Dead Consoles: FPS Edition

Here's the first round of sorting out the best from the good. One note before this: no console war bullshit. Good games are good games and nobody gives a shit if the Wii sucks or the XBox can't sell shit in Japan. This is about games.

Whenever reasonable, I've condensed series into a single contender. Why? First, I don't want to see an annual release game thrown out because the votes are split. Second, series are a brand with similar gameplay and fan expectations. Third, I'm lazy.

Contenders:

Call of Duty
It can be argued that CoD is the defining game of the previous generation. The online presence has been the gold standard through the years, and there's a damn good reason for this success story. Rather than redefining the genre, Call of Duty has focused on polishing, tweaking and perfecting a very well received formula of exciting gameplay. And enraging kids with squeaky voices who like the words 'nigger' 'faggot' and 'jew'.

Bioshock
While other FPS games have gone into the gold rush of online play, Bioshock went back to basics in creating an engrossing, atmospheric single player game reminiscent of the best early PC days but far better. The only criticism seems to be that the story and atmosphere is too good for an FPS, but given that this game was an FPS going for story and atmosphere, I guess that's high praise vOv

Left for Dead
Another series that branched off, Left for Dead is one of the strongest co-op experiences on the market. Unpredictable gameplay and the chaos of working with other players has kept this series fresh over time. As future DRM will require offline games to be online at all times, this formula could be the route that previous single player experiences adopt because why the hell not?

Borderlands
I could have put this in the RPG category, but it just feels more like a shooter. In many ways, Borderlands and Left for Dead are like Halo and Call of Duty, filling a similar niche in the co-operative market. Blending comic book action, MMORPG raiding experiences and an unreasonable amount of weaponry has created this abomination of a game that probably should have been coat-hangered but turned out fantastic.

Halo
In many ways the grandaddy of modern console shooters, but hardly long in the tooth. Halo continues to excite fans with a combination of vehicle and infantry mayhem and varied gameplay. Despite the trend for games to become more 'hardcore' and realistic, Halo plays to it's strengths of accessibility through intuitive controls and larger-than-life fun. Also, I gained like 200 lbs from gorging on mountains of Doritos and Mountain Dew so fuck this game.

Portal
Fuck it, I'm putting this in another category because you can't headshot a goddamn wall.

Gears of War
This is the third person shooter that made all others look like shit. The slower paced, tactical team play in this game really brought about some innovations to both co-op and competitive games that continued through later games on all systems. Of all the games mentioned here, this one felt the most fresh out of the gates. The walking masses of muscle are also the perfect answer to the sex-slave women featured in video games.

Stalker
This isn't a console game at all, but it's really good. So go ahead and vote for it you special radioactive snowflakes. I'll only count votes that bash console gamers for being noobs ruining the industry and include PC specs in the signature.

Killzone
Comedy option.

I pick Borderlands for on console play, and CoD for online multiplayer.

That being said, I thought Killzone 3 online multiplayer was really good. But simply put, CoD is king.

So where's the original Unreal Tournament? That's basically the apex of the genre anyway.

I'd choose Gears of War because of the said slow, tactical pacing. When it worked and was balanced towards the rifle and not the shotgun run, it was by far the best multiplayer shooter IMHO.

San Il Defanso wrote: So where's the original Unreal Tournament? That's basically the apex of the genre anyway.

I was coming here to vote for UT and then going to ask this.

Metro 2033

I dunno if it's fair putting a third-person shooter (3PS?) in with the FPSes. Gears of War just plays so different. It gets my vote, also because of the co-op focused horde mode.

CoD: MW2 was fun for a little while, but where's Battlefield? I didn't have as many friends playing this one (I think Barnes was the only one) but I really enjoyed the team/squad focus with the different classes, destructible environments and vehicles. It had a different pace than just getting shot in the face 100 times by some double shotgun wielding punk.

I also really liked Borderlands, multiplayer co=op and questing together was just so seamless.

Do I just vote for one thing?

Obviously my vote if for CALL OF DUTY. Since the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the online shooter experience has been defined by this game. Following this title, you have the unbalanced and awful CoD5: World at War but then they got great again with Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 2.

No other game comes close to the number one most-played game over XboxLive (I assume the same is true for PSN but I have not checked). The online multiplayer experience is like crack-cocaine what with the insta-reward of killing people and achieving objectives. It is an adrenaline-filled 10-minute round over several different gamemodes that will appeal to someone (be it the classic and campy Team Deathmatch, to the improved version of that called Kill Confirmed, to the amazing Domination, the tactical Search & Destory, or the action-y Headquarters, Demolition and Hardpoint). Heck, they even have Hardcore mode for especially poor players who can kill someone with only a single shot (thus leveling the playing field some).

Yes, the community is almost as obnoxious as the Halo one but there are gems in there and you'll love them when you find them. Each iternation of the game has made efforts to make the experience friendlier and you can now remain in party chat to not hear the taunts of your enemies (or, even more often, your allies). And even the opposite is true, if you want to hear your opponents rage, you can now hear their reaction to being killed as mics get opened between you and your opponent for 1.5-2 seconds after you kill them. The result is pure hilarity most of the time.

It is the most played game for a reason. It is insanely fun and it's very rewarding when you get good at it. It defines the multiplayer experience and nothing comes close to it in terms of sales (breaking every record each year) or number of players in the community (always in the millions).

Vote: CALL OF DUTY


btw, where the heck is Battlefield? That is the definitive team-based tactical shooter. Or GHOST RECON or RAINBOW SIX? Also great games.

Vanquish is the best shooter I played this generation, by far, it's not even close. I had more fun with Bulletstorm as far as FPS's are concerned than any of these games but I guess if I'm forced to choose from your list then I would reluctantly choose Bioshock. Metro 2033 should really be on there too, but I wouldn't choose it personally.

Nobody mentioned Battlefront in the other thread but go best vOv. Personally I prefer it to CoD.

Metro was mentioned a few times it seems but I only saw it once because I'm dumb. So yes, vote for it too.

Ghost Recon and Rainbow 6 both weren't mentioned and would be what most would consider top tier anyways compared with other competitive shooters. Vegas was the big thing when all it was up against was CoD 2 and 3. Recon didn't make much of a splash at all on either system.

Unreal tournament is a few generations ago, and dated as hell by buy today's standards.

Call of Duty feels like babby's first FPS after Halo.

e: basically contards

Goldeneye is the granddaddy of FPS multiplayers.

That is all.

I really like Ghost Recon because I don't have to play with other annoying people.

It is really fucking hard though. Constantly getting killed by some fucking sniper 5 km away in a tree.

No mouse, no play.

Also, Team Fortress 2 is better than every other game in this list put together, deal with it! =P

SaMoKo wrote: Unreal tournament is a few generations ago, and dated as hell by buy today's standards.

It came out on PS2, I'm not sure what you mean by 'a few generations', or 'dead consoles', I guess.