Yall can anybody recommend a game with some good exploding heads? I've been chasing that feeling of popping a locust head with a sniper rifle for years and nothing has come close.

Probably the Sniper Elite series. I can't speak to how they play as I never touched them, but when it comes to body bits separating I think it's second only to maybe Mortal Kombat, which is another you could try if violent head trauma is your only desire. If that you mean is you are looking for a good shooter, I always enjoy going back and playing the original Painkiller, specifically on PC. Just about any machine made in the past ten years should run it like a dream. It's levels and speed are still fun today. It's actually comparatively not that violent but it's still a blast to zoom through the imaginative levels.

I don't think popping heads with a rifle in Gears can be rivaled.
The Sniper Elite suggestion is good and similarly rewarding but they don't pop, i can only think of Turok 2 or Gunman Chronicles.
My award for most disturbing headshots goes to Kane & Lynch 2, putting a pixel filter in the way makes it look really gross.

You know there’s probably too much else going on to really be what you’re looking for but Destiny does still have the best headshots in the business.

Fallout 3 and 4 still have some great head pops, and you don't even have to aim to get them.

Edit: Does anyone know what game the latest screenshot in the "Exploding Head" image gallery is from?

I don't know if I'd recommend it in this day and age, but PS2 game Cold Winter had a super satisfying head pop, especially when you did it with the big M1911 style hand cannon thing.

Postal 2, maybe?

The Last of Us Part II had shockingly graphic head pops (and all kinds of other pops if you played with the more exotic tools and ammo types), while Red Dead II also does in more comical and less predictable ways.

I concur that Destiny has the best headshot feel of any current video game, though they don't pop so much as disappear watching the enemy's soul plume from their suddenly open neck-bits is a more than acceptable substitute.

So my recommendation comes with a caveat. I really love the head popping in RE4 and RE8. It feels very weightless so it’s definitely not as good as Gears, but it being like this just gives it this very goofy quality, it feels like a slapstick punchline.

I played Zombie Army Trilogy about a month ago. I don't explicitly remember any exploding heads specifically, but I'm sure that they exist since semi-precise entrances and exists for bullet penetration exists. And, despite me buying them but only have played a little bit of The Old Blood and the first few portions of Youngblood, I'm willing to bet that exploding heads are also a thing in the modern Wolfenstein games.

@lobster_johnson: I fucking LOVE that game. I actually wanted to write about it when I was still writing blogs on here years ago. Definitely one of the best PS2-era console shooters that no one's ever heard of. Shockingly good story with very punchy action and Soldier of Fortune levels of gore. I need to play that again soon. I don't explicitly remember what the head popping looks like .

Anyway, I recently bought Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 because it was $4 and I thought it would give it a shot. Honestly, for the price, you kinda can't go wrong. It's very janky but a surprising amount of fun with good action. It also features one of the best exploding heads I've seen in a game. If you use either .50 cal rounds or armor piercing rounds, any headshot that triggers a bullet cam will cause heads to pop like over-ripe melons. It's quite graphic, and although the heads come apart in the exact same way every time, it's never not satisfying.

You don't have to play very far into the game either to gain access to AP rounds. I discovered the head popping by accident hours and hours into the game. Didn't realize I had AP rounds loaded in my gun, got a headshot that triggered a bullet cam...definitely a "holy shit" moment for me.

"I need to see them pop" has some serious Ryan Davis "oddly satisfying, uh uh uh uh uh" energy, and I love it.

My favorite headshots might be from Killing Floor 2. The basic pistol can one-shot standard zombies and always results in a lost head, very satisfying.