the first person shooter game thread (eew fps)

[saucykobold]

Anyway, two days or so ago I got Action DOOM 2.

Action Doom 2 is great fun while it lasts. I like how each level is jam-packed with secrets, pop culture references, and in-jokes. Some of the hidden stuff is particularly awesome. E.g. Penny Arcade tube, Pitfall mini game, John Romero bobblehead, and more!

[Ed Oscuro]

Anyway, two days or so ago I got Action DOOM 2.

Action Doom 2 is great fun while it lasts. I like how each level is jam-packed with secrets, pop culture references, and in-jokes. Some of the hidden stuff is particularly awesome. E.g. Penny Arcade tube, Pitfall mini game, John Romero bobblehead, and more!

Jesus, I didn't know about any of the things you just mentioned in the small text. I will have to have yet another look! I noticed a metric ton of references on walls in the City level alone.

It speaks well to the hard work done by modders on another "bleeding edge" Carmack production optimized for speed. I'd seen the DOOM III - style touchpads before (i.e. mouse pointer on surfaces) and knew about remote camera but there is some stuff in there I hadn't seen before.

It is rather hackish at points, but somehow they prevent it from falling apart (at least often). The Dojo, for example, won't let you use a bullet weapon after summoning the enemies because the katana will just automatically become selected again. The "Zomg zombies" section shows a need for "de-spawning" enemies though. I didn't check specifically, but the freezing attack of the fire extinguisher probably doesn't create that much savings for the engine in the long run. Dead enemies register in the map still, even disappeared ones (in vanilla DOOM anyway), and I'm not sure how or if they tax the renderer. The Zomg Zombies! map is large with some complicated architecture, and piles of hundreds of dead enemies will slow my Core 2 Duo down appreciably on 1920x1200. The effect is much less at lower resolutions.
----

All this is in stark contrast with the Quake scene, which also has some amazing productions, but is struggling to solidify supported feature sets. zDOOM's extended configuration list is astounding, but manageable due in large part I think to the solid foundation of BOOM all those years ago. And it's been solidly built on since.

----

I AINT AFEARD O NO QUAKE

At the moment, I did something I had been inspired to do on returning from a trip - play through Quake again. Nightmare of course. Again. (Not very nightmarish compared to DOOM's famous mode.)

First off, that demo has got to be one of the most epic ever. Lots of errors, made on purpose, but nothing fatal.

I like the architecture more and more as I go along, especially since I remember where all the secrets are (though, back in the day, it was more of a chore finding some of the hard ones, especially using noclip and the like). But the architecture isn't always perfectly matched to those enemies; just a few steps one way or another can put you safely out of harm's way while you laugh in the face of enemies. Enemies like zombies aren't coded or used effecively, and of course the Ogres are a great concept but their ranged attack is very bad. In some spots it feels awesome to dodge around them (i.e. the first Ogre in the game - until you realize you can just stand at the warp-in point and he will stupidly throw grenade after grenade to bounce off the steps without hitting you), but by Ziggurat Vertigo it's a farce; they can't hit you, and even Shamblers often end up too far away to "see" the player. My first inkling something was awry with Quake's AI was years ago, when I noticed Fiends had trouble with stairs (even stairs that go down) and corridors, or basically just walls or other vertical geometry that they can get stuck on long enough for you to get a couple good super shotgun salvos in. Today I had an amusing fight with an Ogre in a cage (first mission somewhere) overhead, while a Fiend ran around in the corridor underneath. Every time I opened the door more grenades would rain down, and the Fiend would either be running up the corridor or running back down it, never jumping out. Somehow the hail of grenades didn't manage to finish it off, so I had to take them out the old fashioned way.

I admire the intent of Quake to usher you through these fights in tight areas but often the effect of surprise is spoiled (like the Ogres on platforms in the ceiling cages). There are few places the game really gets you close to enemies and for good reason - you do poorly in melee and enemies are rather too powerful. The maps aren't large enough for sniping but often I feel removed from the action - there are many times you can simply sit on a platform, or looking over a drop, and toss grenades in to listen for yelps from below.

I also admire how Quake rewards you with Quad damage items and such for the purpose of running through some fights without taking damage. But, of course, you have to be a hardcore secret-finder to know about them, and you don't get them all on the first run anyway. There is one particular place that always takes me a few tries - a key across a pit of lava, which you have to extend a gangplank to get to, spawns a Shambler back at the other end. There's no room to maneuver. Today I read that you're supposed to be able to goad the Shambler into reaching for you with its claws, but on Nightmare apparently this is too fast to do. So you need cover. Quake is unusual in that it's got no sensitivities about forcing you to take damage, and the Shambler spawned by the key is no exception. On Nightmare, you basically need a full load of health to get past it - no bi deal. The other alternatives are to stand by the key, and try to shoot it out (and die), or you could have gotten a Quad hidden nearby in a rather complicated secret (hidden door, ladder, ventillation pipes, drop down on the roof of a small room) and shot your way out. I've only been able to rush past the Shambler feeling stupid, and taking around 80 damage from the two undodgeable lightning attacks. Then the same old boring routine of hide-and-seek with the Shambler (its poor pathfinding often leads it around a corner out of sight).

