Is it really worth it to bash every popular FPS?

[Cid Silverwing]

FPSes are clogging triple-A gaming. We are well on our way to another crash if this isn't choked to give way for other genres.

 

[Terminate421]

Every FPS these days is the same damn formula, with the same damn regenerating health, with the same damn linear campaign, with the same damn kids online.

Bottom line: All these stupid AAA title FPS games are recycled shit.

This is not:

The same as this:

I love my FPS's and I must laugh at the poeple who claim they are all the same. We heres something for them,
"RTS's are all the same, you piont and click on people and tell them where to go to their deaths and you can't do anything to help them"
"JRPG's are the same, all they do involve is clopping down halls and dealing with menu screens up the ass while STANDING STILL in combat waiting just to do an attack."
"Fighting games haven't changed since 1999"
"Sports games are like RTS's, unless its golf or baseball in which case you play two quick time events to play"

Heres the thing, FPS's are great, they all allow us to actually control a character totally, so if I want to make a decision, my character does it. I am not bound by some sort of way to move or kinds of attacks, just what I have at my disposal. (Assuming the game allows me to do that.) It just...having the ability to choose what I need to do at a certain moment feels much better than simply using fire spell on ice dragon.
As Yahtzee said, "Why can't we just have a button that bonks them on the head?!" Pretty much means that the idea is that I want to remain in total control of my character during combat.

I am aware there are morons trying to be the next Call of Duty, but its business, eventually they will see their sales plummet and then try to make something else.

I don't mind other genres (Except RTS's, not my thing) but seriously? Hating things for popularity is like hating religion because everyone does it. It's pointless.

 

[Don Savik]

You know people would hate on something else IF THERE WAS SOMETHING ELSE!
90% of the games being released are FPS. Battlefield, Bioshock, Sydicate, Call of duty, Serious Sam and Xcom
The non FPS games include Arkham Asylum and Skyrim.(Only counting multiplats here)
See the numbers?

Have to stop you there. Serious Sam may be an fps, but its the exact opposite of today's modern fps. Its not stale, the campaigns are fun, there's no regeneration health or cover system. Sorry as a fan (see profile pic) I just have to put that out there.

Also, its just a perspective. Are we debating fps's or shooters?

 

[Vault Citizen]

Seriously, every day I come on the Escapist I see three new threads about how popular FPSs are unoriginal and are ruining the industry. This topic is like the freakin' Hydra- every time one thread dies, two more sprout up in its place. Can we give it a rest?

I won't lie- I like FPSs, and if they're popular all the better. I enjoy online play, I enjoy cheesy campaigns, I enjoy some of the outdated mechanics (though I must say that although I love Halo, regenerating health grinds my gears a bit in games like Call of Duty). I don't expect every game to be the equivalent of the Divine Comedy in terms of writing. Hell, even our most advanced games still display some pretty mediocre writing (I personally believe that the Mass Effect writing is highly overrated).

Is it really that bad to have some fun that we just demonize so many popular games? More coming later, time for school right now.

There's school on a Saturday now?

It depends on your location and what country you go to but yes, there are places which have school on a Saturday. The prep and secondary schools I went to both had a half day of school on a Saturday (and a half day on a Wednesday), I think in England it is only private schools that do this and even then I'm not sure if they all do.

 

[TheGreekGeekPrick]

Heres the thing, FPS's are great, they all allow us to actually control a character totally, so if I want to make a decision, my character does it. I am not bound by some sort of way to move or kinds of attacks, just what I have at my disposal.

This is a contradictory statement. You are bound by what you have at your disposal, which is why you can't launch your sidearm onto someone's head if you run out of bullets.

You're also arguing linearity and restriction in a genre that relies on it. When I played Black Ops, I spent a good time just staring at my AI teammates looking at the big nothing on the horizon, because I hadn't moved to the spot that would trigger the next scripted sequence.

 

[Terminate421]

You know people would hate on something else IF THERE WAS SOMETHING ELSE!
90% of the games being released are FPS. Battlefield, Bioshock, Sydicate, Call of duty, Serious Sam and Xcom
The non FPS games include Arkham Asylum and Skyrim.(Only counting multiplats here)
See the numbers?

