role of an American soldier in WWII, fighting in northern Africa, Europe and in the Pacific. Although I’ve never played the games, the franchise’s success is undeniable and the music is also excellent with its very militaristic sound. The following soundtracks are from Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault. The first song is composed by Michael Giacchino, who also composed the music for movies such as Cloverfield and The Incredibles.

Allied Assault

Pacific Assault

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Most people know Street Fighter II, by Capcom. It is one of those games which is a legend among gamers and defines its genre. Next to Mortal Kombat and Tekken, Street Fighter is one of the big names when it comes to classic arcade fighting games. There’s not much of a story to tell; the plot loosely centers around Ryu, a young martial artist from Japan who strives to become a great warrior. His rival is Ken, from the United States. He is easily distinguishable by his blonde hair and bright red clothes. When the player fights Ken on his stage this tune plays. Note however that this version is a guitar cover, which just adds to the epicness.

Ken’s Stage

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Here we have a not so successful game mainly due to the hilariously abysmal Japanese-to-English translation. Toaplan‘s Zero Wing came out in 1989 on the arcade system. The game is now famous for the line “All your base are belong to us!”, which is just an excerpt of the numerous badly translated lines in this game. Zero Wing is your average space shoot ‘em up game with the usual powerups etc. but it was praised for its music by ScrewAttack for having “some of the best 16-bit rock music you’ll ever hear”. The Brazilian Heavy Metal band Megadriver, which covers many video game soundtracks, also did a very good job on the intro song of the game, enjoy!

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

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Lastly, we have Remedy Entertainment‘s and 3D Realm‘s Max Payne released in 2001. Having spawned two sequels, the original third person shooter made its name by using the “bullet time”-feature made famous in the Matrix movie. The plot revolves around a New York detective, Max Payne, whose wife and baby daughter were killed in their own home by a bunch of drug induced gooks. With nothing to lose, Max goes on a furious quest for revenge and uncovers a conspiracy involving the new drug Valkyrie and a large cooperation keen on producing this drug and selling it on the streets of New York. This game was banned in Germany due to violent, sexual and drug content. The overall depressing and desperate mood is perfectly reflected in the main soundtrack, enjoy!

Max Payne

That’s all for now folks! Please comment!

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Electronic Arts‘ Need for Speed series is very popular among gamers. It’s one of the best and well known titles in the racing game genre, and rightfully so. With over a dozen games released, the NFS franchise is still going strong. one of the games I personally own is Need for Speed II, released in 1997 for the PC and Playstation by EA Canada. The graphics were stunning for 1997, and only “strong” PCs were able to display this game on its highest graphic level. Ofcourse compared to games today, it looks severely outdated. Nevertheless it was an amazingly fun game to play. The myriad of cars to choose, the unique racing tracks which took you across the globe to countries like Australia, Norway, the USA, Mexico, China, Greece, Canada and even Germany and the music made this an awesome game.

The soundtrack is a mix between rock and techno, with the menu exclusively playing techno tracks. Every racing track had its unique song and elements to it to fit the environment. There was also a music altering system installed which changed parts of the song depending on which part of the racing track the player was situated. Unfortunately, this game was one of the last to employ this kind of mixture between rock and techno, because two games down the row, EA used a track system which almost exclusively included current rap/pop and other songs of this caliber. I’m about to show you two rock songs and two techno songs so let’s get to it!

The first one is played while browsing in the main menu…

Main Menu

The other techno song is played while using the car showcase function, where the player can browse through the various cars and get some basic info regarding the cars…

Showcase

Now to my favourite part, the rock songs. The first one is played while driving at top speed on a test track in Norway. They couldn’t have chosen a better name for this song…

Halling It

This last song is played during the final race where it is just down to the last two racers in the knockout tournament. The Hollywood-esque setting of the racing track explains some rather “strange” sound effects in this song…

Gore

Satisfied? Show me your comments!

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Heavy Gear is actually a game universe created by Dream Pod 9, including a tactical tabletop game (much like Warhammer 40K), a card game and a role-playing game. Its success spawned a 3D animated TV show in 2001 and (ofcourse) a PC game produced and published by Activision in 1995.

The Heavy Gear universe centers around the planet Terra Nova in the 62nd century, on which a war among the Confederated Northern City-States and the Allied Southern Territories is being waged. As the name suggests, both factions utilise ‘Gears’, large mechas controlled by pilots, as the backbone of military operations. In the game, the player can choose to either fight for the CNCS or the AST in a quest to ultimately take control of the entire planet for his faction. In every mission briefing there is a global map on which the player can carefully follow his progress.