Even with the rather poor AI, and the poor waypoints - how different from DOOM games where a Berserker powerup invariably means one thing, punchfest incoming - I still enjoy Quake a lot. Darkplaces is not an ideal engine - I really would like something like highres software mode for the correct look on the black starfield in warp gates, or the underwater stretching (for some reason it just looks better in software than when rendered by a video card) - but it works.

My first thing to do is perhaps find the compiled map sources for Quake and see what the extra map details are like. At one time there was apparently a lot more detail in one particular map, so that should be interesting. (See Romero's 10th anniversary release of the BSP map sources.)

There is an interesting comparison of Quake engines here; arquiRe's GLquake looks interesting. I would like to try out that Marcher Fortress map. I've played the two mods within the last couple years - Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity; they didn't make a huge impact on me (I remember thinking the architecture was weak in spots, and the new weapons were glitchy, and cutscene pans look like all hell due to precision issues) but I ought to try those again.

I posted it in the VG Music thread, but there is an interesting interview with John Romero here. It'd be easy to hate on him for dissing the CD soundtrack but if there was something better it's perhaps understandable. I am also saddened by the loss of some features that could have been awesome, and especially by the disappearance of the Aztec texture set (which would hopefully lead to Aztec-style enemies too, which would fit in with Quake well). My brain is telling me that if they'd had more time to make the game properly, it'd have just turned into another generic Quake II, so I'm not too saddened.

To dream...My ideal version of Quake would be
an expanded soundtrack with the quality of the existing CD one (MP3s - yuck, especially back in 1996 when Pentium MMXes were having enough of a time with the software renderer),
the full texture set and another area along an Aztec theme with appropriate enemies,
better AI with more attacks (swarming from zombies for example),
the same great architecture but perhaps more of it, with more details and size leading areas to feel "lived in" (there's a graveyard in one of the later areas...the whole area is kind of a parody of a city; would like to see more along those lines),
more weapons in the same interesting style, with support for dropping superseded ones (i.e. the regular nailgun - absolutely no reason for it except for maybe sending individual nails into out-of-reach secret switches, but you can do this with the super nailgun), for a larger and more varied arsenal;
more intelligent support for extra functions, like the "magic items" that were apparently refugees of the 1990 Keen ad days.

I'm sure all of this could be done today, and not too expensively considering the age and simplicity of the system.
Unfortunately the mod scene seems focused on "up-rezzing" Quake with fancy saran-wrap textures (that ruin it completely; just look at this) and frankly I'm not sure there are many people with the artistic sensibilities to create stuff that is in the Quake style but just low-res. There is really a lot of fantastic stuff in the original Quake's art, which stands just fine without being high-res or high-poly (it's been my observation that more pixels give artists more opportunities to show off the weaknesses in their technique). Ultimately, I feel that with software Quake, you have a very particular "look," just as PlayStation games also have a particular look; the new hardware renderers play with that. But when you end up moving to renderers with fancy features, the reasons for sticking with the Quake engine are slowly eliminated. Tenebrae is interesting (and pretty at points) but such projects just highlight the low-resolution, lower-detail nature of the original assets, and don't do it justice. Unlike the DOOM engine, where bigger and better is fine because it's an unmistakable combination of 2D bits in 3D, Quake always feels like a poorer version of the latest and greatest 3D engines when you stretch the art past when it was designed to accomplish, and the engine achieves nothing that can't be done better by more modern ones, if you want to make "modern" projects. Treat it right - as a playground for enthusiasts and amateurs with limited budgets - and it performs pretty well, I think.

[worstplayer]

So, I played Sniper: Ghost Warrior, and to be honest, I don't know what to think about it. To describe it in one sentence: It tries to be Crysis.
You have multiple ways to complete a mission, you can use stealth and sniping and stuff, or you can just throw the sniper rifle away, pick up a machinegun and go Rambo. The problem is that the Rambo approach happens to be much more effective, and once the enemies know you're there, it's very hard to go back to stealth.

Technically, the game is OK. Controls work, it's not too glitchy (except totally braindead AI), and it looks quite pretty.

[Damocles]

So, I played Sniper: Ghost Warrior, and to be honest, I don't know what to think about it. To describe it in one sentence: It tries to be Crysis.
You have multiple ways to complete a mission, you can use stealth and sniping and stuff, or you can just throw the sniper rifle away, pick up a machinegun and go Rambo. The problem is that the Rambo approach happens to be much more effective, and once the enemies know you're there, it's very hard to go back to stealth.

Technically, the game is OK. Controls work, it's not too glitchy (except totally braindead AI), and it looks quite pretty.

