the first person shooter game thread (eew fps)

[Austin]

FYI for people unaware, if you already had Quake via Steam, you get the upgraded version for free.

[scrilla4rella]

New PC player here.

Then I have to recommend XIII (if on PC) and Star Wars: Republic Commando (if without quicksave/quickload) to you. Since I'm not really much of an FPS player, but those two so did it for me. That I can't think of any other FPS which would do something quite like either isn't saying much as - again - I'm not a connoisseur. I just don't think those two made quite the impact they deserved to make.

I'd like to know about console-only FPS-ers anybody thinks should be remembered, if only due to virtue of not being completely awful whilst NOT being on PC at all.

Just saw this, thanks for the recs. I recently picked up both of those. I got Republic Commando up and running in 1440p and a high refresh rate, I've had a lot of fun with it so far. XIII was giving me more trouble, Need to tinker with it a bit more. The art style looks amazing, esp considering when it was released.

That new update to Quake sure is sweet. I've been enjoying playing the new episode Machine Games made for it. I also want to get that new port of PowerSlave/ Exhumed soon. You gotta give it up for NighDive studios

[Ed Oscuro]

XIII recently got a remake. I should bite my tongue but I feel it's just a competent adventure shooter. Most of the story and David Duchovny's voice work were particularly weak in my view. But if you like it, you could always check out 2005's Area 51 which is another Duchovny vehicle with a conspiratorial storyline. More by-the-book gameplay in that one, though.

For a console-only FPS that is quite decent, you could always check out Urban Chaos: Riot Response, Rocksteady's tongue-in-cheek sendup of the War On Terror era. Highly UNDERrated in my view, and I found it very playable. I've not tried the PS2 version, just the Xbox.

[Ed Oscuro]

Speaking of updates, somebody pathtraced ("ray traced") DOOM! It works with DOOM, and to some degree DOOM II and the FREEDOOM WADs.

Cool beans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Ld9YNUWls

[Blinge]

Fucking hell i'm enjoying the steam port of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Plays like a Quake clone with the requisite speed and ultra violence. Tearing through the jungle shooting exploding and slashing enemies to a tribal drums soundtrack

fuckin rad, the game that was hiding underneath N64 limitations and the controller
glorious WASD

[Udderdude]

https://www.indieretronews.com/2022/12/ ... s-for.html

New FPS for Amiga 500 and Atari ST. Mighty impressive looking visuals for such low end hardware. It's somewhere between Doom and Wolfenstein 3D in terms of features. There's no floor and ceiling textures, no floor height variations, and the lighting model is simplified. But for what it is, it looks really cool. Too bad something like this never saw a release back in the day, outside of FPS like Gloom and Alien Breed 3D, both of which required a much more powerful Amiga. lol

[Air Master Burst]

Fucking hell i'm enjoying the steam port of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Plays like a Quake clone with the requisite speed and ultra violence. Tearing through the jungle shooting exploding and slashing enemies to a tribal drums soundtrack

fuckin rad, the game that was hiding underneath N64 limitations and the controller
glorious WASD

It actually did get a PC release back in the day, but the lack of proper multiplayer meant it was pretty much dead in the water.

Turok 2's pc port was actually the superior version since the N64 version's framerate is pretty bad, but unfortunately by 99 it was so far outclassed by the rest of the pc fps catalogue it never stood a chance.

I hear the remasters are very good, though! Shame they never did 3 or Rage Wars.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Rage Wars was great! Probably my most played N64 FPS honestly.

[Lander]

To this day, the Cerebral Bore is still the height of split-screen humiliation.

[Air Master Burst]

To this day, the Cerebral Bore is still the height of split-screen humiliation.

Mastering the grenade launcher in modern warfare 4 made you a god in split screen once you knew the maps. By the end of deployment nobody would play me.

[Blinge]

noob tube smh

[Air Master Burst]

noob tube smh

The real fun comes when two people who both know the maps and firing angles real good face off, then it becomes an intricate long-range dance of destruction over walls and around corners where you never actually see the other person and one misstep typically ends in death. Basically a ranged indirect fire Bushido Blade.

[Lander]

Noob tube is effective, but you have to bring your own shit talk if the opponent skips the killcam.

