the first person shooter game thread (eew fps)

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks. Painkiller: Triple Dose is pretty good bang for the buck if you can find it cheap (I did). The two expansions for the first Painkiller are okay, actually; it was fun being able to use some of the new weapons in the old maps (think that was partly a bug but it works for me). The level of quality is all over the place in those games, but I can think of some pretty good moments in Battle Out of Hell.

It's damned Painkiller Overdose that I get the most. Dense with bugs; buggy lousy shitty mess.

-----

I also figured out what the hell to do with Soldier of Fortune Platinum.

This page lays it out:
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/sh ... d=27187806
First time I've had nHancer installed in goodness knows how long.

I also looked up widescreen for the game and came up with this. It looks abandoned, unfortunately, but there's still a respectable amount of information in the site.

I noticed my PC's fan started spinning up quickly when the game was running, so I checked the "save CPU cycles" box while playing.

So far the game has been pretty good. Not really digging the quicksave stuff and the difference in difficulty between Medium and Challenging (nevermind Unfair which I haven't tried yet) is ridiculous. When I get back to the game I'll figure out where to go next in the sewers...I'm missing some visual clue, but don't know what yet.

[crithit5000]

Played through Postal 2: Share the Pain and most of Apocalypse Weekend this week. I've done a lot of amusing/bad things vicariously through video games but when I exploded a cow's head with a sledgehammer, I actually had to walk away from the keyboard for a moment just to have a giggle. Gaming moment of my life, hands down.

[KBZ]

free weekend is on for MW2. I really don't get all the hype for this title. Naturally I can't stand the matchmaking method they use, but beyond that it feels so wonky. Maybe I'm not playing the right modes (team deathmatch), but everytime I play, I wish I was playing CS.

Instakills with the knife seem a bit much too, though it can be fun to just run around side streets slashing people.


Anyway, has anyone gotten to play some of the mission maps for Killing Floor? Adds a great kind of intensity and strategy to the game. Seriously can't get enough of this game. The community is just amazing too, I just can't keep up with all the new maps coming out all the time.

[Obiwanshinobi]

So the question is what FPS in the last 10 years or what upcoming games would you recommend to someone whose favorite games are Descent, Serious Sam, and Quake?

This is a week late, but you might like Painkiller.

Fuckin' A. Painkiller in small doses is pure silly fun. The very second (!) game utilizing Havok I'm aware of (Max Payne 2 being the first). H-L2's bells & whistles weren't all that impressive after Painkiller. Don't expect long-lasting euphoria, but one-two levels per day work wonders.
I'm not really a fan of the genre, but I have a couple of suggestions:
Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi - very few people seem to know about this game's existence, which is a crying shame. It's got the atmosphere not quite unlike Doom or Heretic, and vicious horror action. Terrific soundtrack too.
Iron Storm - neither the console remake, nor the PC port of the console remake (sic!), just the original Iron Storm. Play it.
XIII - so this one has cut-scenes and storytelling ambitions. I'm not especially enthusiastic about its graphics (although I like cel shading), and it's a very tired, generic FPS in places. Still, certain levels are among my favourite in first person shooters (cannyon springs to mind). Joypad people used to bitch about the cannyon to no end, but with a mouse and a keyboard you shouldn't even break a sweat (oh, and play it on higher than default difficulty setting). Again, awesome music.
Chaser - haven't finished it due to some strange incompatibility (framerate issues for no apparent reason), but it was alright.
Tribes: Vengeance - once the awful cut-scenes (ugly character models and amateurish animations) are over, it's one of the most frantic first person shooters, up there with UT2004.
Tron 2.0 - I've yet to play it properly, but this is one good looking game.

[worstplayer]

Finished Crysis Warhead. Not bad for mission pack. It's still Crysis, it's still good old unscripted fun. And said fun still ends about 4 hours in, when aliens appear. Then there's couple of boring interior maps, and finally clichest of them all, a train level. So yeah, it starts as best FPS ever, and ends as a fairly average one.

Anyway, still better than Crysis 2, which will suck from the moment you hit "new game" until the very end.

[Limbrooke]

XIII - so this one has cut-scenes and storytelling ambitions. I'm not especially enthusiastic about its graphics (although I like cel shading), and it's a very tired, generic FPS in places. Still, certain levels are among my favourite in first person shooters (cannyon springs to mind). Joypad people used to bitch about the cannyon to no end, but with a mouse and a keyboard you shouldn't even break a sweat (oh, and play it on higher than default difficulty setting). Again, awesome music.

