Poll: the game that defined fps

[oktalist]

I agree with Wofenstein 3D because it's one of the first but I do have to admit that DOOM is probably more responsible for bringing the FPS into the mainstream gaming scene.

Wofenstein 3D was not "one of the first" it was the first.
You owe the entire FPS genre to this game.

Catacomb 3D came out six months before Wolfenstein, and used the same engine. Though whether it was a true shooter is debatable, as it eschewed guns in favour of magic spells that let the player character shoot fireballs from his hands. It did have all the other aspects of the FPS of the time, like monsters, health points and coloured keys, and lacked the more detailed stats that might have qualified it as an RPG, although it was clearly trying to transpose the top-down RPG genre into a first person perspective, whereas Wolfenstein was similarly trying to transpose the side-scrolling action platformer genre.

EDIT: Well if Heretic is an FPS then so is Catacomb. There were a couple of games before it that featured shooting from a first person perspective, but they only let you walk forwards or backwards along the centre-line of corridors and turn in multiples of 90 degrees, so I don't count those as true FPSes. Also, first person tank driving games like Battlezone.

 

[sirkai007]

Wolfenstein 3D Invented it.

Doom made it
Unreal Tournament tried to do what Halo is doing
Half Life fixed that
Halo (like I said)
CoD is ripped from MoH

 

[McShizzle]

Where is the "Ken's Labyrinth" option? Pfff, I'm boycotting this whole stupid thread.

 

[Bloodstain]

Either Wolfenstein or Doom...

But personally, it was Goldeneye 64. It's the first FPS I ever played.

 

[McShizzle]

Duke Nukem Provided the innovation that will forever make the PC shooter superior to the console. Mouse look.

That is an excellent point. Cookie for you.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Quake 2 was the first to have true 3D. ('97)

Actually, Quake 1 was already fully 3D.

Not fully, the patch released in '97 boosted it to use 3DFX, before that it was just 3D roaming. Quake 2 was the first to have it full 3D from the start.

Duke Nukem Provided the innovation that will forever make the PC shooter superior to the console. Mouse look.

That is an excellent point. Cookie for you.

Cookie taken back. Mouselook was actually done in Cyclones in 1994. Nukem was 96.

 

[koriantor]

Doom is what "made" the genre. Wolfenstein came before doom, defining the basics, but Doom is what popularized it and took it to the next level.

Now, might I make a request that people stop naming threads "Poll: Whatever" when there is no poll? Thank you!

 

[XMark]

Quake 2 was the first to have true 3D. ('97)

Actually, Quake 1 was already fully 3D.

Not fully, the patch released in '97 boosted it to use 3DFX, before that it was just 3D roaming. Quake 2 was the first to have it full 3D from the start.

What I meant was that Quake 1 had a full 3 dimensions of movement, the ability to look up and down, and fully 3-dimensional architecture and player/enemy/item models.

What you're talking about is specifically hardware acceleration, which I suppose is a leap in itself, since taking the 3D rendering load off the CPU and into the video card was a major step for PC games.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

This really depends on what you mean as "defined."

If your talking about FPS as a genre, then it would be the ORIGINAL Wolfenstien. There was a few tests with first person perspective before that, but that was really the first to make it a shooter.

If you mean MODERN FPSs, then it (sadly) is Halo, since that is what got the regen health, limited weapons, and all that other stuff into use.

 

[Exia91]

It's the earliest I can really think of and it was Doom good.

Fixed it fer ya.

OT:
For me, what my quote said. Doom. It's the first I played that was reasonible good for the time it came in. "In a Galaxy far far awaytime long long ago!"

 

[McShizzle]

Cookie taken back. Mouselook was actually done in Cyclones in 1994. Nukem was 96.

Holy crap. I forgot all about Cyclones. I used to own it too, though I have no idea what's become of it. Kudos on the obscure fps.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Either Doom or Wolfenstein. Goldeneye redefined console shooters, and was the first really amazing one. Oh, or Halo if you are a fanboy. Sadly, there are actually people out there who think Halo was the first FPS ever.

 

[zehydra]

Goldeneye. The first major success full 3d fps.

What about Duke Nukem 3D or Hexen or Quake?

I meant full wireframe 3d

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Quake 2, because it popularised a lot of FPS gameplay mechanics that are still prevalent in FPSes today.

 

[oktalist]

Quake 2 was the first to have true 3D. ('97)

Actually, Quake 1 was already fully 3D.

Not fully, the patch released in '97 boosted it to use 3DFX, before that it was just 3D roaming. Quake 2 was the first to have it full 3D from the start.

