First games that come to mind

[juyunseen]

So a friend of mine who has been a rabid CoD player for some time now (He even bought and somehow enjoyed Medal of Honor Warfighter because it "Looked like CoD") came up to me and asked me something that I really didn't expect of him.

He said, "I'm getting tired of Call o Duty" and then went on to state that he knew that I like a bunch of "different" games (I.E. I like all sorts of games, not just the big AAA titles) so his question to me was this.

Reccomend him some games that I completely different from Call of Duty.

Well, the first three titles out of my mouth were Okami, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and Team Fortress 2. I didn't even think about it, they just kinda came out.

So my question is twofold. 1: What three games would be your first recommendations for your own hypothetical military shooter friend, and 2: is it odd that the three games that I thought of first were all non-realistic, stylized and cell shaded games?

 

[Keoul]

1. Okami
2. Summon night:Swordcraft story (on GBA if not applicable see 2.5)
2.5. Batman arkham city/asylum
3. Some MMO (Ragnarok online, Guild wars 2 you get the idea)

And you are not weird for thinking of cell-shaded games, you just have great taste in art. I would have picked them too.

 

[Euryalus]

1. Beautiful Katamari
2. Metroid Prime trilogy
3. Majora's Mask

I would also like to cheat and add Bastion and Limbo in there as well because they're awesome, but not the first things that come to mind.

 

[Dead Seerius]

1. Twilight Princess (yeah I liked it more than Wind Waker)

2. Arkham Asylum

3. GTA: San Andreas

While it's not nearly old enough for me to ingrain as one of my immediate recommendations, The Walking Dead is fresh on my mind right now, and I believe it's a game that anyone who mostly confines themselves to one genre should experience. (Or any gamer for that matter.)

 

[NinjaSniperAssassin]

1) Bioshock - still an FPS so not too far out of their comfort zone, but still a fantastic, radically different approach to the genre

2)Skyrim - branching out way more, Skyrim is pretty much the polar opposite of the linear, setpiece-laden snore-a-thon that is CoD

3)Persona 3 - just because it's one of my faves

 

[Sassafrass]

The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead.

Did I mention The Walking Dead?

Ok, serious list time now.

The Walking Dead, great game with a great story. Not much to do gameplay wise before if he wants to be emotionally tortured while having a great time, this is for him.

Oblivion/Fallout 3. Suggested these to a mate who also used to be a CoD player first and foremost and he loved them. Put in 500 hours on Oblivion in a couple of months, 200+ on F3.

Banjo-Kazooie. Made up the majority of my childhood and still plays great even today.

 

[skywolfblue]

1) Portal
2) Tetris
3) Starcraft

About as different as you can get.

So my question is twofold. 1: What three games would be your first recommendations for your own hypothetical military shooter friend, and 2: is it odd that the three games that I thought of first were all non-realistic, stylized and cell shaded games?

Why would it be odd?

You were asked to find something that was NOT a realistic military shooter, and you did.

 

[thespyisdead]

right now?

path of exile
driver san francisco
X3

at an earlier point, maybe something else

 

[Dragoon]

1) Persona 3 and then 4
2) Legend of Zelda: Windwaker
3) Metal Gear Solid Trilogy

I'm kinda cheating but that's what I usually tell that kinda friend to play.

 

[Jaksteri]

1)Silent Storm
2)Freelancer
3)XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Wierd, no. CoD games are not realistic, they give illusion of realism. And besides, we all have different tastes. Our personal preferences efect more that the look of an game.

 

[gigastar]

1) Games ive played recently.
2) Games i own but not played recently.
3) Games i cannot stand.
4) Games i would like to own.
5) Games i have a passing interest in.

That about covers it i think.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Dota 2. Relish his pained screams as he dies again, and again, and again.

If you aren't a total sadist, League of Legends is still pretty different from Call of Duty, and still has a difficulty curve if not as great a one.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Lets see what three games immediately pop to mind...

1) Geneforge

2) Dishonored

3) Infamous

Well, that is a hell of an interesting selection. My mind works in mysterious ways... Have him play those, I suppose.

Also, to answer you second question, no. I just shows that you have good taste. XD

 

[1eyedjack]

1. Shadow of the Colossus

2. Portal

3. Batman: Arkham Asylum

 

[Matthewmagic]

1. Batman Arkham city. (fun stealthy)
2. Minecraft (so many ways to play, a great gaming experiment)
3. Silent Hill 2 (do I have to explain this one?)

As for part 2. No I don't think it is weird because our generation has brought us a lot of gritty realistic war shooters.

 

[felbot]

fallout
fallout 2
fallout new vegas

yeah that's all he's going to need, although considering he liked medal of honour war fighter there's a chance he may also enjoy fallout 3, I wouldn't recommend it though.

if he doesnt like that then give him the mount and blade series, specifically war band, best, combat system, ever.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I'm actually stunned by the number of people who are recommending either ancient games or games so utterly unrelated to the previous experience that they'd likely be rejected outright on that basis alone. In spite of what people might think of Call of Duty, playing a game that informed it's design a decade ago is not a step up (Half-Life for example) and the worth of such things is almost entirely academic. And simply jumping to a type of game that is entirely different thematically, mechanically and graphically is silly to boot.

That said, there are plenty of other games that are at least related to Call of Duty in some capacity but different enough to be suitable for the request. Most FPS games are off the list as most modern FPS titles are heavily informed by the annual money making monster and generally come off as an inferior copy.

For a focus on shooting action, I'd say the best bet is Dead Space - it is fairly different in most respects but is at least highly similar in the core mechanics. Presuming he was highly addicted to the bite sized and ultra-fast paced multiplayer, he might find some satisfactions in the Modern iteration of Halo which, thanks to various alterations made is far more lethal than before. Battlefield offers a markedly different take on the multiplayer shooter that is at least incredibly familiar in most respects to the CoD series.

Beyond the action focused shooter, other possibilities include exploring the RPG elements in a game more focused upon them. Fallout is an obvious choice in this regard as it maintains the familiar first person perspective and offers a decent view of what can be possible within the genre. The mass effect series is an option but given the rather spongy action in the first game, stiff but functional action in the second and merely competent in the third the sell would largely be on the strength of story and character. Skyrim is another possible title though the relative lack of compelling stuff to do and a relative lack of reason to actually explore make it a longer shot than Fallout. Harder RPG's like the Witcher 2 would be best saved for second run purchases given that if you aren't on board with the RPG stuff, the opening few hours of such games would be little more than pointless frustration.

The last possibilities are in the genre of strategy but on consoles the entries tend to be fairly bad. XCom is the best of them that I've been exposed to though my perspective is based upon the PC version; it seems like it would translate well enough. There are plenty of excellent strategy games and whatnot available on the PC of course but without knowing anything about the sort of computer the person has it is difficult to make a pitch for anything beyond the "so old it runs on anything" sort of game. Beyond that, you have the various "toy" games of which Minecraft is the most notable I can think of on the 360. While I still do not understand the fanaticism the game enjoys it remains a competent enough box of toys to provide hours of time passing entertainment.

 

[mysecondlife]

Dishonored
Arkham City
LBP Karting --Assuming he has PS3

*Shrug* Those are the games I recently bought so it was on top of my head.

 

[Ninjat_126]

Dark Souls
Amnesia/Penumbra
SCP Containment Breach/Slender
Okami