XIII was balls on PS2, what a letdown. I was very positive and anxious regarding this game and it's PS2 release and when it arrived it was a huge cave-in. Perhaps this scenario lends itself to my decline and eventually fallout of console/controller based FPS games but I felt the game itself was seriously lacking, AI most prominently. Mind you, recalling it was released for PC gives it some optimism so I will be giving the cel-shaded beast another go.

Iron Storm is a game I meant to try ages back but it was on and off the radar in the span of a short time, still looks alright, I'll have to try that shortly. Same goes for Nosferatu, I read a review on that within the past year and heard nothing but good praise. To close out the trifecta Painkiller looks really nice, yet another I'll have to try.

Moving on, I've been dumping pretty much all my time this year into Urban Terror. I find mixing up the maps and not sticking to a specific room really livens things up. Today is a good example as lately I've been in SR8/MP5K mode and the main far from zl and UPC weren't cutting it anymore, that and Eagle 24/7 can get dull. So I dropped in an non-stop 'unofficial' maps room and it was a breath of fresh air despite zero familiarity on the maps. This allowed me to switch back to the M4 and not feel SR8 deprivation. In short, this game is a nice departure from QL and a good alternative to CS.

Speaking of which, spent a little time in QL recently and I like the addition of the large clan arena and large TDM modes in the last update. Not that I focus on those, I'm a FFA to the bone, but it's as always nice to change up or have a back-up when no FFAs show up. Had a good couple lag free matches in Q3 too the other day, and that was real nice. It's cool to switch between QL and Q3 simply to notice the differences in the maps and weapons. For instance how the LG is like a firehose and how the RG somehow is more appealing, both in Q3. Strange times.

By the way, Rune is good/cool. There, my Rune plug is complete.

[Khan]

free weekend is on for MW2. I really don't get all the hype for this title. Naturally I can't stand the matchmaking method they use, but beyond that it feels so wonky. Maybe I'm not playing the right modes (team deathmatch), but everytime I play, I wish I was playing CS.

Instakills with the knife seem a bit much too, though it can be fun to just run around side streets slashing people.


Anyway, has anyone gotten to play some of the mission maps for Killing Floor? Adds a great kind of intensity and strategy to the game. Seriously can't get enough of this game. The community is just amazing too, I just can't keep up with all the new maps coming out all the time.

Yea I tired TheHive mission pack and another one I cant remember the name but its hard stuff especially since you have to conserve ammo and you can get anything from scrakes to fp's even early on O_O imo its best to get used to dying alot in those mission based maps lol

still loving the game though ive got around 230 hours of playtime racked up and im level 4 firebug and that is probably the lowest of my perks everything else is either level 5 or level 6.

I dont think you can ever get tired of playing this game especially if you play hard/suicidal and all your team dies with 100+ specimens left in "arcade shopping mall" and you have nothing but 70 bullets in your Lever action and a pistol.....worst thing was I was level 4 support lol so I had to run around taking damage from 3 husks while picking off the clots with my pistol, i saved the last 7 shots in my lever for the husks and used my knife to melee, It took me a while but I survived and we managed to make it the next wave.

everyone was like "Great job dude!" and "Wow"

[Gungriffon Geona]

I'm just gonna say that if Quake 3 had been Quake 4 and we never got that godawful piece of shit that was a multiplayer only game for maligned 12 year olds I would have been so much happier growing up.

That said, Quake 4 is pretty much exactly what I wanted from a sequel to Quake 2, and I love the progression and combat that's actually decently fast. I can't understand at all why it was reviewed so badly, it did a good job of spreading out all the interest-grabbers and 'story' elements (it's quake i wasn't really expecting a good story. this is good enough for what it is though.)
Also the weapon attatchments you get are quite a bit more fun than some of the upgrades you get in most games. homing chaingun with zoom feature? hell yeah!

[KBZ]

Anyway, has anyone gotten to play some of the mission maps for Killing Floor? Adds a great kind of intensity and strategy to the game. Seriously can't get enough of this game. The community is just amazing too, I just can't keep up with all the new maps coming out all the time.

Yea I tired TheHive mission pack and another one I cant remember the name but its hard stuff especially since you have to conserve ammo and you can get anything from scrakes to fp's even early on O_O imo its best to get used to dying alot in those mission based maps lol

still loving the game though ive got around 230 hours of playtime racked up and im level 4 firebug and that is probably the lowest of my perks everything else is either level 5 or level 6.

I dont think you can ever get tired of playing this game especially if you play hard/suicidal and all your team dies with 100+ specimens left in "arcade shopping mall" and you have nothing but 70 bullets in your Lever action and a pistol.....worst thing was I was level 4 support lol so I had to run around taking damage from 3 husks while picking off the clots with my pistol, i saved the last 7 shots in my lever for the husks and used my knife to melee, It took me a while but I survived and we managed to make it the next wave.

everyone was like "Great job dude!" and "Wow"[/quote]

Wow, that's an epic finish! Not easy as support either!