Have to stop you there. Serious Sam may be an fps, but its the exact opposite of today's modern fps. Its not stale, the campaigns are fun, there's no regeneration health or cover system. Sorry as a fan (see profile pic) I just have to put that out there.

Also, its just a perspective. Are we debating fps's or shooters?

I believe its just shooters, people find Gears of war the exact same thing to Call of duty nowawdays, its kind of just...wrong to do that.

I am aware of trends of shooters being the same at some point, but thats for moronic decisions (See Space Marine, the game thats obviously trying to be Gears of war). People make...dumb judgements based on certain games, if it allows me to point a gun at things, all of a sudden its the same, when they hardly pay attention to the mechanics such as physics, combat systems, the gun itself, etc.

 

[Terminate421]

Heres the thing, FPS's are great, they all allow us to actually control a character totally, so if I want to make a decision, my character does it. I am not bound by some sort of way to move or kinds of attacks, just what I have at my disposal.

This is a contradictory statement. You are bound by what you have at your disposal, which is why you can't launch your sidearm onto someone's head if you run out of bullets.

You're also arguing linearity and restriction in a genre that relies on it. When I played Black Ops, I spent a good time just staring at my AI teammates looking at the big nothing on the horizon, because I hadn't moved to the spot that would trigger the next scripted sequence.

I will re-edit that.

I sounded like a moron...

 

[Don Savik]

Heres the thing, FPS's are great, they all allow us to actually control a character totally, so if I want to make a decision, my character does it. I am not bound by some sort of way to move or kinds of attacks, just what I have at my disposal.

This is a contradictory statement. You are bound by what you have at your disposal, which is why you can't launch your sidearm onto someone's head if you run out of bullets.

You're also arguing linearity and restriction in a genre that relies on it. When I played Black Ops, I spent a good time just staring at my AI teammates looking at the big nothing on the horizon, because I hadn't moved to the spot that would trigger the next scripted sequence.

There's plenty of non scripted shooters but nobody cares to find them or try them bcuz cod and battlefield hating is ssooooooo mainstream right now.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Seriously, every day I come on the Escapist I see three new threads about how popular FPSs are unoriginal and are ruining the industry.

I think its more that we are sick of the same thing over and over again. Even the protagonist tends to look/be the same.
I found Gears of War 3 mindnumbingly boring. I actually loved Crysis 2 but then you can play that as more of a stealth game than an FPS.
I can say okay fps games are maybe not for me. But don't tell me I don't have a right to complain when EVERY major game coming out seems to be an FPS. Even Blizzards next mmo is an fps... :<


I think this whole anti FPS thing is an anger born out of fear. Fear that the definition of gaming will become 'online multiplayer FPS'

 

[Terminate421]

Heres the thing, FPS's are great, they all allow us to actually control a character totally, so if I want to make a decision, my character does it. I am not bound by some sort of way to move or kinds of attacks, just what I have at my disposal.

This is a contradictory statement. You are bound by what you have at your disposal, which is why you can't launch your sidearm onto someone's head if you run out of bullets.

You're also arguing linearity and restriction in a genre that relies on it. When I played Black Ops, I spent a good time just staring at my AI teammates looking at the big nothing on the horizon, because I hadn't moved to the spot that would trigger the next scripted sequence.

There's plenty of non scripted shooters but nobody cares to find them or try them bcuz cod and battlefield hating is ssooooooo mainstream right now.

You are CLEVER!! (No, seriously that was pretty funny)

I just had this image of a non-scripted shooter in which the battle continues on without the player. The player runs to take out a generator and leave all his soldiers behind. He finishes, turns around and the soldiers took off with all the vehicles. I think scripting is there for a reason.

 

[TheGreekGeekPrick]

There's plenty of non scripted shooters but nobody cares to find them or try them bcuz cod and battlefield hating is ssooooooo mainstream right now.

Oooooor, the non-scripted, decent shooters are getting burried in obscurity by the overabundance of CoD clones (and CoD itself), making at least some of the complaining somewhat valid.

 

[SextusMaximus]

If someone has a valid reason to dislike them (most do) then yes, rather obviously, it is worth bashing them if the time spent on them could have gone to masterpieces.

