Movie and Game scores

[Palantyre]

Anyone else here who's a sucker for a good epic/beautiful game or movie theme?

Personally, I don't listen to them very broadly, but some of my favourite music pieces ever can be found on movie and game soundtracks.
And I'm specifically talking about movie scores, not just random rock/pop songs used in movies. I mean stuff like the Imperial March from Star Wars, the main theme of Conan the Barbarian, so forth. The entire Conan soundtrack is actually full of great stuff, Basil Poledouris sure was a hell of a composer. the Starship Troopers soundtrack from him is also one of my favourites.

Here's a nice medley of Poledouris' music from various movies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9meRcliFMU

And here's another one, just for the sake of Awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXaPM5Dolz4

None can top Basil in sheer epicness, imo. R.I.P, master.

As for game music, I've noticed RPGs tend to have the best musics. Or then I'm just biased because I love RPGs the most overall. In any case, here are some examples:

Baldur's Gate II:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDYEGDrO0mU
Just short clips from each track, but it conveys the mood and feel perfectly.
As an added bonus, the theme songs for each character the player has the potential for romance with in the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELvMk7XWcAc
The first one, Aerie, is my personal favourite. Both the character and the music, which frequently puts me on the verge of tears. Too bad it's so short.

Then there's The Witcher with its more modern sounding and low-key, but still clearly fantasy themed music.
The main theme is quite nice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIlp3XL4oYc
Also check out the ones in the related videos box, for more nice slightly ambient-ish tracks.

Also, Mass Effect has some killer tracks, like the main title, which starts off quietly, swells up and then kind of takes flight. Fantastic piece, if again a bit short:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScQmNFmD-VU
And a more bombastic use of the same (awesome) theme melody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hV0NuSasEA


And last but not least, One which I just discovered recently, and which inspired me to make this thread on another forum a while back (I just copy-pasted the whole thing from there because I'm a lazy bastard. ) Never played the game (it's console only and I'm not too fond of jap RPGs anyway) but this theme is just damn beautiful. Kinda like a mix between Basil Poledouris and Ennio Morricone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNa1W9cj8NA
It's composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who also did music for the Final Fantasy series and seems to have a real knack for creating simple but very emotional melodies. (the soundtrack for FF VI is also amazing, but I've spammed enough links already )

So there. Anyone?

[Led Guardian]

Everything on the LotR soundtrack. Perfecto!

[blind-man]

I'm not particularly fond of movie or game scores, but I must agree that the score for Conan The Barbarian is really awesome from beginning to end. Especially this track. The way it builds up until finally reaching that epic climax is just brilliant.

[Celuden Aerwyn]

So... does it have to be orchestral, or can it be anything?

[Andreas]

Doesn't matter, post whatever song you want.

I love the soundtrack of Amélie, a French movie.

[somnia]

Battlestar Galactica or anything Bear McCreary did is great imo.

[Dentarthurdent]

Highlander has an amazing soundtrack.

[Palantyre]

So... does it have to be orchestral, or can it be anything?

Well, I didn't mean this to be a "post your favourite soundtrack piece" thread, I just spammed all those links so people could hear the ones they're not familiar with. They're mostly orchestral stuff just because that's the kind of stuff I usually like, you can of course post whatever you feel like.

[Bender B. Rodriguez]

Amelie and Goodbye lenin,both by Yann Tiersen(his name might not be spelled correctly)
awesome music

[Muspell]

A more or less recent game soundtrack I really liked is the one of Super Mario Galaxy.
I expected nothing of the music when I started it the first time and was surprised

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p2qAE6xrBQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z2kxFCQ_mQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMa0aOHxTEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsAFpdAgh6A


Maybe it only works if you play(ed) it

[West Virginia Mule]

The futuristic-techno-ambient-conspiracy-synth-mystery soundtrack from the 2000 PC game Deus Ex is the best game music ever.

