what do we want in an FPS title

[mailman187666]

I'm not sure if there has already been a thread created about this, but I'm going to post it just in case.

does anybody here think that the halo series is overhyped and over rated? i can say that halo 1+2 are good games, and have a great following on the x-box live, but what makes it so great that everybody is all about it? I personally like the FPS games that allow you to carry more than a couple guns at a time myself. The whole outerspace thing is kinda becomming a little tired too. I think Halo is also responsible for the flood of FPSs on the market as well. I have both Halo and Halo 2 in my collection at home and I plan on keeping them there, but I can't say that these are the best FPSs ever made. I know I'm probably going to have a whole bunch of people telling me to fxck off after posting this, but there have got to be a couple of other people that agree with me here. Is Halo really all its cracked up to be?

I haven't played many FPSs lately, the most recent are Prey, quake 4, COD 2, PDZ. I want an FPS thats different than all the others. Red Steel looks pretty inovative as far as the genre goes, but can't anybody think of something 100% different. Videogames are like cartoons, the only limitations are the imagination of the creator. Wouldn't it be cool to have an FPS where you could fight in worlds where anything is possible? like take for instance the wierdness of a game like Shadow Hearts and the enemies that has in it. Wouldn't it be cool to just have an FPS where every level is completely different than the last? or maybe the initial look to the game could be cartoony and happy but with shit loads of violence and gore.

maybe an FPS/RPG hybrid (unlike oblivion or anything like it before) have the pacing and action be on par with the halo series but be able to customise the different guns in your arsenal (damage dealt, shielding, shot range, alternate shots) and each guy you kill boosts your experience points. Then be able to take your character online and dominate everybody within' your character level range. There are so many different possibilities to make FPSs better rather than just little differences like being able to walk on walls, or ride in vehicles, or rewind\stop time. Is anybody else understanding what I'm getting at? or does it just sound like I'm getting sick of the genre?

[Damaramu]

I've been saying this for a while now and I'll repeat it:

I'm getting a little worn out on military and sci-fi themed FPS. Give me a good western shooter, like Lucasarts' Outlaws.

If there's any genre that screams FPS, it's western. OK Corral anyone? American Civil War? Hell imagine a Little Big Horn multiplayer map.

Come on gaming companies!! Enough with the Ghost Recon/Halo clones!!! :wink 2:

[NE146]

I'd like a little more fantastical stuff and maybe a little less "realism" in some future FPS's. Physics need not apply.

Like I think a cartoony Mario Kartish type of FPS isn't too far fetched with weird weapons and over the top powers you could have.. like maybe you could turn into a giant, or throw banana peels, oils slicks to make others slide, turn into bullet bill and speed over opponents, turn others into zombies you can control, have womp ems stomping down randomly, or zelda dungeon hands coming down and grabbing you, slow down time for everyone else. I mean, anything creative and fun. i.e. WHATEVER!

This is just throwing stuff in the air. I mean obviously it doesn't have to be "mario" but you get the idea. The point is the sky's the limit in videogames these days.. but we hardly ever get to see it.

[njiska]

I'm just gonna say it. Originality. That's not to say it need to be completely new, but it does need to bring something non-standard to the table.

Quake 4 was your average FPS. Point, Shoot, Reload, repeat. No complexity, no inventive story, no inventive gameplay, nothing special.

COD2 on the other hand is an FPS that's great because it has intensity. The game made you seriously think, "How the hell did anyone survive this." It provoked emotions like fear and respect, things that made it special.

Prey changes things up with gravity walks and Portal technology. Sure we've changed gravity before, but it was always rough and never worked well. In prey it's smooth and realistic feeling. Same goes for the portals. Teleports are as old as the FPS genere, but in Prey they aren't hard fixed assets. They can be opened anywhere, gravity can change and again everything is smooth.

[zerohero]

NO MORE WWII stuff!

1. I like Sci Fi FPS, as long as they have a good story, interesting weapons, and good gameplay.

2. Fantasy FPS the same will apply as well.

3. NO MORE WWII stuff!

[roushimsx]

1) More World War 2 games based on actual battles, not movies about battles. Call of Duty was a tribute to multiple movies, Medal of Honor: Spearhead was "Band of Brothers: The Game", and if I see Saving Private Ryan shoehorned into another game, I'm going to kill someone.

