Can't believe this hasn't been discussed further......

[Yuki]

Besides the theme/vocal songs, have there really been any songs that "wow"ed people outside of when they're playing the game? (I'm honestly curious, because I see the majority of the music as rather dependent on the scenery.)

I can list a whole bunch of tracks from the first 3 games that I think are spectacular, if you want.

I'd actually really like that. I've not heard any songs that I've actually wanted to listen to outside of the game besides the vocal tracks.

[stopped_clock]

I have the soundtracks to 2, 3 & 4 on my mp3 player, I listen to them a lot, they're fantastic music for train journeys I find.

On topic, I too remember the devs already pointing out that sidequests are going to be instigated by environmental factors rather than by npc interaction.

[Tillerman]

I'd actually really like that. I've not heard any songs that I've actually wanted to listen to outside of the game besides the vocal tracks.

Well I'm not saying that you'll necessarily want to listen to these outside the game, but I do. Anyway, here's a list of all the tracks that really impressed me:

From the official SH1 soundtrack: 1. Silent Hill (The intro, obviously.) 5. Over (Really good fear music) 14. Moonchild (Atmosphere Music) 18. Fear of the Dark (Mystery music) 22. I'll Kill You (Very intense moth boss fight music) 28. Alive (The Lighthouse music, epic and foreboding)

From the unofficial "SH1 Complete" soundtrack: 1. Macabre (the music that plays as you enter the creepy alley in the beginning.) 2. Linger (The forboding Twin Peaks-ish music that plays when you first talk to Cheryl, one of my favorites.) 3. Darkness (The same as "Over" from the official soundtrack, but without the noise playing over it.)

From the SH2 official soundtrack: 1. Theme of Laura (Great intro) 2, White Noiz (Beautiful opening cinema music of the game, mysterious and melancholy) 6. Promise Reprise (emotional) 9. Heaven's Night (Extremely beautiful music from Heaven's Night, a combination of urgency, mystery, and melancholy) 15. Magdalene (powerful little subtle piano piece) 24. True (perfect piece for an emotional reveal) 25. Betrayal (awesome Pyramid Head battle music)

From the unofficial "SH2 Complete" soundtrack: 9. Tension (Incredibly awesome tension music.) 57. Violent Maria (The music that plays when you fight the final boss.)

From the SH3 soundtrack: 2. You're Not Here (my favorite intro) 4. End of Small Sanctuary (sets a perfect tone at the beginning of the game) 5. Breeze ~ In Monochrome Night (more for the Monochrome Night part. awesome cinema music.) 9. A Stray Child (more awesome cinema music)

[stopped_clock]

End of Small Sanctuary is my ringtone

[alone in the town]

From the unofficial "SH1 Complete" soundtrack: 1. Macabre (the music that plays as you enter the creepy alley in the beginning.)

That's probably my favorite track of the entire series, due to its subtle progression from creepy to downright menacing. It puts the severely truncated 'official' version to shame.

Honestly, the official Silent Hill soundtrack is astoundingly poor, as it not only misses a great many tracks, but several are inexplicably chopped down to mere seconds.

[Tillerman]

Honestly, the official Silent Hill soundtrack is astoundingly poor, as it not only misses a great many tracks, but several are inexplicably chopped down to mere seconds.

I wouldn't say that. Though I would have made some different decisions about what to put on them, but obviously all that music can't be fit onto a CD, especially how some pieces of music have so many variations. They would have needed to do like a 5 or 6 CD set to fit all of the music from one game. Anyway, if you want all the music like I do, there's no choice but to download the unofficial soundtracks. The track you're talking about from SH1 is one of my favorites as well. Linger is probably my absolute favorite piece of music from SH1, but it's close, there's so many good ones.

[alone in the town]

I know they couldn't have fit everything, but the choices they made were somewhat questionable. My main complaint is the number of songs which are far too short, especially the ones that last just a fraction of a minute, and are clearly only clips from longer full tracks.

Later official soundtracks focused more on the musical tracks than the noise tracks, which was ultimately beneficial. The first soundtrack had too much noise. It doesn't make for good casual listening.

[Yuki]

End of Small Sanctuary is my ringtone

Ooh, that's a good idea. End of Small Sanctuary is the only non-vocal Silent Hill song that I have on my iPod.

I'd actually really like that. I've not heard any songs that I've actually wanted to listen to outside of the game besides the vocal tracks.

Well I'm not saying that you'll necessarily want to listen to these outside the game, but I do. Anyway, here's a list of all the tracks that really impressed me:

From the official SH1 soundtrack: 1. Silent Hill (The intro, obviously.) 5. Over (Really good fear music) 14. Moonchild (Atmosphere Music) 18. Fear of the Dark (Mystery music) 22. I'll Kill You (Very intense moth boss fight music) 28. Alive (The Lighthouse music, epic and foreboding)

From the unofficial "SH1 Complete" soundtrack: 1. Macabre (the music that plays as you enter the creepy alley in the beginning.) 2. Linger (The forboding Twin Peaks-ish music that plays when you first talk to Cheryl, one of my favorites.) 3. Darkness (The same as "Over" from the official soundtrack, but without the noise playing over it.)

From the SH2 official soundtrack: 1. Theme of Laura (Great intro) 2, White Noiz (Beautiful opening cinema music of the game, mysterious and melancholy) 6. Promise Reprise (emotional) 9. Heaven's Night (Extremely beautiful music from Heaven's Night, a combination of urgency, mystery, and melancholy) 15. Magdalene (powerful little subtle piano piece) 24. True (perfect piece for an emotional reveal) 25. Betrayal (awesome Pyramid Head battle music)

From the unofficial "SH2 Complete" soundtrack: 9. Tension (Incredibly awesome tension music.) 57. Violent Maria (The music that plays when you fight the final boss.)

From the SH3 soundtrack: 2. You're Not Here (my favorite intro) 4. End of Small Sanctuary (sets a perfect tone at the beginning of the game) 5. Breeze ~ In Monochrome Night (more for the Monochrome Night part. awesome cinema music.) 9. A Stray Child (more awesome cinema music)

Thanks, Tillerman! Just giving a cursory YouTube glance through them... I can't say I'd listen to many non-vocal songs all that often, but some of these are really cool. I don't really notice the music by itself when I'm playing games, so I really appreciate this.

[Tillerman]

No prob. There are more good tracks, but those are the ones I think are the best. For SH2 in particular, pretty much the entire official OST is worth listening to. Though I think SH1 has the strongest overall soundtrack, but that's not really reflected by the official CD, you have to get the complete soundtrack to really tell.

For our DND game I've used a fair few of these tracks, they are pretty much the best for atmosphere music.

Anyway, Licht has his work cut out for him, but I hope he can muster up a couple of interesting sounding tracks. The music I'm hearing in the demos so far (though it's hard to hear it) seems pretty decent. It sounds a bit derivative, but at least it sounds like decent atmosphere music.

[KoRn_Child]

The are a couple of songs from SH2 and especially SH3 that I listen to outside of the games, but to be honest I don't remember the names. I have them on a playlist and usually just throw on that when I'm in the mood.

I can remember the names of a few of the Shattered Memories songs I listen to. "Always on My Mind" and "When You're Gone" are both good, but my two favorites are "Hell Frozen Rain" (duh) and "Creeping Distress". So mostly vocal tracks, but there are a couple of non-vocal tracks I like as well.