Does anyone use particular music when playing games? I was listening to the Brian Tyler's score for Now You See Me, and it struck me as a pretty good one for gaming (not sure if fits Sentinels necessarily, though I reckon it'd work for a game against Miss Information). Do other people have things they use/recomendations?
(and is it geeky to admit that I'm waiting to hear if Bear McCreary does an album for Agents of Shield for the same purpose?...)
The strokes.... my friend loves them and so thats all we listen to. We also listen to coldplay. Personally when playing, I listen to classic rock radio station on pandora.
I've been enjoying putting on a soundtrack that Fainting Goat made for their ICONS RPG supplement Stark City. It's not great music, but it's appropriately superhero if without conjuring up specifically licensed properties.
Yeah, that's one of the pains with using film stuff, recognition can just chew on the atmosphere. I find the same problem with lyrics, but even post-rock stuff like 65daysofstatic can just be a poor fit for mood. Years ago I ran Mage the Ascencion and had a series of about 8 cassettes that carried a particular atmosphere, and set the volume quite low so it was more subconscious. Even a low volume, there is not a lot of heroic/dramatic music and even less that isn't recognisable! At least with a sci-fi game I can use some Jean-Michel Jarre or God Is An Astronaut
This reminds me that I was trying to think of a song for each hero which contained their name prominently in the lyrics, mostly because I had two songs by A Perfect Circle stuck in my head (Vanishing and A Stranger) when playing Cauldron heroes recently. I didn't get very far with the official heroes but I'll likely revisit this idea.
I use the Homestuck soundtracks a lot when I run D&D campaigns. They have a lot of good adventurey/video-gamey music.
Sometimes the music turns into a distraction, with every player wanting to pick the next song so they can show the others some cool piece of music they like.
Yeah. Good luck with that one. I came up with a few from my library, and most of them are a big stretch:
- Absolute Zero: Dr. Freeze (Enon)
- Bunker: Underneath the Bunker (R.E.M.)
- Expatriette: Sixteen Shells from a Thirty-Ought-Six (Tom Waits)
- KNYFE: Mack the Knife (I particularly like the Nick Cave version)
- Legacy: Legacy (Wilke Surprise or Gone Jackals)
- Mr. Fixer: My Handy Man (Ethel Waters)
- Naturalist: Making the Nature Scene (Sonic Youth)
- Nightmist: I Love a Magician (Dismemberment Plan)
- Omnitron-X: Cyborg Control (Man or Astro-man?)
- Ra: Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden)
- Setback: Have a Lucky Day (Morphine)
- Tempest: Waiting for the Storm (Richard Shindell)
- Unity: None of Them Knew They Were Robots (Mr. Bungle)
- Visionary: Sound and Vision (David Bowie)
- Wraith: Ghost (Neutral Milk Hotel)
I have certain songs that I feel would fit well in a battle between a nemesis pairing--the only ones that come immediately to mind are:
Haka vs. Ambuscade: A Warrior's Call (Volbeat)
Tachyon vs. Friction: Showdown (Pendulum)
Fanatic vs. Apostate: Angel (Depeche Mode, In-Studio Collage 2012)
Bunker vs. Fright Train: Du Hast (Rammenstein)
Expatriette vs. Citizen Dawn: Le Disko (Shiny Toy Guns)
My old Pathfinder campaigns in a nutshell.
There are two true recordings of Mack the Knife: Bobby Darin, and Ella Fitzgerald live in Berlin. The latter is particularly amusing - go listen ASAP, even if it's not normally your thing.
Actually, I'm going to recommend the Man of Steel soundtrack by Hans Zimmer for any super hero fight.
As "meh" as I felt the overall movie was (as well as the horrible tribute it was to Superman as a character) you can't deny how epic that soundtrack is. I've also found out that my benchpress goes up by at least 25 pounds when I play it while I'm lifting. It's a provable fact.
I'll give that one a listen - I'm not a fan of Zimmer as a rule, but I can see how he'd be effective. James Newton Howard is possibly worth a listen too though how suitable he'll be for games is questionable
The Crystal Method produce some cracking tracks like Weapons of Mass Distortion that'd work for a tech heavy environment. The M83 score for Oblivion could be useful too since no-one watched that film!
I wonder if that would be an approach for Sentinels - trying to soundtrack by environment. Insula Primalis could be something very tribal, Rook City/Pike Industrial would be dark textures (industrial/gothic rock would fit), Megalopolis would be something modern, but less dark. It'd be fun to throw in some of Bear McCreary's Defiance video game stuff in for SIlver Gulch ("Ninety-Niners" is bonkers...)
I did find a near perfect album for anything zombie related, The Autumn Project - This We Take With Us (opening track). There is a 14 minute track on that album that is truly apocalyptic, though maybe a touch repetitive to listen to in isolation
EDIT: Found a link for the longer track
I'm fond of using OverClocked Remix albums for my Sentinels sessions. Most of them are instrumental and drum up some awesome nostalgia. Other than that I use a few video game soundtracks (Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Catherine, etc.).
I'm also quite fond of utilizing a number of rap artists, mostly from the nerdcore scene. Random aka Mega Ran, Adam WarRock, Tribe One, MC Lars, mc chris, Richie Branson, Panacea, and k. flay provide some really fun beats and their lyrics are typically comedic or heroic (with an occasional splash of drama), which works out well with the tone we set for our games.
Other than that I utilize a few other musicians such as MC Honky, Mark Ronson and The Business International, dan le sac Vs. The Scroobius Pip, Del The Funky Homosapien/Deltron 3030, Childish Gambino, OPM, and Girl Talk.
Then again...I usually just select an album and let it run in the background. I haven't really tried making playlists or anything like that just yet.
Reckless - have you tried Zack Hemsey? He's kind of a film-score/hip-hop crossover which is an odd mix!
I just pulled up some of his tracks. I'll give him a shot!
I generally put on the Red Elvises when gaming. I like surf rock.
If you enjoy that, he was part of a group called Nine Leaves. They had a track "Remember Execute Forget" which was about brainwashed/programmed child soldiers… Really creepy concept, but quite cinematic!