Video games these days often have soundtracks that don’t require you to equip a playlist while playing them. But there are many of us who still want to listen to our own custom music while shooting down enemies, or nipping around side-streets in our virtual sports cars.
So what music do you listen to while playing games? Let us know your artists/albums of choice in the comments section below!
Paul Tamburro, executive editor: “I either listen to the original soundtrack, if it’s decent, or I put on lo-fi hip-hop, because that’s what I listen to when I do anything that requires a modicum of concentration. I’m not a complicated man.”
Jason Faulkner, senior editor: “I listen to whatever is on the game’s soundtrack most of the time. Most games these days put a lot of thought into sound design so I like to hear it as the devs envisioned. For older games, I’m a snooty hipster, so I tend to go out of my way to make sure I’m getting the best sound possible. On SNES, for example, I usually rip my carts and use an MSU-1 patch when available to get a CD-quality soundtrack. For Genesis, I rock a JVC X’Eye which rivals a VA6 Genesis with carts and blows away the Sega CD model 1 and 2 (and narrowly beats out the CDX) when it comes to disc-based sound. For a lot of older floppy-based computer games, there’s not much of a soundtrack present, so I listen to whatever is period-appropriate. A lot of these are late-80s to mid-90s games so butt rock or older hip hop on a Spotify or Apple Music station is what I normally go with.”
Mack Ashworth, lead editor: “I mostly listen to the game soundtrack, with the exception of racing games. Gotta have my special lucky songs on, otherwise I’m definitely going to hit a wall. “No Revolution” by The Explosion deserves a shout-out for helping me win many a race!”
