Just watched a surprisingly good Gamestop video on the identity crisis of light machine guns in video games, focusing primarily on multiplayer but discussing elements that apply anywhere. I was reminded of the unique implementation of the PKM in Stalker, which I think works well.

It is perhaps the only weapon you can’t aim down sights, opting for Jin-Roh hipfire. This offsets its supreme firepower with limited accuracy, so its high capacity is necessary to get rounds on target at long range. Encourages using it like a machine gun ought to be used.

As demonstrated it is absolutely overpowered in close quarters, though some effort was made to balance this by reducing your mobility while holding it. You cannot sprint and turning speed is slowed. Stalker also relies on other factors like cost and reliability to balance guns.

Most mods turn it into a generic video game LMG, such a shame when you have near perfection already. I hate having to ADS with machine guns in video games, everybody just wants to shoot that shit from the hip and walk-on with tracers. Stalker got that right and y'all broke it.

I genuinely think the best way to do MGs is simply make hipfire most effective. Maybe cut out crosshairs too so you gotta watch your impacts and tracers, either for your cone of fire or a more stable stream of lead. Don't cut back the lethality of belt-fed rifle rounds.

ADS is already sluggish with most video game LMGs, so simply make it less of a necessity. All these shooters where machine gun hipfire is virtually useless seems like the biggest instance of shooting yourself in the foot. No fun and pretty much wastes a whole weapon class.