the first person shooter game thread (eew fps)

[Damocles]

Serious Sam HD in October.

How excited are we?

Very.

[Ed Oscuro]

lol pass

Although - if they add Windows Live Achievements I'll get it.

Actually would be fun to finally try out the multiplayer on that one. The visuals are a mixed bag though, and I'm not really seeing the need to play the same levels with new graphics. The big fuzzbutt heads are as ugly as ever, and what ever happened to beating Mental, anyway?

[Damocles]

Multiplayer is (obviously) the big draw. From what I remember from college, multiplayer is almost Timesplitters 2 fast.

That being said, if it's all rehashed levels, there is very little SP draw as I've already done the game in 100% serious mode. Fun as hell, but I'm not sure I want to do it again.

[Damocles]

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game ... showimg-2/

Oh fuck me I remember hating that courtyard. Oh sure, grab the pills between waves for a measly few life points and suffer through even more waves of skeleton demons and kamikaze rushes. Wanna get in a corner? Fuck you. We'll spawn that shit right on top of you.

[Ed Oscuro]

SHOTGUN IS A CREDIT TO TEAM butt that green laser spammer always felt pretty useless to me (now that I think about it, it's the game's plasma rifle, still feels useless though - just look at the ranges involved, and also the third dimension and HARPIES)

[dave4shmups]

How's Unreal Tournament 3? I've heard a lot of complaints about it, but if you have a PS3 then you can game online for free, so why not?

EDIT: This looks sweet for PC owners!: http://eye.streumon-studio.com/

[Ed Oscuro]

I've played the PC version quite a bit, it's fun. The campaign is kind of silly (lol @ the final movie especially, and lol @ Malcolm), but the main issue is that playing the campaign single-player (above the Easy difficulty) is a no-go because the bots get damned silly unless you can use voice commands for the bots. Definitely meant to be played co-op. It's the same usual Unreal Tournament gameplay - good, but I don't do it every night, y'know.

Thanks for the link to EYE.

Also, I beat Nosferatu, some observations:

- Don't worry if Melissa dies on you; she seems really tough to save (i.e. you gotta get to her within a time limit; she's the first to automatically die, aside from the priest who is easy to save). Also, there is only one "good" ending, or at least neither I nor the walkthrough I checked out had any inkling of another. The bad endings you just blunder into in different ways (i.e. one by dying at the final bosses), which are worth watching.

- Even ignoring the single good ending, doesn't seem like it'll be infinitely replayable. The actual main game, with the two-hour limit, is challenging, but the layout doesn't seem like it'll change enough to be really that worth playing over.

- Building on that point: The boss fights are laughable. There's actually TWO bosses at the end, but the first you beat by pulling three levers in order, and the last you just dash a couple times with holy water. Laaaame. The first three bosses aren't so bad because you fight them in this cool rooftop setting. The fourth boss is kinda dumb, 'nuff said. This could've been much better if those sequences were done Resident Evil 4-style, but hey, this game seems to use the Quake engine.

- The amount of ammo I could carry seemed to change over time. I could've sworn I could only carry 150 revolver rounds in reserve for a long while, but at the endgame (i.e. after 6:00 AM) it was at 200 (+5 in the chamber).

- There are lots of little needling details that I don't care for (you bounce up when you come into contact with many surfaces, your friends often stop in place, and it's also not obvious when they've started following you again, etc.)

[sjewkestheloon]

I can't wait for Borderlands. Diablo of FPS? Damn straight.

[Ed Oscuro]

I can't wait for Borderlands. Diablo of FPS? Damn straight.

Cool. Nosferatu wasn't exactly a letdown but it doesn't seem as replayable as I'd been hoping. Something current-gen? Oh hellz yes

[Damocles]

87 bazillion guns.

It looks interesting, though the character designs seem rather meh.

[StoofooEsq]

I can't wait for Borderlands. Diablo of FPS? Damn straight.

Borderlands already looks like a mix of FPS & RPG done proper, something that Hellgate: London failed to do.

[dave4shmups]

Borderlands will definitely be great! Wasn't EA going to do a sequel to Black? Whatever happened to that, because, IMO, Black is AWESOME!

[Mortificator]

she's the first to automatically die, aside from the priest who is easy to save

He died in my game. I guess I got a bad position for the doctor, who I didn't run into until past the first boss.

My dumb dog also threw his dumb self to his death approximately two minutes after rescuing him.

So far I think I'd rate Nosferatu on the level of something like Republic Commando; not the kind of game you feel the urge to replay, but fun enough, unique enough, and short enough for a run-through. The last is important, since way too many games of less quality still feel the need to use repetition to pad things into the double-digit hours.