That's unfortunate. My initial excitement dropped when I found out about the "normal" missions scattered throughout...and then even more when I found out they previously made the very crappy Sniper: Art of Victory.

Out of curiosity, what difficulty were you playing on?

[Obiwanshinobi]

You have multiple ways to complete a mission, you can use stealth and sniping and stuff, or you can just throw the sniper rifle away, pick up a machinegun and go Rambo. The problem is that the Rambo approach happens to be much more effective, and once the enemies know you're there, it's very hard to go back to stealth.

Surely you meant Terminator? Rambo was a stealth dude. The most Rambo you can go in a game is in MGS3.

[worstplayer]

That's unfortunate. My initial excitement dropped when I found out about the "normal" missions scattered throughout...and then even more when I found out they previously made the very crappy Sniper: Art of Victory.

Out of curiosity, what difficulty were you playing on?

Yeah, it's obvious sequel to Art of Victory, but it's nowhere near as horrible. Played it on normal. I also tried hard mode, and it looks like main difference is that you lose bullet drop indicator (but you still have stealth meter and magic radar of omniscience ).

Surely you meant Terminator? Rambo was a stealth dude. The most Rambo you can go in a game is in MGS3.

In the first one anyway, then it all turned into mindless shooting...kinda like this game.

[1up]

steam sale finally got me to buy Left 4 Dead 2. God, I absolutely love the chaos/tension in both L4D games. Only played 3 campaigns so far, but Im ready for more.

Really looking forward to the new XCOM fps game. But its supposedly not out till 2011? E3 video got me hyped. Im a fan of the first 2 X-COM games but I have no problem with them using the name for a FPS. X-COM is not exclusively turn based strategy. Theres others in the series, with other gameplay types but they were just not as good/succesful, as the first games in the series.

[kozo]

I liked the Sniper Ghost Warrior demo quite a bit. Not an amazing game, but I absolutely eat up anything that even remotely has stealth mechanics. It's pretty, too.

Saw mention of The Saboteur (obviously not an FPS) and Metro earlier in the thread. Really love those two as well. Though by no means "excellent" titles, they were great to play through and I'll probably go back every couple years for another run.

Working through Deus Ex right now, with the DX10 renderer and the hi-res textures. Going to finish it and it's sequel in anticipation of DX3, which looks like my new Mass Effect 2 (i.e. OMG OMG OMG!) Really enjoying DX1 despite the heinous character models. It's a lot of fun, and of course there's the whole sneaking around bit. A little sad I missed out on this when it was new, but it's still pretty awesome now too. Everyone seems to dislike the sequel, but looking around it seems to actually be a decent game. Looking forward to it, and with low expectations (and the texture upgrade packs) I'm sure I'll be happy.

Not an FPS, but I started Dragon Age Origins because I loved Mass Effect and Jade Empire...and so far I'm impressed. I'm not a huge fantasy setting type, but so far it looks to be done very well, and the graphics, music, interface all just flow.

So, anyway...anyone have some suggestions for more "sneaker" type games, FPS or not? I have and love all three Thief games, which really are among the best of the best. I own just about every Tenchu out there. Just finished Alpha Protocol, which was flawed but fun. Same goes for Velvet Assassin. Even if stealth isn't a central aspect (like Metro) I'm interested.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sniper: Ghost Warrior is such an awkward name... Sniper Elite, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell - all better names for a cheesy action game. Treasure too knew the power of names made of two words each. With Sniper: Ghost Warrior you can tell they couldn't make up their minds on the subject: Sniper Ghost or Ghost Warrior.

So, anyway...anyone have some suggestions for more "sneaker" type games, FPS or not? I have and love all three Thief games, which really are among the best of the best. I own just about every Tenchu out there. Just finished Alpha Protocol, which was flawed but fun. Same goes for Velvet Assassin. Even if stealth isn't a central aspect (like Metro) I'm interested.

Rogue Trooper - for the price of the PC version you can't go wrong with it. Too easy even on hard, but it's a jolly ride.
Sniper Elite - the name really is saying, isn't it?
No One Lives Forever 2 - think Thief light.
XIII - some stealth light bits are fantastic. On the PC I recommend above Medium difficulty level.
Splinter Cell - the first one. Not as great as Thief games, mind you. Easier on the PC where you can quicksave-quickload.
MGS3 - even if you don't think much of the series and can't stand the cutscenes and radio chat, you can skip them all and the game should be still playable (just ask your radio buddies for some advice if you end up clueless). It's one of those quirky PS2 games you should experience at least once (on Hard, no less).
Beyond Good & Evil - must play. If you experience graphical glitches, disable antialiasing (or just don't enable it in the first place).
Then there go tactical games with isometric view: Commandos, Fallout Tactics, Silent Storm...

