Best Music of the Generation

With the upcoming releases of the PS4 and Xbox One, the current generation is drawing to a close. And music wise, what a generation it has been. What is the most memorable music in this gen?

My List

1) Mass Effect 3: An End, Once and For All

2) Mass Effect 2: Suicide Mission

3) Bastion: Setting Sail, Coming Home

4) Portal 2: Turret Opera

5) Halo 3: One Final Effort

Bonus Song! Persona 3: Mass Destruction (Doesn't really fit, but fuck it, it's the best thing ever BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY)

In terms of enhancing the experience, I really liked Braid, Halo: Reach, Bastion, Infamous 2, and Unfinished Swan.

But catchiest tunes? Super Meat Boy, man.

No Hotline Miami on that list? Maybe not the best but I definitely think some of those songs are up there.

I was a huge fan of the Journey soundtrack. Really good stuff to put on while doing schoolwork.

No list, i'll just mention the ones that come to mind

Xenoblade

KOF13

Blazblue

Ni No Kuni

Assassin's Creed II, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Hotline Miami, Bastion, Mass Effect 2, Super Mario Galaxy, Fez.

Those are my favourites.

All of Rayman Origins and Legends. All of it.

I feel like Far Cry 3's soundtrack got criminally overlooked. Kind of a Trent Reznor meets Avatar vibe in the main theme.

Also, the Arkham games have some fantastic music.

Suicide Mission is sooooo good.

Also, the entire Halo 3 ODST soundtrack is phenomenal.

And let's not forget Mario Galaxy.

FTL is also fucking great.

I could post many more I think are great, but I'll leave it at this.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I found the Mass Effect soundtrack super disappointing. There's some good tracks here and there (pretty much the ones already posted in this thread) but 90% of the tracks are just generic sci-fi and frankly, boring. It's definitely my consistently least favourite part of the trilogy.

Now Portal 2 on the other hand...

God damn, that's one of my favourite songs, period. So oddly emotional. And the game barely even uses it, certainly not for its beauty, just as background ambience.

Probably more I could include, but that's enough for now.

Mass Effect opening and Mass Effect credits.

1. made when i 1st this in the debate tailer i was hyped and pump for it

Mass Effect 1 had the better soundtrack or at least used it better. It has so much better musical cues that really made me remember the music. I don't ever remember hearing the Suicide Mission theme in ME2.

Halo 3 just has a great soundtrack in general. It always accompanies the game so well. Just listening to that Halo 3 track makes me really want to play Halo.

The Hotline: Miami soundtrack doesn't hold a candle to anything orchestral like SMG and is way too repetitive.

Some other good ones are Machinarium, Fez, Journey

There are too many to list in my opinion. This generation if anything has given rise to amazing music in the medium. At this point it's almost expected for a major game to have a fantastic score.

The entire soundtrack is legit, but this is one of my favorites. Bayonetta is pretty great, y'guys.

Anyone is free to talk shit about NieR (it wouldn't be very nice), but the soundtrack is pheeeeeeeeeeeenomenal.

@flacracker: Suicide mission predominantly plays at the end of the game. After you defeat stupid ass baby Reaper, the main part of it plays as you get out.

Any Music of the Generation list that doesn't include Journey on it is simply wrong. Austin Wintory and crew did a fucking amazing job. Particularly Apotheosis.

If you haven't seen it, the text commentary by Wintory on the soundtrack in this YouTube is also amazing.

Journey would win my listing, but the other entrants would include: Minecraft, Machinarium, Bastion, Hotline Miami, FTL, FEZ, PixelJunk Eden, Sword & Sworcery.

The Super Adventure Box update for Guild Wars 2 should get honorable mention, because of how much like a love letter it is to my childhood. I'd also like to call out EVE Online's soundtrack, which is a bit of a stretch to call this generation since it's been out for so long. But it's also pretty great and atmospheric.

I always hesitate to mention any of those Metro tracks because I can't remember if they were actually in the game proper or not.

