Can The Headshot Be Replaced?

“Headshots are ruining games. Think about the arsenal they give you in Splinter Cell. Think about the remote camera, the sticky mines, the grenades, and EMPs, and all this other stuff, shotguns and assault rifles…and you went through the entire game using the default pistol and then the upgraded version of the default pistol, ’cause it’s silenced and you can shoot guys in the head with it really well…all of the spots where you are not being seen by anyone the right answer every single time is shoot that guy in the head…it is ruining games.” – Jeff Gerstmann

Quote taken from Jon Porter’s post over at Bitmob.

I have a confession. I have a confession, and I’m not sure I can explain it, but here it is: I have an addiction to crunch. That visceral feeling, a shot of adrenaline, that rush of blood. I can’t get enough of it. The rasp of your feet when Limbo’s protagonist slides over a mound of earth, Nathan Drake jumping over an impossible abyss only to land in a perfect grapple…there’s a thousand small moments that exist so vividly in my mind, that I can feel in my bones, that I can swear last a lifetime. None of these moments, however, can match the perfection of a single moment: and that’s getting a headshot in Gears.

It’s not a crunch like any other, because it exists on every possible plane. You see it, the skull pops off in this perfect arc: gruesome, but poetic, in this macabre sort of way. You feel it, that perfect surge of rumble, of feedback. And the soundbite! It should be a requirement for any game with a headshot to implement the same soundbite: there’s nothing else out there that gives you the same satisfaction as hearing a Gears 2 headshot.

And the thing is, it’s not like popping bubblewrap or smashing a watermelon with a baseball bat: you’ve got to earn the high. You’ve got to fight for it. In all the FPS games I’ve played, Gears has to be the hardest game to land a headshot in if only because of craptastic connections, and Marcus’ pin-size head doesn’t help the fact that the hitbox for the headshot is questionable. Couple this with the competition of multiplayer and a Gears player’s penchant for masochism, and you’ve got yourself a reward of the highest order.

Of course, this can be said of any game: try searching for Modern Warfare or Battlefield footage on YouTube, and try to find a video that’s not a montage of headshots. Truth is, nearly everyone who plays FPS games are addicted to headshots. Sure, it’s an efficient way of taking an opponent out: most shots to the head do more damage than bodyshots. I’m convinced it has less to do with a player’s desire to get rid of enemies as fast as possible as it does with a semblance of the headshot high.

Think about it. Sure, you can kill a guy. You can do this in a variety of ways, pinpointing a wide array of locations on the body. But there’s a tinge of humiliation that occurs when you best your opponent via headshot. You’re not just killing them, depriving them of bodily function: you’re taking them out completely, their mind is yours to claim as well. You’re turning off the lights, laying claim to body and soul. You have absolute power over them, and all because you managed to dispatch one or two well-placed shots. Power negotiations between players of opposite teams are never more apparent than that search for the infamous BOOM HEADSHOT.

In this way, I can see Jeff’s criticisms clearly: players can become obsessed with the headshot, but it’s because it’s efficient and it feels great, a testament of prowess. No one wants to just “win” when they’re playing against other people (or enemy AI), they want to prove they’re better, they’re faster, they’re stronger. The headshot embodies all those things simply and as elegantly as designers have managed to implement so far. The fact that some games, like Battlefield, give you bonus points for achieving a headshot, isn’t helping, either.

So then the question would be, can you replace the headshot? Is there a way to one-up it, as it were?

Watch the First 10 Minutes of Shank

As of today, the intensely violent brawler is available on both PSN and XBL for 15 bucks–but, maybe you’re still not sure about purchasing the title. That’s fair. If you don’t feel like testing out the demo for whatever reason, I present to you another option: watch the first 10 minutes of Shank–story, gameplay and all. Hopefully you can get a sense of what the game is like, and perhaps it will sway you into trying out the demo at the very least.

Listen to Shank’s Original Score

The Shank blog delivers the musical goods today, gifting us with the opportunity to listen to a track off their upcoming downloadable title, Shank. Scored by Vancouver’s Vincent De Vera, the track is what a man would sound like, if he were an original score intending to depict the pinnacle of manliness. Yeah, I just wanted to use the word man and manly as much as I could there, because really, it’s the only way to describe this track.

Listen to Track 01 by Vincent De Vera and Jason Garner

If you enjoyed that, make sure to head on over to the Shank Facebook page and ‘like’ it–Klei Entertainment promises to “release the entire soundtrack for free… in all its DRM-free glory” if they manage to get 1,500 fans.

And This Is Why You’re Going To Buy Shank…With a Friend

You’re going to buy Shank. You don’t know it yet, but you are. This first trailer proves it:

Not just you, though. Your friends are going to buy it too, and you’re going to play it together. Like real men should.

Release dates are as follows:

Playstation Network: August 24, 2010

Xbox LIVE Arcade: August 25, 2010

PC: Fall 2010

Price point: 1200 Microsoft Points / $14.99