What is going in the FPS genre ?

[Stark]

Consoles have much better support for subtitles, also.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Other than Operation Arrowhead and CoD:Black Ops I don't seem to recall any FPS games of note released last year.

MAG (Massive Action Game)
Schatten get a PS3 and MAG, Falls in Love
MAG Update

Only three threads.

[CaptHawkeye]

I feel like Schatt is implying another game we forgot, but can't quite put my finger on it.

[Niz1]

Farcry2 was excellent.

BLands was amazing , more shooters need to go in that direction imo.

Blops is wank, and I speak as someone who has played in a CoD clan since MW1. MW2 was bad and almost killed us on CoD when the switch from dedicated servers was announced only a couple of weeks before release, after tons of players had preorded ofc But the actual gameplay wasnt too bad once you got past the impossible IWnet. But Blops.........meh.

Oh and the single players for both were wank, but mostly a multi player anyway.

Also did everyone forget the Medal of Honor game ? Didnt that come out last year ?
This one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal_of_H ... eo_game%29

Not that I played it since it appears to just be a pretty poor copy of BFBC2 , which I own and enjoy.

[Exonerate]

Rage looks OK though and Natural Selection 2 also looks interesting.

NS2 is struggling uphill because they're an indy developer hurting on funds, even after selling over ten thousand pre-orders. They're in what's supposed to be a beta testing stage, but they're still missing large chunks in game content and have a lot of optimizing to do if they want to even come close to meeting their advertised hardware requirements. The people who brought pre-orders, mostly NS1 players, also get access to the beta testing, but at peak hours, there's perhaps 30 players worldwide, which should tell you something about how playable it is right now. It might eventually become a good game, but I wouldn't bet on it being one upon release. Unless you want to support the development, I'd wait and see before spending the money for it.

It seems like I'm the only person here who actually likes the "twitch" gameplay? The games I play for Story/Immersion are usually tossed out of the window after a playthrough or two, if I pick them up at all. It's the games with high twitch value I keep playing for years. I'll freely admit I haven't played all the new, mainstream FPSes, largely because I don't perceive much "twitch" value in them. Targets whose movements are limited to slowly strafing left or right and occasionally ducking or going prone? No movement skills to speak of aside from holding down shift to sprint? Um, yeah, I think I'll pass. There's only so much you can do with those things before it gets stale. I think there's plenty of room for innovative gameplay in the FPS genre - it's just that when large companies can choose between taking a risk of making something new that might not succeed or rehash something for steady, almost guaranteed profit, they'll go for the safe option.

[Stark]

You just have limited taste (and arguably no idea what you're talking about since you don't even play the games in question). I like both types of play, but the market clearly doesn't like UT3. Games like MW2 and BC2 are pretty damn twitch anyway, they're just not rocketjumping circle-strafe festivals.

[weemadando]

I find comments about MW and MW2 being multi only games amusing as I played the SP almost exclusively and they had tight, solid and enjoyable campaigns.

But I can see how you might confuse that for a UT style botmatch campaign.

[Niz1]

I find comments about MW and MW2 being multi only games amusing as I played the SP almost exclusively and they had tight, solid and enjoyable campaigns.

But I can see how you might confuse that for a UT style botmatch campaign.

Sorry the sentance in my post should have read :
"Oh and the single players for both were wank, but Im mostly a multi player anyway."

My bad.

Im not trying to say that I didnt enjoy the single player of the CoD games, I just dont think they are very good. I try to think of them more as a movie that i can do some bits in, with the multiplayer being the actual thing I buy the game for.

[adam_grif]

MW2... enjoyable campaigns.

I am deeply sorry for your loss.

For once we're in agreement. Both games campaigns can be finished, combined, in a single sitting if you're dedicated, unless you crank the difficulty up to max or something. Short as fuck. The multiplayer is the real meat of those games, it's why most people play them, it's why they won all of the awards they did, and it's why the reviewers sucked the games off so much.

[Stark]

Length isn't related to quality. If ando likes the SP saying its short is worthless.

[Ritterin Sophia]

For once we're in agreement.

No we most certainly are not.

Length has nothing to do with it. I liked Modern Warfare's campaign and gameplay, short thought it may be. No, the difference is that MW2's story was not only shitty, the gameplay wasn't even any fun, with the exception of Spec Ops mode and raining Hellfires from a Predator on Russian troops and 'WOLVERINES!', the latter only for obvious reasons. I bought MAG for my PS3, played it and I literally can not bring myself to play MW2 again. It's just not fun.

[weemadando]

Length isn't related to quality. If ando likes the SP saying its short is worthless.

Ding ding ding

Winner.

