This is the video that the sounds appeared in, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YooHzXikL5c I personally Find the noise over used and quite annoying considering there's already a sign that you've been hit (the blood) and thus its overused and not necessary unless its tied with explosives.
I said the third option. To me its not that big of a deal. I like it. It would be better for just grenades. But I think it would be to late with only and couple of weeks left.
When shot no, when stuff explodes yes. The shock-wave and noise does mess which your hearing, although I'm not a big fan of the heavy breathing when close to death
to me it seemed he only lost hearing when a explosion went off, but it did look like he loss some hearing when firing too sometimes, have you ever shot a real gun? some are very loud and when you shoot it without ear protection you cant hear for a sec, all you hear is a ringing or your self breathing
If it's not overused then I couldn't care less, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 does the same thing, it's not too bad.
Unless you use TB PX21's like me and have the bass rolled all the way up... a tank/mortar/circle-strafing chopper barrage is enough to make your brain fall apart like a wet cake. I learned my lesson soon enough. :confused:
I like the sound going out if/when an explosion goes off right by you.. maybe add a little ringing for a very short time too. Would be cool.. and kind of authentic.