I had a really good team playing the candlesmoke mission map, and we were able to get partway through the 5th wave I believe. I was SOO hard though. Relied heavily on beserker class to trigger the next wave while the rest of us wait in a bottleneck area. Everyone needs to be lvl 6 though.

[Limbrooke]

I'm just gonna say that if Quake 3 had been Quake 4 and we never got that godawful piece of shit that was a multiplayer only game for maligned 12 year olds I would have been so much happier growing up.

That said, Quake 4 is pretty much exactly what I wanted from a sequel to Quake 2, and I love the progression and combat that's actually decently fast. I can't understand at all why it was reviewed so badly, it did a good job of spreading out all the interest-grabbers and 'story' elements (it's quake i wasn't really expecting a good story. this is good enough for what it is though.)
Also the weapon attatchments you get are quite a bit more fun than some of the upgrades you get in most games. homing chaingun with zoom feature? hell yeah!

Reviewed badly? It seems to on average only score slightly lower than Q3. That said, Quake 4 sucks since in large part, it's not Quake. It seems to draw heavily on two other games than anything from Quake; Doom 3 as far as the pacing, lighting, atmosphere is concerned (dog slow and dark) and Halo as far as marines vs. aliens, do this, then do this-type assignments (no some much back-tracking like in Halo but just a rip-off of the setting and more or less busy work or just idle time watching cut-scenes). I have no clue where you get the idea this game is fast, it's molasses ass slow at the fastest of times and is even slower than Q2, the previously slowest game in the series. Not only but most of the game is busy work and 'hey Kane, do this because we're all fucking useless!'. I got pretty annoyed suiting up or sitting through briefings quite fast (ironically) and it doesn't help that Kane walks as if he's on a pleasure stroll. Ammo and health/armour (armour especially) have become even more redundant, thanks to the techs and medics all over the place. It also feels very detached from Quake 2, what with almost no resemblance to anything (architecture, weaponry, Strogg forces, etc..) except that the planet is very orange at times. The only part other than 'fighting the Strogg' that gives some background is 'the Makron' references. 'the'? Fuck you Raven, it's 'Makron'. Otherwise the game is pretty easy, rather boring and very un-Quake overall.

I do like the weapons, the initial blaster pistol is light years better than the Q2 one, and I like the two-way assault machine gun/semi automatic min. zoom sniper rifle start the game off quite well.

I never did try MP (cough) but from what I saw more people are playing Q3 and QL online that the most up-to-date Q4 servers. Actions speak louder than words in that scenario and as a result while I would quite like to get online, I doubt I am missing anything what with the entire slow-out-the-ass movement.

Also, I am not 12 and I do not believe to have evil intents, thanks. If you don't like Q3, no big deal, it's not my favourite and I do recall being a bit disappointed there was no single player but as mentioned, there were a few other games to roll by that took the whole SP campaign to another level, ie. Halo, rendering the filler in Q4 outdated and unnecessary. Would it have been too much trouble to bring back the Locator?

[Gungriffon Geona]

I could understand the speed issue if you were talking about when he's a marine, cuz that pretty much was my only gripe with the gameplay. after you get turned into a strogg about a 1/4 of the way in it's pretty much Quake 2 speed again or just slightly slower (and alot better off). Well that and the final boss was a total pansy compared to fighting a thing with a fucking railgun for a head and BFGs for arms.
Medics and techs actually weren't that plentiful in the second half, and you usually spent most of the game by yourself or with some guys who didn't really offer anything to you except cover. I found myself rather tight on resources most of the time. plus, the bait-and-hook gameplay was far more subdued, so I was never really worried about shit popping through doors and fucking me up. It pretty much happened once, and the rest of the time the spring-loaded-traps were easy enough to react to without having to automatically take damage.

I can't even get what you mean about the presentation. (never played halo and never will play anything regarding it. GARBAGE!) The overall style was pretty much what I was expecting quake 2's environments to look like in higher detail. All the bio-freak shit everywhere actually felt alot more alive than anything I'd seen in other FPS games, and the constant feel of a living environment was alot more freaky than the stock-metal walls you usually get in games.
The pacing pretty much was as good as it needed to be, and I liked the stops every so often in the action after beating the ever-loving shit out of some pretty major obstacles. I was totally confused as to why they wanted you to feel connected to the characters, cuz none of them were around for long anyway. I just took the time to look around to see if there were visual cues or extra stuff I could pick up. some of the things that the NPCs said were actually kinda neat though, and I found myself actually stopping to listen to radio broadcasts sometimes.
Not really getting the Doom 3 thing even. it's the same engine, that's pretty much it. Doom 3 is what happens when you try too hard to be scary and totally miss the mark of what horror and immersion is about.