[Khan]

still playing bf bc2 using magnum ammo on everything makes a massive difference.

man the GOL and the sv98 own in the recon class GOL has amazin accuracy plus I have to say its pretty easy to rack up the kills when your assault you can use the x4 scope and the M142 with the nade launcher to great effect, im also loving the m60 and the T88 on the medic class both those lmg's combined with the x4 scope and magnum ammo can down an enemy no problem.

love engineer too its so easy to get kills with the CG M2 rocket its so fast and precise with a massive splash radius, poor against armor vehicles but amazin on infantry plus really like the AK74u with the scope and magnum ammo.

my K/D ratio is getting better I still have like 200 deaths more than kills which sucks but I figure i can get into the positive balance soon enough, its a shame when theres no medics on your team lol or they dont revive you on purpose.

[Ed Oscuro]

I have no idea what I've done recently.

- I've played through more of HL2 and gotten some new Achievements, yay!1
- Installed Counter-Strike: Source also and gotten some new Achievements, zuh
- Left 4 Dead 2 some time before that.
- plus Serious Sam 2nd Encounter HD also (both deals from the Battlesmurf) and got...some Achievements!

On that note, Serious Sam 2nd HD has a "Survival" mode with Leaderboards. I got ~40th place within minutes on the first map I tried, Deep Hole. My ranking started slipping, so I put maybe a half hour into it (over a couple days) and last I checked I was ranked 17! Hooray! Get your shit together people, and not coincidentally a lot of Serious Sam's design elements are broken, especially in game modes it was never originally designed for (shoehorned in later, apparently). I am waaay better dealing with Kleer than I wish to admit, but it's sad how they can be matador'd almost indefinitely. I rather had wished for the original game, since I missed it back in the day and the Egypt setting always seemed cool, and I bought Serious Sam 2nd Encounter when it arrived so it feels too familiar. To be honest, though, I like it a bit more as I play on, and the small enhancements to the looks and the other bonuses are worth what I paid to get this game again, almost. Realistically, it's still ugly and kind of stupid (i.e. the story and world elements are at times so stupid you actively want not to find out any more, but then Sam says something like "The doorman should wear a suit" in anger and all is forgiven), and there's too much simple "circle around and blast the approaching horde," but they have mixed it up a good amount as well. It's also great fun to jump on an armor piece and have a Sirian Werebull appear out of nowhere to rush you in a tight corridor. I've already got a few knife kills of Werebulls to my credit...only about 46 to go for an Achievement D: (Hint though: You can autosave right before a kill and load to do it over and over again! LOLZ!!1) Overall...hell, I'd rate the game a 85% simply because it does what it sets out to do well, and I don't know many other games that offer so much fun. But only in short blasts. Also the save menu gets really cluttered the hell up with quicksaves; there ought to be a better way to manage it. The menu is also too fidgety - you can theoretically use keys for navigation (my preferred method) but the slightest mouse movement (and my mouse registers movement when I type, as it's kind of important to have a good mouse for Serious Sam) will revert the highlighted screen element back to its first location, even when the mouse cursor is nowhere near. Aggravation in the extreme. There also is an unforgivable load time before Survival maps...starting the map over, for instance. No restart option in the menu, and while once you die you can quickly hit Escape to bring up the menu, if you wait it'll reload and start again without your being able to abort. Madness.

- Reinstalled HL2DM and...

Rather important (possibly) news for players who visit FPSBanana

If you ever visit the site FPSbanana...check diz shizzle:
FYI: FPSBanana Trojan Horse

Kinda shitty because I visited yesterday. But I don't seem to have picked up anything, other than some shitty maps (with maybe two good ones that I saw years ago anyhow).

Thinking about putting together a map for HL2DM...should start with a simple one but I'm already dreaming too big. It's a shame there aren't really any good HL2DM maps other than a handful, some ugly ones that play well, and even some of the officially included maps are kind of shit (the one that won the competition is kind of ugly and dumb for example, doesn't fit the HL2 theme well enough). It's also a shame Resistance is so small; the building's upper floors really are crying to be explored, and more of the area outside as well.

[Damocles]

Singularity has to be the most generic FPS this generation. That is all.

[Damocles]

After over two years of sitting on my shelf, I finally decided to pull out Battlefield 2:MC again...and I immediately remembered why I never became too involved with it. I really friggin hate vehicles in multiplayer, it really is apparent that the maps were designed for much larger groups of players, and very few people actually go for the objective. I'll probably be playing this quite a bit, as it still has some charm...even if both SP and MP are deeply flawed.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yay, done with HL2 (again, is this the third time now?) and Achievements seems to make me a better player - in that a few times I was going "did I just noclip through here before? wtfloluz" (a spot near the beginning of the chapter Our Benefactors where you jump down a slope). Just gotta restart the game and find some more cache locations. I'll be honest; despite the better selection of weaponry, I still don't like the ending as much as the beginning. The game is a lot quicker than I had remembered, and I was able to keep followers alive much longer (even medics will pick up medkits now...maybe for safekeeping? I dunno).

