Video game score recommendations

I think there's a growing trend here: the quality and quantity of game scores have greatly improved over the last decade, while film scores do seem to be ever-so-slightly declining in terms of quality.

I would agree with that without hesitation. But there's still a gigantic gap between them (or the best of them, anyway).

Sure!
One of the best game scores I´ve heard. Action packed score by Lennertz; damn, I could be playing "Welcome Commitee" all day long

Hell. Yes.

I remember liking Soule's score for the video game of HP 1 very much, before I got smitten with Williams's score. It was in the vein of Williams and very pleasant to hear. I haven't played the other games yet but I bet they're just as good.

Absolutely! My favourite one is Soule's score to Goblet of fire. Amazing chorals in the action sequences, especially during the first task and battle with Voldemort.

BTW I also loved the new Halo 3 Score! It's so good to hear Halo 1's synthesized cues being performed by a real orchestra!!

I think perhaps Panthera is implying that games themselves are inferior to films, not game music. (Or at least the use and importance of music within games is inferior to its use in films.)

I still think a film score has more worth (in terms of how it is perceived rather than the music itself I hasten to emphasize) simply because of the way it is used within a film. Game's can never reach the emotional power of, say, a film like Schindler's List IMO (a debate I've had many a time with my flatmate believe it or not! ). Look at it this way: Imagine they made a game of Schindler's List (a disturbing thought I know, but rather pertinent to my point) while keeping John Williams' score. The music just wouldn't be as powerful in the game than it is in the film.

I'm not much of a game fan, so my point of view is somewhat biased anyway.

Sure, Max Payne is a master piece and already a classic in the video games world. From the storyline to the charisma of the characters, not to forget the score, with a great main theme. One of the few games that (even you have to shoot everybody and everything) make you feel something special as you play it and once you´ve finished it.
And the main theme was given an arrangement even better in Max Payne 2 (sadly this second part didn´t reach the first one though).

I believe it will happen somewhere in time. Games will be important story tellers and create emotions for the people that are playing them, like it would be in cinema. It only needs more time and I'm looking forward to the first game that lets someone cry of sadness.

Don't underestimate the power of videogames. It's truly wonderful how the business has matured over the years. I've witnessed the birth (or nearly, as I began gaming during the late eighties), and the kiddie games that simply rely on reflexes and timing are long gone. Games of today allow the player to have to make hard choices, and choose their own level of immersion, depending on the storyline or how the characters are portrayed. It's not about senseless violence anymore (well sometimes it is)...

I dare you to play Metal Gear Solid 3, and not be an emotional wreck during the final scenes, because that game has wonderful direction, with solid (pun intended) character development. Not everything that happens in the game is logical or realistic, but so are fantasy films. If you can allow yourself to have an open mind, and be immersed in the game world it's possible to react on an emotional level to the happenings on screen. Some of the Final Fantasy games also meet that level of involvement.

Not to stray completely off topic here, but the music in games can make or break your sense of immersion. Max Payne, as previously stated has that melancholy mood, with music to match, but the story is told in original fashion as well, like a comic book with strong characters. I find the whole theme of the cop going on a bloodbath after his wife and baby are killed, and the way it's presented in that game, very emotionally involving, and it beats the second game hands down.

Another great example is Shadows of the Colossus, with its haunting music and exceptional art design. That whole game is trying to play your heartstrings, and with success. And there's not even a whole lot of dialogue or character progression in the game. It's solely expressed with images, music and fantastic revolutionary gameplay. But the underlying theme is, you have to fight to save your loved one from the dead (hint at Reign over Me, tommy_boy ), and it's what gets you really into the game and its brilliantly conceived world, so when you reach the end of the journey you also reach a level of sadness I compare with any good emotional movie.

Still, can a game ever reach the dizzying heights of power and emotion that, as I will keep repeating, Schindler's List reaches? If it did, then it surely couldn't be called a game, because the term 'game' implies recreation... and SL is not a recreational story.

Apples and oranges really, but my point is that to tell a story first and foremost, making a film (in terms of visual and audio mediums go) is the best way to do it. A game, first and foremost, is made to entertain. Right?

Perhaps when gaming reaches the level of holodecks will they truly surpass a film... that's the only way I could imagine games achieving such emotion. But, then is it really a game?

Gaming nerds seem to take these, um, observations (?) as an attack on their gaming world. It's not, I'm simply implying what games can't be, not that they're worthless.

(It doesn't help that I personally can never get emotionally involved in a game, particularly with Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3... I just wanted to play the bloody game, not watch endless -clichéd- cinematic scenes! )

haha, now I'm a gaming nerd

I understand what you're talking about. there's still a distinct line between emotion through a movie or game. But its the basic fact that more and more games are relying on cutscenes and from there on comes the emotion.

And I think playing Schindler's List isn't so appealing to me as a game I might add

I'll take the "nerd" tag, if you don't mind. In Norway, "geek" has far more negative connotations. Over here, it's possible to be a nerd and a social creature at the same time, which I reckon myself to be.

Here it's the other way round, "geeks" can be 'cool' while "nerds" cannot!

Strange how it differs, eh?