[Aptorian]

So, in an attempt to further hamper my studies, I've gone ahead and purchased the Id-megapackage from Steam.

Here's a list of the games I got:

Commander Keen Complete Pack
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
Hexen
Hexen: Deathkings of the Citadel
Hexen 2
Doom
Doom 2
Ultimate Doom
Final Doom
Master Levels of Doom
Doom 3
Doom 3: Rssurection of Evil
Quake
Quake Mission Pack1: Scourge of Armagon
Quake Mission Pack2: Dissolution of Eternity
Quake 2
Quake 2: Ground Zero
Quake 2: The Reckoning
Quake 3: Arena
Quake 3: Team Arena
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein: Spear of Destiny
Return to Castle Wolfenstein

So far I've tried out some of the older games in a wash of nostalgia. The oldest ones Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and the Heretic/Hexen games are so outdated that you can't even adjust the screen resolution or change the controls which is both a great laugh and completely ridiculous when your're playing on a 20" screen

Others are really awesome, I never played Quake other than in multiplayer games at computercafés. It's actually amazingly good. It's the same killfest that the old dooms were and it sticks to the great idea of having to find keys and looking for secret areas. So far I've been tearing through the levels and when I'm done I think I'm gonna try again on nightmare level.

FOCUS: Are you old enough to remember the classic shooters? What were your favorites and how doi you think they compare to the new shooters? Obviously the newer ones are more pretty, are bigger, are way more advanced, etc. but the sheer joy of playing the old shooters is still there for me.

[drinksinbars]

ahh spent many days playing doom in my business studies class rather than doing any work. in terms of comparing to new games, they dont have the story of the new ones but they were much faster paced. the only exception being duke mukem of course were the story was shake-a-spear good

[Aptorian]

Are you telling me Doom didn't have a story? You're saving earth from demons on mars, and uhm... you have to shoot them... or... they will kill you... and uhm... they get to earth and you kill them... then you kill some more demons and you save the day.

Brilliant. Hollywoods writters wishes they could come up with this kind of engrossing story.

I'm still keeping Doom 3 at a distance though. That game scares the piss out of me. I wish I could get the "give weapons_flashlight" code to work.

[cerveza_fiesta]

played damn near all of those to DEATH.

I did my own nostalgic replay awhile ago, but mine were downloaded from the-underdogs.com and I played them on DosBox.

Same diff really.


To answer your question, I the goodness of a shooter is something I find really depends on originality, refinement and atmosphere more than anything. Hence, games like Hexen I found a little drab, since it was more or less just a rehash of doom with different enemy textures. Doom however completely rocked since it was one of the first to have a truly 3D environment (originality points) despite having the same gameplay as hexen. And of course we can't forget the first time we shot a rocket at a stripper in Duke Nukem 3D only to have her explode into a bloody mess. Way cool.

Same goes for the Quake games. They had terrific atmosphere and were among the first to break out of sprites and use full 3D enemies. I always loved the parts in Quake II when you'd come outside for a brief period and there'd be a half dozen jetpack guys buzzing around outside waiting for you to stumble blindly into firing range. Just cool.

For modern shooters there's little room for improvement on the collect guns, collect ammo, shoot stuff formula. I find they really have to offer up something special for me to get into them. Right now I'm playing through FEAR. I find it's good, not because it has exceptional graphics or gameplay, I just really like the enemies. They're smart. Like one of them will pitch a grenade around a corner to flush you out and the other guy shotguns you in the face when you come into view-smart. If there's multiple entrances to your position then you have to guard everything because the bastards will realize that there's opportunity to flank you and actually do it. That and a weird paranormal theme just make for a cool immersive game.

COD4 offers up almost movie-like gameplay and terrific graphical experience, but has dumbass enemies in single player...so based on that alone I'd have given the game a 5/10. That game offers up truly awesome multiplayer though, almost unparalleled in the shooter gaming world. Plus the atmosphere of the game is terrific. Dust flying everywhere, millions of gunshots ringing in the background all the time.

Chronicles of Riddick, escape from Butcher Bay is an awesome game that doesn't have much going for it on the surface. It just looks like it's going to be another shooter...but then you get into your first knife-fight....and then a prison riot breaks out...and then it's sneaking, darkvision, neck snapping, battlemech driving goodness from there on out. The environments were 100% win and I just found that it was overall a very refined game. Nice controls, smart badguys, cool touches like being able to sneak up, wrestle a prison guard's gun against his chin and blow his face off. Chronicles didn't offer up too much original content but really won out on the atmosphere and refinement.

There's others of course but it comes down to atmosphere, refinement and originality for me. The old ones always hold a special place for nostalgic reasons.

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 04 November 2008 - 12:12 PM

[caladanbrood]

Some idiot allowed us to install doom on the computers at primary school. Endless wasted hours
Sure as hell beat secondary school, where all we managed to sneak past the security was a gameboy emulator to play endless zelda...

