I did this on my replays of Mass Effect and both of the KOTORs, Halo(s), Half Life(s) and I ALWAYS do it on mulitplayer. Sports games, racing games and story-driven RPGs on second and third playthroughs are what I listen to my playlist on.
I try to listen to the ingame music at least for the first playthrough, though depends heavily on the game. Great atmostpheric games like Fallout with a great OST I like to keep the original music playing. For other games like first time shooters or RTS games, I just put my own mp3 playlist.
I have to say I'm not that impressed with the music in the games of recent years. They lack... dunno.. sentiment? quality?
Ambient music is soothing and is a real keeper in my book.
In descending order, the game tunes which I find most worthwhile listening to outside of playing their respective games:
1. Donkey Kong Country 2 => All levels. 2. Donkey Kong Country 1 => Only the aquatic ambience. 3. Unreal Tournament 1999 => Phobos space station only. 4. SuperMario 64 => Underwater music. 5. SuperMario 3 => Some levels.
First I listen to the music in the new game on second play trough I have the tv on Join Reality Deviant Multi Gaming Social Guild That Intends On Playing Fallout Online Check Out Our Website Click The Signature.
Unless it's a Mark Morgan or Chuck Doud soundtrack, I usually just have Winamp in the background. But if I'm playing a very atmospheric game, then I have no music at all.
Mostly listening to my own playlist while gaming, but if I like soundtrack or if it is very atmospheric I'm listening to it... until I get bored. :] And sometimes I'm listening to some game soundtracks (Fallout, Planescape: Torment, Sanitarium, Quake and others) while I'm not gaming... And I always have some music playing (even when I'm sleeping ), except the time when I'm watching something like movies or anime...
I do usually listen to the game's music, unless it's horrible. And the music has a very important factor in a game, so it has to fit to the setting of the game.
I only listen to music from an outside source it's an arcade game with no music at all (Galaxian, Centipede) Currently playing - MDK2 (WiiWare) gamesas games I'm waiting for -Descent(Wii) & Clayfighter(DSi)
if you haven't noticed, great games have great music. Half life 1 had some awesome music and it really made the game. If it wasn't for the music, the game's single player i think would not have been as awesome as it was.
The Descent 2 and Vertigo soundtracks were awesome! Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics soundtracks were also awesome! The right music done well can have as much emotional impact as a good story and will really go a long way to setting the right atmosphere. If you see Metal Maniac, let him know I'm looking for 'em.
Part of the Descent 2 soundtrack was done by the singer and producer of Skinny Puppy. The rest of the soundtrack was amazing too. Partly why I got into that genre of music
Mark Morgan did an amazing job with the FO1 and FO2 soundtracks, I often listened to them on their own and with other games, great ambient, atmospheric, post-apocalyptic ritualistic music. No one can beat him in that department.