FPS are generic by nature. They revolve around running around and shooting shit. Maybe opening doors by way of a unique and ultimately genre-bending puzzle. As soon as you want a 'non-generic' FPS you're better off playing an RPG or an RTS. Halo, Mass Effect and Gears of War are all you really have. Everything else is generic.

Let's Play [Insert Game Here]

It is where the person making the video plays through that game, recording every step of the way for you to watch. Most LP have commentary by the person playing as they go through, giving you good laughs and letting you enjoy the game from a different light.

Mass Effect is an FPS-RPG.

Clearly you haven't played any of the Half Life games.

lolol of course, Half-Life goes without saying. You make me doubt I'm on a PC gaming website sometimes man, don't do that to me ... Counter-strike pretty much defined the genre back in 1995 on the back of Half-Life providing the first truly competitive engine (Doom / Quake being the early precursors to this).

Mass Effect and to a certain extent, Fallout are the only FPS-RPGs worth talking about. My point still stands.

Darksiders. That one is definitely worth buying.

They stopped making truly good shooters after Perfect Dark. Timesplitters 3 was good, but everything after has had progressively less and less features and effort put into it. I did not think too highly of either half life. I'm a hard ball to catch.

/e It's definitely true that making non-generic shooters seems difficult... but everything seems difficult when you have devs like Gearbox behind the wheel.

Mesk - telling it how it is since 1986. I wasn't really sold on half-life either to be honest - Counter-Strike was the true hero. Also, Perfect Dark... jesus christ that takes me back... need to go to the attic and dust off the old N-64 and see if the cartridge still works... the number of afternoons and nights me and a bunch of mates spent playing deathmatch... wow... it's a shame consoles are fail for FPS these days though

You're lucky there's not a lot of gosu people here to flame you for that

Team Fortress 2?
Half Life 1 and 2? - Man, gotta love that gravity gun.
Left 4 Dead series?
Arguably Portal and Portal 2?

mmm non-Valve stuff

I'd say the Single Player campaign in COD4 is very unique and is better than many games.
Battlefield 2's multiplayer is unique as well.
I haven't played any of the Mass Effect series, but I herd the character designs' are astounding.. also this: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/8909-Critical-Miss-Spice-Effect

This is coming from a guy that doesn't like FPS's, or give them a lot of chances to impress...

And Gears of War and Halo is boring. this is probably because everyone's trying to copy these two games.. so it's not really their fault lol

Am I the only one here who likes Borderlands? Imo also worth a mention when you're talking about FPS / RPG-FPS / non-generic FPS.

Don't forget about STALKER

Borderlands was a really fun game, but it just didn't receive as much attention as it should have. If Valve had slapped their name on it, the game would have been Half-Life status. But nope, people didn't like the game because the 'story was lacking.'

Anyways, been playing DNF for the past thirty minutes or so. So far, I drew a picture of my game plan which was to hang MZ. Then, I kicked some ass. Then I tried for about 15 minutes to see if there was an Easter-Egg to fuck the shit out of the twins before they inevitably get captured. Then I drew a bunch of cocks in this kid's autograph book. Then I knee bumped a bunch of aliens and even ran an RC car into one of their faces for a fun kill.

So far, this game is meeting my expectations and my Duke fanboy fever is more than quenched. But this is just the beginning, we will see.

Also, Mass Effect has always been lacking in the combat department. It is ridiculously easy and all of it's modes are extremely easy compared to other Shooting games out there. It's good for the story, which is amazing and should be experienced, that's about it. I love the series and damn straight I am getting ME3 on it's release date this March.


Now, before you read further and think, "Lovel, other games are just like this too." I mean, these things are MORE existent in themselves than other games out there or ones previous to it.

TF2 is strictly multiplayer, thus has no real appeal to the origin of FPS and Story. It's just for fun, like LoL or HoN. Don't bring games like this into the discussion.

HL1&2 are great for their stories, the difficulty is there, but it is far too linear with them trying to stretch it out by going way to deep into their puzzles: Find this, find out it doesn't work, go see why it doesn't work, go get the thing to make it work, make it work, watch it work, proceed; Repeat. Both of the games are constantly like this, in this order, with no real deviation. I did like a few parts where it wasn't like that, but generally that is how it works... The WHOLE game.

L4D is fun for the first couple weeks its out, then playing a few sessions with friends here and there. Fun, but if you play it too often, it gets boring.

Portal was a few playthroughs until you were like: Fuck yeah, I'm awesome. Portal 2 is fun until you complete everything, then put it down. It had less replay-ability than the first, which is starting to get more and more common with game series these days.

CoD and BF are franchises that are aimed at certain audiences: People obsessed with guns/war. Think about it, 10 year olds who think shooting people is fun and realistic. People who were too fat to join the Military. Etc. Aside from feeding the fanboys, these games are watered down as all hell now.

GoW and Halo at least have a story that draws you in, wants you know more and really immerses the player into the game. That's what these two games have been known for, Halo more so than GoW, but GoW having the more firefight-focused game-play while Halo is more of a battle of attrition. GoW is just recycled gameplay with new story however and Halo has just been getting worse since the second installment.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 13 2011, 4:02 am by LoveLess.

Lol
it's true tho..

if you mess about in the game... I can see it being really fun
But I'm under the impression that.. for people who're looking for a good FPS game.. this isn't it.

But oh wells.. being able to draw cocks may be more than enough compensation

Or I'm lucky that when someone replies to your post, your only retort is this:


Ugh, cartoon like graphics? Multiplayer only? Sounds like generic FPS to me. Besides, its a rehash of TF-1. But I doubt you played that

Half life 1 - over a decade old, we're discussing new FPS. Same goes for all sequels, sure Half Life 2 was amazing and had a tonne of cool features etc... But it in many ways was just capitalising on the first games success albeit in a new engine. Also, agreeing with LoveLess. Sure, storyline is there, difficulty is there... but it's one big linear mindfuck which completely destroys any chance of re-playability.