With the Bore, viewing is mandatory

[Air Master Burst]

Noob tube is effective, but you have to bring your own shit talk if the opponent skips the killcam.

With the Bore, viewing is mandatory

It's less about individual moments of humiliation and more the overall sense of utter worthlessness you get while losing to an opponent you never even get to see or shoot at.

Usually I would suicide after firing all my grenades to deny my opponent even the chance at a kill.

ETA: Also, when I see noob tube I instantly think of the AWP in CS instead of the COD grenade launcher.

[BIL]

PS4 DOOM & DOOM II (by necessity known as "Classic" "1994" etc) are going for next to nothing atm so I picked em up, having always heard they were deceptively effortful works. Seems so! The update history tells of a herculean dedication to get 'em accurate to DOS ca 1994. Glorious KBM support and vsync off (more like fuck right off mirite) for super-sharp control! Yeee! I wouldn't have bothered without KBM (see also the lovely PS4 Quake). Can't get that death-dicing sense of shaving past BEEFEH HITS while dispensing OWN-BRAND JUSTICE on a pad. Must have der eisenfaust on das totenmaus!

I've a silly fetish for oldschool 90s FPSs running at PC standard on a console with an HDD full of contemporaneous arcade and console ports. Dunno, I grew up on a massive fuckoff ranch, then lived out of a suitcase in a tiny loft apt for a several years at university, so I like to keep a suitcase machine around in case similar recurs, naw mean. PS4 + flatscreen GAYMING MONITOR and a pad+stick plus a roll of bubblewrap, and some fuckin clean socks n' drawers obv = all good bro! You'll move home - OR DIE - before you get good at even half this stuff tbh ;3

DAFTEH MISTAKES: (seen in both games)

- No way to choose straight UV +fast. Happily, you can just use the Stage Select to kick off an ep. Difficulty selector box has UV+. Seems like something they could patch in, but these poor SOBs seem to have done quite enough so I'm not terribly BOVVED naw mean.

- If you save on Nightmare, the game will forget the +fast on reload. "Why would you save on Nightmare, that is some WEAK SHIT YALL" Yeah I know, but this was before I figured out the UV+ trick above ;3 I like to savour the carnage mmkay.

- No keyboard/mouse remap. Fuck! You also can't disable the gamepad weapon switch on mousewheel, which jars a bit if you use it in the heat of glorious KBM battle. Quake spoiled me. But thankfully, it's a pretty nice WASD layout.

FEELING ON THAT BOOTEH:

- KBM controls be FIIINE Zeroing in on screaming chumps while dumping white-hot loads on em as they uselessly spunk all over the wall be JUST LIKE ON MUH PC

- 60fps 16:9 conversion seems spot-on, can see 4 miles m8, might be all the 32X DOOM talking admittedly 3;

- VSYNC off, Always Sprint, both very nice, not many customisations but those two are biggies

And that's about all I can think to note, besides their fuckin massive DL size; like ~300mb apiece, so no good if you're strapped for HDD space. I ain't, 99% of my stuff is ACA/ShotTriggers with a bit of FUROMUSOFTU, even this ghetto-ass PS4 slim I got FO FREE ain't half full after ~3yrs

Anyhoo, yeah, PS4 plays a decent round of DOOM/II indeed, do chuck 'em the tuppence if curious.

[Air Master Burst]

accurate to DOS ca 1994. Glorious KBM support

If you're using the mouse to play DOOM, you're not doing it accurate to DOS ca 1994.

Of course, DOOM with mouselook is far superior to classic keyboard-only controls so I don't blame anyone!

[Steven]

You're both doing it wrong; when I played FPS back then I used this guy



Or at least one that looked and functioned exactly like it.

[drauch]

accurate to DOS ca 1994. Glorious KBM support

If you're using the mouse to play DOOM, you're not doing it accurate to DOS ca 1994.

Of course, DOOM with mouselook is far superior to classic keyboard-only controls so I don't blame anyone!

This is an incorrect thing that gets thrown around a lot. It's even in the manual with mouse support.

https://soulsphere.org/apocrypha/keyboa ... 2D%20FALSE.