Besides, Quake 4 has incredible death scenes to help pull you in.

Quake 3 is honestly how you make a game that feels so floaty and devoid of structure that it's less intuitive than even Doom 1 and 2, and the graphical style is... well, what style? it's just whatever they thought looked neat at the moment, all schizophrenic and clashing in a very bad way.
Nothing at all feels powerful and the speed of the game is actually a detriment most of the time. that's a really weird cuz I usually like games like this, but the fact it's strictly trying to be multiplayer is bizarre when the rest of the series atleast had campaigns and stuff that gave you a feeling of singular accomplishment.
Mods are almost non-existant. Those that are there are just plain awful. You either have the things that add stupidly high firing rates (lol monkeycheese gameplay) or TACTICOOL SHOOTAN ACSHUN.
I'd rather play Unreal tournament (all except 3. 3 is just no) if I want to shoot at other people. or even doom 1 and 2.

[Limbrooke]

I could understand the speed issue if you were talking about when he's a marine, cuz that pretty much was my only gripe with the gameplay. after you get turned into a strogg about a 1/4 of the way in it's pretty much Quake 2 speed again or just slightly slower (and alot better off). Well that and the final boss was a total pansy compared to fighting a thing with a fucking railgun for a head and BFGs for arms.
Medics and techs actually weren't that plentiful in the second half, and you usually spent most of the game by yourself or with some guys who didn't really offer anything to you except cover. I found myself rather tight on resources most of the time. plus, the bait-and-hook gameplay was far more subdued, so I was never really worried about shit popping through doors and fucking me up. It pretty much happened once, and the rest of the time the spring-loaded-traps were easy enough to react to without having to automatically take damage.

Quake 2 is the next slowest game to Quake 4 in the series. Even if the game 'speeds' up why should it speed up at all not be quick from the get-go. Last I recall Bitterman was not stroggified and his speed was decent to begin with. I take back what I said about Raven, apparently Makron is 'the' Makron, just not referred to as such in-game. Also, don't remember Q2 much as Makron started with a railgun for a head there too so no surprise there. If there is action afoot then a lack of speed can be forgiven but the game really drags on in the first 5 hours with lots of busy work, talk to this guy, do this because all the other marines are useless/because [insert name(Voss)] said so, go here to suit up, walk a lot while doing nothing, etc.. It makes sense after stroggification that Medics/Tech become unavailable but really it feels akin to having training wheels especially with all the spare medkit and armour stocks all over. The bottom here is this game is Quake in title only. Pretty much everything else that's actually Quake stomps this game.

The pacing is sub-par in Q4 as in the game moves slowly and has lots of filler instead of action. Halo 1, which is what I refer to has plenty of elements taken and implimented in Q4, so for me it's rehash pardon the weaponry and setting. This is the game-play, scenes of clearing out screens based on orders from a CO, manning a mounted gun to protect other marines and again clear out areas, and lots of dialogue. Halo 1 of course does this, albeit with annoying backtracking yet is executed better (fun) and 6 years earlier. When I refer to Doom 3 naturally since they use the same engine things will look the same but this is the pacing part, slow movement, lots of hallways, and terrible lighting (unless you use a gun that supports the flashlight, haha). It isn't D3 but it sure borrows a lot of elements outside the engine to warrant a fair comparison.

I can't even get what you mean about the presentation. (never played halo and never will play anything regarding it. GARBAGE!) The overall style was pretty much what I was expecting quake 2's environments to look like in higher detail. All the bio-freak shit everywhere actually felt alot more alive than anything I'd seen in other FPS games, and the constant feel of a living environment was alot more freaky than the stock-metal walls you usually get in games.

Apples to oranges, again if this is an issue of 'after stroggification' syndrome I would say this reminds me nothing of Q2 which is of little surprise. Oh I did say Stroggos looks orange, that was carried over. I suppose it is hard to redo the characters after a 9 year hiatus and since Q2s characters haven't aged well I can understand a significant redesign but I feel absolutely no attachment to Q2 in this effort pardon the name drop or the aforementioned orangitis. Don't get the Halo hate but you're entitled to your ignorance. Halo 1 is all I fancy and once through the single player was definitely a good time.

Besides, Quake 4 has incredible death scenes to help pull you in.

What am I looking at? I guess it's Q4 alright but as far as incredible or anything remotely interesting, this image depicts nothing. I will say this much, the game looks very good visually so that's another positive part.