UNATCO

NYC Streets

The Synapse (Hong Kong Streets)

Battery Park

Paris Streets

NYC Streets 2

[Palantyre]

A more or less recent game soundtrack I really liked is the one of Super Mario Galaxy.
I expected nothing of the music when I started it the first time and was surprised

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p2qAE6xrBQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z2kxFCQ_mQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMa0aOHxTEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsAFpdAgh6A

Heh, that was surprisingly good indeed, especially the first two links. Still not enough to get me to play a game like that, though.

The futuristic-techno-ambient-conspiracy-synth-mystery soundtrack from the 2000 PC game Deus Ex is the best game music ever.

UNATCO

NYC Streets

The Synapse (Hong Kong Streets)

Battery Park

Paris Streets

NYC Streets 2

Damn, cool stuff. Believe it or not, I've never actually played Deus Ex myself, absurd as that may be. I suppose I should, some of these days.
And I'm so going to snag that soundtrack somewhere and take it along for my RPG sessions, it'll be great for the sci-fi setting we're playing in.

[West Virginia Mule]

Damn, cool stuff. Believe it or not, I've never actually played Deus Ex myself, absurd as that may be. I suppose I should, some of these days.
And I'm so going to snag that soundtrack somewhere and take it along for my RPG sessions, it'll be great for the sci-fi setting we're playing in.

Problem I have with listening to the DX soundtrack is that it makes me want to play the game again...for the millionth time. If you have a Steam account Mikko, I'll gift you a copy of Deus Ex. I'm a giving kind of person.

[1by4by9]

I like movie / game scores a lot. Especially Steve Jablonsky's stuff is great. I compose some myself too (the link in my signature).

Interesting discovery:
Recently I listened to Steamboy score on Spotify and soon after that I heard the main theme of Iron Will by Joel McNeely. I could've placed that theme in the Steamboy movie without any probelms. So many similar moods and themes going on.

I like pretty much everything with cool melodies and dramatic buildups.

[Palantyre]

I compose some myself too (the link in my signature).

Hey, your stuff sounds pretty cool. If I were a game designer, I'd gladly hire you.


Speaking of cool melodies and buildups, I quite like the main theme of Dragon Age: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWFEVbfCcOY
Too bad the rest of the music in the game isn't that memorable. Certainly not bad, but not that great either.

[ThePKH]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI

<3 <3 <3

[1by4by9]

Thank you, Palantyre! And looking for a collaboration project is on the works.

[Thorin Eichenschild]

Star Wars, Conan, World of Warcraft... there is a lot of good stuff

[corrupted old gnom]

i remember that i was impressed by some songs in soul blade (soul edge) for the playstation
(listening to some stuff on youtube...i now ponder why exactly )

...and then there are classics from the C64 like kickstart II for example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP4yJDGHZBc
my favourite would be giana sisters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwYLX_2f ... re=related

[Cerbere]

Final Fantasy has always had good music

[Led Guardian]

Baldur's Gate II was mentioned at the beginning, but Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (different composer) and Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast also need to be mentioned, along with Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter. There are some good tracks from Icewind Dale II as well.

I also love the soundtrack from the original Spyro the Dragon for PS.

[Palantyre]

Yeah, actually the BGII music compilation I linked to has Throne of Bhaal clips as well.
Inon Zur is a damn good composer from what I've heard, and I'd rather have him than Jeremy Soule as the composer if I was the head of a game studio and was developing a fantasy RPG. Soule has done some really great stuff (namely the Morrowind and Oblivion soundtracks) but he can often sound a little generic. So he's kinda like the Hans Zimmer of computer games.

[Desert_Storm]

I'll have to say that Baldurs Gate II is by far the best music I've ever heard in a game. Personal favourite: Romance II
It makes me want to play the game again whenever I hear it.

