Sound Effects / Music in games

[iQue]

Music and sound effects are often the most under-appreciated things in games today, so I have a very simple question for you:

Which game has the best sound effects/music?

I mean even if the game itself is crap the sound can still be good

Personally I think Portal is the best. Not too much music but the sounds are great and also hilarious :laugh:

So what about you?

[L3adcannon]

Hitman Contracts and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory have the best fcuking soundtracks ever. They sound good and fit the game perfectly.

[Chris_Redfield]

Splinter Cells composer is "Amon Tobin" or something like that, right? Wouldnt say hes the best. Im not a huge fan of Billy Brown, but BB has made something absolutely magnificent for Rainbow Six Vegas which people dont encounter often. Hes managed to create a suspenseful score which tops the suspense composed by "Amon Tobin" (Im lazy to check the name, correct me).

The best soundtracks/scores ever are as follows-

Half Life score
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater score
FEAR score

Half Life and FEAR scores are similar in a sense that they are "synthetically" created to only colour certain moods, certain parts of the game in order to highlight some specific parts of the game. For Half Life its usually dread, nostalgia, feeling of complete loneliness and perhaps even the feeling of being tiny and puny. Some of the tracks from HL are simply genius which are unrivaled by the newer HL games. And were talking about game released in 1998? FEAR is similar to HL, but its tunes are more modern, more "tech" and more "sci fi" and it shows. Some of its tracks are also composed to create a sense of suspense and in that department they work out rather well. A lot of "mysticism" or rather "6th sense" or "supernatural" is added into the tunes of FEAR and the game shows traits of Japanese horror which the music highlights at certain parts.

But the cake is taken by MGS3:SE with its entirely different score. MGS3:SE plays "epic" and in the very sense of the word. Its boss battles, the whole game, story, theme and characters, everything about the game is epic and grande, and the music highlights it, plays around it and supports it. Theres a reason people say MGS games are hard to follow. They are the worlds best stories and Im not afraid to state that opinion as a fact. Kojima is the worlds leading videogame producer in storytelling department and his status is nothing short of legendary. Harry Gregson Williams, the composer, knows what hes doing and what hes dealing with.

As you might already tell, Im an avid videogame/movie score/soundtrack listener and I prefer it over popular music at all times.

In general, music is perhaps the most important part to creating the mood and its a shame that today, music is one of the least focused on aspects in gaming industry, next to the story. Its not bad, but it could be a lot better.

[Spik3d]

I like the original Call of Duty's soundtrack.

[Oli]

Portal

[nemesis908]

System Shock 2
Deus Ex
Half Life
Diablo 2
Warcraft 2
Transport Tycoon!
Silent Hill
Resident Evil
Sonic the Hedgehog

[Iwantcable]

I thought Crysis had some amazing sound effects, with voices echoing and stuff. Not sure on music.

[Chris_Redfield]

I thought Crysis had some amazing sound effects, with voices echoing and stuff. Not sure on music.

It did occasionally in some parts, in the jungle especially. But with all seriousness, they failed to deliver in sound department, even in the last boss battle.

[Fullforce]

The Halo series has a magnificent soundtrack, and great voice acting.

Half-Life 2 (And Episodes) have a brilliant soundtrack also.

[solofowaffles]

bioshock

[Chris_Redfield]

The Halo series has a magnificent soundtrack, and great voice acting.

Half-Life 2 (And Episodes) have a brilliant soundtrack also.

Theres a reason why, in the videogame music concert, HALO music is one of the most cheered one.

[Webs961]

Oh man, Chris, you hit the nail on the head with the Metal Gear Solid 3 OST.

Thank you Amazon.com - Two disks worth of pure orchestral (well, mostly orchestral) own.

[Chris_Redfield]

Oh man, Chris, you hit the nail on the head with the Metal Gear Solid 3 OST.

Thank you Amazon.com - Two disks worth of pure orchestral (well, mostly orchestral) own.

Ive been a fan of the "Zimmer school kids" for years, theres another talented composer coming out of Zimmers shadow (much like Gregson did), Steve Jablonski. His "Transformers" score, which was released (its amazing->) due to many petitions and fan "cries", and its also a very epic, very dramatic and deep music collection of own-sauce. Somewhat similar to "Batman Begins", but in my opinion, slightly more epic.

You might want to check it out.

As for Metal Gear Solid awesomesauce, Harry Gregson Williams is making the score for MGS4:TGOTP, and from bits and pieces weve heard, its an "upgrade" to MGS2 "technological" or "sci fi" influenced score. From what I picked up, it uses some very, very interesting themes to create suspense. If youve played Rainbow Six Vegas, there are ceratin bits in game, where Browns suspenseful score does some really, really good magic, and Gregson Williams finally uses that "subtle suspense" in his work for MGS4 aswell. Its really going to be great and in my opinion, better than MGS3.