Randomly Mine: March 24th (Rapid Edition)

Being that I’m currently writing the Wolfenstein script, I thought it’d be fun to make a sort of immediately Mine rather than something that accumulates over a couple days.

Sound-Design

I actually talked about this in the Wolfenstein script, but had to cut down because it was eating way too much screen time for something that’d only make viewers comment “…what?”

There’s a consistency in Bungie that’s remained from the early days of Marathon all the way to Destiny and that’s their gunshots. Weapons fired in all of Bungie’s first person shooters are punchy… but not too much. The Shotgun, Battle Rifle, and Sniper Rifle sound effects are practically iconic but they aren’t effects that’ll be pushing your speakers to the breaking point. Which is why when Halo 4 came out I nearly had my socks blown off when first firing the Assault Rifle, which sounded like it was punching cannon balls through my enemies… and I loved it.

There were plenty of games at this time with powerful sound-effects. Max Payne 3, Killzone 3, and DICE’s Multiplayer component to Medal of Honor, I always held in high regard in that last game how even 9mm pistols sounded appropriately devastating, and this speaks to my personal taste.

I’ve always hated how in so many games featured weapons that straight up felt like cap guns in their audio, weight, and impact. It pissed me off for the simple cave-man brained reasoning of it being a gun… a GUN. You know, those things that the moment one is even seen let alone fired most ordinary people immediately freeze up like a terrified puppy? Yeah, how exactly does a military shooter make those seem like they fire nothing but apologies? It’s ridiculous and frankly baffling to me that in an age where every big-budgeted audio-team had access to a range, that they could be beaten by a couple dudes who started with a Half Life 2 mod called Insurgency?

But what I’ve come to realize is that this frustration led to me swinging the pendulum in the other direction, not considering that in Medal of Honor, having the M9 pistol literally sound like a .50 cal rifle is just as stupid. I still find it entertaining as hell and if you’re going to virtually hand me an overly weak firearm versus an overly powerful one, I’m taking the latter in a heartbeat, but abrasive gun-shots just like anything else, have many things that need to be taken into account while implementing.

I absolutely adore Call of Duty 2’s almost terrifying soundscapes of war as that’s exactly how a World War II game should be if it’s aiming for an authentic experience. But it is exhausting, and Bungie’s ability to have weapons be memorable, punchy, and satisfying, without occupying the entire audio-mix, is just one of the reasons why people play Halo and Destiny for hours on end…

Because their ears aren’t bleeding after a 4 hour session.

Memed

You know, it just occurred to me that despite only having less than ten episodes, every host of the All Skulls on Podcast has been memed… in the case of Act Man and Xperia, quite a few times actually.

Stadia

It’s rather sad that the people pushing development optimization, increased efficiency tools, and future proofing are Google. Because as someone who deals with Google on a consistent basis, clarity is something you never have when dealing with this company. Which is what I currently foresee with Stadia and already saw to an extent in this first demo. It promises some ground-breaking technology, new development tools, and proper hardcore gaming that can be streamed to any device.

But my thoughts on Stadia are limited because the only thing I was completely sold on throughout the entire demo was the machine learning tool that allows artists to test different styles on greyboxed environments. That is fantastic and they showed it in action.

Everything else is something that’s been demoed before and not in a manner that paid off. In what possible environment could you see Assassin’s Creed on Youtube, click “play now” and be in the game five seconds later. We currently struggle to get into a Youtube video that quickly and even if we do, there’s two five second ads waiting to waste the time you saved. In reality, “play now” would be “buy now” unless there’s some type of subscription service attached which frankly, I’m already apprehensive about as it’s a direction I envisioned everybody moving to and with Xbox Game Pass, Origin Access, and Yearly Ubisoft Season Passes, is already starting to be the case.

Not to mention the entire hour went by without a single word from Google on how the average internet user can possibly stream games with appropriate control.

Getting more games into more people’s hands is never a negative in my eyes, and I think Google is right to address one of the biggest barriers to entry, that needing to even get a console, PC, or handheld system in the first place. But I’m not surprised that there’s a healthy dose of skepticism with Stadia in large part due to the name that’s attached. Though I should point out, could anybody pitch this idea without skepticism? It is uncharted territory, and I do believe despite my apprehension with the company, if anybody has the resources, scale, and influence to pull this off, it’s Google.

Wait

I wrote all of this in a half-hour? God… its sooo much easier to write off the top of my head without concerns for the video, viewers, or pacing! Though now I’ve already matched my serious script’s wordcount…

And I’m supposed to sleep comfortably.

Goodnight I guess.

Crap.