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Are vocals still used in game music (during gameplay as well as in menus)? I believe that they can certainly add to the gameplay experience.

Intro of Two Worlds (first game). Unlike the game, its fairly epic.

And obviously:

Although as you can see, its mostly for intros or game "themes". For actual gameplay music I don't recall any vocals.

Vocalization like you see in Skyrim or the Banner Saga yes. Actual vocals are pretty rare, Portal is the only one I can think of.

Flatout and Need for speed had vocals.

To be fair their soundtracks were mostly just compilations of already released songs.

And the genre lends itself well to this kind of music since you can imagine sitting in the car yourself and blasting the radio.

Vocalization like you see in Skyrim or the Banner Saga yes. Actual vocals are pretty rare

Um, Skyrim's theme has actual lyrics.

Yeah in a made up dragon language, which may as well be vocalization

Yeah in a made up dragon language, which may as well be vocalization

It can be sung in english too. They made it specifically so it rhymes both in the fictional dragon language and in the "translated" english lyrics.

Here: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/dragonborn-skyrim-theme-dragonborn-skyrim-theme.html

Intro of Two Worlds (first game). Unlike the game, its fairly epic.

It's quite captivating, for sure.

Flatout and Need for speed had vocals.

To be fair their soundtracks were mostly just compilations of already released songs.

And the genre lends itself well to this kind of music since you can imagine sitting in the car yourself and blasting the radio.

Oh, I completely forgot about NFS! ATV Offroad Fury [2?] contains a compilation soundtrack that ranges from Stereomud to Korn.

The interesting part about the Sonic series is that the songs were actually composed specifically for the game (many of them directly reference the characters or events in the lyrics). "Escape from the City" in Sonic Adventure Battle 2 is still one of my favorite songs. It was a perfect fit for the level and created a very memorable atmosphere.

I'm always excited when I find a "Sound Test" mode in video games. I've lost many hours just listening to the creative work of the composers. Perhaps that sparked my interest in learning to compose music for games.

Yeah in a made up dragon language, which may as well be vocalization

It can be sung in english too. They made it specifically so it rhymes both in the fictional dragon language and in the "translated" english lyrics.

Here: http://lyricstranslate.com/en/dragonborn-skyrim-theme-dragonborn-skyrim-theme.html

... That is both fascinating and creative.

Witcher 3 is a recent example with vocals during gameplay.