2) Better AI in conjunction with Better Scripting. Call of Duty is the worst offender here. The scripting isn't too hot to begin with (good lord is it easy to break the game), but the AI just flat out doesn't exist. Your partners will never actually shoot enemies (oh they'll shoot AT them, they just won't shoot them) and they're all stupid as hell. My favorite example is (again) Call of Duty's level where you're manning a machine gun, defending planes taking off while enemies snipe you from the top of a building and try to flank around. You have some partners there that shoot and shoot and shoot...at nothing. You have to do everything yourself.

It's not just a problem with WW2 games, either. Daikatana, the infamous flop from Ion Storm Dallas, had some of the worst god damn partnet AI ever coded. You couldn't beat levels unless all of your partners were alive and it wasn't uncommon for them to stupidly charge headfirst into rooms and get killed or, better yet, get killed BY DOORS. Thankfully the game included co op and was actually quite a bit of fun if you could get some friends to play with you, but most people never bothered.

Don't even get me started on the complete lack of decent AI in the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games.

3) More inspired level designs. Tron 2.0 and Far Cry really take things to the next level, here. Most games tend to rehash the same ideas and concepts over and over, but Tron sucked you into the world created by the movie and didn't let up until after you beat the game. Have you ever tried to escape from a hard drive as it was being formatted? I don't fucking think so!

Far Cry, on the other hand, took the wide open level concept (first really put to good use in Operation Flashpoint, imo) and took that shit to 11. Not only do you have large islands (and the surrounding waters) to play around in, you also have flat out goregous jungle vegetation, aircraft carriers, bunkers, towers, and damned mountains to manuver in/through/around, all while maintaining a flow ensuring that while you felt like you had near total freedom, the game was still leading you along.

4) No bosses. Boss fights are stupid, plain and simple. They almost always change the rules of the game for bosses. They're always long and drawn out (as fun as Opposing Forces was, that end boss was tedious and stupid) and usually confusing/frustrating (how long did it take to figure out how to kill Kreiger in Far Cry?). Right now I'm playing Chronicles of Riddick and while it has "bosses" in a sense, they fit in with the game perfectly and aren't obscenely overpowered behemoths of sheer death. In fact, Chronicles of Riddick is pretty much what all FPSes should aspire to be like (in terms of innovation and execution)

5) First Person Means FIRST PERSON!. When I'm playing a FPS, about the last thing I want to see is a third person cutscene. Quit sucking me out of the character! Far Cry Instincts and Breakdown (both on Xbox) are the two best examples of how this should be done. In both games you're in the first person viewpoint from the minute you start playing until the end. Scripted cutscenes have a whole new level of impact when you're forced to see them through the character's eyes, and while Half Life 1 and 2 both stayed in the first person viewpoint, neither one did it to the same level as FC:I and Breakdown.

Chronicles of Riddick, as awesome as it is, fucks up here by switching to a third person view when going in vents, up ladders, conversing, etc. Really, it's about the only flaw the game has.

6) I want to see my feet and hands.

7) I want melee combat to be more than me whacking a crowbar/axe/fists/baseball bat/whatever. Again, see Breakdown and Chronicles of Riddick for how melee combat can be successfully expanded in a FPS.

8) Subtitles. If you're going to include dialogue in a game, you need to include subtitles, bottom line. Half Life 2 and Chronicles of Riddick did this perfectly and Doom 3 is a textbook example of how not to do it. Not everyone that's playing your game is going to be able to hear (either because of listening environment or *surprise* because some gamers are actually deaf (http://www.deafgamers.com/)!).

9) Dynamic enemy placement and situtations. SWAT 3 is king, here. You never really know how a mission is going to be until you're in the shit; hostages could be in different locations, there's varying amounts of bad guys in each level, different personalities to contend with, etc. For instance, on the very first level you raid a guy's house who's suspected to shooting cars driving by on the highway. His wife could be a hostage (sometimes tied up and shoved in the closet) or she could be an agressor (when she sees you, she'll pull out a gun and try to shoot you). The guy may be in the attic and ready to blow your brains out or he could be fully willing to give himself up. It's always different and you're always on your toes.

On the wall of shame, we have the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games, which are the exact same every damn time you play them. If you're going to make a tactical fps, you're going to need to mix it up a bit.

there's more, but I guess that's just the highlights. Feel free to disagree!

[Sothy]

1) More World War 2 games based on actual battles, not movies about battles. Call of Duty was a tribute to multiple movies, Medal of Honor: Spearhead was "Band of Brothers: The Game", and if I see Saving Private Ryan shoehorned into another game, I'm going to kill someone.


Exactly. What is there a million games with the Omaha Landing scene? I was impressed they went with the battle for Point du hoc on COD2.

And when has there ever been a good fps based on the Pacific war? Never.