[BIL]

^^^ Yeah, I always do a double-take on the no-mouse thing. Mags were raving about Romero circlestrafe-murdering people's heads off at the very first LAN parties, even before the BALLS DEEP IN TEH DEAD shareware hit COOLEGE FTPs and promptly asploded 'em.

Sweet Jebus. Although my heart belongs to consoles, and lately arcades, NOTHING makes me feel like a little kid on Christmas morning again like recalling that first DOOM print ad with fine print suggesting you hit up the local FTP/BBS. My fuckin jaw hit the floor at the thought of something looking like that moving like Wolf3D. Looked like fuckin oil paintings ;-;

Even Wolf3D had KBM, though not dedicated strafe buttons - you can tell the demo players are using a mouse by that whisker-fine door-sweeping action, not that anyone worth their Wolf3D salt is gonna stand in front of an opening door.

Cleared out E1 @ UV+ while waiting on PC to update, really smooth! Didn't see any jank even with my most anciently improper routes. Bit of screen tear at one point but that's to be expected with vsync whacked firmly to OFF. I hate vsync, I kill a vsync for fun!

Enjoyed a bit of Quake too, damn, these are some good ports for the unhallowed slapdashery of couch KBM! Witness the disgraced survival of a man so crusty, he forgets the second E1M3 Shambler: GORILLA BUMMING w/ REAL EMOTIONS EXCHANGED CAUGHT ON FILM

[Air Master Burst]

accurate to DOS ca 1994. Glorious KBM support

If you're using the mouse to play DOOM, you're not doing it accurate to DOS ca 1994.

Of course, DOOM with mouselook is far superior to classic keyboard-only controls so I don't blame anyone!

This is an incorrect thing that gets thrown around a lot. It's even in the manual with mouse support.

https://soulsphere.org/apocrypha/keyboa ... 2D%20FALSE.

I didn't say DOOM didn't have mouse support available (it was actuslly designed with mouselook in mind), I'm just saying that almost nobody actually played it that way back then.

[BIL]

I sure fuckin did, and so did my buddies, after my HARD GAYMER INTUITIONS were proven correct and I buttfucked em in teh inaugural DEFMATCH WEEKEND CLASIC ;3

Ah, the halcyon Friday of Noob KB versus Noob KBM. Floating across teh hellish battlefield like an idle SR50 cloud, circling in confounding parabolas and dispensing JUSTICE LOADS at leisure to much sweary opprobrium, and soon enough, begrudging trips to SETUP.EXE



("ITS CHEATIN, WAAAAAA"
"Pussyhole, you got a mouse too! AND your PC's faster than mine!" (it's true! my little 386/25mhz that could 3;)
"ID KILL U ON KB THO"
"Best kill THIS DICK" (*CHAINSAW THROUGH SPINE* *HORRIFIC GRINDING NOISES* *RESULTS SCREEN BGM*)

And so a young boy discovered the wonders of L2P

Although I don't actually enjoy playing Wolf3D with a mouse, it's a huge advantage there too, even with the game's shameful lack of WASD. Way cleaner slicing through them 90' turns in search of Brownshirt POUSYBOIS / hunting those terrifying JUMPSCARE ZOMBIS / dodging SHIN MECHA HITLER's dastardly JIGOKU NO FLAMMENWERFER

Wolf3D Total Conversion for GZDOOM is good imo. That adds strafe, and bullet impact puffs, and fixes the vapour doors that enemies will pointblank skullfuck you through while they're rumbling open in OG Wolf3D. Legit improvement, that last one, imo. Always felt a bit artificial, the "hop aside while door opens" Death Incarnate ritual. Even in DOOM's UV+Fast / Nightmare, where you often have to blast enemies as doors open, you still won't be insta-tagged as long as you're quick on the trigger.