Quake 3 is honestly how you make a game that feels so floaty and devoid of structure that it's less intuitive than even Doom 1 and 2, and the graphical style is... well, what style? it's just whatever they thought looked neat at the moment, all schizophrenic and clashing in a very bad way.
Nothing at all feels powerful and the speed of the game is actually a detriment most of the time. that's a really weird cuz I usually like games like this, but the fact it's strictly trying to be multiplayer is bizarre when the rest of the series atleast had campaigns and stuff that gave you a feeling of singular accomplishment.

Speed kills and at the same time practice makes perfect. 11 years on people are still playing Q3 online and it's good evolution as QuakeLIVE. Floaty? Eh, elaborate. The game is all about speed and precision I've never had issue with spotty controls only with my skill which is what matters. Nothing feels powerful? You really don't do yourself justice in making yourself appear to know anything about Q3 as the weaponry has very noticeable ranges of power. In Q3 the RG is very powerful as are the stalwart RL and SG. Then there is the darkhorse PG which can dish out the most damage in the shortest period of time overall, short-range helps of course. Range aides in the use of the LG too which as mentioned is a somewhat unwieldly firehose but in-close it tears up. It really depends on the time and place but power cannot simply be measured in HP or range (RG/RL and SG respectively) as the pros and cons of using each should be weighed at the time of use. I won't go into more details as I don't care if you convert or not but talking rubbish about the weapons is just that, rubbish. I will agree that the design is all over the place probably thanks to trying to tie together Q1 & 2 but it's never bothered me since I like the look of Q1 with a splash of Q2.

Mods are almost non-existant. Those that are there are just plain awful. You either have the things that add stupidly high firing rates (lol monkeycheese gameplay) or TACTICOOL SHOOTAN ACSHUN.
I'd rather play Unreal tournament (all except 3. 3 is just no) if I want to shoot at other people. or even doom 1 and 2.

Back the fuck up, no mods? What planet do you live on? A quick look on google or even planetquake sees many, many mods are out there. Hardly surprising either since the code has been open source for a while. Did I mention Urban Terror? More people play UrT than Q4 online plus UrT is free. Your UT mention is very timely as it all seems to make sense now. Enjoy your MMMMMONSTER KILLL..... (and Q3 is somehow floaty? )

[Ed Oscuro]

Quake III does what it sets out to do, and Quake IV is just further evidence of Raven Software getting worse as they go; why are we having this discussion?

Didn't I mention I was playing the Headhunters mod?

Also, one of the first games to support 1920x1200 and other widescreen resolutions. It's a bit hard to find but it's in there.

Anyway, I finished Soldier of Fortune. Good weapons ruined by "REALIZM" i.e. only a limited number of carrying slots - so it's not even really "only four weapons at a time," you have to be able to remember that you need to throw away the equivalent of three weapon slots to pick up a new heavy weapon. Of course the whole idea is ridiculous since you can lug around all the ammunition for all these weapons at any time. Hard to believe but I think the second was actually much better despite what I've always heard. Was a bit upset at the final boss - had his own super special non-usable gun, massive pain in the ass until you hid and shot him in the face, etc. - and more upset the microwave gun didn't have a little radar dish-like front. The secondary attack was awesome, same with some of the other weapons. I actually used the explosives now and then, but I felt the difficulty levels were way outta whack - I was getting slaughtered on merely Challenging so went with medium which was not much of a challenge through most of the game.

I don't remember every last detail from Soldier of Fortune 2, but it's definitely not a good idea to be a supporting character in the games. If there was a third game out by Raven, Mullins himself would probably end up getting waxed.

That said, some nice areas in there (the slaughterhouse reminded me I was hungry; I finished up a steak immediately after), GHOUL was mildly entertaining, on the whole it felt like Hexen II but with slightly more weapon variety (that's not saying much).

Also started dicking around with Freedoom and a DOOM mod for GZDoom called Paranoid, which is pretty funny but I got waxed very quickly on account of not having any bullets. It looks and plays like DOOM, I think, even though there's 2D scientist models skating around, all the familiar HL sounds, and even 3D models (from the High Definition pack!) that stay put.

