Siobhan Keogh: The music and the memories

A scene from Gears of War 3. Photo / YouTube

How much impact does music make on a game? Siobhan Keogh takes a look at some success stories - and some failures.

When I think about the games that have really had an impact on me, I tend to find they have one thing in common: incredible music.

I'm not a musician, or even someone who goes out of their way to listen to music, but I absolutely love the way it changes how I think and feel about other entertainment products.

An unscientific poll was conducted on a (now defunct) gaming blog last year, and many of the gamers who responded said that they didn't really notice the music in most games.

I understand why - playing games can often require some pretty intense focus on the task at hand. But whether or not you're conscious of it, your brain always takes note of music.

Even when you're not actively listening, music tells your brain a lot about how you should feel about what's going on. Should you be pumped up? Sad? Overjoyed? Those things are better often represented by music than they are by dialogue or animation.

So when I start to get a little bit emotional while playing a game - regardless of what kind of emotion I might be feeling - I always stop for just a moment and listen.

Some of the games that have had an emotional impact on me might surprise you. Sure, I've felt feelings while playing The Walking Dead, just like everyone else who's ever had to protect Clementine (sniff).

But when I think about games that make me feel the full emotional spectrum - and I do not represent everybody - they tend to be shooters with brilliant, tone-setting orchestral arrangements.

That might seem weird. Who gets emotional playing a shooter, right? Well, I have a confession to make - I got teary-eyed playing Gears of War 3, more than once. And not just because there were sad moments, but because also because there were moments where the music swelled and Marcus Fenix saving the world made me feel so incredibly powerful that my eyes stung. I have never felt like more of a badass playing a video game, and it was in large part because of the familiar Gears refrain blaring from my speakers.

I didn't quite have that feeling while playing Destiny over the last week or so, but the music of the game did stick out at me as one of its best features. It was tonally perfect, and so good that I sometimes stopped what I was doing just to listen to it. I still haven't figured out whether that's a good or bad thing.

These careful, hand-picked musical arrangements are why I personally don't love open-world games where you can pick your own music on your car radio. While flipping through the channels is fun, it doesn't always mirror what's going on in the game, and quite often the music that's been licensed is sub-par (the exception, of course, is the GTA series which has always licensed the good stuff).

You can pick tonally appropriate music, but I don't know if many people go through the effort of matching it to their moods.

Some of my best memories from the Saints Row series are when your character and his/her friend are singing along in the car to songs you can't choose, like Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract. It's one of the only moments in the game when the developer chooses what you have to listen to, and it's hilarious, appropriate and really fun.

But that's just me - I'm clearly a big fan of orchestral, original video game music. I have a 'video games' playlist on Spotify. I know all the names of the composers who worked on my favourite games, because I appreciate their work as much as any band or pop musician.

I even walked down the aisle to the theme song from Uncharted.

* I'm keen to know what others value in game music. Do you pay attention to music when you play games? What are your favourite game soundtracks?