When I saw a hail of enemy fire striking a closing door, I knew teh new era had arrived. Fuck a floor over floor, Casa del idSoft mk1 didn't even have working doors. Imagine you go to open your front door and a bird glitches straight through and shits all over your face, what the fuck

I played so much fuckin id/Raven stuff between '92 and '99, I had this recurring dream of Wolf3D having deathmatch... for all I know, someone actually had modded something like that up, by then, but I was never particularly online. Still ain't actually, hence trying out these PS4 ports like six years late. (DOOM & DOOM II, that is; Quake's a lot newer)

[Sima Tuna]

The kings of retro FPS for me:

DOOM
DOOM 2: SON OF DOOM
QUAKE
DUKE 3D: THE DUKENING

I never got around to playing BLOOD or Shadow Warrior but I'm sure I'd enjoy those too. I don't really do the whole multiplayer gig. Always been a single player type. So I get into the more structured campaign FPS rather than purely multiplayer like Unreal Tournament.

Kings of modern FPS (again, for me:)

Original Halo CE on og ecksbawks
Crysis
Borderlands 2

I heard some recent retro FPS have come out. Boltgun just dropped. Other than "it's too easy" I've not heard much negative about it.

[Austin]

This is an incorrect thing that gets thrown around a lot. It's even in the manual with mouse support.

https://soulsphere.org/apocrypha/keyboa ... 2D%20FALSE.

I didn't say DOOM didn't have mouse support available (it was actuslly designed with mouselook in mind), I'm just saying that almost nobody actually played it that way back then.

So what you are actually saying is, nobody was doing it right back then.

[Air Master Burst]

So what you are actually saying is, nobody was doing it right back then.

Pretty much? DOOM being Shareware and running on basically everything meant that most computers that had it installed in the 90s weren't dedicated gaming rigs, and most of the people playing DOOM were pretty casual gamers. The first time I played Wolf3D and DOOM was on a laptop my dad brought home for a couple weeks for some engineering project back in 1994, and it didn't even HAVE a mouse; just one of those little rubber nubbins wedged between three of the letter keys.

Having keyboard-only being the "default" option when it first asks you to choose your settings was probably enough to ensure keyboard-only supremacy for that era. I get why they did it (tons of people didn't even have mice regularly hooked up back then), but it definitely set a precedent. Mouselook didn't really become the standard until Windows 95 caught on with the casuals (Duke3D/Quake and later).

I would be willing to bet that there are far more people who have installed and played chapter 1 of DOOM than there are people who have read the manual of literally ANY DOOM game.

ETA:
Even hardcore players overwhelmingly used keyboard only:

Based on the most popular responses the average DOOM player who answered this survey played DOOM on an Intel 80486DX/33 with 8MB of RAM, a Tseng ET 4000 video card, a Sound Blaster Pro soundcard, using a keyboard for control, did not have access to a LAN to play DOOM, those that did preferred Deathmatch over Cooperative play, did not upgrade their system as a result of DOOM and was not planning on upgrading, was a 19 year-old male, had turned three friends onto DOOM, ordered the full registered version of DOOM and did not have a problem getting their order, chose the shotgun as their favorite weapon and really wanted id to add a flamethrower weapon into DOOM.

[BIL]

Plain old mouse control was highly visible in Wolf3D, as well as DOOM, whose earliest "READ THIS!" screen clearly caters for Wolf3D mausewaffen. Feels like a nod to earlier, slower-moving FPV roleplaying games, in hindsight.

Spoiler

KBM, on the other hand, was an ad-hoc thing in Wolf3D (edit: the below thread reminds me, it's suggested in the beautiful in-house strategy guide bundled with later retail editions). In DOOM, thanks to improved customisation, plus the ground-shattering addition of PVP, it was always regarded as an exotic yet lethally practical pro standard. This even before the famously frenzied release, which saw 10,000 simultaneous downloads crash the chosen network, one id themselves could barely log into to upload. PC Gamer, VG&CE, and at least one more major mag whose name escapes me (though the mag itself doesn't; all in heaving old Rubbermaids at my folks' place) featured lengthy tales of visiting id in Texas, getting dazzled by the unprecedented FPV intensity of DOOM, and the staggering lethality of John Romero and his Mugen Totenmaus-ryuu in the 4P Deathmatch.

Long after release, when similar articles were accompanying the console ports, you'd always hear of the healthy LAN culture down at id's HQ. It was a huge part of the rockstar geek personas they enjoyed throughout the latter 90s.

