As I progressed through the story campaign for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in preparation for my upcoming review, I was pleased to see that I was not going to endure the same sense of disappointment that I had with Ghosts last year. I don’t know what it was: the exo suit abilities (that ignorant fanboys are claiming is just a ripoff of Titanfall,) the enticing storyline, or maybe the degree of awesome that is virtual Kevin Spacey. I ended up having a great time with Advanced Warfare, something I hadn’t experienced in a CoD game in a long time. The full review, coming out soon, will show how I really feel about the finished product.

But as I was playing the story missions, I found myself gravitating towards a trend, something that I have done before with many games. It’s something that I mentioned to the Sledgehammer Games staff while taking part in an online playtest last week, which I think they found amusing. Advanced Warfare features many impressive chase sequences, and it brought back this old tradition.

So what is this amazing trend? Simple. I use my own soundtracks to games. Not officially mind you. I often don’t even disable the in-game music. But I do load up what I think are more appropriate and fun tunes to play while I’m gaming. I’m wondering how many other people do the same thing?

For me, it originally started with needing my own soundtrack and personal background music for team deathmatchs, but I felt that chases were more appropriate for it. As a result, every time a chase began, I had this music play in the background:

Yes, the title theme from a 1985 Golan-Globus Chuck Norris spectacle has become my de facto chase theme. For those who may have seen the film, I’m sure you’d understand why. However, that wasn’t the only track I used for Advanced Warfare. I won’t go deep into the plot for those who haven’t played the game, but there was a part later on that reminded me of another game that I played last year and enjoyed immensely, especially the ending, right up to the point where I had to play the same track that was used previously:

Sometimes I’d use Stan Bush’s “The Touch” from Transformers: the Movie as well, especially the 2007 version, but I felt that the previous track worked better in the end.

However it wasn’t just Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare that got all the soundtrack changes. I did the same thing with both XCOM reboots: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within. I also noticed something about when I played this…

Every time I played this in the background during the Base or Temple Ship Assault missions, I noticed my soldiers’ accuracy increased by at least 15 percent. So now I can finally say with confidence that any shot with an 85 percent chance to hit will finally connect, without missing even at point blank range. Could the soldiers in the game hear the music as well?

Lastly I have another alternate soundtrack that I used for when completing the Horizon Finale in Forza Horizon 2. Considering the Finale is one long marathon race, I didn’t use the soundtrack from another movie. I took the soundtrack from another racing game I really enjoyed, Split/Second. Specifically I used the soundtrack for the Elite Races, which sounds like they would be used for a grand finale, starting off basic and ending up with something that screams photo finish!

http://youtu.be/IoGBIjfCZk0

I’m sure there are unofficial soundtracks that all of you like to use, and I’m curious to see what they are. Let me know what you consider your ideal soundtracks for which games. In the meantime, I’ll be stuck in Halo for a good while, as long as the Advanced Warfare review gets done first, that is.

Currently Playing: Halo: Master Chief Collection (Xbox One,) Sunset Overdrive (Xbox One)

Waiting For: WWE 2K15