About the film scores, there's some really nice parts in the LOTR soundtrack, also the cast away main theme will probably remain one of my favourites.
My favourite film score piece with vocals in it is easily Patrick Cassidy's Vide Cor Meum, appeared in "Hannibal" for the first time, also probably the only pseudo-opera piece that I ever liked.
Of course, you could also mention classical pieces used in or as film soundtracks. Most of them beat the actual score written for the movie by far, and there's probably an endless list of classical pieces used in movies, so I'll just mention two or three that I found fit best to the respective movie.
- A few pieces from "The Pianist", I'll just mention the Chopin nocturnal in c#. I also found the Prelude of Bach's Cello Suite BWV 1007 fitted in in the movie very good, though it's generally overplayed.
- Again from Hannibal, Bach's Goldber Variations Aria BWV 988. As the single piece it's just nice, listened with the following variations consecutive it's pure genius.

[Led Guardian]

Yeah, actually the BGII music compilation I linked to has Throne of Bhaal clips as well.
Inon Zur is a damn good composer from what I've heard, and I'd rather have him than Jeremy Soule as the composer if I was the head of a game studio and was developing a fantasy RPG. Soule has done some really great stuff (namely the Morrowind and Oblivion soundtracks) but he can often sound a little generic. So he's kinda like the Hans Zimmer of computer games.

Inon Zur did IWD II as well as BG II:TOB, and it's got good stuff on it. Unfortunately, it's ridiculously short, and doesn't really play that much in the game. I thought his Dragon Age score was somewhat average. TOB was definitely his best that I've heard. Gotta love that battle music. I only know Jeremy Soule from IWD, and I think that score was better than IWD II and Dragon Age, though maybe not as good as the BG music.

Battle with the Five (Inon Zur, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEv4v7uz ... re=related
Skeleton of a Town (Inon Zur, Icewind Dale II): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEqDtbC3bL8
The Severed Hand (Inon Zur, Icewind Dale II): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfqzAu8IriI
The Town of Lonelywood (Jeremy Soule, Icewind Dale): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvzhcHTsUaQ
Belhifet's Doom (Jeremy Soule, Icewind Dale): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTqR8yU ... re=related
Main Theme (Michael Hoenig, Baldur's Gate): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP7vWiaxw7Y (Oh gods, the memories)
Attacked by Assassins (Michael Hoenig, Baldur's Gate): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgfwq5SBQ3Q

Oh hell, one more for nostalgia's sake. One does not easily forget what one heard while fighting Sarevok.

From Out of the Storm (Michael Hoenig, Baldur's Gate): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMRGLd5 ... re=related

Ok, I guess I've linked enough now.

[sidbarnhoorn]

Excellent thread.

[spamel]

I love the sound track to Spirited Away, which is also an excellent film. Well worth watching.

[Lord Borbak]

The soundtrack for the game Red Dead Redemption is awesome. Quite inspired by Ennio Morricone (obviously) with some old folk-ish songs here and there.

[risen osiris]

The soundtrack for the game Red Dead Redemption is awesome. Quite inspired by Ennio Morricone (obviously) with some old folk-ish songs here and there.

I like it alot. My favourite song is the one played in the opening sequence of the game, I think it's called 'Dead On Arrival'.

[Envinyatar]

I'll keep out of the game discussion because I haven't played any games in ages (but Final Fantasy soundtracks have always been great ).

Movies - one of my favorites is the entire "The Fountain" OST by Clint Mansell (he also did the music for Requiem for a Dream which is nearly as good imo), e.g.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihF_aXi-Huk

[LittleMissMetal]

I think the Return of the King soundtrack was one of my most played CDs in the car. I love all three soundtracks, particularly the Rohan theme. And Into the West is just beautiful.

Pirates of the Caribbean has a pretty good soundtrack too I feel.

As for games, Icewind Dale 1 and 2 have some great movements in them. I've always liked the theme that plays over the menus, and inparticular the Targos (town) theme from IWD2 is very nice.

Game called Gorasul, when the music actually got going, also had some nice moments too.

Oh, and I am a massive sucker for Disney soundtracks.

[Led Guardian]

The first 3 Ratchet & Clank soundtracks are all fantastic, especially 1 and 3. Love 'em.

[Lord Borbak]

The first 3 Ratchet & Clank soundtracks are all fantastic, especially 1 and 3. Love 'em.

Great (underrated) games too.

[The_Soulforged]

Highlander has definitely the best Soundtrack.