Fuckin' A. Painkiller in small doses is pure silly fun. The very second (!) game utilizing Havok I'm aware of (Max Payne 2 being the first). H-L2's bells & whistles weren't all that impressive after Painkiller. Don't expect long-lasting euphoria, but one-two levels per day work wonders.
I'm not really a fan of the genre, but I have a couple of suggestions:

Where were you when we played Nosferatu? Okay game, though I only bothered with it once. Doesn't seem to be much reason to go back to it more than once. Too buggy to be able to put up with.
Iron Storm is bordering on bad - not as bad as Bet On Soldier but getting there.
Tribes: Vengeance was okay, better than people said, but I don't know how they wasted the potential of a lot of that. Story was dumb and despite getting a freebie "story of the year" award, it basically was a reminder of why I don't like stories in these games. Much prefer Unreal Tournament 3 and people have been complaining about that one enough.
Haven't played the others you mentioned.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm not a connoisseur. The games I listed are less known titles I enjoyed or even finished for some reasons. Maybe not masterpieces, but they did something right for my money and then again, I don't think much of the genre (nothing wrong with the genre, I just never have got hooked on it). I also enjoyed H-L2 for what it's worth, but H-L2 doesn't need my recommendation, does it? Neither do I.G.I. and Unreal games. If you look for more obscure stuff you might have missed on, you probably could do worse than check up the games I mentioned.
By the way, I find people's bitching about bad AI in first person shooters amusing. The only ones I recall being PRAISED for the AI would be: Unreal (1998), H-L (1998), UT (1999), CS: Condition Zero (who plays CS for the AI anyway?) and Halo: Combat Evolved (which I didn't enjoy a bit). Cheer up, FPS people.
Oh, wasn't Tron 2.0 also praised for the AI?

[Mortificator]

The two expansions for the first Painkiller are okay, actually; it was fun being able to use some of the new weapons in the old maps (think that was partly a bug but it works for me). The level of quality is all over the place in those games, but I can think of some pretty good moments in Battle Out of Hell.

There's a cheating frontend that, among other things, can enable the BooH weapons in regular Painkiller. I installed it when I wimped-out short of collecting the last six tarot cards, and had a nice surprise when I activated all weapons and scrolled through my inventory.

Concerning the expansion, I feel it would've been better if the devs had spent a little more time during development and included BooH's weapons and its better levels in the basic game, using stages like Loony Park and Stone Pit to fill-out the chapters that only had four or five levels. I guess it doesn't matter now, though.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm not a connoisseur. The games I listed are less known titles I enjoyed or even finished for some reasons. Maybe not masterpieces, but they did something right for my money and then again, I don't think much of the genre (nothing wrong with the genre, I just never have got hooked on it). I also enjoyed H-L2 for what it's worth, but H-L2 doesn't need my recommendation, does it? Neither do I.G.I. and Unreal games. If you look for more obscure stuff you might have missed on, you probably could do worse than check up the games I mentioned.

Excellent points raised, but I just wanted to say that I personally found faults with some of them. It's always good to bring up the less-known stuff, but I also feel quite strongly that most of the FPSes I've played recently have only been out of my curiosity. Hopes that Legendary Game X had to be grand to have gotten a reputation have been shattered over and over again. I especially find fault with stories in many such games, which are poorly constructed to take advantage of the genre's strengths. Even something (not an FPS but a very similar type of game) as popular as Gears of War feels like a slog and work at times, instead of being something I can enjoy. Iron Storm, I thought, was pretty bad on this front, seeming to revel in punishing the player for liking the genre, as if we were all actually murderers. I feel quite strongly about that; they treat players very poorly and should instead take aim at themselves for having released an uninspired series of games polished off with the veneer of alternate history. Alternate history settings are fine; alternate history stories are fine too, but there's books for that.

By the way, I find people's bitching about bad AI in first person shooters amusing. The only ones I recall being PRAISED for the AI would be: Unreal (1998), H-L (1998), UT (1999), CS: Condition Zero (who plays CS for the AI anyway?) and Halo: Combat Evolved (which I didn't enjoy a bit). Cheer up, FPS people.

I think that having a bit of challenge is a good thing. It's not the worst offender by far, but a lot of what gets me down about something like Soldier of Fortune is that you rarely feel you outsmarted enemies. Let's say I open a door: They shoot at me. Then when it closes, they stop firing, like a bird or small child that forgets anybody was around. Then I open the door again and chuck out a grenade, and they will sit around waiting to catch it with their face. I know as well as anybody that there are plenty of reasons this happens; there weren't realistic ballistics models for materials at the time, AI was expensive, and so on, but when gameplay becomes simply whether you can peek around corners and shoot faster than the AI which has an artificial delay - without even needing the basic strategic movement Quake III or an Unreal (especially Tournament games) provides - it drags me down a little.

I feel that recent games haven't improved much either. A game like Timeshift (2007) is basically a prettier version of Soldier of Fortune, with bodies blowing up and enemies reacting to your actions (in a different way; in SoF people would grimace after having their leg shot off, while in Timeshift there is plenty of 'where did he go' commentary) but they still stand there like ducks in a row. All you have to do in most of these games is take it slow in these games and you will survive; there's little pressure (even in Call of Duty 5: Modern Warfare 2 you just have to use cover and wait for blood to disappear). In the real world, us skinny FPS players would be thrown to the ground and handcuffed in seconds.