[TLB]

CS:S and TF2 still rock. My GC's dying, someone give me one. My computer sucks, give me one.

[lgb]

Quake III for botz, Quake Live for not.

[Ed Oscuro]

Blah, I got:

Will Rock

Painkiller Triple Dose (has everything PK released up to this point, comes with a soundtrack CD as well)

Neither are stunning, although surprisingly I don't feel like I hate WR more than PK Black (i.e. the original game). I find Painkiller to be a pain in the ass (no pun intended), not a whole lot of fun unfortunately (been playing on Nightmare, gotten all the "tarot cards" from the first "episode" of five, had to get the Enclave card - boss battle - twice because the save system is fucked up, also the game awarded me all the guns somehow). Guess I'll try to slog through it though. Pretty hilarious that I have all the guns already (I have no idea, I just hit a few keys while waiting for the boss level to load up, and cheats don't work in Nightmare nor did I input any). I hate the game's secrets, but I hate collecting crap even more - what I really hate, though, is having to reload levels 'cuz I painkiller orb'd some piece of broken crap into me and lost half my health.

So surprised I'm hating this game - I did play the Venice level demo a few years ago so it shouldn't feel entirely new.

Okay, Will Rock then - Serious Sam set with semi-Grecian and Roman mythical / inspired things. Also, Twisted Sister's "I Want To Rock" is playing at the main menu for some reason. It doesn't really fit, but hey, no problem. Enemies: Legionnaire skeletons, centaurs, cyclops, etc. and a hilarious intro with comic panels that I shouldn't spoil. I AM PROMETHEUS BRINGER OF FIRE

As far as gameplay, a lot of "run here do this get that" but I like the level design a lot more than Painkiller actually - not as much grungy detail in things, but a lot of bright sundrenched valleys and other types of scenarios. There's already been a coliseum type area and the game (working on the second episode, the domain of Hephaestus) hasn't repeated that yet - though there are still a lot of variations on typical Grecian or Romanesque architecture. The things I like least about the game: Reloading the shotgun and pistol, slogging around waiting for the next horde, shooting tiny targets far off in the distance (hard to do even though bullets travel straight). There's a powerup system - very simple compared to Painkiller, but in my view a lot more useful: simply find an altar and select one of the three powers. You can (and should) grab all three in the early stages without using them, and from then on you can use whichever you need (I haven't really needed any) and then simply replenish that one at the next altar. Simple and painless. Also, when you die, Prometheus (who is inside you or some crap) thunders "YOU HAVE FAILED ME MORTAL" 'course he doesn't do nothin' 'cuz you be dead.

SHOWDOWN! Best weapon Painkiller vs. Will Rock!

Painkiller: Hmm, haven't used them all for long yet, but the Painkiller default weapon gets a lot of attention. It has a melee attack, an orb (so you can lay down a tripwire that does constant damage when you're aiming at it), and pressing secondary attack while spinning the melee attack launches the blades out ever-so-slowly to gib one or two enemies. Retracting the orb / blades takes longer than it should, however.

Will Rock: "Sniper crossbow" WITH FLAMES. It's quick, straightforward to use for sniping enemies, but the best thing is that when an enemy is close to dying, they catch on fire. The fire effect is amazingly awesome and hilarious; cyclops heads shrink inward from the sides (like going from a bowling ball to a sausage) and the biggest part of them left is the pelvis. Enemies will still keep attacking you while on fire right up to the bitter end, where they freeze in place and the pieces come shattering down. Very funny when something's got its hands outstretched.

VERDICT: Maybe I'm reaching at something to enjoy with these two games, but I'm finding the sniper crossbow the most fun I'm having in either game.

CONGRATULATIONS WILL ROCK YOU JUST WON A TOGA PARTY!!!!!

Also, the people behind Will Rock went on to make...TimeShift, the game I should have bought instead of Painkiller. People Can Fly may have an awesome name and logo, but since being bought up by Epic it's unclear what they're up to (apparently they ported Gears of War, which I have and can confirm is a good port, and now they may be working on something new, something that hopefully doesn't have first gen Havok physics in it).

[dave4shmups]

Has anyone on here played Operation Flashpoint yet? It only received a 7.8 from IGN, but I do love Codemasters. Oh yeah, and Half-Life 2 on the XBOX-other then better graphics, is it missing anything that Half-Life 2 in the Orange Box has?

[Ed Oscuro]

Has anyone on here played Operation Flashpoint yet?