Now, while I vaguely recalled rumblings within the game literature itself suggesting KBM - and most definitely in post-release strategy guides with commentary from Romero & co - I had forgotten just how explicit they were:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/1 ... oard-only/

Good reading! Now it's all coming back. It reminds me of SFII, from around the same time, making arcade sticks mainstream-desirable again during its own heyday, despite the ongoing bad case of FMV diarrhoea. When a game hits transcendent popularity, and its raison de'tre is "kill the other guys spectacularly," this stuff can happen. And likewise, post-SFIV, arcade stick mods are mainstream cool again.

(that OP is an OG - he, too, notes The Wolf3D Tapes were recorded on totenmaus. :3 huge help in that game, with the squirrelly X-axis)

KBM exploded exponentially post-DOOM, of course. Descent, Duke3D, and soon enough Quake itself made it a PC FPS institution. Although, I seem to recall John Carmack disabling +mlook in the latter's early revs, thinking it'd overwhelm people. Pussy! Nah just kidding. I'm sure he knew those who wanted it would ferret it out in no time.

EDIT: Whoops It was actually Romero. God damn, you know an option is powerful when even he questions whether the masses are ready for it. Only un-defaulted though, and he soon reversed that flag, once it became clear the fanbase knew what was up. And what was down. Jeeze, the thought of playing Quake without freelook to casually suss out what you're landing on - or what's landing on you - makes me ill. Get civil you, you... KB PLEBES

EDIT2: Horeh shiet! Not only are TNT and Plutonia avaiable FO FREE as add-ons, so is Romero's new ep SIGIL. I will always maintain, as a general-purpose reference platform, PS4 got some fuckin gorilla balls man. Reference-quality Garegga, Guevara and DOOM isn't something thought medically possible until recently.

Speaking of mausendemos, love how SIGIL's features a quantum leap over the old DOOM reel... that one was running in all its "Really bro? Really?" with the supremely resourceful DOOMguy killing three imps, and unfortunately himself by pointblanking a pile of assplosionbarrels. Meanwhile SIGIL dude is beating a Barry 2 DEF w/Berserk pack and masterly footwork

You can feel the history tonight in this arena!

Well that's this weekend fucked, I must investigate our errant rockstar's return project.

[TransatlanticFoe]

You have not experienced DOOM until you have played it in the original SNES version

[Lander]

It was actually Romero. God damn, you know an option is powerful when even he questions whether the masses are ready for it. Only un-defaulted though, and he soon reversed that flag, once it became clear the fanbase knew what was up

I wonder, was Yung Romero heel enough to have done this not out of an early railway "sir, their lungs will explode at 50MPH!" stewardship, but instead as a machiavellian power play to pump the scene with easily-orbitable KB players fated to Suck It Down.

[BIL]

We mustn't rule out the possibility. KFC is one hell of a drug - as a quick before/after of our hard-living titan of industry will remind!

A young fresh-faced rocker just getting used to the accoutrements of being More Popular Than Jesus:

Spoiler

A podgy-before-his-time despot, wise old friends scorned for a fawning court of fools, on the eve of a personal Rubicon to make Caesar weep in pity:

Spoiler

HOW COULD YOU SELL OUT THE KBM BROS, JONNEH BOI?! (■｀w´■) Ain't NOBODY in the pro DEAFUMATCH scene use that junk! Ah well. Time makes fools of us all. Rapha sends his regards.

Speaking of, I wish I could find that *hilarious* early 00s footage, not long after Mishima received his comeuppance ( ), where a humbled - but still rockin'! - JR took to the stage alongside Nokia's 7ft Nordic valkyrie chairwoman, to nervously squeak out his next INSPIRIN sales pitch, something involving the N-Gage. WOW THAT TURNED OUT AMAZIN

I swear the fucking thing's vanished, or even more disturbingly, never was uploaded! It's in an old Edge, I'll have to find a scan. Amazing scene by its account. (this was Good EDGE, not to be confused with the earlier Shite EDGE who whined about not being able to parlay with the face-eating demons in DOOM!)

[Austin]

You have not experienced DOOM until you have played it in the original SNES version

Hey, that was my first version of the game. Played the hell out of it despite all its faults (I didn't really notice BITD because it was my first experience with, well, first person shooting games). Still have a fondness for it, but yeah, you have to be somewhat special to be able to sit through it these days.

