FPS on PC with best feeling/sounding weapons to fire?

[hanselthecaretaker]

So I've played a good amount of shooters on PC, but wondering if there's some I missed. I'm a big fan of detailed gunplay in terms of handling, recoil, ballistics, authentic accuracy, sound, etc.

Probably the two best I've played so far were Battlefield series and STALKER: SoC. The former though just isn't all that interesting in terms of actual gameplay, while the latter had excellent gameplay but suffered from some pointless hit probability stat on top of base accuracy, which made every gunfight feel like playing craps. Even on MASTER it's capped at 50%. I never found a mod that fixed it correctly, but maybe others know of one.

Anyways, what are some recommendations? I was thinking of Far Cry 5 because it might have some good weapons mods, but the guns feel like they lack guts from past entries in this series. Same with the more recent Wolfenstein games. Great gunplay but they just feel and sound kinda weak. I also played all the Crysis games but I was always annoyed at the tape recorder effect that automatic gunfire had. Like holding down fire was playing a recording instead of distinctive rounds being fired.

Basically looking for a shooter that has the best gun physics, accuracy models, recoil and sound design. Not sure if all that's possible in one game. I was wondering about ARMA 3, but not sure I want to dive into that rabbit hole. Anything a bit less simulation-heavy?

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I can mention a bunch of things at once, but I willl start one at a time.

I think Call of Duty 3 had the best looking, feeling, and sounding M1 Garands and Kar98ks:


Red Orchestra 2 has since supplanted them in looks and feel. (Though I still think the COD 3 M1 Garand and Kar98k sounds better)

 

[Zombie Proof]

Bad Company 2 had some of the best gun sound/design I've ever heard. It still holds up to this day.

Also, the stalker 2009 complete mod takes care of that goofy ass probability stat. One of the main reasons why I refuse to play the game without it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Bad Company 2 had some of the best gun sound/design I've ever heard. It still holds up to this day.

Also, the stalker 2009 complete mod takes care of that goofy ass probability stat. One of the main reasons why I refuse to play the game without it.

I played Complete Mod and could?ve sworn it was still there. Oddly it seemed accuracy was often better with hip fire than ADS. It?s so odd how a PC shooter would resort to something like that. Accuracy stats should always be enough.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Insurgency. Also, Day of Infamy by extension. Far Cry 2/3 with Ziggy's Mod. UT99's Infiltration mod. Rising Storm 2: Vietnam. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3.

If you're looking for accurate squad based multiplayer, Insurgecy. If you're looking for accurate squad and vehicle based multiplayer, try Rising Storm 2 or one of the many Battlefields. If you're looking for an accurate squad based single-player, Rainbow Six 3. If you're looking for semi-accurate lone-wolf single-player, Far Cry 2/3.

 

[Squilookle]

Man, if this was about consoles it'd be way easier, with a whole range to recommend starting with Black. For PC though, Bad Company 2 and red Orchestra do nail it somewhat as someone mentioned already. I'd say for gun physics, recoil, sound etc go for PUBG (if you want to avoid ARMA), raw grunt go for the latest Doom, and for total control over your weapon, definitely try out Receiver.

 

[Kyrian007]

One of the reasons I don't play many shooters these days (especially on PC) is how far down the ladder good sound design and weapon "feel" are for most developers. The best for me is still Perfect Dark... I'm not sure anything since has topped that freaking ROAR of the DY357 Magnum, the satisfying thwack of a combat knife finding its mark, most of the guns just really felt viscerally satisfying. And that's in a controller without ANY sort of feedback in rumble... it was all down to sound design.

Ever since then guns just don't have any feel to them in shooters. Borderlands was close, about 1/4 of the guns had a decent feel in firing... but because of the random nature of loot the damage always eventually became so pissweak that even the guns with good design would become peashooters. Then BL 2 adopted the terrible design of most other games and all the guns lost any of the feel of weight to them and just become point and click blah like all the mms trash out there today.