That's Dragon Rising, another game I saw today on Steam News. Codemasters huh...I'd be just about as excited for Delta Force: Angel Falls, but whatever. Anyhow, HL2 Xbox is just slower I believe. Only the 360 version has Achievements thus far (shame on Valve, they're already in the game).

My last post here is ridiculously out of date. Painkiller, the original, was pretty damn amazing most of the time, even the crazy trick jumps. A game built on classic FPS glitches; I love it. Will Rock is repetitive, still haven't gotten through much more than I did at the time I wrote that (just two more levels I think). Since I bought Painkiller Triple Dose, I got the original game, the Battle Out of Hell expansion, and Overdose. The original game is great, Battle out of Hell is alright, and Overdose is a buggy cobbled-together mess with poorly designed levels. Level bugs (i.e. being able to walljump out of levels) started showing up at the end of Battle Out of Hell and it just went from there. So, basically there's a straight slide from greatness to garbage. The only thing I will say is that the games also got steadily harder, to the point where I couldn't even complete Nightmare (one step below Trauma, the hardest difficulty) in Painkiller Overdose levels, and instead I decided to complete levels on the difficulty below that to get cards, and actually slipped into using the PKGOD cheat for that difficulty. Game is buggy and likes to crash in ugly ways.

I've also played through Shadow Warrior (the 3D Realms Build engine game post-Duke 3D) and Redneck Rampage (just the first part so far, there's also some expansions and the hunting game which I probably won't try). Shadow Warrior goes from being good to just average, nothing epic like Duke 3D. There's a lot that could be said about the Asian references and sex content...hilariously SW has been described as being less "overtly" sexual than Duke 3D. I guess that's true as poorly-drawn (i.e. cobbled together from whatever 3D Realms had to steal from at the time) naked anime chicks endlessly pooping on a toilet aren't hot like they were in the 90s. It's mainly just funny and damned creepy by turns. Not at all P.C. though. Redneck Rampage has surprisingly difficult puzzles, mainly due to some poor visibility on items. Not badly done. Both games are too short, but stretching the content in both games even further would end up giving something like...TekWar, I believe (need to find that and the other Build games, though I'm sure I'm far beyond diminishing returns as far as enjoyment goes).

I also got the last Wolfenstein (not the new one, the 2001 one) and 3D. I have had some fun with Wolf 3D on SNES, IBM PC, and Windows XP (going by the systems each is played on). SNES version has too little resolution but is still playable with mouse support even. Classic Wolf 3D is dated but surprisingly fun. Wolf 3D 2001 is just another dated corridor blaster, even though it has nice graphics. Not exceptional weapons balance. Good secrets though. Little side note, a guy I know from IRC took a screenshot of him running all six original Wolfenstein episodes in DOSbox, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and the new game, all windowed. Core i7 POWER

In all of these games I have been able to find most all secrets...not tough to do.

tl;dr version!

* Painkiller: Everyone should try the demo at least! Nightmare is easy for FPS vets, but still a good time.
* Painkiller Battle Out of Hell: Some good stuff, some so-so stuff. These levels are included in the Xbox version, I believe. Harder than the original.
* Painkiller Overdose: No more ideas, no more production values in the mapping. Harder than the originals and without any of the quality.
* Will Rock: Pass on it unless you're really hurting for more Serious Sam style action. I AM PROMETHEUS BRINGER OF FIRE GURRRRRRRRRRR
* Shadow Warrior: Okay. Duke 3D style fans should appreciate it. I would rather have played the original "serious" version seen in old screenshots (the early 1996-era screens, such as were seen on the Duke 3D disc) though.
* Redneck Rampage: Surprisingly competent and decent most of the way through. Weapons selection could be better.
* Wolfenstein 3D SNES: Playable, has two extra weapons over the classic PC version. No obnoxious door shutting sound either.
* Wolfenstein 3D 1992: Surprisingly fun but I find myself wanting to do 2-8 "properly" which means amazing headaches.
* Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001): Some good ambient music, highly detailed enemies and surroundings, not so amazing gunplay. At least half your inventory is there just to keep you from switching between all the good weapons too quickly. One of the boss fights is just obscenely unbalanced for damage (taking place in a lab), and the endgame is a complete letdown. Aside from the few really tough monsters and eagle eye badguys, nothing too hard. I beat down a couple of the skeleton zombies with my fists just for fun. No comment about Enemy Territory; I ran through the levels a few years back but never played it online.

* Left 4 Dead: Glitches still not fixed and I learned some hilarious ones recently.

[dave4shmups]

Has anyone on here played Operation Flashpoint yet?