Forgot to mention that within the last few weeks I've also been playing:

Quake: Scourge of Armagon (Hipnotic MOD) - very nice! I had thought I played this a couple years ago but I didn't remember any of it (so perhaps I played the second expansion). Still has the broken Quake AI but I had a lot of fun with this. Recorded some demos on my first time through a few maps, and I feel some of it was my best playing in a long time. I still have a ways to go, maybe a bit less than half the maps to go. Highly recommended for Quake fans.

TNT: Evilution - haven't gone very far. Very primitive looking; the first few maps kind of pissed me off in that regard. The Human BBQ map (I think it is) has some pretty good ideas to it, though. To be honest, since this started out as a free WAD, I'm surprised how basic it is and all the map glitches that didn't get fixed up in time for Final DOOM. Plutonia having bugs I could understand since it was done so quickly. But still, not a bad use of time, I'll check out more later. I'll also note that the modern mouse aiming features of zDOOM seem to be throwing me off my game - I'll fire at some guy in the distance and clearly see the shots landing above him. There's a time when you want the monsters to be infinitely tall! Anyhow, I hope Plutonia is better looking. In any case it's not too bad.

Heretic (Black Plague Possesseth Thee, same as Ultraviolence, hardest difficulty outside of using -fastmonsters and -respawn), got through the first two episodes (of the six-episode Shadow of the Serpent Riders re-release WAD), it's very amusing to play E3M1 as Mr. Magoo. I'm able to get to the end of the level without using any weapons and (I think) without running, too bad there's an Iron Lich sitting there to draw away. On the whole though, don't like it quite as much as I had remembered, but it's still good fun. Some pretty nice level design. The inventory / weapon systems aren't quite timeless, though; items let you dodge out of any tough spots with self-activated Invincibility (didn't use it except when it wasn't really worth it to try otherwise - only at the end of the first episode).

[worstplayer]

Despite most generic theme in history of generic themes, Interstellar Marines looks really interesting. Unbelievable attention to detail, especially for what's basically a homebrew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-6Lp-5XYFo

Yeah, tiny details, but they do a lot to eliminate "camera on wheels" syndrome almost all current-gen FPS suffer from.

[Khan]

well it was refreshing to finally see you on steam Ed and thanks for accepting my friends request after all these months hehe

anyway thought id try and play some Far cry after losing interest in left 4 dead 2 ive moved from mp to wanting to play more SP fps games but I managed to find a game that I had a previous save file from called Call of cthulu dark corners of the earth....I remember playing this game at like 2am on a friday morning and feeling chills down my spine it was pretty eerie now I just gotta hunt down a copy I remember buying it online but its just a shame when you go on a deleting spree when you need hd space that you end up deleting a game iso you pay for

[Ed Oscuro]

well it was refreshing to finally see you on steam Ed and thanks for accepting my friends request after all these months hehe

Yep, likewise. Though I'm not sure if you're actually using the same name there...right?

I talked with a few minutes with an acquaintance from years back, that's been about the extent of my "social" interactions on Steam lately. Don't feel lonely, don't feel engaged either though. It probably would be alright to get some multiplayer minutes in eventually.

Call of Cthulhu sounds decent; I've seen some gameplay video but that's it.

Yeah, tiny details, but they do a lot to eliminate "camera on wheels" syndrome almost all current-gen FPS suffer from.

You didn't just out yourself as a "casual" FPS player, did you?

That "documentary" style is being used by an astonishing number of FPSes and third-person games these days (Gears of War's running effects for example of a similar effect). I like to be able to see where I'm going, at least occasionally. That sort of effect may seem more realistic, but it's not really; you're already peering into a narrower field than you get in real life, and while your awareness is higher than it would be in a real battlefield (things usually are much closer than even the relatively close range of the usual "conventional" military engagement we read about in the papers), having the viewpoint jerked around a lot seems to upset that balance a bit, and I don't think it does a heck of a lot for immersion. If nothing else effects like that take away my ability to focus smoothly on some object and remind me artificially that I'm playing a game - more than very smooth camera moves even on rough climbs admit (because in your mind the jerking of your head gets smoothed out).

A game that I feel got the idea of "meaty" movements right while not turning into a jittery mess was Condemned - Criminal Origins, which is one of the most physical shooters / brawlers in memory, where things really seem to have heft to them, without giving you too much of the feeling of being trapped in a fat guy. (It's kind of ironic that video game characters can move much more athletically than any human, not to mention run forever, and yet still feel lumbering - mainly I suppose this is due to their being unable to roll over a counter or walk between piles of objects smoothly, instead they have to crouch jump on everything, lol). Still, I don't mind having weapons bounce around (visually) a lot more than is standard for the "old-school" FPS; Rainbow Six Vegas did alright in this regard I thought.