I think Call of Duty 3 had the best looking, feeling, and sounding M1 Garands and Kar98ks:

I remember that ping of the Garand running dry, it was pretty satisfying ringing up a decent shot with that round. I think its the only time I thought a gun in Call of Duty had anything resembling decent sound design.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Actually I'm really curious about contributions to this thread as well. I've found that weapon feel is a culmination of so many things, from sound, recoil, model and animations of the weapon firing, also to physics of what happens when the bullets meet their mark.

So far, my favorite game for weapons feel is Rainbow 6 Vegas. It just has every gun feel nailed, especially longer range carbines fired in semi-auto mode. The only weak point is the ragdoll physics when enemies get hit, but then again I like them a bit exaggerated, and R6 is usually a somewhat realistic franchise (though Vegas probably the least). The pistol sounds are also the most realistic to me, at least from my limited life experience.

Other than that, there are a few particular guns in games which stand out, such as the revolver in Half-Life. I gain the most satisfaction from shotguns though, so games like Doom (of course), Resident Evil (sorry not an FPS), and Soldier of Fortune (best gore physics).

The HV Penetrator from F.E.A.R. gets a mention too. The game has some awesome gun physics. The Far Cry series is not bad too, better than CoD at least.

 

[Kyrian007]

Actually I'm really curious about contributions to this thread as well. I've found that weapon feel is a culmination of so many things, from sound, recoil, model and animations of the weapon firing, also to physics of what happens when the bullets meet their mark.

After thinking about it for a while... for me it is mostly (if not completely) sound design. Especially on PC where there isn't even a "trigger pulling" motion used in clicking a mouse button so there isn't even that tiny bit of verisimilitude to work with. Painkiller is a decent example for me. It had the "visual" feel of everything down so well. The weapons themselves were awesome to use, the stake throwing weapon was particularly satisfying, and the hits really tore into the mobs satisfyingly. Meanwhile, something like Perfect Dark had about 5 very overused death animations and blocky early 3d style graphics. And between the two... Perfect Dark was without a doubt better with much more satisfying weapons to use. Because the sound was so much better.

The HV Penetrator from F.E.A.R. gets a mention too. The game has some awesome gun physics. The Far Cry series is not bad too, better than CoD at least.

I'm actually playing FC 3 again right now. A game I really love... but not for the guns so much. The game does a lot well, but the gun barks... weeeaaaakkkkkk. Not even the revolver or the .50 handgun much more than squeak when you pull the trigger... compared to the deafening blast of such a thing actually being fired, or a good proxy in a well sound-designed game. And again, I love Far Cry. But the sound ruins the gun play so much that it just doesn't pay to use anything but silenced weapons in the game at all. Generally in a run through Far Cry 3 or 4 all I need is a sniper rifle silenced and a bow and the game is over.

 

[Squilookle]

One of the reasons I don't play many shooters these days (especially on PC) is how far down the ladder good sound design and weapon "feel" are for most developers. The best for me is still Perfect Dark... I'm not sure anything since has topped that freaking ROAR of the DY357 Magnum, the satisfying thwack of a combat knife finding its mark, most of the guns just really felt viscerally satisfying. And that's in a controller without ANY sort of feedback in rumble... it was all down to sound design.

Ever since then guns just don't have any feel to them in shooters.

Tell me about it. The DD44 in Goldeneye and Perfect Dark had the greatest metallic bark of a pistol in any game ever. That said, Timesplitters had the feel if perhaps not the sound, whereas Black had the sound if not the feel

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Actually I'm really curious about contributions to this thread as well. I've found that weapon feel is a culmination of so many things, from sound, recoil, model and animations of the weapon firing, also to physics of what happens when the bullets meet their mark.

After thinking about it for a while... for me it is mostly (if not completely) sound design. Especially on PC where there isn't even a "trigger pulling" motion used in clicking a mouse button so there isn't even that tiny bit of verisimilitude to work with. Painkiller is a decent example for me. It had the "visual" feel of everything down so well. The weapons themselves were awesome to use, the stake throwing weapon was particularly satisfying, and the hits really tore into the mobs satisfyingly. Meanwhile, something like Perfect Dark had about 5 very overused death animations and blocky early 3d style graphics. And between the two... Perfect Dark was without a doubt better with much more satisfying weapons to use. Because the sound was so much better.