I think theres a lot of good material for a Korean War FPS.

Or even A Vietnam game that isnt a jungle crawl. Tet offensive urban combat stuff would be different.

A cicil war game could be cool...

No thanks to Halo shit. I dont like shields and lasers and all that jazz.

Im not going to buy one.... but that PS3 shooter looks cool.. like alternate history WW2 with aliens or whatever.

They could make some cool realistic shooters with sci fi or alternate history stuff going on ala turtledove.

And one piece of advice to game developers.... we have the hardware.... please destructible envoronments?

Whats the use of ultra hyper realistic environments if the beautifully rendered wooden shack gets hit with a 120mm High Explosive round and then just stands there untouched.

[studvicious]

Wouldn't it be cool to just have an FPS where every level is completely different than the last?

Timesplitters

[mailman187666]

I just had a whacky idea for an FPS that may work. What if you were a mental ward patient that happened to escape. Rather than going on a spaceship or a jungle durring a war, you are in a stereotypical suburban town. The person giving you a mission wouldn't be an officer or a higher ranked member of a team you are involved with or anything like that, but the voices in your head are the ones telling you what you need to do. The first mission of the game could be shooting your neighboor or something along those lines and it eventually gets harder and harder for the missions (having to take on a police station or something like that). Then every now and again (since you have the mental issues) you have a level hear and there where everything is a hallucination and you have to distinguish who is real and who is a trip and take on the real characters. Throw in a whole bunch of sick and twisted gorey things (like having to chop up somebody to bits before you bury them). Then right there you have something creative (unless they've made a game like this and i just don't know about it). I would definately purchase a game like that.

Old FPS themes that they don't really make anymore but should reconsider the possibilities are:

Heretic
Hexen
Blood 1+2
Rise of the Triad
Duke 3d (since we will probably never see forever)

[studvicious]

^^ Isn't that kinda like Killer 7?


<< Played K7 for about 5 minutes

[Push Upstairs]

HUMOR

Really, aside from "Serious Sam" are there any more recent FPS games that have alot of (intentional) humor?

If you could take the wacky humor and shit in the "Metal Slug" games and put it into a FPS i'd be pretty damn happy.

[studvicious]

HUMOR

Really, aside from "Serious Sam" are there any more recent FPS games that have alot of (intentional) humor?

If you could take the wacky humor and shit in the "Metal Slug" games and put it into a FPS i'd be pretty damn happy.

Maybe not so recent but the No One Lives Forever series was more towards the funny side.

[roushimsx]

Maybe not so recent but the No One Lives Forever series was more towards the funny side.

Post stealer! No One Lives Forever 2 had some pretty awesome scenes that literally had me laughing out loud. Bar none, one of the best chase scenes ever :)

Far Cry Instincts also had some pretty funny bits, but you had to be stealthy to catch 'em. Those guards have some wacky conversations.



And when has there ever been a good fps based on the Pacific war? Never.


I heard Deadly Dozen Pacific Theater was supposed to be enjoyable but I've never played it. I guess one of these days I'll have to break out the $10 and give it a go.

[Joker T]

Immersion is the key for future FPS games. By doing away with HUDs and cut scenes, the player won't feel taken out of the experience.

Another key is interaction. Levels should not look exactly the same after you've gone through them, it should look like a battle happened there. This has been shown in F.E.A.R. and Red Faction but I think developers can do far more in giving the player a enviorment that they can change.

Also I think developers should try harder to keep FPS games at a more constant frame rate, frame rate problems seem to pop up in almost every FPS game.

[Sanriostar]

i don't know why, but I like my FPS's as brainless as possible. If it moves, kill it.

[mailman187666]

i don't know why, but I like my FPS's as brainless as possible. If it moves, kill it.

you know I think that must be what it is for me too. I played FPSs religiously up until probably red faction for PS2. I think thats why I liked games like heretic, doom, quake....games like that. Kill everything thats trying to kill you, find new weapons, find the exit. I think thats what I miss most about the fps genre, too much thinking involved, too much dialouge and story. If I wanted to think when I play a game, its gonna be an RPG, or puzzle game. Come to think of it, the game Blood would be awesome to bring back. The first Blood had some humor in it....Blood 3 for xbox 360 and PS3 anyone?

[Push Upstairs]

Just so long as it has the endlessly fun dynamite packs and exploding hairspray cans.

"AHH, AHH, IT BURNS!" LOL


Now "Shadow Warrior", that game was fucking hilarious.

[Cryomancer]

Timesplitters needs to come to PC is what.