Fable : TLC

TES IV: Oblivion

The Witcher 1/2

Mass Effect 3

Assassin's Creed 2/3

(I'll link these in a while)

GTA V.

This weeks bombcast

@deadeyemccoy:

Just finishing Deus EX, that techno is pretty good and memorable.

I'm never a fan of orchestral music, but the way Journey's score melted along with what was happening on the screen really reached out to me. That game had the best music of the generation.

@getwimmy:

IMO, you are correct. That opening sequence of coming to the top of the sand dune and hearing those opening chords was magical and haunting all at the same time.

Seeing that it hasn't been mentioned, I will say that the final boss music in Dark Souls is amazing.

@idiotic_genius1: That's called Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. It's a pretty great moment too, because it's the culmination of the game, the last boss, and it's not your typical super-rousing fare. It's haunting, just like Gwyn's story.

Most Jrpgs this gen have had great music.

Son, let me tell you about the Anarchy Reigns soundtrack!

A lot of my favorite OSTs have been posted already, so I'll just drop some other stuff here:

The Mass Effect series for sure and Ni No Kuni

Some random songs that come to mind, I can definitely list more but I am running very short on time;

• Read Dead Redemption: José González - Far Away
• Skyrim: Main Theme with vocals.
• Alan Wake: Old Gods of Asgaard - The Poet and the Muse
• Brütal Legend: Brocas Helm - Cry of the Banshee

Holy shit that song, it's all coming back to me. Excellent pick. Fucking hell I love Mass Effect.

I'm probably overlooking some games, and others I've omitted because they're not my cup of tea (such as Hotline Miami).

Best soundtrack: Xenoblade Chronicles. This is one of those rare soundtracks where I enjoy almost every song.

Best use of music: Saint's Row the Third (I Need a Hero by Bonnie Tyler). If you experienced it while playing, you'll understand.

Honourable mentions: Bastion's Soundtrack, Skyrim's Main Theme, Portal's Still Alive song, and Civilization IV's Baba Yetu. They're great/memorable/well done/etc and I feel they should be mentioned.

@noblenerf: Now best use of music...

Seconding this. It's criminal that they took it out of the other versions.

I always loved this song from an amazing game. Such a great song.

Another great song from Crysis 3.

And finally, from Final Fantasy XIII-2. I don't think it's a particarly amazing game but I always really liked this song.

I really wanted to go with maybe overlooked songs. There's other songs I think were great, but these are three more obscure ones potentially.

1. Hotline Miami:

Nothing this generation has matched gameplay to music as wonderfully as Hotline Miami. It's the difference between a fun top-down action game and a drug-induced, gloriously violent, fever dream.

2. Demon's Souls:

The only game on the list here because of a single song, Maiden Astraea's theme is hugely responsible for Demon's Souls having one of the most poignant moments in a video game this generation. I wasn't much invested in the story and frankly there wasn't much that had been presented, but I knew a bit of Maiden Astraea's story. She entered the Valley of Defilement to try and aid the suffering and was never seen again. Something happened, yadda yadda, now she's a demon and you need her soul.

But when you finally make it to her chamber and her theme beings to play, it doesn't sound like typical boss music. She starts talking to you, asking that you leave them all in peace, asking if God's abandonment isn't cruelty enough that He must take whatever the poor forgotten souls of the Valley have left. You realize she lost her faith upon witnessing the horrors of the Valley which were inflicted by humanity and allowed by God, choosing to accept a demon's soul so she might use its power to help the afflicted. And now you have to slay her to steal that soul.

That realization made the entire world much more than just a dark fantasy world to kill stuff in, and as fast as it got me invested in the world it got me to completely doubt my quest. That music was the catalyst for it all.

3. Portal 2:

The music here accentuated every aspect of this game. It was tied to events as they unfolded instead of being a collection of themes to play over a scene. Whether it's you putting together a puzzle, an unexpected betrayal, or the climactic encounter, the music is with you every step of the way with its harsh and relentless synthesizers.