[Jump Around]

Commander Keen, holy nostalgia

My last shooter was Quake2, after that I lost interest. I remember making maps for Wolfenstein 3D block by block to find the missing hidden areas, since the map was basically 2D when viewed from the top.

My favourite remains Duke Nukem 3D, but it's from 3D Realms, not Id. Blood was also good.

[Macros]

Wolfenstien 3d rocked.
the original duke 3d as well

[Jump Around]

I played Duke multiplayer so much, I don't think there's a night even now where I don't dream of "YER AN INNSPEERASHUN FOR BEUTH CONTROOL!"

[dktorode]

Keen is legendary
Quake 2 was/is my most bestestest game i ever remember playing.

pure awesomeness

[Aptorian]

I'm playing quake 2 now.

Not sure what to think of it. While the first Quake seemed like a more advanced version of Doom, Quake 2 seems like a primitive version of the more modern shooters.

Don't get me wrong, it's okay. It just doesn't have much of an atmosphere and the weapons are weird. Compared to the weapons available, the enemies are ridiculously tough... of course, that might also have something to do with me playing in hardmode.

Nothing really endears me to this game... not yet anyway. I'm waiting to see how happy it will make me when I get a laser gun or the rocket launcher.

[cerveza_fiesta]

I always liked quake 2 better. Definitely played it more times too. Just found the action a bit more fun...but it's a different beast than quake 1 to be sure.

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 04 November 2008 - 05:56 PM

[Lisheo]

Goldeneye 64.
Nothing compares.
Ever.

[Aptorian]

You must be kidding me? I tried playing Goldeneye against a friend, it was crap. Like completely awfull compared to PC gaming. If I'm not mistaken it was one of those games where you had to use the little analogue sticks to play properly.

Ugh, firstperson shooters were not ment for gamesystems.

[Lisheo]

Damn straight it was, and once you actually got used to it, it was an incredible game, Apt. I STILL play it, instead of playing the "next gen" new FPS.

[Stalker]

As much as I loved the old games like Doom and Quake, trying to play them for me now is almost impossible. Its at the point where I can play for about 10-15min before I have to stop from the seasick factor. I think the shooters these days have improved it to the point where you could play all day and be fine. The only exception on the radar these days is Mirror's Edge (not going to play it). Though now I game almost exclusively on consoles.

[frookenhauer]

No way you said that Apt. Goldeneye was awesome! And the stick rules. It was followed shortly after by perfect dark, which had odles of playability, but not as cool as Goldeneye...

And no-ones mentioned Turok, that was a vision when it came out!

And recently theTimesplitters and Halo combo just cannot be beat.

Analogue joypads changed everything. Far superior to the mouse and keyboard, because you can weave about in your chair and duck...and other useless stuff .

And it meant you got to invite your buddies round for a sesh...four player goldeneye anyone?

[Dr Trouble]

You had 4 friends?

[cerveza_fiesta]

frookenhauer, on Nov 5 2008, 08:45 PM, said:

No way you said that Apt. Goldeneye was awesome! And the stick rules. It was followed shortly after by perfect dark, which had odles of playability, but not as cool as Goldeneye...

And no-ones mentioned Turok, that was a vision when it came out!

And recently theTimesplitters and Halo combo just cannot be beat.

Analogue joypads changed everything. Far superior to the mouse and keyboard, because you can weave about in your chair and duck...and other useless stuff .

And it meant you got to invite your buddies round for a sesh...four player goldeneye anyone?

Still on the fence about the key-mouse combo or the console controller.

My roots are (of course) on the PC shooters, but lately I've been playing on the PS3 and I really find it to be a superior experience. Not because the control is better, because you can't beat a keyboard and mouse for shooter accuracy. It's just the fact that I can sit back aways from my TV on the couch instead of being hunched over a desktop, and have friends play MP on the same screen. Makes it a way better experience IMO.

Now if I can just get my hands to stop cramping while using the stupid sixaxis controller. Why oh why did PS3 stick with the exact same shitty controller design as the PS2. It sucks terribly for people with big hands.

[frookenhauer]

Trouble, on Nov 6 2008, 04:15 AM, said:

You had 4 friends?

Okay fine! I invited my imaginary friends round...Strange thing is, they beat me at it too...

@ Cervez, I'm afraid its the joypad all the way, it is teh future. I can't wait until the steering wheel of the car becomes a joypad...I'm actually mostly kidding, considering how much I used to crash in Mario Kart (SNES version)

[amphibian]

Lisheo, on Nov 4 2008, 02:02 PM, said:

Goldeneye 64.
Nothing compares.
Ever.

So true. Nobody can be Oddjob though. I'm always the Jungle Commando - heh heh.

I was really good at the original Unreal Tournament. Like good enough to play god-like and come out 10 kills ahead of anyone else in single-player deathmatch. Never had the urge to play online though.