You misunderstand what is meant by 3D. It doesn't refer to hardware accelleration. A hardware accellerator just speeds up rendering by doing it in a specialised GPU separate from the CPU. In theory, a software renderer running on the CPU could do all of the things that modern GPUs do; it would just be incredibly slow, because the CPU is not optimised for those sorts of operations.

Quake 1 was true 3D because the vertices of its polygons were defined by three cartesian coordinates. The up/down axis was no different to the left/right or forwards/backwards axes. The 3D world was transformed into a 2D image on the screen by actual geometric projection, unlike earlier FPSes, and this remains how modern game engines work to this day.

In Doom and Duke, rooms were defined as polygons whose vertices had only two cartesian coordinates. Each side of a polygon became either a wall or a border between two rooms. Each polygon had additional "floor height" and "ceiling height" parameters, so you could go up and down, but it wasn't a true up/down axis. You couldn't have a room with another room directly underneath, or a gantry that you could walk both over and under. And of course, everything that wasn't world geometry was a flat sprite. Duke allowed you to tilt your view up and down, but that was essentially a bit-blitting hack, not an actual rotation of a 3D coordinate system like Quake could do, so it didn't look quite right.

GLQuake just used a different rendering API; think of it as like using a different programming language: it's still essentially the same program, it does the same stuff, just the syntax is different. Quake 2 used essentially the same engine as GLQuake, with a few new features like the ability to have individual pieces of world geometry rotate, like a circular saw or a hinged door. Quake 3 added support for shaders and a few other things, and Doom 3 and Quake 4 took that even further, but they are all still based off of the same fundamental principles of Quake 1. Half-Life took GLQuake and added a lot of the same stuff as Quake 2 did. Then the Source engine improved upon that up to somewhere between Quake 3 and Quake 4 standards. CoD4 and many other games can also trace their ancestry back to Quake 1. See Quake family tree [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quake_-_family_tree.svg].

 

[Johnnyallstar]

DOOM defined the single player FPS. GoldenEye defined FPS multiplayer. Yes, there was DOOM multiplayer, but it took GoldenEye for multi-player FPS to hit big time.

 

[Teeth Kicker]

Quake and Unreal Tournament really brought the FPS world online with full force. They remain my two favorite shooters. I'm tired of these modern shooters with no visible life bars, popping up behind crates and being all "tactical." I want to be doing double jumps and running at 40mph with a rocket launcher that shoots three missles, and a railgun that can no-scope somebody from across a map. And don't forget the Redeemer!

 

[Denamic]

For FPS games in general, I'd say DOOM.
But Counter-Strike is what really made online competitive FPS games take off.
Not to say it was the first, but it was definitely the most significant.

 

[Yarkaz]

Never played it, but Doom kinda set the standard for shooters.

Later on Halo perfected it in it's pure form, but unfortunately brought nothing new to the table or innovated on it in any way. Innovation came with the many fps/rpg games (*cough*system shock*cough*), and most anything Valve did for a while.

At least, that's as far as I've seen.

EDIT: Ah, I'd forgotten Wolfenstien. M'kay, yeah. That was the first, but as many have already mentioned, Doom made shooters popular.

 

[viranimus]

Ok guys you are killing my inbox here.

OP: "a simple thread that you can say which game you think defined it.not which one is better"

I posted what I believe was birthed, defined, and redefined the shooter genera.

As for defined:

Halo 2 ...when console multiplayer became widespread and increased the popularity of shooters across the board.

and bioshock which i feel had a greater impact than:

Systemshock: "Even if it is a near perfect game, couldnt really consider it genera defining, because it wasnt as if system shock changed the genera as a whole, or introduced it to a massive new fanbase."

Deus Ex: "Thing about Deus Ex, another example of a great game, but its main innovative hook was the freedom to approach situations in multiple ways, However that is not a mechanic that has changed the way that shooters are made, as of yet."

As you can see, My Opinion on all of the choices I made is based on two factors, How much of a monetary impact the game made for its respective time frame as in sales. And how the unique factors of the game have influenced developers and conventions that have been repeatedly emulated in one sense or another since.

Now, please guys if you dont agree with what games I feel are the genera defining titles, give my inbox a rest and cite to the thread what you feel is correct. Instead of quoting me six ways from sunday like your going to convince me that I am wrong because my opinion is not the same as yours.

OT: Seriously. Sorry to snap, but getting hounded over an opinion is uncalled for. No one should have to write that much [vb code] just to explain an expressed opinion. Ive said my peace and I am done with this specific thread. See you in the next.