4. Gunpoint:

Gunpoint is some good ol' bio-digital jazz (man). Everything about it is so damn cool, absolutely the music too.

5. Splice:

Solving genetic puzzles to calming calming piano music. SO ZEN BRO.

6. Mass Effect 2:

The music in Mass Effect 2 strikes a good balance between the sci-fi background stuff, roaring arrangements, and some great in-world flavour music.

7. Shatter:

The game OST that made me realize game OSTs didn't have to sound like game OSTs. Simply a great electronic album.

8. Jesper Kyd:

That's right, I'm cheating a bit here. Specific works to be praised are the music from Blood Money, Assassin's Creed II, and Borderland 2. In each game Jesper Kyd's music was a huge part of setting the tone of the world and helping to draw you in, be it the seedy underworld of death-dealing, the not-so-seedy underworld of death-dealing, and the hyper-stylized borderworld of... death-dealing.

9. Alan Wake:

More than the wonderfully melodramatic score, the use of pop songs at the end of an episode, including the an awesome original track, was a great way to bring home the episodic presentation while reflecting on the state of the narrative.

10. Deadly Premonition:

You got your wacky comic-relief theme, you got your serious-business police-mode theme, you got your ultimate oh-my-god-this-song-will-take-over-my-life theme. Good stuff.

Special Mention: Varric's Theme from Dragon Age 2, for making an already awesome Florence + the Machine song even more awesome.

There were a lot of very good ones, but I think Shatter is my favorite soundtrack of the generation.

Although, if we're just picking one song as the best song of the generation then I might have to go with this one

I must have watched the Skyrim trailer 100 times before it came out. So fucking epic. I wish I could go back to when Skyrim wasn't out yet just so I could get hype.

The Wii counts as this generation right? (Har har)

I really like this song I just wish it was orchestrated so badly. Another favorite is this:

Or any version of the Battlefield theme for that matter. Get's me so hype.

@theht: oh man thanks for reminding me of Demon's souls. I like the theme you mentioned for the same reasons I like this one:

For a final bossfight it's so calm. Instead of this epic boss battle you get to fight this dying guy with this somber music. So good.

Fez, Journey and Bastion all had amazing soundtracks. Those games have the best music of the generation.

HOW COULD YOU ALL FORGET SUCH BEAUTY!?

Loved Xenoblade even though it took me such a long time to finish and this always stuck:

Heart of Chaos from Final Fantasy XIII-2 which I quite enjoyed:

And honourable mention to Bastion:

Many others. Especially from The Last of Us and Bravely Default.

Guys what if I told you that Ni No Kuni's soundtrack of orchestral tracks kept me from leaving the game at 10 hour mark

and finishing this 50 hour monster, Oh and the boss themes are also very enjoyable.

While Borderlands 2 doesn't have the best soundtrack overall in my opinion, this one track from the Tiny Tina DLC really stood out to me.

I adored the soundtrack to Machinarium, so here's a song from it!

Riding into Mexico in the sunset, and this motherfucker comes on:

Wow, that's really good. I should really get round to playing the dlc for Borderlands 2.

In terms of my favourites, I have a few that I hold dearly.

I've mentioned before in other threads, but I love Daniel Litcht's work on Dishonored. I discovered him through Dexter, and I was most pleased when I saw that he was doing Dishonored soundtrack. The main theme is probably the best of the OST. The music really fits the gothic-y magic, and neo-victorian setting of Dishonored.

I love Jasper Byrne's work. Both in his games (Lone Survivor) and his music. He done all the music for Lone Survivor and this is my favourite track. I think it captures a "never give up/keep surviving" mood whilst also being a pretty somber piece of music, very well.

The whole of The Last of Us' OST is really great, but this one in particular got to me. Considering it's placement in the story, I felt a lot of feelings when this song began to play.

There's certainly better pieces of music than this one, but this being the main theme for all the Uncharted games, I can't help but feel excited when I hear it.

As actual music I would say Bastion. It's pretty much the only soundtrack I would listen to in my spare time.