I dont want to set the world on fire...

...I just want to start a flame in your heart

Game music, from eery ambiance music to epic battle tracks, gamers almost universily agree, the music makes the game.

I'm going to type one word

Halo

Now I bet you I can guess what your thinking (apart from, wow, this guy realy is nuts!). That theme, those stiring vocals, maby even the quick pace drum and string bits from near the end of the tune, any of it, is now going through  your mind. It's inevitable, a good peice of music is infectious, it stirs feelings and emotions in us that just make games work. Could you imagine playing the Halo games without the music? Dead Space, without the leaking pipes and creaking walkways? Fallout, without the quirky 80's radio broadcasts? It just wouldent be as fun.

Here's the Halo 3 main theme, just because I know you cant stop thinking about it.

If you hadent already noticed, I love the halo franchise for its music, its excelent, and hopefully will continue to be excelent under 343. However! we must move swiftly onwards, even though i could chat about this one song for another few pages.

The Pip-Boy radio screen from Fallout: New Vagas

Music in gaming isent just about having a catchy tune though (oh alright, thats the main bit of it), if your clever, you can implement music in intresting ways. A good example of this is the radio stations in the later fallout games, by making the players go into the pip-boy and physicly select a radio station adds a new level of imersion and better yet the ac
tual radio broadcasts, made by charicters in the game, gives you a whole new level of story.

The sad moment right before the
big event, play the game to find out more!

On the opposite side of the coin however, there is alot to be gained in the standard implementation of gaming music, even in cutscenes, the perfect example of this is the leaving earth scene from Mass Effect 3. Its an obviously well thought out scene, as is typical of the series. It makes you interact with the key protagonist of the introduction (a small child) and then kills him off, accompanied by the mellow and sad music of Leaving Earth, an effect which still makes me want to curl up in a corner somewhere and cry till I dehydrate.

I've just picked the two best examples from my experiance, however I'd love to hear your opinions on the matter, stick them in the comments!

Matt.