
The humble playlist is a powerful force in the world of music. Music geeks obsess over them – spending hours getting their mixtapes just right, a real labour of love. It’s quite a curious phenomenon, and a deeply personal one – for many people, a playlist that has been built by two is a painful compromise.
There are loads of questions for the playlist maker – do you open with a gentle track, to ease the listener in, or smack them right in the face with a pop classic? Do you end on a triumphant note, or should there be a quiet postscript to the proceedings? Each and every decision can and should be read into in enormous depth.
The idea of a playlist likely originated from an amateur musician or an orchestra choosing what a crowd would most like to hear. The concept is a little cruel – ripping apart the context of how the creator wanted his music to be heard, and jamming in your own versions.
Of course, the idea has come a long way since then. Jimmy Saville has a part to play – he was the first person to combine two turntables and a microphone for continuous play of music without a gap in between, becoming the world’s first DJ.
But the real star of the show was the humble cassette tape, which brought the concept to the masses, allowing them to tape tracks off the radio, or off other cassettes in whatever order they liked, and then play that back at any time. Before the cassette, compilation albums existed, but they weren’t easy, or cheap to create.
Burnable CDs moved things forward once more, as did the USB drive, but today, any digital music system worth its salt has a playlist functionality and YouTube has begun to introduce the idea to short videos on the user-generated-content site.
So, why do playlists not exist in videogames? Given that almost every game going back a long time has a level skip cheat, why not use those to create a patchwork of levels from games that have a common theme running through?
Sure, there are obstacles – finishing one level, you’ll have at least a five minute gap while you shut down that game and start up the next one – but games last longer than songs anyway, so that doesn’t seem to be an artistic obstacle in the way. More problematic is you have to install an entire game to get to the one level you want – a lot of preparation is required.
But those issues aside, here’s three short playlists of games that I feel have a running theme through them. There’s one list of the best Zombie levels in games, one of videogame representations of the D-Day landings, and one of some of my favourite boss fights. I’ve tried to begin and end each list sensibly – starting easy and with a gentle introduction, and then moving onto the more hardcore end of things.
Braaaaiiins…
Half-Life 2: Ravenholm
Call of Duty – World at War: Der Riese
Left 4 Dead 2: Hard Rain
Plants Vs Zombies: Survival mode
Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno
Medal of Honour – Allied Assault: Operation Overlord
Day of Defeat: dod_charlie
Company of Heroes: D-Day
Combat Flight Simulator 3, D-Day 1944 – Invasion Of Europe
Bossa Nova
World of Warcraft: Flame Leviathan (Ulduar)
Legend of Zelda – Ocarina Of Time: Ganon
Wolfenstein 3D: Hitler
Final Fantasy 7 – Sephiroth
Of course, these are just examples. There’s a whole range of different things you could do with videogame playlists, from the pretentious (“six levels about darkness”) to the practical (“five impossible jumps in platformers”) to the ridiculous (“sex in games”). That last list could include Mass Effect, Leisure Suit Larry, the Witcher and some scary Japanese titles.
If you come up with any playlists of levels in games that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them. Post them in the comments below.
Playlists for Videogames
The humble playlist is a powerful force in the world of music. Music geeks obsess over them – spending hours getting their mixtapes just right. It’s quite a curious phenomenon, and a deeply personal one – for many people, a playlist that has been built by two people is a compromise.
There are loads of questions for the playlist maker – do you open with a gentle track, to ease the listener in, or smack them right in the face with a pop classic? Do you end on a triumphant note, or should there be a quiet postscript to the proceedings? Each and every decision can and should be read into in enormous depth.
The idea of a playlist likely originated from an amateur musician or an orchestra choosing what a crowd would most like to hear. The concept is a little cruel – ripping apart the context of how the creator wanted his music to be heard, and jamming in your own versions.
Of course, the idea has come a long way since then. Jimmy Saville has a part to play – he was the first person to combine two turntables and a microphone for continuous play of music without a gap in between, becoming the world’s first DJ.
But the real star of the show was the humble cassette tape, which brought the concept to the masses, allowing them to tape tracks off the radio, or off other cassettes in whatever order they liked, and then play that back at any time. Before the cassette, compilation albums existed, but they weren’t easy, or cheap to create.
Burnable CDs moved things forward once more, as did the USB drive, but today, any digital music system worth its salt has a playlist functionality and
So, why do playlists not exist in videogames? Given that almost every game going back a long time has a level skip cheat, why not use those to create a patchwork of levels from games that have a common theme running through.
Sure, there are obstacles – finishing one level, you’ll have at least a five minute gap while you shut down that game and start up the next one – but games last longer than songs anyway, so that doesn’t seem to be an artistic obstacle in the way. More problematic is you have to install an entire game to get to the one level you want – a lot of preparation is required.
But those issues aside, here’s three short playlists of games that I feel have a running theme through them. There’s one list of the best Zombie levels in games, one of videogame representations of the D-Day landings, and one of some of my favourite boss fights.
Braaaaiiins…
Half-Life 2: Ravenholm
CoD:WaW: Der Riese
Left 4 Dead 2: Hard Rain
Plants Vs Zombies: Survival
Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno
Medal of Honour – Allied Assault: Operation Overlord
Day of Defeat: Omaha Beach
Company of Heroes: D-Day
Combat Flight Simulator 3, D-Day 1944 – Invasion Of Europe
Bossa Nova
World of Warcraft: Flame Leviathan (Ulduar)
Legend of Zelda – Ocarina Of Time: Ganon
Wolfenstein 3d: Hitler
Final Fantasy 7 – Sephiroth
Of course, these are just examples. There’s a whole range of different things you could do with videogame playlists, from the pretentious (“six levels about darkness”) to the practical (“five impossible jumps in platformers”) to the ridiculous (“sex in games”).
If you come up with any playlists of levels in games that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them. Post them in the comments below.