Saturday, December 3, 2011

Soundtrack to your Life

Recently, a friend of mine made a series of posts about his favourite tracks from video game soundtracks.  As a fan of game music myself, and a bit of a collector of game soundtracks, since I have over 150 of them, I thought I'd post a few of my own favourites.  I won't be saying that much about the music as I don't really want to rabbit on that much, but have a listen and see what you think. 

Morrowind was a great game in its own right, an open world RPG that was staggering in its beautiful landscapes and scope for adventure.  While a lot of the music didn't really stand out to me, this theme tune in particular did - it speaks of a vast, spectacular adventure filled with tales of heroism and glory.  The new Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim harkens back to this game with its dwemer ruins and I'm sure some of the music for Skyrim has been taken from Morrowind. Credits to Jeremy Soule, he's da man.

Dungeon Lords - while the game may have been the worst RPG of all time, and led me to buy a new computer, this theme tune is ultimately what drew me in.  It lures in the adventurer with the promise of clashing weapons, dark dungeons and high adventure.  Pity about the end results.

I have yet to finish Dungeon Siege, as I was playing a borrowed copy, but this music, speaking of a vast journey across a land filled with danger, makes me wish that one day I could return to the world of Dungeon Siege.  Composer - Jeremy Soule again.

Vast, sweeping fantasy soundscapes such as this is part of the reason I love fantasy games.  Guild Wars: I wish I'd played it more, but I just couldn't get it into it.  Perhaps that will change with the upcoming MMO Guild Wars 2, which promises to revolutionise RPGs.  The music however is the fantastic stuff of legends.  Oh by the way, guess who composed this - that's right Jeremy Soule again.

  Speaking of MMOs, this song from MMORPG King World of Warcraft proves why WoW is one of the greatest RPGs of all time - not only does it have the great gameplay, the high sales, the awesome presentation, the really good people fanbase, and the creative talent but also the composers to make a truly epic masterpiece. 

Another massively awesome theme tune from a great RPG.  These songs are all fantasy by the way.  I am a fan of fantasy games, so naturally most of my soundtracks are fantasy or science fiction.  Like Dungeon Siege, I never got to finish Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, this time it was something to do with having to control more than one character.  The music however, is epic, its from Jeremy Soule - again.  That man is a LEGEND AMONG VIDEO GAME MUSIC PEOPLE. 

Dragon Age (a review of it can be seen elsewhere on this blog) had two sides to it.  The good side was its presentation, of which it was epic.  The music is classic fantasy adventure but this theme in particular was awesome, telling of a dark world beset by a rising evil. 

Now THIS song is truly epic fantasy action adventure!!!  This song makes me want to seize up a sword and charge into battle - FOR GLORY!!!  While the music of Castle Crashers is pretty awesome on the whole, the main theme really does give the impression of a mighty adventure filled with heroic battles and sweeping landscapes.

Soul Reaver - this has some of the best music out there.  This main theme gives a sense of darkness, of danger, and wild adventure in a land corrupted and wasted by one man's greed.  This is definitely one of my fave tracks of any soundtrack, game or otherwise.  Halfway through it also tells of a fall and redemption and ultimate revelation at the end.  This is a masterpiece, composed by Kurt Harland, of the band Information Society. 

So that's a look at some of my fave fantasy video game themes.  Hope you enjoyed listening.

Aef

1 comment:

  1. And as the friend mentioned in the opening sentence, may I say that's a excellent selection you got there. Props for selecting Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age.

    ReplyDelete