Laced Records keeps doing the lord's work for game music collectors. Next up is the complete Rust soundtrack on vinyl, pressed and shipping in January.

If you've spent real time in Facepunch Studios' survival sandbox, you know the audio does a lot of heavy lifting. The ambient tracks that creep in when you're hiding from other players, the tension when things go sideways. It earns its place on a turntable.

According to Bleeding Cool, Laced is handling the full soundtrack. Not a curated greatest-hits selection. You're getting the complete score, which for a game like Rust matters, because so much of that music is designed to sit underneath hours of gameplay without wearing out its welcome.

Laced Records has built a serious reputation in this space, working with major titles and treating the source material right. From what I've seen from their releases over the years, they put out a quality product. Good pressings, solid packaging. They're not dumping low-quality product and cashing in on nostalgia.

I've been collecting game soundtracks on vinyl for a few years now, and it feels like a whole different world from when I was a kid. Back in the late '80s, if you wanted video game music on a physical format you were pretty much stuck importing a CD from Japan or hoping your local import shop had something good behind the counter. I remember special-ordering a Final Fantasy III OST from a shop two towns over and waiting six weeks for it to arrive. Now you can pre-order a Rust OST pressing online and have it show up at your door.

The January ship date means these will land right after the holiday rush, which is either great timing or terrible timing depending on how much your bank account recovered from December. Check the Laced Records store and partner retailers for current pricing and pre-order details.

If you're into game music vinyl, this one's probably going on your shelf. And if you've never given the Rust score a focused listen outside the game, January's a good excuse to fix that.