The HV Penetrator from F.E.A.R. gets a mention too. The game has some awesome gun physics. The Far Cry series is not bad too, better than CoD at least.

I'm actually playing FC 3 again right now. A game I really love... but not for the guns so much. The game does a lot well, but the gun barks... weeeaaaakkkkkk. Not even the revolver or the .50 handgun much more than squeak when you pull the trigger... compared to the deafening blast of such a thing actually being fired, or a good proxy in a well sound-designed game. And again, I love Far Cry. But the sound ruins the gun play so much that it just doesn't pay to use anything but silenced weapons in the game at all. Generally in a run through Far Cry 3 or 4 all I need is a sniper rifle silenced and a bow and the game is over.

That?s a big obstacle to me as well. The sound design has to carry pretty much everything since there really is nothing to compliment it. It?s what a gamepad has as a trade-off to worse aiming precision is the trigger pull and rumble to compliment recoil.

To me as far as the act of shooting a weapon goes, it?s still tough to beat Killzone 2 and 3 on a 7.1 system. While not striving for ?realism?, they had some of the punchiest and most detailed sounding weapons in a game. I think both used LPCM sound. The standard ISA and Helghast assault rifles were pure ear candy. I read someone describe it as if Black and BF3 had a baby. Shadow Fall has some great sound design [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-making-of-killzone-shadow-fall] too, but most of the weapons lost that raw bite being more futuristic.

 

[Benpasko]

while the latter had excellent gameplay but suffered from some pointless hit probability stat on top of base accuracy, which made every gunfight feel like playing craps. Even on MASTER it's capped at 50%. I never found a mod that fixed it correctly, but maybe others know of one.

What the hell? Is that actually real? I'm only really familiar with Call of Pripyat and Call of Chernobyl, neither of which have that. You should give them a shot, CoP is one of my favorite sandboxes of all time.

I'm doing some research, and people say that the hit chance is an urban legend. The guns just have bad accuracy, and the bullets are actual objects with travel time. Plus, SoC has really health-spongy enemies.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

while the latter had excellent gameplay but suffered from some pointless hit probability stat on top of base accuracy, which made every gunfight feel like playing craps. Even on MASTER it's capped at 50%. I never found a mod that fixed it correctly, but maybe others know of one.

What the hell? Is that actually real? I'm only really familiar with Call of Pripyat and Call of Chernobyl, neither of which have that. You should give them a shot, CoP is one of my favorite sandboxes of all time.

I'm doing some research, and people say that the hit chance is an urban legend. The guns just have bad accuracy, and the bullets are actual objects with travel time. Plus, SoC has really health-spongy enemies.

Where did you read that, just wondering? I?ve read mixed info at best about hit probability being for both player and enemies or just pertaining to the enemy AI only. I will have to try it again, but also I?ve never played CoP yet. I might check that and CoC out as well.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Also wondering if anyone?s played the Lost Alpha [https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/12/27/stalker-fan-remake-lost-alpha-gets-a-major-update-for-the-holidays/] fan mod. It sounds like it could be pretty good.

I will probably get CoP as well with the CoC mod. Figuring I?ll play these and wait for Far Cry 5 to run its course and get a Complete Edition at discount later on.

 

[Andey]

Metro 2033 and last light.

From the near silent airgun to the raucous echoing of the mounted machine guns in the tunnels everything behaves beautifully.

I highly recommend Ranger game mode if you do, its what made that game so great imo.

 

[Owlslayer]

Gotta go with battlefield Bad Company 2. Every other year or so, when I'd reinstall the game, all the sounds in the game just blew me away. Also, i might remember wrong, but Call of Juarez: Gunslinger had a really nice feel to all the weapon sounds.

 

[Zombie Proof]

Also wondering if anyone?s played the Lost Alpha [https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/12/27/stalker-fan-remake-lost-alpha-gets-a-major-update-for-the-holidays/] fan mod. It sounds like it could be pretty good.

I will probably get CoP as well with the CoC mod. Figuring I?ll play these and wait for Far Cry 5 to run its course and get a Complete Edition at discount later on.