[saucykobold]

Black Plague Possesseth Thee

D'Sparil is pretty unfair on Black Plague. When he's low on life, he teleports almost constantly. If you can spot him, you'll be lucky to get in one or two hits with the Dragon Claw before he warps again (I wouldn't bother with non-hitscan weapons). In the meantime, his Disciples will fling purple spam at a feverish pace.

Have fun.

[Khan]

well it was refreshing to finally see you on steam Ed and thanks for accepting my friends request after all these months hehe

Yep, likewise. Though I'm not sure if you're actually using the same name there...right?

Nah I'm Rugal bernstein786 on steam, yea im deffo gonna get cthulu soonish

[Ed Oscuro]

It's maybe half a day left now, but Lead and Gold is actually pretty darn good. Team Fortress 2 without the overriding "team" considerations, a lot more run 'n' gun and being a loose cannon. Copypasta from Digital Press:

Lead and Gold - free weekend over by the time you read this

Whuupoes, but then I guess everybody with Steam already gets that Steam Updates spam every time they start the program. So. There's about half a day left I reckon.

It's a pretty fun game actually! Think Team Fortress 2, get rid of the characters, add in totally new ones. Seems, on the whole, more "realistic" than TF2, but the gameplay is still very frantic. It's a bit less focused on buddy-buddy stuff between specific characters but now you can match up with any other player - when you're nearby, the two of yas swap auras, so if you're a big miner the other person gets armored, and if the other person's a...well, I'm not sure but you get something in return. Oh, the Gunslinger has a damage aura.

An interesting feature is the "traits," which lets the sniper lay traps (which are ridiculously effective in some places despite their smallness), the gunslinger can put his hands over his pistol (he's the only one with just one weapon) to fan it, the Blaster (miner) can toss (and cook off) dynamite, and the Deputy (who's sort of an intermediate sniper - more shots but less damage per shot) can lay a death's head on targets, which makes it harder for the Sniper to get headshots (since they're obscured) but makes it possible for everybody on the team to see where that target is, even behind cover. Generally very handy but can be annoying at times.

It's pretty slim overall, with a small but pretty efficient set of maps, no extra weapons, and so on. What's there is pretty cool though.

There are a whole host of small nitpickins' to be had with the game and I've covered those over at the Steam Forums. But overall, it wasn't a bad game for the weekend. If they can expand it some I might even get it - it's only $15. I'll probably wait for a price drop and / or substantially more content, though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The shop system in Metro 2033 is ultimately pointless.

That's been true in every FPS I've ever played. This includes Morrowind and Oblivion.

If I remember correctly, in Thief II at some point you NEED an invisibility potion pretty badly. Those can be purchased before the mission. When you stalk that city guard lady and you have to follow her through the door, I don't think you can make it potionlessly (just before the door either she spots you, or you lag too far behind her). Man, is she edgy ("CHAAARGE!!!"). "Shhh, woman, you'll wake up the locals."

[Ed Oscuro]

I did that mission without a potion of invisibility, IIRC. But I probably abused the save system a bit too.

Man, Thief II was great, now you're making me want to play it again. Great beautiful "ugly" game (kinda like Quake).

Speaking of which...

The "first time Quake map demos" project continues. I got nearly all the way through the last map of the second episode (Mortum's Keep, whoever he is / was) with 5/6 secrets, only to get blasted at the end by another of Armagon's tricks. There is a ledge which you normally can't get to in the last room (with the awful tesla coils), and getting up to it (flymode) reveals The Levelord's funniest comment yet, I think. Well, almost:

On to HIP3M1 then: Tur Torment.

There's a couple rooms in front of me. I look out the right way, up, and see sky and something like a rail. I go the other way and pick up a Super Shotgun. I see an odd metal panel on the floor with another up to knee-height, jump on that, and an elevator goes down. I hop away. Back to the open section and there's a switch. I can see this is a ski lift type contraption. Press the button and a Vore starts coming. Take a Voreball to the eye and duck around the corner; wait, and then use the wall as cover to kill it. I send the cart back, but jump off it when I can see the roof of the building I was in. To the back, collect some rockets and other ammo. There's a ledge along the canyon wall here. I run along that, careful of Vores to the far side. There's a gap, which I jump over. Secret! But the ledge continues up, with just the smallest foothold to get around a corner. I start going up - and get the message "You're not supposed to be here!" right before at least two floating mines spawn me and frag me to kingdom come. All in a day's work, I guess. I'll have go to back later with a pentagram of protection or something

Update: Wow, that spawns a lot of stuff O_O Survived though...at least until later in the level (fiends, 67/80-something total enemies killed bah). The map's easier when you go around the points first instead of trying to get through the keep stairs (which I first did) without any ammo...on the plus side I axe the regular knights like a pro

[Ed Oscuro]

Yesterday: Done with Scourge of Armagon. The last two levels (one is the boss) were disappointing (moreso because of Darkplaces bugging up on the silver door in "The Gauntlet," though it eventually opened), but Tur Torment was amazing, and the next two levels were good too (Limbo). The secret level for the last "episode," Edge of Oblivion, is an open deathmatch map which spawns tons of vores and more than a handful of shamblers as well. Took care of business though. I think I needed ~5 attempts to clear that level, same with the final boss (proximity grenade abuse is how I killed him). I did fairly well for secrets; I'll have to go back some time.

