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Favourite licensed music moments in games

BioShock Infinite.

The moment you hear
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
in the background at the pier, my entire perception of that game flipped. It's such a brilliantly subtle nod to the later twists in the story - and can go completely unnoticed if you aren't familiar with the piece. The
Beach Boys
song earlier in the game didn't entirely tip me off - but the moment I heard that beat on the boardwalk... It was a perfect little moment.

Other notable mentions -
Sleeping Dogs : There's something really incredible about driving around Hong Kong and hearing genuine, kind-of-shitty K-pop blast through the radio. "Promiscuous Flirt" is awful, but Sleeping Dogs isn't the same without it.
GTA IV : No song in particular, just a shoutout to the absolutely perfect Independence FM station in the PC version. Blasting any song in my catalog, with commercial breaks factored in, and having it ever-so-mildly echo out of the car as I walk away. Plus, this game got me into LCD Soundsystem - so it is automatically very important.
Rock Band 3 : Bohemian Rhapsody is a living cliche of a song, but goddamn if it isn't satisfying to belt out while moderately sober. Add in an excuse to flamboyantly swing around a microphone and/or a plastic guitar - and it is the only way to end a Saturday night.

Also yeah - Saints Row. The Power & Hero missions are the best bits of the entire game, primarily because they so brilliantly echo the over-the-top film cliches that the franchise parodies. Saints Row IV gets close with the "Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" & "The Touch" scenes - but doesn't quite sell it like The Third did.
 
Here's to You by Joan Baez in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
I Need a Hero by Bonnie Tyler in Saints Row 3

Both were really memorable to me. During GZ I teared up a little at the end credits when the song started to play again. In SR3 I remember felt so pumped up with I Need a Hero playing in the background. I always think of the moments I heard them in their respective games whenever I hear them now.
 
LukasF said:
Red Dead Redemption, first time in Mexico... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUXGW6sWYDY

What's clever about it isn't just that it's a good song, but rather that they specifically picked a part of the game where there was guaranteed to be very little SFX, almost no AI (unless the gamer intentionally tries to ruin the moment), no voiceover... It works because it's an incredibly sparse song, and they made sure to turn all SFX down and push the music to be unusually loud so that it's heard. They intentionally carved a spot for the music to lead the dance in whatever way it wanted.
Click to expand...

Strange it took 34 posts before this was mentioned. This is my pick. I didn't even know the song, but I got chills for the entire segment and it's hands down my favorite moment in RDR
 
Jotamide said:
The Vice City soundtrack, all of it.
Click to expand...

This. Words can't express how large a part this soundtrack played in my life.

Mushroomer25 said:
BioShock Infinite.

The moment you hear
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
in the background at the pier, my entire perception of that game flipped. It's such a brilliantly subtle nod to the later twists in the story - and can go completely unnoticed if you aren't familiar with the piece. The
Beach Boys
song earlier in the game didn't entirely tip me off - but the moment I heard that beat on the boardwalk... It was a perfect little moment.
Click to expand...

Honestly, the barbershop quartet cover of "God Only Knows" made me adore this game. I know it gets so much negative criticism due to its gameplay flaws, but I'll be damned if there hasn't been any other game that comes close to drawing me in to its world. Plus I'll argue that the Beach Boys were the most important band of the 20th century until I'm blue in the face...
 
Def_Jam_Vendetta_-_Front_Cover_-_NTSC_-_Gamecube.jpg


At the start menu screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHwrDDjMxY8
 
Besides the karaoke during the Club Bam Bam part of Sleeping Dogs, they'll play a handful of specific songs once the fight breaks out that fit pretty damn well. My favorite has to be this one. Beating the shit out of some low-level thugs while heavy techno plays in a night club is enough to give me a Streets of Rage flashback.
 
Progenies of the Great Apocalypse in Brutal Legend stands head and shoulders over everything else in a game that had stellar licensed music usage from start to end.

(Also to address the mini-discussion in the thread, maybe it's because I got the game years after it came out, totally missed the misleading marketing run and dig experimental/hybrid games but I really, really enjoyed the game - even got Platinum)
 
When the credits rolled and Faunts played over it in Mass Effect. When I saw a bright future for a new series and the song just helped me goosebump just imagining what'd come.

Too bad my personal hype train died once I heard about Mass Effect 3 a couple days after release. Still, nothing has felt like the first time experiencing Faunts at the end of that first game.
 
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