Plain old mouse control was highly visible in Wolf3D, as well as DOOM, whose earliest "READ THIS!" screen clearly caters for Wolf3D mausewaffen. Feels like a nod to earlier, slower-moving FPV roleplaying games, in hindsight.

Despite the options being available out of the box, the fact is it did take time for the features to catch on. I recall playing Quake like I played DOOM, and it wasn't until I was playing deathmatch heavily that someone told me to get used to vertical mouselook, and how to set it up. There was a control mapping for it right in the key config, but I never bothered to try it until that moment. Shooting rockets at the ground and players' feet? Holy crap, what a game changer.

[BIL]

I grew up with a valiantly spluttering 386 (12hz Normal / 25hz X-TREEEEEEM) that could juuust about handle E1 @ Ultraviolence with low-res and the third-smallest window, but really entered charity case territory on anything heavier. Probably a training aid of sorts; besides massacring my buddies, I was all Berserk-pack "MUDAMUDAMUDAAA!" on Barries n' Archies, having observed their patterns and animations at Metal Slug 2 conditions for so long. "WAAAA, DOOM II LAST BOSS A FUCK" "Hmm? Oh yeah him lmao"

Before I got better PC gear, I thought the 32X one might prove a stopgap. And tbh it doesn't. Performs ok, especially if you rein expectations into KB-only, but what bit my ass is all the missing enemies and architecture. So many standout ambushes and twists ain't there. Halls Of The Damned's rather terrifying false ending comes to mind!

I heard the SNES one "showed up the 32X version" with more of that missing contact, so I tried it out, and I must say it was a religious experience. As in:

"sup Saul heard you OG" "who dis AAAAA MY EYES JESUS FUCKIN CHRIIIIST" "das rite lmao"
~Saul later changed his name and refused to play anything earlier than PS1 DOOM~

(PS1 DOOM having mouse control now that was a fuckin good port! still treasure my little NTSCJ copy with the POWERFUL boxart of BIKERDOOMGUY putting both barrels through MIDORI-KUN the mysterious green fucker in righteous "OwO EAT SHELLS MUHFUCKA" fury!)

Despite the options being available out of the box, the fact is it did take time for the features to catch on. I recall playing Quake like I played DOOM, and it wasn't until I was playing deathmatch heavily that someone told me to get used to vertical mouselook, and how to set it up. There was a control mapping for it right in the key config, but I never bothered to try it until that moment. Shooting rockets at the ground and players' feet? Holy crap, what a game changer.

There was definitely this growing schism within id's fanbase, between the singleplayer aesthetes and Deathmatch nutters. You might remember Quake getting panned at release for its willfully unspectacular 1P game. Beyond the dour grimbrown, the damn thing didn't even have a consistent story - more of an issue than it sounds, with Wolf3D and DOOM's immortally bloodening setups. The boxarts say it all; scenes of glorious OTT carnage versus mirthless bronze-over-obsidian. Duke3D ("I ain't scared of no Quake"), Descent and Dark Forces et al were starting to steal id's blockbuster action lunch at that point.

But by the same token, Quake levelled the multiplayer field in one murderous swipe, that bronze edge marking a red watershed. A real demographics shift, in hindsight. As if SFII had broken big on some elaborate 1P world tour mode, full of masterfully-choreographed back-alley scraps and dojo takedowns, the 1v1 a valued supporting act, only for SFIII to see the tourney heads gradually take precedence.

I still remember all the hype around Quake II bringing sexy campaign back, and it remains a pretty nice trip, but god damn - they fucked the gibs up! Were they trying to look "mature" or something? :/ Nothing approaching Quake's joyously over-pressurised detonations of drifting claret and merrily bouncing parts. I don't care what they are, or why I'm here - they blow the fuck up real the fuck good! Mahfuckas need less sodium! Or less x8 buckshot pointblank to the thorax, but that's not happening

Oh lawd she bouncin

Spoiler

Quake III being DM-only kinda disappointed me at announcement, but I totally got why they did it, Half Life having well and truly taken the 1P crown at that point. And I played QIII to an extent that would probably kill me (and most definitely cost me my family and job) ~25yrs on, so no harm done tbh.