Lacks replayability. Requires you to have a bunch of friends playing online for at least some fun. Not really valid in this discussion.

Halo 1 had the most immersive and dynamic storyline alongside the most polished and innovative FPS combat system ever released. Each weapon was unique, each enemy was unique, each vehicle was unique, each mission was unique, each plot line was unique, the story was unique. Argue with that instead of saying 'is boring'.

My initial statement still stands: FPS are generic by nature. For every 20 boring, bland and uninteresting FPS you give me, there will be one Halo, or one Gears of War, or one Mass Effect...

At the very least: FPS as a genre requires guns and enemies. Linear A to B missions. Minimal storyline. Anything above and beyond that will elevate the game - but you rarely see developers really put great ideas and concepts in new games, and even more so in the FPS genre.

At the best an FPS genre game can deliver stunning graphics, realistic physics, tactical and unique weapon choices, a diverse range of enemies and AIs with which to battle... Dynamic storyline content with player-oriented choice making... Various worlds and environments to both explore and do battle in... Absolute and utter immersion into a storyline...

But instead, we just see COD:17 Martian Assault providing the console fanboys with more content to bang there skulls together at. Any FPS on console (with the exception of Maybe GoW and Halo 1) doesn't even count as an FPS for myself.

There're some weird... redundanciescontradictions.. in your arguments.. like agreeing that Half LIfe 1 is unique, and then go on and saying FPS's are innately generic.

but first of all.. the "lol it's true" that I replied was before Lovel edited, quoting my post.. so you'd have to read above my Quote <_<

And anyway.. It's not like I'm completely disagreeing with you. FPS's is probably the most milked, bland, dirty genre in the gaming industry.. and I hate it with a passion.. but saying that FPS's are innately generic, and therefore pretty much damning any development on that genre is stepping too far.

The examples I've listed are FPS's that are anything but generic.. And all the points both you and Lovel wrote didn't really refute that argument (that the games are not generic). ... EDIT: Okay, okay.. Left 4 Dead has started to become generic as well due to the overflow of zombie games.. However, its AI director is still far better than anything.. and the multiplayer experience is still very unique.

I don't see how the cartoonish graphics of TF2 is generic.. if anything, the brown, shitty, realistic graphics that FPS games have nowadays is generic.. and TF2 is proving that FPS players do enjoy colours once in a while.

Also.. the point against Halo and GoW that I was making was that the industry just kept copying these games, not to mention, make numerous sequels of them.. which just makes them super boring, like Lovel pointed out. It doesn't matter if Halo 1 was astounding.. the series has gone into the shit. Same with the COD series, which started to reek after successive series... and I actually really enjoyed COD4.

But yes.. I bet we will just see COD:17MW9 ... and Halo 11, Heavens or something... where the gameplay mechanics remain largely the same.. except with fucking virtual/wireless controllers.. which will just make it worse

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 13 2011, 6:49 pm by UnholyUrine.

The only games that have disappointed me more than Borderlands are Starcraft 2, Dungeon siege 3, Earth 2160, and Neverwinter Nights 2.

also rofl @ halo having innovative anything

The MP on PC was fun but definitely not innovative

You don't count. You don't like cell-shading.
But I wonder, how can you be disappointed by Borderlands? It never promised anything grand except being a fun mix of RPG and FPS. Well, unless you expected more RPG elements and less action? But tbh I think they found a good balance, well fitting the style and humor of the game.
It's the kind of game where you don't expect a subtle story or an overwhelming sound track or stunning graphics. It lives off its hilarious shit (claptraps!), ironic style and a well working game play and multi player mode. Running around with Brick in berserk mode mashing people's (or animal's) skulls while raging like a mad dog just doesn't get old.

I also wonder how you can possibly be disappointed by Dungeon Siege 3 when it's the successor of 2 already bad games.

Guys, EVERY game series is innately generic. EVERY ONE. Ever played an RTS except SC? They're all the same (arguably AoE is not). Same with JRPGs, RPGs, platformers, actionadventures, EVERYTHING. The only reason that you consider FPSes generic now is because the bad FPSes have more attention than the bad RTSes/RPGs.

Also: the entire CS series was fucking amazing.

I think you mean contradictions. A redundancy is where you have a an idea that is obvious to the reader and then you explicitly state it with the intent of clarification.

It'd be like saying all men have penises.

@TIkels
yeah that's the word I was looking for ><

I think its going to be an increasing problem as the video game industry gets older and older (I guess someone can try and compare the movie industry, as it is quite older than the video gaming industry and perhaps we can make predictions off it), but games are going to get increasingly generic because lots of things are going to be already done. So the writers/developers are constantly having the strain of having to think of something brand new and fresh when already so much stuff has already been thought up.

I don't know if the people bagging on TF2 have actually ever played it. Sure, it has no story, duh. But its replay value is incredible, and gameplay that is utterly superb. I used to play it competitively. OzFortress Winter League Grand Final Winners /horntoot. These days it has also begun garnering MMO elements with all the hats and shit, though they are purely optional. There are also a crapload more weapons now as well. Also there are lots of maps and gametypes. Basically, I would go as far as to say that TF2 is the best FPS multiplayer shooter on the market. And its ridiculously cheap. They've had steam sales where they were selling it for $2.49, lol.

Duke Nukem, on the other hand, looks like it came out before TF2, with terrible gameplay to boot...

I can see why People'd like Duke Nukem Forever...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/reviews/3541-Top-10-Things-Wed-Love-About-DNF-If-We-Were-12

.. and these people have the mindset of a 12 year old.