Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546054
68 M PS E . O R G David Jegutidse: Absolutely, it's one of the greater challenges with this aesthetic. We are very consciously not making a simulation but focusing on playable and impactful believability. Players should feel like there is always credibility to the soundscape, but we also must balance that with gameplay readability, feedback, and, of course, cool factor. Hit and kill indicators, along with the other in-game UI, bespoke enemy and friendly mixes, content differences across the game, and a plethora of situational mix states all help focus the soundscape on what's important or interesting. There are many ways in which we bend realism. However, we try to do it in a way that can be explained through psychoacoustics, or that is just impactful enough without becoming so obvious that the illusion breaks. We want players to feel fully immersed and think about the experience as something they step into and discover, rather than something pre-made and specifically shaped for them, even though the truth lies somewhere in between. Jeff Wilson: We also push and pull authenticity and cinematic impact between our experiences, giving each its own feel. For example, our multiplayer mix sets our baseline in terms of combat immersion. But in REDSEC, which leans more toward competitive gameplay, we take a more minimalistic approach. One difference happens with our ambient worldbuilding. We have audio assets for distant warfare, which play as a positional 'add' layer on top of our ambiences. These assets help give our MP maps that 'All Out War' feeling. They help to tell the story of a massive, chaotic theater of war happening all around the player. But intentionally, we don't use those assets in REDSEC, to try and keep the mix as clean as possible. In this experience, we keep our soundscape focused on what's Senior Armorer / Weapons Operator Larry Zanoff (top), and Armorer / Weapons Operator John Welch (middle) capturing weaponfire sound effects on location in Southern California for BF audio. Firearms used while capturing weapon sound effects on location.