That's Dragon Rising, another game I saw today on Steam News. Codemasters huh...I'd be just about as excited for Delta Force: Angel Falls, but whatever. Anyhow, HL2 Xbox is just slower I believe. Only the 360 version has Achievements thus far (shame on Valve, they're already in the game).

My last post here is ridiculously out of date. Painkiller, the original, was pretty damn amazing most of the time, even the crazy trick jumps. A game built on classic FPS glitches; I love it. Will Rock is repetitive, still haven't gotten through much more than I did at the time I wrote that (just two more levels I think). Since I bought Painkiller Triple Dose, I got the original game, the Battle Out of Hell expansion, and Overdose. The original game is great, Battle out of Hell is alright, and Overdose is a buggy cobbled-together mess with poorly designed levels. Level bugs (i.e. being able to walljump out of levels) started showing up at the end of Battle Out of Hell and it just went from there. So, basically there's a straight slide from greatness to garbage. The only thing I will say is that the games also got steadily harder, to the point where I couldn't even complete Nightmare (one step below Trauma, the hardest difficulty) in Painkiller Overdose levels, and instead I decided to complete levels on the difficulty below that to get cards, and actually slipped into using the PKGOD cheat for that difficulty. Game is buggy and likes to crash in ugly ways.

I've also played through Shadow Warrior (the 3D Realms Build engine game post-Duke 3D) and Redneck Rampage (just the first part so far, there's also some expansions and the hunting game which I probably won't try). Shadow Warrior goes from being good to just average, nothing epic like Duke 3D. There's a lot that could be said about the Asian references and sex content...hilariously SW has been described as being less "overtly" sexual than Duke 3D. I guess that's true as poorly-drawn (i.e. cobbled together from whatever 3D Realms had to steal from at the time) naked anime chicks endlessly pooping on a toilet aren't hot like they were in the 90s. It's mainly just funny and damned creepy by turns. Not at all P.C. though. Redneck Rampage has surprisingly difficult puzzles, mainly due to some poor visibility on items. Not badly done. Both games are too short, but stretching the content in both games even further would end up giving something like...TekWar, I believe (need to find that and the other Build games, though I'm sure I'm far beyond diminishing returns as far as enjoyment goes).

I also got the last Wolfenstein (not the new one, the 2001 one) and 3D. I have had some fun with Wolf 3D on SNES, IBM PC, and Windows XP (going by the systems each is played on). SNES version has too little resolution but is still playable with mouse support even. Classic Wolf 3D is dated but surprisingly fun. Wolf 3D 2001 is just another dated corridor blaster, even though it has nice graphics. Not exceptional weapons balance. Good secrets though. Little side note, a guy I know from IRC took a screenshot of him running all six original Wolfenstein episodes in DOSbox, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and the new game, all windowed. Core i7 POWER

In all of these games I have been able to find most all secrets...not tough to do.

tl;dr version!

* Painkiller: Everyone should try the demo at least! Nightmare is easy for FPS vets, but still a good time.
* Painkiller Battle Out of Hell: Some good stuff, some so-so stuff. These levels are included in the Xbox version, I believe. Harder than the original.
* Painkiller Overdose: No more ideas, no more production values in the mapping. Harder than the originals and without any of the quality.
* Will Rock: Pass on it unless you're really hurting for more Serious Sam style action. I AM PROMETHEUS BRINGER OF FIRE GURRRRRRRRRRR
* Shadow Warrior: Okay. Duke 3D style fans should appreciate it. I would rather have played the original "serious" version seen in old screenshots (the early 1996-era screens, such as were seen on the Duke 3D disc) though.
* Redneck Rampage: Surprisingly competent and decent most of the way through. Weapons selection could be better.
* Wolfenstein 3D SNES: Playable, has two extra weapons over the classic PC version. No obnoxious door shutting sound either.
* Wolfenstein 3D 1992: Surprisingly fun but I find myself wanting to do 2-8 "properly" which means amazing headaches.
* Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001): Some good ambient music, highly detailed enemies and surroundings, not so amazing gunplay. At least half your inventory is there just to keep you from switching between all the good weapons too quickly. One of the boss fights is just obscenely unbalanced for damage (taking place in a lab), and the endgame is a complete letdown. Aside from the few really tough monsters and eagle eye badguys, nothing too hard. I beat down a couple of the skeleton zombies with my fists just for fun. No comment about Enemy Territory; I ran through the levels a few years back but never played it online.

* Left 4 Dead: Glitches still not fixed and I learned some hilarious ones recently.