Just now: Finished up Heretic episode 3, which is about as far as I've gotten before. Most all kills, items, and secrets for all levels. I've always cheated my way to the end before. I think I used somewhere around 9-12 attempts to take him out finally, starting from the level start each time. Figured out some tricks for the level, but nothing major. I was so shocked to see him go down that I hit the jump key and bounded over him (first jump of the game, since jumps break the game).

Quick note though: A lot of Episode 3 sucked; there's a level maybe two or three before the last one where I was checking off all the stupid design tricks used. Monsters behind pillars (that you can abuse, but it makes the game slow and boring), monster closets (even inside monster closets), monsters behind every corner, pointless bad secret placement (oh boy is that differently colored tapestry a SECRET!), even more pointless map scroll (DOOM's computer map) drops making secret hunting yet more pointless, taking on Maulotaurs in semi-close quarters (wasted myself a couple times with a badly-timed corner rocket shot), pointless integration of the "flight" item, really terrible lighting that makes the game look like it's using the EGA grays, hell, I can't remember it all. Everything has a lot of health, which means you have to be consistent to win, but it also makes fights just drag out. Autoaim also was often worse than useless, snagging on a wall that's offscreen even on a 16:10 viewport, or on a ledge below. All that said, I really did have fun with a lot of the maps in the previous episodes, like the Ice Grotto level (well, much of it anyway - haha, that was back when Iron Liches were still scary).

Quake's monsters may be stupid, but they're still smarter than DOOM monsters, and it's fun to attack, say, a Death Knight: You can blast him five-six times with the Super Shotgun (I forget exactly), or you can switch to the axe and trade jabs with him. About the only Quake monster that's really an insufferable pain in the ass is the Vore, on account of the homing shots that simply never give up (if you can't teleport out of the way or get it snagged on a ledge, you have to figure out how to best "take" the damage, and saints preserve you when there's actually three of them clustered up to look like one shot). Oh, and the floating (also teleporting, in the last levels) Spike Mines, though those are helpful sometimes. At least on Darkplaces, they always trigger when they get too close to a wall (they usually spawn high up in a room and try to drift over to you when they see you through a doorway).

For the first part of the level: Crossbow against the gargoyles, drop into the water for the wings of wrath (the last two stupid secrets on the last level used them and for some reason I didn't have one on level start), crossbow against the two Disciples in the first teleport room, switch to Hellstaff, switch on Shadowsphere (why not?) and perhaps Invincibility for the Golems, then rush through to the Serpents and Iron Lich (but not necessary; on my last three tries I just used Hellstaff on the Golems while still flying above, then used a Morph Ovum - first time in the game! - on the snakes, then just beat the Iron Lich quickly with the Hellstaff and without taking much damage), then collect some stuff and off to the main arena.

saucykobold's hint about using hitscan weapons was amazingly helpful. Early on I'd use something with travel time (usually the Hellstaff, i.e. DOOM plasma gun, or the Phoenix Rod, i.e. rocket launcher) on the lizard-mounted form, then keep doing that until he started teleporting around too much. Then switched to hitscan weapons, i.e. the Dragon Claw. Stupid DOOM Wikia has a tip about using a tome of power with the Dragon Claw to clear out Disciples, which are the biggest threat on the level, but if you do that you have no ammo left for the boss. So I mainly used powered-up crossbow shots and the Phoenix Rod to clear them out.

Item management is crucial...collecting stuff early and using it only as needed kept me alive. If you leave D'Sparil's arena to pick up health (I used as many inventory items in one shot of this level as I did throughout the whole rest of the game - I didn't really use any items at all besides the final level of Ep1, and then a few times throughout Ep3, mainly when encountering Maulotaurs), the Disciples will crowd up in the north (towards the exit) of the Arena, which makes it easy to hurt a lot of them quickly with the Phoenix Rod.

Then just strafe all around the place like mad, dodging the danmaku of Disciple shots. If you play your cards right you can have two Invulnerability Rings for the end of the fight (meaning: you've been working on teleporting D'Sparil for a long time, have used up your health jars - again the first time using those this whole play - and you maybe have one Mystic Urn left). The last Invulnerability ring is along the ledge up above, on the right side behind a wall with a tapestry on it. The mirror side of the structure has something else useful inside, and both ends have a teleport which you might as well take to stock up & crowd the Disciples to the north again. But it's worth going back quickly, while the Wings of Wrath are still active, because the extra dimension of movement is helpful and keeps you out of D'Sparil's way a bit longer.