There are many models and types of Gears the player must unlock, also with a huge arsenal of futuristic weaponry; ranging from regular rifles to rocket launchers or lasers. One can also customise his Gear in terms of performance (i.e. upgrade armor plating or install a more efficient engine).

With that being said, let’s move on to the music, which was composed by Jeehun Hwang who also composed the music for games such as Mechwarrior 2. What I like about the music is its tactic and sometimes subtle feel, but just listen to it yourselves!

A great song…nothing more to add.

Patrolling The Border

The next one really lives up to its name. It’s got this mysterious and dark vibe to it, with a hint of a ‘hunting’ feel thanks to the bongos in the background, great stuff.

Night Watch

This one has a distinct military feel and is sort of tragic, but somehow empowering. Once again, the title hits the spot.

Aftermath

Another great track…

A New Enemy

Probably my favourite track of the bunch, this one got me because of the electric guitar elements (yeah, I’m a sucker for e-guitars) and overall action-based tone.

Night Off In Occupied City

Unfortunately I didn’t find the name of this song, but nevertheless it’s a good one. Enjoy!

Track 9

Please feel free to comment as usual!

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Developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2005, Perfect Dark Zero was generally well received. It’s a prequel to its highly successful predecessor Perfect Dark for the N64. I myself own Perfect Dark but I’ve never played Perfect Dark Zero. All I do know about it comes from gameplay footage, so all I can gather regarding the storyline is this: Joanna Dark, the game’s protagonist, uncovers a conspiracy involving some ancient relic which grants the owner superhuman powers and her agency’s rival dataDyne. I think it also turns into a quest for revenge because her father gets killed during the course of the game.But as always, the plot isn’t really of any concern to us.

For what really matters is the music. I first noticed the game’s music while watching a gameplay clip on YouTube. The songs are unique because they have both Rock and Funk elements. At first, this combination may not make any sense to you but see for yourself!

This is one of the “heavy” ones with clear Rock elements thanks to the guitar and heavy drum beat.

Trinity Escape

This song on the other hand, has this “funky” atmosphere to it with the smooth drums and the guitar which does the famous sqeaking riffs commonly heard in 70′s music.

Subway Retrieval

The second song with heavy Rock elements. I simply like this one because I’m a fan of Rock.

Rooftops Escape

Here’s another really smooth one with much electronic music elements. What I especially like is the part from 1:27, where the piano sets in. Very relaxing.

Datacore Demolition Camspy

One of my favourites, this song also has asian music elements implemented into its fast and tense pace.

Mansion Infiltration

Please feel free to comment! Until next time!

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The Halo series. Hated by some, but loved by most. I myself only played the first game and thought it was a good shooter, but it surely wasn’t excellent. Developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios in 2003 for the PC, it was an instant hit, with the multiplayer mode being one of the most successful of its genre. The story revolves around the Master Chief, an elite soldier (so called Spartans) who is involved in a war between Earth’s forces and the Covenant, an alliance of alien races.

I don’t want to go too much into detail when it comes to the synopsis, and I don’t even know how the storyline progresses in Halo 2 and Halo 3, but what I do know is that the soundtrack of Halo 3 is excellent. The music was composed by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, who created a very upbeat and epic soundtrack for such an epic game. When I hear the songs, it really motivates me and just leaves me with a good feeling inside; I also feel ready for “battle”. But let’s stop the chatter and get to it!

The first one I like very much because it’s relatively long and has these “smooth” moments. This song also changes in style multiple times during its running time, making you think that it’s over when actually it is not.

Behold a Pale Horse

The next one is the longest song in my favourites collection I believe, and it’s really great. The calm and smooth middle part with just the drums, keyboard and bass guitar gives of this mysterious, if not menacing atmosphere.

Roll Call

Issuing a really military approach right at the beginning, this song adds to the uplifting and motivating feeling with the always present choir in the background. Great stuff, although a tad too short.

Tribute

A very emotional one, this song is unique because of its emphasis on the violins, piano and general melancholic tone, with a spec of hope. Beautiful.

Never Forget

This one probably has the most epic beginning, with the climax right at the bginning. The first 18 seconds are enough to send chills down my spine.

This Is The Hour

Played at the end of the game, this song sets the right mood with the tone being slow and a bit sad. You just feel that you’ve just had a great adventure and that you’re battle weary and just want to sleep, as the name suggests.