I hate the lighting in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, at least the XBOX port-it's like you need flashlight everywhere. I didn't enjoy it too much. I have a good friend who loves Left 4 Dead; didn't know there were any glitches in it.

[Zeether]

Oh yeah, and Half-Life 2 on the XBOX-other then better graphics, is it missing anything that Half-Life 2 in the Orange Box has?

Episode 1 and 2.

[dave4shmups]

The new Aliens vs. Predator is looking AWESOME!!: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/uk-al ... s-vs/57806

[Thunder Force]

Modern Warfare 2 PC update:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FKty5Kpf4w

[Lordstar]

The new Aliens vs. Predator is looking AWESOME!!: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/uk-al ... s-vs/57806

oh yeah ive been waiting for this one. I refuse to pay 45 pounds for modern warfare 2, Borderlands looks like it could be right up my street though. With APB and Huxley firmley on there tail.

[TLB]

Modern Warfare 2 PC update:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FKty5Kpf4w

and there goes, instantly, any possibilities of me playing that game with any seriousness >_> come ON, IW, don't be so damn retarded. guess i'm sticking with cs:s if i ever get a new computer.

avp is looking HOT. i hope it's as sadistic as can be.

[jonny5]

Modern Warfare 2 PC update:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FKty5Kpf4w

and there goes, instantly, any possibilities of me playing that game with any seriousness >_> come ON, IW, don't be so damn retarded. guess i'm sticking with cs:s if i ever get a new computer.

avp is looking HOT. i hope it's as sadistic as can be.

damn....my friends are gonna be sad when i tell them about this

[worstplayer]

So, I played Dreamkiller, ANOTHER Painkiller sequel, this time from team responsible for PK Overdose.

It sucks.

One of most repetitive and boring FPS I ever played. Seriously, i've seen randomly generated maps more interesting than ones in this game. And there are some really weird bugs. For example: After dying I got teleported to the previous arena, however, doors to the next one remained closed. Only way to continue was to restart the whole episode.

Of course, I could get past that if the actual gameplay was fun. It's not. All the enemies either shoot or shuffle towards the player and bite. Only difference is the amount of damage they do. The weapons are generic, and would work if there wasn't one serious problem:

For some reason, you can only carry 2 weapons. You collect weapons by walking over them. When you do that, you will drop the weapon you're currently using. So, pick up a machinegun, switch back to melee and pick up another one. Now you can't switch weapons at all, because you DROPPED YOUR HAND, and you only have two machineguns. Who the hell thought this is a good idea?

[sjewkestheloon]

Anyone pick up Borderlands? I'm awaiting my preorder for the Friday release but there's a damn postal strike so I think early next week is more likely.

If anyone's up for some co-op action next week send me a 360 request to thejewk.

[Thunder Force]

Anyone pick up Borderlands?

Ice-T did...

"This game is like crack! I gotta get 2 more hours in before I crash tonight.. There's 10,000 Guns!!!!"

"Borderland Update: Just made it out of Sledge's Safehouse!! This shit is sick!"

"I'm bout to go back in on BORDERLANDS>>See ya in 5hours!"

"Just got done playing Borderlands 4hrs straight.... Need I say more?? Dope! Ice Out!"

Sounds like a solid recommendation to me. Guess this will be his new favorite after COD4 & COD:WaW.

[sjewkestheloon]

Can't wait for mine to come through! Damn postal strike.

[Ed Oscuro]

So, I played Dreamkiller, ANOTHER Painkiller sequel, this time from team responsible for PK Overdose.

Ha, no surprise. This post made me do a double-take though: Steam has had Painkiller: Resurrection in the store for a while now, as well, and I just checked out some screenshots. They're all horribly lifeless and ugly. In one I can make out a fairly detailed church spire in the distance but it's got the same old flat hills of yore and nothing going on. It looks exactly like pre-Overdose games right down to the weapon models and soul / health orbs et c.

As I said before, I felt that the Painkiller games simply got worse from the original (well, some parts of Battle Out Of Hell are alright, but that's about it). Overdose is a glitchy mess that obviously wasn't playtested very much. It's no surprise that another game from that team would have issues.

But I should say this: from what I see, Dreamlands at least has some new weapons and isn't just a semi-HD sequel (it'd be wrong to expect the same amount of change between PK and PK: Resurrection as between Serious Sam and Serious Sam HD, but it doesn't seem to have changed at all except to get a few high-res textures and maybe some better lighting in places). It doesn't seem to look like previous PK games, so hooray there. Damn shame about the levels though. I guess I'll hold off on that one until I can get a bargain on it. May well go for it based on "ooh pretty" factor alone though.