I'm not sure I would have fun doing it with just a keyboard, but hooray - a game I've had since 1996 finally goes down.

I recorded everything, too. Joy is us all!

[Cromarty]

I did that mission without a potion of invisibility, IIRC. But I probably abused the save system a bit too.

Man, Thief II was great, now you're making me want to play it again. Great beautiful "ugly" game (kinda like Quake).

Only annoying thing in that mission was the one guard who goes the opposite direction to whatsername so when you get there he's coming right at you - hiding from him doesn't take long enough to lose track of her, though.
Also, I'd sooner go back to Thief Gold than II.. the latter had some really long, boring missions full of tile or metal floors, and I could never take the Mechanists seriously because of how silly they look (and how silly Karras sounds). The robots were lame.. partly because they all have the same silly Karras voice and partly because the only effective way to defeat them is a water arrow from behind. I preferred Gold's variety of monsters and undead, plus the game never tells you not to murder them all. On expert in Thief II you may as well not be given a sword.
I didn't care for the new stealth objectives on some missions, either - let the player club every guard if he is so inclined, I say.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's kind of a mix. For me, some of the TG missions are a bit too straightforward, but others more than make up for it (I wonder what the original game, without the extra missions, is like). Thief II has some awesome scenes however. I liked wandering around that broken house by the docks late in the game, for instance. But then, there was also plenty of silliness - and the more up-to-date setting seems like a good excuse to get rid of the clumsy swordfighting (I guess that was improved on in Deadly Shadows). Overall, can't really pick a favorite, though it'd be one of the first two.

[Mortificator]

An -amazing- cinematic rendition of the battle against D'Sparil!

Heretic's episode 2 was my favorite, but I didn't dislike episode 3 as much as you did.

Anyway, what port are you using for Quake? I never really played the original game.

[Ed Oscuro]

Heretic's episode 2 was my favorite, but I didn't dislike episode 3 as much as you did.

Yeah, episode 2 was definitely my favorite too. I'll have to check out 4 and 5 again later. Also, the so-called "Fate's Path" levels = LOL unfinished, untested and unbalanced for single-player. You have to be a bit mad to get through them. My old-fashioned "safety first" method of playing from 1996 wouldn't have gotten me very far on those.

But anyway, Episode 3 wasn't bad, per se, it just wasn't really great. The one map I just slagged off because it had all these elements of what I consider to be lazy level design in it. (Which is not to say there haven't been lazy level designs in other, later Raven games as well.)

For Quake, I used Darkplaces.

You know, I have to say it's a tie for me between the original Quake episodes and a select number (not all) of the Hipnotic maps. Some of the Quake maps are bland; they all have chunkier geometry than most any other 3D game out there that I've played (no rails for minecarts like in Scourge of Armagon), but they also all tend to have pretty good secrets, good concepts, and striking enough designs that it's fun just to run through them while hitting the bad monsters with facefulls of buckshot. The gameplay in those was often unpolished compared to the Hipnotic maps, however, which was a big minus.

[Shatterhand]

I've been playing Bioshock 1 for the first time lately.

Except by the fact that you are not penalized for dying, the game is awesome.

[worstplayer]

Started playing Crysis again, this time the way it's meant to be played. Open up editor, make 512x512 island, fill it with everything KPA has to offer, GO!
Much more fun than actual campaign.


Did you know Crysis is also a pretty good helicopter simulator? (well, simulator, it's about as realistic as Comanche Maximum Overkill, and if you overdo it with map complexity it has similar framerate too)

[Damocles]

So...Sniper: Ghost Warrior. I found it for cheap and picked it up. Single player is decent, but screams budget. Getting stuck on geometry is always pathetic. Combat is actually fairly good, as long as you don't rely on stealth. Putting a bullet through the head of each and every enemy really is the best solution. It is, however, piss easy. Even on hard it has virtually no challenge. There are health packs, but once your health gets below 30% it automatically regenerates back to 30...so there's almost no need for them. The levels where you act as a normal soldier are bog-standard as well. And lets not even talk about that god awful grappling hook.

Multiplayer is actually very playable as long as you don't like quick action. For some stupid reason, probably to keep things moving, all enemies are displayed on the mini-map at all times. Not just while firing, not just when moving. At all times. It quickly becomes a game of checking the mini-map and creeping around a corner to try and pick off the enemy first. Things are much easier when you're not on the very edge of the pack of enemies. I would personally love for City to patch that out. Maybe show the dots while firing an unsuppressed rifle or running. I honestly believe it would make the experience 10x better. You also can't go prone. Once again, I understand it was done to keep the action from grinding to a halt but, goddamn, it's a friggin sniper game.

I initially thought I would sell it back for a profit, but I'm keeping it for my nephew and MP.

Oh...three TDM maps, three DM maps, and three VIP maps. Yeah.