Wake Me When You Need Me

For an added bonus, I’ll throw in the Halo 2 soundtrack which, thanks to the guitar is just plain epic…enjoy!

Halo 2 Theme

An epic Saga

The original Metal Gear debuted in 1987 for the MSX2 computer in Japan and Europe. It was designed by Hideo Kojima, but was later developed by Konami. Today, there are many many games in the MGS series which deal with politics, warfare, environmentalism, censorship, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, loyalty, reality, subjective vs. universal truths and other philosophical themes. During the course of the series there are more than just one protagonists, but who are all intertwined and recur in later games. The most meorable main character is probably Solid Snake, a top agent who belongs to the FOXHOUND group. Other protagonists include Big Boss (a.k.a. Naked Snake, whos also Solid Snake’s template for cloning) and Raiden, another FOXHOUND member.

Since I’ve never played any of the MGS games (although I’d really want to) I really can’t tell you much about the intertwined and complicated storyline, but I’ve named the basics in the preceeding paragraph so that should suffice. But now let’s get to the interesting part, the music. For parts 2,3 and 4 many soundtrack CDs were released. The music included in the games have a really high-tech and “tactical” theme to them, a possible comparison might be the soundtrack of the movie The Rock.

I want to show you the main themes upfront, because they are one of the best around…

Metal Gear Solid 3: Main Theme

Now from part 4…

Metal Gear Solid 4: Main Theme

A very emotional one…

Metal Gear Solid 4: Father and Son

And lastly a song which really captures the sneaking and stealth features of the games…

Metal Gear Solid 3: Last Showdown

Of course there are many more to enjoy, comments are welcome as always take care!

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Capcom released Mega Man in 1987 for the NES/Famicom. The game was a huge success and holds the 61st place in Nintendo Power’s top 200 Games list. Today, there are dozens of Mega Man games out there on several consoles, some good, and some bad. But I’ll concentrate on the “original” game series that spanned 9 games. The plot in almost all the games centers around Mega Man, who is out to stop the evil Dr. Wily from taking over the world. He plans to do so with the help of his 8 robot masters, which he built himself. As Mega Man, the player has to venture through each robot master’s unique stage and destroy them, while gaining their powers and weaponry in the process. Only after defeating all the robot masters can the player enter the last stage, Dr. Wily’s castle.

So much for the “complex” premise. What we’re really interested in is the soundtrack right? Well each robot master stage has its own track, which leads to a huge variety of music. Again, I will post the arranged soundtracks and not the originals, since listening to 8-bit music is straining to say the least. Enjoy!

We’ll start off with a mix of various title themes from the first 9 games. This is probably my favourite Mega Man arrange due to its variety, quality, length and just awesome sound!

Title Mix

Next comes the song played in Mega Man 2 upon entering Dr. Wily’s castle…

Dr. Wily (MM2)

Lastly we have a track from the fourth game…

Dr. Cossack

These are just a few of the many great songs out there! Check them out on YouTube or ask me, until next time!

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Bethesda Softworks‘ fourth installment in the TES franchise was Oblivion, published by 2K Games in 2006. This role-playing game was received extremely well by critics, who praised it for its cutting edge graphics and general size. Like its predecessor Morrowind, Oblivion kept the free-roaming playing style in which the player was able to freely explore a huge world map and was even able to ignore or postpone the main storyline. There are dozens of side quests to complete and many secrets to uncover, which increased the game’s durability and replay value drastically. The story is basically your average “low-life-person-saves-kingdom-story”, in which the kingdom of Cyrodiil is threatened by a secret cult which opens gates to a different dimension, called Oblivion. Slowly the creatures from this other plain enter Cyrodiil and start wreaking havoc, and it is up to the player to close all of the Oblivion gates before it’s too late.

The soundtrack was composed by “the John Williams of video games”, as critics like to call him, award winning composer  Jeremy Soule, who also conceived the soundtracks for games such as Dungeon Siege, Guild Wars and Neverwinter Nights. What makes his music so good is the orchestral approach Soule takes on his work, giving his songs this certain “Lord of the Rings-esque” feel to it.

The first song is of course the title theme…

Main Theme

And we continue with a variety of other great and beatuiful songs which just make you want to pick up your sword, bow and spell and travel the great land of Cyrodiil…

Wings of Kynareth

Watchman’s Ease

Minstrel’s Lament

Glory of Cyrodiil

King and Country

For an added bonus, I’ll throw in the main theme of Oblivion‘s predecessor, Morrowind, aswell. Enjoy!

Morrowind Main Theme