Artaneius said:
SKBPinkie said:
I bet a whole bunch of people will snort derisively at this, but Halo saved the FPS genre for me.
And yes, I've played Doom, Heretic, Duke 3D, etc. and none of them interest me. Halo strikes the perfect balance between insane FPSs of yore and the modern shooter. Interesting weapons, great enemy variety, still is decently fast, and requires a good amount of skill.
P.S. - A quick question to the people saying regenerating health killed the FPS (genuine question here, not trying to insult anyone for their choices) - how often was quick load / quick save used in a difficult encounter? How is that different from regenerating health, besides the obvious distinction that you're manually doing it?
And of course, if that isn't the main reason why you dislike regen systems, please elaborate. Because having played both types of FPSs, I genuinely don't miss shooters that had medkits / health packs.
Because arena shooters like Quake and UT which Doom helped birth allow the more skilled player to win over lesser skilled opponents at all times. Having items and weapons on map allowed those with the most skill to win and create a social hierarchy that pretty much defined the whole reason to get good in fps in the first place. Nowadays, it means nothing to be good because anyone can get kills with ease. No items on the map means no map control. Matchmaking systems also destroyed the hierarchy where the most skilled dominated the online scene and gave lesser skilled players a false sense of entitlement.
In online competitive gaming, the whole point of getting good is to pwn. Without being able to pwn because casuals had to be appeased, makes little to no point in dedicating the time and hours to master FPS games now. Maybe Doom 4 will finally change that and bring back the golden days of casuals and noobs being pwned 24/7 as should be. Maybe dedicating hundreds and thousands of hours into games will mean something again when the social hierarchy of the elite gamers is brought back.
And trust me if it does come back, I think casuals will feel the full wrath of the competitive gamers in their rightous fury. Too many years even decades wasted having games appease the masses has made most old school competitive gamers very pissed. They will have their revenge if the new UT, Doom 4, and others come. And I personally will gladly take part of it. There will be bloodshed in online gaming that no real life genocide could ever match. We will finally have our fps back and those that took it away will pay for it. Their entertainment hours will be filled of ragequitting and filled with throwing controllers.
The problem with Old School games is a skilled player can dominate a map to such a degree that it simply isn't fun for less skilled players. Getting dominated and shut-out isn't fun.
Modern shooters let novice players get a few points while getting their butts handed to them by better players. They're still going to lose (and lose big), but getting a handful of lucky kills makes the experience much, much more enjoyable.
I'm more of a mid-pack kind of guy when it comes to competitive multiplayer. I used to slip on-line a bit to play Quake and I think the last game I ever played was against someone who was so far above me that I simple could not enjoy myself. Someone so far above me that it wasn't even a learning experience. It was just me dying over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. I'm struggling to get something other than the crappy starting weapons, while this guy is just dominating anything of value on the map.
Many years later, I pop into a Gear Of War match and while I'm stinking up the joint and coming in dead last match after match, I was actually enjoying myself because I was getting the odd kill and felt like I was learning the maps instead of constantly getting shot while going for the weapons I needed to be even slightly competitive.