And yes more humor or at least over-the-top funny violence not stupid generic grey grunts causing smoke effects back and forth.

Oh and female nudity.

[Pedro Lambrini]

^
Timeslpitters 2 on th ePC would be utterly amazing! Full online multiplaer mayhem with customisable maps? Wow! :)

[jajaja]

HUMOR

Really, aside from "Serious Sam" are there any more recent FPS games that have alot of (intentional) humor?

Armed & Dangerous got humor.

[gepeto]

I love FPS but I think the problem begins with people scream for innovation and when a company tries to
be innovative and create a different game People are overly critical at the finished product and no one buys it, and doesn't make it worthwhile for the creator.

The Halo series I believe got so much Hype is because it lured alot of console people into the fps era much like ff7 is credited with bring rpg's to the masses.

Alot of hardcore gamers were well into fps well before halo. We were getting games like system shock 2, undying,No one lives etc. There is only so much you can do. A lot of fps players like the kill anything that moved think later aproach. Games like deus ex were praised by gamers and critics but didn't approach blockbuster numbers.

I also think too many people give reviews without completing a game. There should be a mandatory rule that people aren't allowed to review a game unless they completed it.

The pc has alot of different fps I would go and look up what I missed. What I find funny is when the xbox specs were released I just knew system shock 2, the undying,Kingpin and so forth would have been released. Never happened. GO Figure

[NeoZeedeater]

Genre mixers like Deus Ex and System Shock are among my favorites so I would like to see more games like them.

There's plenty of room to expand emergent elements and level progression that varies based on your choices. Bioshock's AI ecology sounds like a step in the right direction.

And like has been mentioned, I wouldn't mind seeing more light-hearted, wacky, colourful games for variety. There's major potential in doing something like Jumping Flash again.

[djbeatmongrel]

originality is definitely is whats needed. i see Tron 2.0 was mentioned. i have to say it was one of the most impressive ones to come out in the recent years when it comes to overall environment. Also Deus Ex really approached the genre in a fresh way.

the only console ones i like are the Metroid prime ones. Metroid prime and red steel on the wii appear to be the best next step so far in the genre.

really most game genres could use fresh approaches but most companies wont take a risk do to how easy cookie cutter games sell. think about the past era like the 16 bit era with run and guns and platfomers, a lot of similar crap coming out.

[SkiDragon]

I'd like to see a WWI FPS.

[Griking]

I'm not at all interested in vehicles in my FPSs and still believe that the original Unreal Tournament is the best FPS I've played.

[jajaja]

Unreal Tournament rocked indeed. I didnt like ut2005 and 2006 that much tho. The best FPS game i've played within the 5 latest years is Medal of Honor Allied Assault + the 2 expansion packs for PC. Great single player and GREAT multiplayer.

MoH: Pacific Assault was also cool, but not as far as good as MoH:AA. I wish we could see a sequel to AA with the same engine a gfx, but it wont happend :(

[Lord_Magus]

Genre mixers like Deus Ex and System Shock are among my favorites so I would like to see more games like them.

Agreed 100%.

Coincidently, I just finished playing System Shock 2 yesterday, and the hybrid (pun definitely intended ;)) gameplay, immersive atmosphere and well written storyline make it a truly worthwhile experience. As a sidenote: for those of you who are turned off by the relatively "blocky" graphics, fans have released high res texture and model packs, so if you haven't tried it yet you should definitely give it a go :)

I won't even begin to comment on the greatness that is Deus Ex, because words simply cannot do justice to such a masterpiece. Warren Spector is God.

[gepeto]

I'm not at all interested in vehicles in my FPSs and still believe that the original Unreal Tournament is the best FPS I've played.

When I played the demo years ago I knew this one was a masterpeice. It was just a excellent mix. My favorite was facing worlds with a little morpheus. Are people still playing this online?
What about the original tribes? I was 56k all the way shazbot.

[mailman187666]

I definately think the metroid prime series is some of the most inovative FPSs around. It still sticks to the roots as far as collecting items and back tracking to the spots you have yet to go through and whatnot. Symphony of the night has a lot of those kinds of elements in it and i love that game. So I see Metroid Prime as a mix between old school metroid and newer released castlevania with an FPS view. Metroid Prime 3...hurry the hell up damn it.

[Beefy Hits]

GIve me better controls please.
LIke a joystick for movement and a trackball for aiming/shooting like that one Mad Kats used to make for the DC.

Or the wii's remote with the nunchuck please.

The only thing that keeps me from playing FPS games are the shitty control schemes. They would be much more playable with either of the above options.