Turns out that a fifteen minute game like One Chance can deliver more emotional impact and quality storytelling than most 50 hour RPGs.

And the MW2 campaign was stupid. But just treat it like a Michael Bay movie. Except for Favela. Because fuck trial and error gameplay.

[Ritterin Sophia]

But just treat it like a Michael Bay movie.

You watch Micheal Bay flicks as well!? Tell me, Ando, have you discussed your self-loathing issues with a psychiatrist?

[weemadando]

Sometimes its nice to sit down and watch Bad Boys 2. Or read a Matthew Reilly novel. Or play genero-shooter number 16.

And then, a case of taste inevitably breaks out.

[adam_grif]

Length isn't related to quality. If ando likes the SP saying its short is worthless.

No shit? I was stating my agreement about MW2 being shit, and then going on to say that the Multiplayer suite is the main draw of both games and the reason why people consider it a "multiplayer game" even though they both have single player games. Because Ando was talking about that exact topic in his post?

[2000AD]

[I wouldn't classify it as trying anything new but Metro 2033 certainly upped my expectations for future FPS games. Not because of anything gamplay wise (it has all the usual FPS conventions) but because of the atmosphere. I must have played through a dozen times by now and I'm still scared I'm going to be eaten. Maybe thats what happens when you put more emphasis on atmosphere then making sure it looks pretty?

There was another nice interpretation of what is now a standard game mechanic in Metro that I liked but it's a bit of a spoiler, so spoiler box time: Spoiler

It had a hidden morality system to decide the ending. Unlike stuff like Bioshock where there's clear places where the game goes "Here is good option, here is bad option, CHOOSE!", Metro just kept track of your general behaviour. Steal everything not nailed down and that would go towards bad ending, give money to beggar or do honourable stuff and that goes towards the god ending, but it never gives you anything like morality points or draws your attention to these actions, just quietly makes a note of it for later.

[Chardok]

I really wished I had more time with Metro. I really like me some crazy Russian games (And thanks to STRAK for turning me on to them). I felt, though, that as I progressed through the game, I got a really bad Resident Evil (specifically Shattered Memories) feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe this is misplaced, but that said - I really wish some Big old western company would toss a few (50 mil or thereabouts) dollars at a Russian developer with a directive to "Go Nuts". I'd certainly eat that up like an Ethiopian on a KFC bucket.

[adam_grif]

I really wished I had more time with Metro. I really like me some crazy Russian games (And thanks to STRAK for turning me on to them). I felt, though, that as I progressed through the game, I got a really bad Resident Evil (specifically Shattered Memories) feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe this is misplaced, but that said - I really wish some Big old western company would toss a few (50 mil or thereabouts) dollars at a Russian developer with a directive to "Go Nuts". I'd certainly eat that up like an Ethiopian on a KFC bucket.

THQ have stated that they didn't give Metro 2033 the kind of attention it deserved and that they're looking to rectify that for the sequel. So you are kind of getting your wish.

[Stark]

Maybe this time reviewers won't criticise it for not being a Fallout style open RPG instead of a shooter.

[weemadando]

Maybe this time reviewers won't criticise it for not being a Fallout style open RPG instead of a shooter.

I hear that people expect games with a similar visual style to have the same gameplay.

[Stark]

I hear that having expectations that are clearly wrong disappointed means the game sucks, and not that reviewers are fucking morons?

[Artemas]

I think people expected an open world stalker game, not a fallout rpg, but whatever.

EDIT: wasn't this thread bigger?

[weemadando]

I hear that having expectations that are clearly wrong disappointed means the game sucks, and not that reviewers are fucking morons?

That was my point. People are idiots. They took one look at it and went: "it looks like Fallout, it must be an open world RPG."

Much like if people were to look at Alpha Protocol and go: "it looks like a 3rd person shooter" rather than the hardcore crunchy RPG it is and then declare it sucks as a 3rd person shooter. Wait, no. There's no if there. That's what happened.

[Chardok]

Hell, I'll freely admit that I looked at Metro and said "ooh, Fallout Clone! I'm there!" Then STRAK was all "Lol, no dumb head, it's a shooter!" and I went "Pass." then STRAK goes "Yo, totally play Alpha Protocol, it's cool" and I was like "pffft, it got like a 1/10 on Gameinternetz.orgcom you lie." Then I was all drugged up after surgery on my knee and I bought it (I think) and I thought it was cool.

So yeah, moral? Ignore reviewers.

[Stark]

What's interesting (to me) is that the only person I know who has played Metro and doesn't like it is Flash, because he got stuck in a really bogus situation with fascists on Frontline and gave up. Nobody in the real world seems to care that it's linear... just like nobody cares that xyz shooter is linear.