I LOVE the Lost Alpha mod. It's a little tricky to get goin and it's more than a little glitchy but it's definitely something every Stalker fan should have installed

 

[Kyrian007]

One of the reasons I don't play many shooters these days (especially on PC) is how far down the ladder good sound design and weapon "feel" are for most developers. The best for me is still Perfect Dark... I'm not sure anything since has topped that freaking ROAR of the DY357 Magnum, the satisfying thwack of a combat knife finding its mark, most of the guns just really felt viscerally satisfying. And that's in a controller without ANY sort of feedback in rumble... it was all down to sound design.

Ever since then guns just don't have any feel to them in shooters.

Tell me about it. The DD44 in Goldeneye and Perfect Dark had the greatest metallic bark of a pistol in any game ever. That said, Timesplitters had the feel if perhaps not the sound, whereas Black had the sound if not the feel

Going back and listening to some of the sound of Perfect Dark... even the weaker weapons sounded pretty good. The unsilenced Falcon 2 or PP7 in both Perfect Dark and Goldeneye had a pretty satisfying sharp wham when fired. That DD44 was absolutely music. Those games had their dud weapons of course; KL0BB, MagSec, and the shotguns weren't particularly good... but most were great. Even the futuristic alien weapons like the Phoenix, Callisto, or Farsight had deep and metallic reports; avoiding for the most part being labeled as "pewpew" type sounds.

Looking for good local multiplayer my friends and I tried Timesplitters... but it lost something in sound design along the way. Borderlands was the next thing we locked into, but the guns were for the most part pretty bad. No matter if it was one that sounded satisfying (only about 1/3rd of the assault rifles and about 1/2 of the pistols) or not they eventually became peashooters and unsatisfying. And none of the guns had any kind of decent feel in BL 2. Every gun in BL 2 just had unsatisfying and wimpy polite cough when it fired. We still haven't found that shooter that is quite as good as Perfect Dark in local multiplayer.

 

[Squilookle]

One of the reasons I don't play many shooters these days (especially on PC) is how far down the ladder good sound design and weapon "feel" are for most developers. The best for me is still Perfect Dark... I'm not sure anything since has topped that freaking ROAR of the DY357 Magnum, the satisfying thwack of a combat knife finding its mark, most of the guns just really felt viscerally satisfying. And that's in a controller without ANY sort of feedback in rumble... it was all down to sound design.

Ever since then guns just don't have any feel to them in shooters.

Tell me about it. The DD44 in Goldeneye and Perfect Dark had the greatest metallic bark of a pistol in any game ever. That said, Timesplitters had the feel if perhaps not the sound, whereas Black had the sound if not the feel

Going back and listening to some of the sound of Perfect Dark... even the weaker weapons sounded pretty good. The unsilenced Falcon 2 or PP7 in both Perfect Dark and Goldeneye had a pretty satisfying sharp wham when fired. That DD44 was absolutely music. Those games had their dud weapons of course; KL0BB, MagSec, and the shotguns weren't particularly good... but most were great. Even the futuristic alien weapons like the Phoenix, Callisto, or Farsight had deep and metallic reports; avoiding for the most part being labeled as "pewpew" type sounds.

Looking for good local multiplayer my friends and I tried Timesplitters... but it lost something in sound design along the way. Borderlands was the next thing we locked into, but the guns were for the most part pretty bad. No matter if it was one that sounded satisfying (only about 1/3rd of the assault rifles and about 1/2 of the pistols) or not they eventually became peashooters and unsatisfying. And none of the guns had any kind of decent feel in BL 2. Every gun in BL 2 just had unsatisfying and wimpy polite cough when it fired. We still haven't found that shooter that is quite as good as Perfect Dark in local multiplayer.

To this day I still think the reason the guns feel so great in GE/PD is the roving crosshair- you see your guns fired while pointing in directions other shooters' guns couldn't even dream of. They seemed fully realised and physical objects blasting away.

I'd recommend giving Timesplitters another try. The 1st one is arse but 2 and Future Perfect are more like it. FP is my favourite but I think the cult choice is still 2. Other than that, I'd recommend The World is Not Enough for better level design than PD, and maybe Turok Rage Wars for a mass of variety in splitscreen shootin' fun.

 

[Bad Jim]

I know its going back a bit, but I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Unreal Tournament's Flak Cannon