Q&A: November 25th, 2020

DaCody Asks
What is your favorite place to listen to music?

Bed, or the countryside.

The former's good for me while reading, because that even with a compelling book, I can't keep my focus 100% on the page. My brain's on fire, feeling like that ball from Lethal League at top speed, ricocheting in my mind. So booting up a playlist of atmospheric tracks tends to put me in a world removed from my own.

The latter's great for simultaneous wonder and unease. When you're in a park, town, or field, and there's absolutely nothing but you and the music. It's introvert heaven.

The Great Leveler Asks
My question is what is the meatiest headshot in a game you can think of?

Ooo, now that's a tough one, there's quite a few options. Treyarch's headshot sound-effect from WaW to BO2 (I don't know if they kept using it) is amazing, and distinct. It always squeezed a reaction out of me and friends when using a Sniper Rifle. The Gears of War series had great headshots from day one, but I think the pick would have to be Max Payne 3.

Other games have great sound, effects, and ragdolls, but very few have got as satisfying of a bullet cam to end each gunfight.

The_Surviv0r Asks
In your opinion, what exactly is a good use of nostalgia in games?

That's tough honestly, because I think it's an incredibly delicate balance between moving, and manipulative. Off the top of my head, I would imagine it has to do with the depth of that nostalgia. Does that nostalgia make you think of new things alongside the old? Does it stir your memories to make a point? Or is it just there to ogle at like a Stripper?

NFS: Heat's actually become quite useful, as I think it's one of the most hideous examples of pointless nostalgia. At the end of the game, the BMW from Most Wanted shows up. It's not connected to the story, or the location, or the theme, and it's forgotten about as quickly as it shows up.

That's bad nostalgia, that's nostalgia whose sole job is to make the viewer point at the screen like Leonardo Dicaprio. Good nostalgia? MGS4's Shadow Moses is the game's universal highpoint. You don't just revisit the location to stir a random memory, it directly reinforces Snake's old age. It uses the meta-technique to put you alongside the character.

Shame Kojima uses that to kill Cancer with Nanomachines and try to make people feel sad for a vampire.