Best FPS Ever...... Vote now!!

DaveMack

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I'd like to start a little conversation and see if we can come up with a definitive answer to this question. Since 3D graphic cards and engines emerged, many developers have made efforts to stake their claim in the land of First Person Shooters and many have failed. Some games have made great innovations in the genre, while some have completely redefined your preconceptions of what is capable in a FPS. I won't go on babbling about who did this or that, thats your job.

Feel free to link screens, websites, or anything else that will help to make your point and please, fight as dirty as necessary. Let's get it on!
 
I think in order to determine the best FPS in any objective measure (and to keep this thing from being the equivalent of a religious argument, which may be impossible), first you have to break down any FPS in consideration into its basic elements. Then you have to keep things that apply to all games in the genre and throw things out that don't. For example, some people may prefer PC shooters over console shooters because of the amount of precision you have with a mouse interface (as opposed to analog sticks). Console FPS use built-in systems that help the player aim at moving targets, like in Halo. So, you'd have to throw that consideration out because the control mechanics are developed around existing interface devices. Likewise, you'd probably have to throw out technical graphical considerations, and a whole bunch of other things. You also have to consider how much weight you want to put into the older FPS games that paved the way but are outshined in almost every way by games that took their innovations and improved them, then games coming out after the improved FPSs and improving on them.

Given those guiding principles, to me the best FPS ever comes down to a handful: Halo 1 or 2, Half-Life 1 or 2, Brothers in Arms 1 or 2, Metroid Prime (Prime 2 is a noticeable regression from its predecessor).

Of course there are many FPSs out there I haven't played, yet another factor to consider. I'll have to think more about this topic and see if I can decide on any definitive best FPS ever.
 
Yeah, but this is the game that made me want to play FPS. I not much of a FPS fan cause they are all pretty much all the same game with different guns. But I couldn't stop playing Golden Eye64 years after its release. I only played Halo for a month or so after it came out, and Halo2 got old even faster. Half-Life was good, but I don't play a large amount of PC games. This is just my opinion. And FYI I still play GoldenEye64.
 
Goldeneye is certainly one of the best because it was one of the earliest FPSs on a console, and it really was a well put together game. It still gets played here and there and really is a good reminder of where the console FPS came from. And yes, Half life is awesome
 
My concern is, how much value does the concept of "area-specific" damage, or "dual-analog control scheme", or "scripted events" have in older, pioneering FPSs when newer ones use them more effectively and are overall way better?

Really, trying to consider the best of most things is absurd. Video games especially. The concept of 'best' right now changes because of what becomes possible due to advances in technology and design methods for video games.

Also, video game creators in my opinion haven't discovered that magical, timeless quality that some movies or books have. That quality that no matter the technology employed or how much money is spent on its development, it has great value because it does something that's deeply intrinsic to the medium and it does it in a way that can't be quantified or reproduced or necessarily improved by others. When video games reach that point, then this discussion becomes easier. :p

Note: nostalgia can be a powerful force. nostalgic feelings about some singular event/place/object are additionally feelings about a handful of other things that are attached to that.
 
the_roach said:
My concern is, how much value does the concept of "area-specific" damage, or "dual-analog control scheme", or "scripted events" have in older, pioneering FPSs when newer ones use them more effectively and are overall way better?
Alot.
 
But does it have a lot of value in context of best FPS ever? It has value when the context is 'greatest pioneers'. Then you can easily look back and say such and such FPS introduced the standard dual-analog controls, or this FPS established the idea of a perpetual first-person perspective and seamless world.

Spudz, this argument should be over for you if your bottom line is placing a lot of value on the innovations that other games go on to borrow and perfect. Wolfenstein and Doom should be on the top of your list since they created this genre to begin with. Unless your definition of a lot is relatively not a lot. :p

I guess what bugs me is, what do we mean by best? What exactly is the definition?

Here's something to provide a little persepctive:

Doom 1: You twitch fight demons that rush you, flip switches, grab powerups and find secret rooms.

Halo 1: You fight dynamic enemies with varying, contextual behaviors and personalities in huge, dynamic and interactive 3d worlds while driving unique vehicles and switching between third and first-person perspectives. Oh, and there's something serious going on in the narrative department, a story told through many threads: noninteractive cinematics, the level design and the details in or state of those, scripted events.
 
All FPSs now a days include the tired:

fight demons that rush you, flip switches, grab powerups and find secret rooms.

But what i look at is how well the games use what hardware and systems that are available at the time. N64 had the first analog stick controler (although not a very good one) and Goldeneye adapted nicely to it. The control system, the graphics at the time, the mission structure, all at the time were somewhat unheard of. Take Half-Life, it used a engine that had been around, made some changes, used all in-game cutscenes, and made an amazing game!

It's more than who had the most horsepower in their game, Halo to me is just another FPS. What did it really bring to the table? New crazy weapons? no. A fresh new take on the genre? no. It was just a pretty, well polished FPS that fan boys latched onto like the last Mountain Dew: Code Red.
 
I'm not a Halo fanboy I don't think, but I really like both Halos.

Halo to me is kind of miraculous. They created this huge dynamic world and they leave it to you to fight your way through it. The game is founded on some principle to deliver as spatial an experience is possible. Everything in the game reflects that. It's all about spatial thinking, spatial possibilities. Most FPS before that were anchored to the ground, smallish in level design. Halo is huge, spatially complex, and dynamic in the right ways. You're basically out there improvising your own ways to get from point A to point B with of course some constraints. Seriously, when I'm playing on legendary, I can literally feel the neurons firing like crazy as I'm trying to work out solutions to sticky situations in my head, processing the environment and where things are and what might happen. The only other game I have played where I've had to really, truly concentrate and engage spatially is Super Mario 64. To top it off, the interface with the game is great. When you forget you're controlling a game and you become part of the rhythm of the gameplay, it's an awesome thing.
 
Everyone likes Halo. Everyone who doesn't either hasn't played it, or does but just doesn't wanna admit it blows away all the PC FPSs to date.
 
Well, i can't say i've ever played the PC version, but Halo seems pretty standard in the genre to me. Yeah it's an all around solid game, but 'blow away the competition'?, I'd put Half-life on at least the same plateau. Much better story, and crisper graphics. seems pretty simple to me.