So I saw this post today, the poster was asking people what music they are listening to right now and it sparked a question in my head.

Are videogame soundtracks considered a specific genre of music? What category they fall under an also I would love to know what are some of the best pieces of videogame music?

Personally I love Mother I'm here. Build that wall and Setting sail, coming home from Bastion soundtrack.

Overall they simply count under the OST / Score / Soundtrack genre - unless it's a particular style of music throughout.

Mooze's soundtrack for the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a good example of the latter - rather than a score or a dance soundtrack, it was an experimental dark-ambient / drone album that fit the mood and atmosphere of the game perfectly without infringing on immersion of the environment - and ultimately enhancing it. The album could have done very well as a stand alone realease on a label such as Cold Meat Industry.

Sadly I think the "dynamic music" option of the two other games meant a lot of new fans missed out on the depth the soundtrack added to the first.

Hotline miami - Dark souls - Deus Ex Hr - Homeworld 2- Machinarium

best soundtracks of all the time

Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War - Zero
Here's one of the best pieces of videogame music.

The thing with soundtracks is that some of them only work while playing the game, and they usually suck when just listening to it on its own.These ones are exceptions:

Neverhood Songs
Fallout 1/2
Donkey Kong Country
Dune: Spice Opera
Katamari Fortissimo Damacy

Will need to check out the soundtrack for Thief Gold soon because I'm really loving the dark ambient/drone songs there.

I prefer guest artist on my games so...

Homeworld 1 - YES
Omikron* - David Bowie
Carmageddon 2 - Iron Maiden
GTA Vice City - the ultimate 80s mix tape

* I've never actually played Omikron for more that 2 minutes. The game starts off boring in the options menu and doesn't get any better as you progress.

Oh yea forgot to say the Grand Theft Auto games. They usually have great soundtracks. With sandbox games like this Sleeping Dogs has by far the best though. Tons of awesome classical, Menahan Street Band's The Contender, The Cinematic Orchestra, Anti Pop Consortium, Chali 2na, JJ Doom, Guilty Simpsons, J Dilla, Opeth, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Flying Lotus, Autechre, Squarepusher, Battles, Gonjasufi, and I usually dislike hipster music but the hipster station in the game has some good tracks as well, especially Ladyhawke and Animal Kingdom. This soundtrack is a music nerd's dream.

Prince of Persia forgotten sands. I think it won some awards or best that year. Something like that.
http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Persia-Forgotten-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B003TLG786/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356100603&sr=8-2&keywords=prince+of+persia+forgotten+soundtrack

Medal of Honor
http://www.amazon.com/Medal-Of-Honor/dp/B0043JC8L8/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356100745&sr=301-2

I Bought both Witcher games a couple of days ago to get into their sound tracks, and they seem good.

"Shadow of the colossus" is considered to have one of the best OSTs for a video game. It's well enough regarded that it is quite expensive to acquire.
***edited in a youtube link playing it. A great place of sample a OST.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yv04c6bpMY

It's the same issue as with movie soundtracks. Generally they just are "soundtracks" and it's the category where you'd normally have to look for them in a store/catalogue etc.. It's arguable whether video game soundtracks are the same genre as movie soundtracks (personally I'd say "no"). That doesn't change the fact though that many soundtracks exclusively feature music from a certain more traditional genre or contain music from multiple genres. Say Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill soundtracks consist partially of rock music but mostly feature tracks that don't fit into any generally defined genre - that's one of the reasons why even if "soundtrack" is not a real genre, music from films and games is categorized this way.

And as for some of my favourite game soundtracks (in no particular order):

Hitman: Contracts (by Jesper Kyd, very surreal and dark electronic music)
Freedom Fighters (by Jesper Kyd, as some reviewer put it: "Vangelis on steroids")
Dawn of War (by Jeremy Soule, very epic orchestral music mixed with electronic elements)
Shadow of the Beast (by David Whittaker, undefinable and unique tracker-based music)
Turrican 1-3 (by Chris Hülsbeck, very original and well-composed electronic music that defined the style of the Amiga generation)
Silent Hill 1-4 (by Akira Yamaoka, partially rock music, mostly undefinable melancholic and terrifying stuff)
Jets 'n' Guns (by Machinae Supremacy, "SID metal" that mixes chiptunes with - surprise - metal)
MDK 2 (by various artists but I mean Jesper Kyd's part - pure "fuck yeah" shit of different sorts)
Quake (by Trent Reznor, very experimental stuff, rather eerie atmospheres than music)
Deus Ex (by Alexander Brendon, very diverse atmospheric electronic tracker music)

That's all I have for now.

Yes I very well remember the absolutely fantastic tune of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, it was so well done that it was almost an distinguishable part of the game as it beautifully blend in the game to make a dark, atmospheric and immersive experience. Well I've heard the soundtrack for all of those games except homeworld but if you put it in the same league as the other games, I'll sure give it a listen.
The Soundtrack for the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is available in free (although not in the best of quality) on the official game website. I'd recommend everyone to give it a listen as it's not short of a masterpiece.

Actually, I think the FULL OST is legally free from a Russian gaming site (can't remember it's name) and in much higher quality. Though I do believe it supposed to be regionally restricted, it actually isn't.
Can any Rus please clarify on this?

...and I can definately agree with you on "Deus Ex Hr - Homeworld 2- Machinarium " Xibaiba - though I haven't played the others.

I've always had that turned off. What does it do?

Interesting. I should bring it up next time I discuss adaptive music in video games with my audio buddies. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who actually values "linear" music in video games. Sounds like CoP is a perfect example to prove my point.
It turns dynamic.
(sorry, I just have to think of Rambo whenever I hear that phrase :3)

Nah, seriously, haven't played CoP yet but normally "dynamic music" means that instead of whole songs/tracks the game uses short loops and/or layers that are switched between "according to the situation/events in the game". In my experience it's usually an unnecessary gimmick that hurts the audio experience although there are notable exceptions.

My favourite game soundtracks would be those of Trine and the Little Big Adventure games. I really like the musical pieces of LBA as they aren't "too ambient", i.e. they don't just fade away and become background noise. They capture your attention and becomes a vital part of the gaming experience.