Q&A: July 2nd, 2025

Scifiismyjam101 Asks
What are some song changes, or removals in newer additions of games (due to our dear old friend licensing) that bother you personally? There is a cinematic and gameplay sequence in the OG Mafia 3 where the song "Run through the jungle" By Creedence is used to draw a parallel between Lincoln Clay hunting down one of his revenge targets, and his time in Vietnam as a CIA asset hunting down NVA. Which was then removed in the definitive addition that bothers the hell out of me haha. The same is true for a licensed track in Call of duty 4, where in the remaster it is removed and changed from this. https://youtu.be/yBC6AIF-CHw to a generic electronic tune.

I actually haven't encountered this much in games, other than Halo 2 Anniversary, which I never played through far enough to get to the songs that replace Incubus and Breaking Benjamin.

Although, this exact thing bugs the absolute hell out of me with BBC shows, most obviously Top Gear. The BBC is unique in that they use a Network Library that all the shows under their wing have access to.

However, those clearly still are on a rotation, or they're only cleared for Television, not Online Distribution, so all the uses of Rob Dougan, Meat Beat Manifesto, Absurd, Mike Shinoda, and more, get replaced with Stock Music.

Even worse, a lot of the time, they can't even balance it right.

So yeah... as somebody who spends hours and hours syncing visual footage to music, licenses changing that really gets on my nerves.

Fro Bro Asks
Why do people (myself included) like bad/subpar video games?

You're talking to someone who was MINDJACKing to completion.

Can't speak for you, but I like bad/subpar games because they're sometimes... fascinating, in a way that great games can't be.

A common trait of a great game I typically find is that they're extremely intuitive and logical. Titanfall 2, Neon White, Baldur's Gate 3, Rollerdrome, Portal, etc. They're games that have a coherence to them, be it thematically or mechanically.

Bad games can be the opposite to such an extent they become inspiring.

I have no earthly idea who at Rare thought what Perfect Dark -the 8th highest rated game in Metacritic's history- really needed was a mini-game when you're planting explosives, and put it in Zero...

But someone, in-fact, multiple someone's did, and from that, it kinda represents a completely different Era of gaming when this was genuinely something that designers of Console Debuting Mainstream Games were implementing.

-Insert Alan Moore Quote Here-

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