 

[TheGreekGeekPrick]

I just had this image of a non-scripted shooter in which the battle continues on without the player. The player runs to take out a generator and leave all his soldiers behind. He finishes, turns around and the soldiers took off with all the vehicles. I think scripting is there for a reason.

Of course it's there for a reason. It just shouldn't be allowed to rely on it for everything. Half-Life was largely scripted but the game didn't go bonkers if you deviated from the intended path for two seconds.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

I half agree with you, in that a) Hating things because they're popular is retarded, and b) Hate threads are equally stupid. On the other hand, complaining about certain popular FPSs is entirely justified. I'm sorry, but when I say "Halo's shit" or "COD hasn't been interesting since MW1", I'm not just whining because I'm an attention seeking wanker, I genuinely dislike Halo and COD post-4. They both suffer from the same affliction; uninspired sequels rehashing what's been before (only COD's somehow fell, hit it's head and caused permanent brain-damage along the way). I'm sick of it, I'm sick of people defending it.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

Mother-f*cking double post. Nothing to see here, move on.

 

[shrekfan246]

I think you, like many others, may be somewhat confused.

Each person hates a DIFFERENT popular franchise. Very rarely do you see someone who hates them all. However, when you have three of each person commenting, it can appear that everyone hates everything.

Just quoting you to tell you that you have one of the best .gif avatars I've ever seen.

OT: I try to avoid threads where people are obviously bashing any given title, because most arguments are being thrown around just for the sake of arguing. I read in a thread yesterday and am paraphrasing now:
"If something is relied on too much in a game, people will ***** about it being overused, but if it's hardly used at all, they'll ***** about not being able to use it enough. When people really want to ***** about something, they'll start making shit up that doesn't even make sense."

I enjoy FPS'. I enjoy single-player. I stay away from multi-player focused FPS'. That's why I won't be picking up Battlefield 3, that's why I probably will pass on Modern Warfare 3, that's why it's likely I'll be picking up Serious Sam: BFE.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Seriously, every day I come on the Escapist I see three new threads about how popular FPSs are unoriginal and are ruining the industry. This topic is like the freakin' Hydra- every time one thread dies, two more sprout up in its place. Can we give it a rest?

I won't lie- I like FPSs, and if they're popular all the better. I enjoy online play, I enjoy cheesy campaigns, I enjoy some of the outdated mechanics (though I must say that although I love Halo, regenerating health grinds my gears a bit in games like Call of Duty). I don't expect every game to be the equivalent of the Divine Comedy in terms of writing. Hell, even our most advanced games still display some pretty mediocre writing (I personally believe that the Mass Effect writing is highly overrated).

Is it really that bad to have some fun that we just demonize so many popular games? More coming later, time for school right now.

Its not about hate for FPSs, its about all the little wannabe Yahtzee's who dwell on the Escapist and how cool and original they think they are by making the same comments he does about them. (Don't believe me, read the 2nd reply down, thats an almost direct quote from ZP).
Seriously people, Yahtzee isn't going to think you're cool and come over and chill with you no matter how many FPS hate threads you post.

 

[floobie]

If I liked them and enjoyed playing them, I wouldn't "bash" them. And by "bash", I mean express that I don't enjoy them. I don't not like them to look cool or some bullshit like that. I just enjoy a good single player RPG ever so much more.

 

[Username Redacted]

Is it really that bad to have some fun that we just demonize so many popular games?

If someone is demonizing or hating on anything simply because it's popular I would tell them to grow up. If someone is demonizing or hating on something because it's stagnated and/or lacks creativity then I'd tell them that as long as they can articulate why then have at it.

I would also say that there are two other reasons why popular FPS franchised get a lot of flack these days:

1) The belief (whether correct or not probably depends on which publisher and/or developer is being discussed) that the glut of mainstream FPS games is hindering the development of other games and/or is hindering exploring what FPS games are fully capable off (see also: the recent swing back to health packs from regenerating health in several AAA titles).

2) The online communities that play these games are (or are perceived as being)some of the most immature and racist communities in all of gaming.

 

[Savryc]

If Escapists stopped complaining about popular things traffic would be halved and the forums would be an onslaught of "The last X you Y is now Z" threads and those strange souls that ask for help with their personal lives on gaming forums.

Do you want to kill The Escapist!? DO YOU!?