I'm not saying that being brutalized repeatedly would be a better game experience (that would be like playing CS against Cyberathlete Amateur League players every day for years), but the idea of enemies having a sporting chance would be nice. It would be hard to do right and there's no single formula for making a good game, but most all of the stuff I have played recently has only been differentiated by the colors and specific locations and how unusual the key mappings were.

There's a cheating frontend that, among other things, can enable the BooH weapons in regular Painkiller. I installed it when I wimped-out short of collecting the last six tarot cards, and had a nice surprise when I activated all weapons and scrolled through my inventory.

I was playing from the original Triple Dose disc. Somehow the new guns were added from a regular install. Either there was some kind of bug where I was able to select the BooH guns in regular Painkiller, without having actually played BooH before, or it was intentional. I didn't find ammo types for guns specifically from BooH, but as long as Painkiller dragged on I ended up giving myself more with cheats.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm sure this matter has been disputed to death, but the reason why AI is so difficult to balance in first person shooters (challenging but not breaking your willing suspension of disbelief - or "immersion" as they say - and just not depressingly dumb), I think, is that you expect "people" to act convincingly in very non-real-life-like situations. I suppose real gunfights are anything like Quake. Running and shooting at the same time wouldn't be terribly effective and you'd rather take cover a lot, because getting shot isn't that easy to shake off. Then you have strafing, running backwards without stumbling, all at fixed speed for a good measure, and you want your artificial opponents to act naturally and challenging.
That's easier to do in stealth 'em ups, where you behave more like you would in real life. The guards in Thief 2 seemed pretty conscious to me, and MGS3 grunts on Hard imitated living beings rather well, but if Serious Sam was there, he would give them no time to put their act together.
In the original Gothic, when a bunch of opponents attacks you, they usually try to surround you and strike you down from the behind, which makes perfect sense. When they have a ranged weapon handy, they usually just kill you with it (or someone else if they miss pretty badly, but shit happens). Not only humans cooperate with each other in Gothic. I was HUGELY impressed when I encountered a pack of wolves for the first time, tested my luck and died like a bitch. Apparently real-life wolves actually behave along those lines (and if you ever was assaulted by an angry dog, it probably wasn't trying to take you on frontally). The lone wolf thing is a load of bollocks. Then again, if Dante was there, he would just impale even the fastest creatures of Gothic with his Stinger.
Bearing in mind how off the wall and surreal the FPS genre is at heart (like most computer/videogames), I tend to just get over mediocre AI.
Story-wise, Unreal had good one and that's it (I have a soft spot for the likes of Another World and Ico). Well, AvsP2 also delivered, provided you're into the films. Military-themed FPSes leave me rather cold. I do not comprehend why people want to take orders in games. I thought if you want discipline that badly, you join the army or become a cenobite rather than play games.

[worstplayer]

Speaking of AI, soldiers in Crysis Warhead are really smart.

One particularly cool moment was when I entered a room full of enemies, backed off, tried entering through another door, only to find them guarding both.
Another great example was in the final level, where they teamed up with me against aliens. Only after killing them they gave me surprised look, and ran away to cover. I don't know if it was intentional or they simply considered aliens a higher priority target, but it was still cool.
But the most mindblowing moment was when I tried hiding inside some container. They started blindly shooting at one side, and sent another group to attack me from the other side. This is the first time I ever seen AI using covering fire effectively.

But for some reason AI turns into complete dumbass when driving jeeps or tanks. These are unbelievably stupid, and their movement seems to be completely random. Aliens are also morons, but at least they're not glitchy, they simply attack without any tactics.

[KBZ]

Urban Terror, such an awesome game with a very strong community. I wish ETF still had a strong following. Anyone every play?

[s3rris]

The only FPS I really play every once in a while is Urban Terror.

Tremulous is a pretty interesting game, too. Very simple to get into and loads of fun if you have a good team. It can really piss you off if your team-mates suck though. It's all about strategy really.

[Limbrooke]

Urban Terror, such an awesome game with a very strong community. I wish ETF still had a strong following. Anyone every play?

Never heard of it, but I am downloading the full version now (free!). UT (as I like to call it) or UrT is awesome, pardon the cheaters which thankfully doesn't seem to happen much in the servers I join but it still sucks the life out of a game when a cheater mops up. If you mix it up in UrT, drop me a line as I'm always game.

I'm about half-way through XIII now, and enjoying it which is a far cry from when I first ran it on PS2. It's been an interesting mix of game-play so far and I hope it continues. I'm interested as well to see how the MP stacks up, what with the wide array of weapons. So far so good but it's not the best game nor the worst I've dumped time into.

