Video game players and guitarists have plenty in common, one of the most obvious being their lightning-fast fingers required to make the right chords and hit the right buttons. Another is their shared taste in music, with there often being a big overlap between gamers and fans of rock, metal, and other guitar music.
This has meant many developers have incorporated some epic soundtracks into their games, giving players the opportunity to rock out whilst they burn rubber, blast zombies, and cause carnage on their screen.
Of all these games, here are the greatest hits:
Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Grand Theft Auto is a video game franchise that has made a habit out of pushing boundaries, especially in terms of creating open worlds that feel real. One of the earliest techniques that Rockstar Games used to do this was creating radio stations instead of having a fixed playlist of background music.
When you’re in a vehicle, music will play, and you can switch between radio stations to find the genre of music you want to listen to at that moment.
From the very first game, rock music has been a key constituent of these radio stations and no more so than in Grand Theft Auto Vice City. This game, which was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002 is set in a fictional version of Miami in 1986 and features an ensemble lineup of bangers from that era.
Its rock station V-Rock offers up songs from rock legends like Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, and Twisted Sister that you can blare out loud as you cruise along the beachfront.
Guns N’ Roses Video Slots
The online casino market is incredibly competitive, with hundreds of brands competing for the attention of players. To stand out, they need to work hard to offer something new, unique, or favourable to players.
One approach is to create a wide variety of slot games that appeal to the tastes of different players. This has led to the creation of games themed around everything from wild animals to space.
Leading companies like PokerStars Casino go even further by offering exclusive and branded games, like Spartacus and Deal of No Deal Megaways. Another of these special titles is Guns N’ Roses Video Slots, a game designed specifically for the band’s fans.
There are few rock bands that are as legendary as Guns N’ Roses, a status that has seen them be featured in many movies, TV shows, and video games, mostly where their tracks are featured on the soundtrack.
But Guns N’ Roses Video Slots puts them centre-stage. Alongside reels filled with the band members and other iconography, the game is packed with themed bonus features. This includes the Crowd-Pleaser feature where you win prizes for filling up the ‘Crowd Meter’.
Driver
Driver was an action driving game released originally for the PlayStation in 1999. It was an ambitious creation, developed by Reflections and GT Interactive, that drew inspiration from Hollywood movies from the 1970s that featured epic car chases.
You play an undercover cop posing as a wheelman for hire, with the entirety of the gameplay taking place in a car.
And as you tear up the streets of Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, you’re treated to a spectacular soundtrack of rock songs that would fit right into those 1970s movies.
Taking it to another level, you can step into Film Director mode which lets you turn your antics into a Hollywood-inspired chase scene with different artistic camera angles and those upbeat rock tracks.
Doom
Doom is another legendary video game franchise. It’s got such a cult following that there is even an internet trend/meme where tech-savvy people make the game run on all sorts of obscure technology.
The first Doom game was released in 1993 with the first level released for free in a model that encouraged players to share it with their friends. It was an immediate hit, helping to spark many sequels.
In addition to being a pioneer of the first-person shooter genre, Doom also has an epic set of songs in its background music. All tracks were digitally synthesised due to the technical limitations of the time but these dark synth-rock songs were a huge hit with fans. In fact, they loved them so much, Bethesda released an album of the original soundtrack in 2016.
