Important note: I realized putting this in the games review section is not the most prime place to post Nerd Rage. But, I put it here because it seemed most reasonable. This being sort of a review of the entire FPS genre.
Their has been a bit of a civil war going on between gamers the last few years, a civil flame war that's plagued message-boards, where things like:
"Halos da' best game evr!"
...are being countered by such amazing ground breaking bits of literary brilliance as:
"Eat a dick!"
Now, full disclosure, I am not one of the Halo hyping fan-boys. And while I enjoyed playing the marathon series on my buddy's old Mac, I thought Halo was a mostly bland FPS, with good music, detailed environments and, good multi-player. You all the stuff I like about UNREAL FUCKING TOURNAMENT!!!
Halo was enjoyable if you thought about what it actually was, It was the first real attempt to make a PC style shooter for the console. It was not, however, some diamond encrusted digital tome from heaven, just a decent FPS! THAT'S IT! The sooner we all come to this realization the sooner we can all stop this! Do I think Halo was bad, no JUST BLAND! The problem that arises with Halo was that so many thousands of,players fan-boys said it was the best game ever, and in saying so made every flaw seem ENORMOUS, even when they weren't all that big a deal.
...and then theirs Bioshock!
Summing up Bioshock by saying "...its like System shock with magic..." might seem lazy, and thats because it is! In fact I think Bioshock is more guilty of Halo syndrome... THAN HALO! I found the story predictable, the atmosphere disorienting, and I fucking HATE pluming! Interesting but not ground breaking, and I'm moving on!
Now, many writers at this point would go about listing off their favorite FPS and telling you why It's better than Halo. Well, fortunately for Halo fans, beating that horse any more would result in a hard to clean up horse pudding. So I think I'll do exactly the opposite... kind of.
The industry is flooded with FPSes right now. I mean in just the last few months, we've been fed Modern Warfair2, Battlefield: Bad Company (3/2/10), NecrovisioN : Lost Company, Left 4 Dead 2, and Bioshock2. Wow... all of those are sequels, huh... Now, While that is way more than enough to be considered an ass load, theirs more! We where also given Shattered Horizon, MAG, and Alien vs Predator (3). I enjoy playing a foxtrot papa sierra's, but whiskey tango foxtrot, can't we do any better!?
Not all of these games can be good, in fact it's more likely that they'll be gray boring, uninspired and unoriginal. This may have worked in the sprite days of old, but now it's gotten out of hand.
I think as gamers we should take it upon ourselves to avoid calling a game ?THE BEST EVAR!? Because it forces not only only other players to judge it more harshly, but it can actually make a game series worse than it is. For instance I LOVE Mass Effect, and I told my friend strait up "The game play is not that great, I'm in it for the story."
Oh and in case your wondering, Decent 3 is what I think of when I think of the perfect FPS.
Their has been a bit of a civil war going on between gamers the last few years, a civil flame war that's plagued message-boards, where things like:
"Halos da' best game evr!"
...are being countered by such amazing ground breaking bits of literary brilliance as:
"Eat a dick!"
Now, full disclosure, I am not one of the Halo hyping fan-boys. And while I enjoyed playing the marathon series on my buddy's old Mac, I thought Halo was a mostly bland FPS, with good music, detailed environments and, good multi-player. You all the stuff I like about UNREAL FUCKING TOURNAMENT!!!
Halo was enjoyable if you thought about what it actually was, It was the first real attempt to make a PC style shooter for the console. It was not, however, some diamond encrusted digital tome from heaven, just a decent FPS! THAT'S IT! The sooner we all come to this realization the sooner we can all stop this! Do I think Halo was bad, no JUST BLAND! The problem that arises with Halo was that so many thousands of,
...and then theirs Bioshock!
Summing up Bioshock by saying "...its like System shock with magic..." might seem lazy, and thats because it is! In fact I think Bioshock is more guilty of Halo syndrome... THAN HALO! I found the story predictable, the atmosphere disorienting, and I fucking HATE pluming! Interesting but not ground breaking, and I'm moving on!
Now, many writers at this point would go about listing off their favorite FPS and telling you why It's better than Halo. Well, fortunately for Halo fans, beating that horse any more would result in a hard to clean up horse pudding. So I think I'll do exactly the opposite... kind of.
The industry is flooded with FPSes right now. I mean in just the last few months, we've been fed Modern Warfair2, Battlefield: Bad Company (3/2/10), NecrovisioN : Lost Company, Left 4 Dead 2, and Bioshock2. Wow... all of those are sequels, huh... Now, While that is way more than enough to be considered an ass load, theirs more! We where also given Shattered Horizon, MAG, and Alien vs Predator (3). I enjoy playing a foxtrot papa sierra's, but whiskey tango foxtrot, can't we do any better!?
Not all of these games can be good, in fact it's more likely that they'll be gray boring, uninspired and unoriginal. This may have worked in the sprite days of old, but now it's gotten out of hand.
I think as gamers we should take it upon ourselves to avoid calling a game ?THE BEST EVAR!? Because it forces not only only other players to judge it more harshly, but it can actually make a game series worse than it is. For instance I LOVE Mass Effect, and I told my friend strait up "The game play is not that great, I'm in it for the story."
Oh and in case your wondering, Decent 3 is what I think of when I think of the perfect FPS.
. I'd never go jumping about a forum defending it's weak points, then again I wouldn't force it's strong points onto other people either. Still, it's interesting when you put it like that, because I don't think there is a game I'd attack someone over for disliking it.