[KBZ]

Never heard of it, but I am downloading the full version now (free!). UT (as I like to call it) or UrT is awesome, pardon the cheaters which thankfully doesn't seem to happen much in the servers I join but it still sucks the life out of a game when a cheater mops up. If you mix it up in UrT, drop me a line as I'm always game.

Yeah I'm always down for some sliding around with an AK. Hit me up on irc or steam.

A friend of mine who was part of one of the more elite TFC clans was big into ETF. It sort of died out after a few years. Now it's just pickups through IRC on euro servers.

Also, both games have linux clients.

[Ed Oscuro]

Whenever I see Urban Terror mentioned I look it up, realize it's not another CS clone that I liked more, and get disappointed. It just feels odd to me. Never went online but explored all the maps.

[KBZ]

I don't know if CS clone is the right word. I mean all the wall jumping and all the sliding around makes it more like an action movie than anything else.


If anyone is looking for a nice DRM free place to buy some games, look no further than GOG.com.

They specialize in more classic games while maintaining compatibility with winxp and vista. Just bought UT2k4 off them, and will probably get UT99 as well if the multiplayer is still there.

[crithit5000]

I second the love for GoG, and I'm probably going to buy Kingpin and Shogo in the next few weeks from there.

[Limbrooke]

Whenever I see Urban Terror mentioned I look it up, realize it's not another CS clone that I liked more, and get disappointed. It just feels odd to me. Never went online but explored all the maps.

Eh, what? I think it's akin to CS only with respect of SWAT versus Terrorists. Beyond that there are little similarities what with KB mentioned, wall-jumping, power sliding, healing, both sides use the same weapons, no $ factor, no hostages, respawn, etc..
It's a decent game and I've enjoyed the time I spent pardon my annoyance with some weapons used against me (G36, LR300, Negev..).

Quake III does what it sets out to do, and Quake IV is just further evidence of Raven Software getting worse as they go; why are we having this discussion?

Agreed and the reason for the discussion, consult Gungriffon, he started it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Eh, what? I think it's akin to CS only with respect of SWAT versus Terrorists. Beyond that there are little similarities what with KB mentioned, wall-jumping, power sliding, healing, both sides use the same weapons, no $ factor, no hostages, respawn, etc..
It's a decent game and I've enjoyed the time I spent pardon my annoyance with some weapons used against me (G36, LR300, Negev..).

There's another game out there which I always get Urban Terror mixed up with. I know UT enough to know about the wall-jumping, sliding, and other stuff.

[KBZ]

Eh, what? I think it's akin to CS only with respect of SWAT versus Terrorists. Beyond that there are little similarities what with KB mentioned, wall-jumping, power sliding, healing, both sides use the same weapons, no $ factor, no hostages, respawn, etc..
It's a decent game and I've enjoyed the time I spent pardon my annoyance with some weapons used against me (G36, LR300, Negev..).

There's another game out there which I always get Urban Terror mixed up with. I know UT enough to know about the wall-jumping, sliding, and other stuff.

Tactical Ops?


EDIT: I just noticed that the Nexuiz project has FORKED(!!)

So IllFonic has a license from id Software for Quake engine on Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360, and a license from me, which collectively allows them to use the DarkPlaces engine.

OH SNAP! What's happening to my favourite GPL'd FPS!?

Apparently this... http://www.xonotic.org/

[Limbrooke]

There's another game out there which I always get Urban Terror mixed up with. I know UT enough to know about the wall-jumping, sliding, and other stuff.

Fair enough. Cannot help you on the other game, I don't have too much experience. I still don't understand what you meant, in the bolded part of the original quote.

Whenever I see Urban Terror mentioned I look it up, realize it's not another CS clone that I liked more, and get disappointed.

You realize it's not another CS that you liked more? Eh wth? Then you're disappointed as a result. Yeah, you lost me.

Anyway, Nexiuz is supposed to be good. A long-time UTer recommended it to me on the grounds it's akin to a modern Q1. Haven't tried it thus far mainly thanks to being satisfied on average with QL.

[KBZ]

Anyway, Nexiuz is supposed to be good. A long-time UTer recommended it to me on the grounds it's akin to a modern Q1. Haven't tried it thus far mainly thanks to being satisfied on average with QL.

Just started playing some QL, impressive stuff. I've only played Q3 on the Dreamcast servers (I know) so the competition is rather fierce...even in my own nub tier. Just need to configure it so I don't get as many framedrops. Figuring out the weapons switching is always a bit of a task as well.

Nexuiz uses the Darkplaces engine which is essentially Quake 1 with a lot more GPU intensive stuff going on which might make Nexuiz the most "next gen" fps in the open source world. However, the weapons and many of the maps are clearly from the UT99 school imo.