Death of the First Person Shooter?

Dustaz

So with all the grumbling about CS dying, Quake being dead on its feet and UT missing in action... whats next for the FPS?

Personally (and i know this opinion is shared by a fair few of ye), I dont see ANY multiplayer FPS out there that keeps me up all night in excitement. DoD 2 seems to be a worthwile distraction, but tbh i dont know if it has the 'legs' to take it to Quake/CS levels of play. Wolf and MOH were dissapointing from an online point of view altho JK2 looks interesting enough.

So whats next? UT2, Duke Nukem Forever and TFC2 have all seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. Even if they do reappear, will they really offer anything genuinly new? Do we have to wait for Planetside or something similar to re-invigorate the FPS?

Thoughts please

PS: Tribes 1 is of course still the best FPS game out there. It never gets old and i honestly think that its model has much to offer that was not achieved with TribesPoo (2). Unfortunatly i know not many ppl agree with that (untill they actually try it on a lan that is ).

Mills

I tried it on a Lan and I still don't agree .

Rev Hellfire

The problem with most FP shooters is that they've been working on the same doom formula now for a few year and people are getting a bit sick of them. Maybe when something new is introduced to the mix they will take off again, tribes had it with the focus on team and large large teams.

Celt

DoD is becoming more popular

handyandy

I think when processor speed, bandwidth and server capacity issues are solved, you may enter the era when you can have high levels of detail and large numbers of players (100+), as it is CS can get real laggy with a modest number of players, with only a limited number of those players being tracked at any given time.

Now 100+ players, that would make quite a game of DOD! :classic:

Da_Kid

SOF2 looks bleedin rapid

kaimera

At present Unreal2 wont have any multiplayer appaerntly becos UT2 (now UT2003) will be coming out berri soon after it anf they dont want their own games competign against themselves.

U2 will hopeully inject some lyfe into teh FPS

Dont be at yourself

Duke! Nukem! Forever!

As soon as I've played this, there will be no reason what so ever to own a PC.

D-Generate

In my opinion FPS's will be closer to First Person RPG's as seen in System Shock 2 and Deus Ex.
The online aspect of FPS's will be PlanetSide and Neocron which look really ambitious

Praetorian

Serious Sam II was gr8 fun.

Jedi Knight II was superb IMO.

Wolfenstein & Medal of Honor were good single player games.

Ghost Recon was short but enjoyable

"SOF2 looks bleedin rapid" True

Duke Nukem takes forever ohh yea

Doom 3 will of course be revolutionary

Unreal 2003 will look superb and will win ALOT of hard core fans

Halo looks and plays very very nicely (looking forward to turning up the details on my GF4) :rambo:

IMO using the ancient Half life engine will mean COndition Zero will not be what it should have been.

Kairo

Unreal 2
Unreal Tournament 2
Duke Nukem Forever
Team Fortress 2 (Some Day)
Doom 3
Quake 4
Deus Ex 2
Thief 3
Global Ops
Counter Strike: CZ
Rainbow Six: Raven Shield
No One Lives Forever 2
Halo (Multiplayer Maybe)

First Person are teh win!

Giblet

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is the best fps I've played in ages.
And operation flashpoint. It's like BEING in a war man, cept without me being able to be killed and all that.

kaimera

Halo looks and plays very very nicely (looking forward to turning up the details on my GF4)

HaLo on da P( ????!!

Dustaz

Im talking about the multiplayer aspect of them. I think rev hellfire hit the nail on the head. DM is just getting boring (to me anyway), and i cant see any of the games mentioned actually adding anything new to the multiplay aspect of FPS games.

Quake 4? Doom3? TFC2? UT2003? Are these really going to offer anything that hasnt been seen already? MOH and Wolf certainly didnt.

The online aspect of FPS's will be PlanetSide and Neocron which look really ambitious.

I agree with you d-generate, this type of thing seems to be the only advance on what weve seen so far.

GreenHell

Personnally I think developers are trying to reinvent the FPS genre, give it a new image.

New World Order

Shoot to Kill: Columbian Crackdown

These look like very postive developments in the fps world since both games are going to bring something differant to the party.

Shinji

NWO looks really nice. "Shoot to Kill: Columbian Crackdown" mostly seems to be bringing an innovative line in over-the-top press releases and cranial-rectal inversion on the part of the studio head to the FPS mix.

][Spoof Jesus][

Doom 3....thats all there will be...it will be so good it will actually require a GeForce3 minimum...I am going to buy a new pc just for that game...nothign else...thats iot...Doom3...MOH is excellent online CS is ****...simple...

][Spoof Jesus][

Unreal2 does not have a multiplayer option...thought i would say NO MP IN U2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CALIBUR]

ffs quake is not dead! .theres nothing going on now with irish quake today but theres **** load going on other parts in the world
.

The_Bullman

operation flashpoint is the best thing to happen to first/third person games in ages. so real, and so many different types of gameplay. you can have races, paintball matches to name but a few. unfortunatly, it is next to impossible to play on a 56k modem.

saik

"fps multiplayer is dead"
hah, noway. but playing behind 56k modem and 64k isdn on english servers running games with dodgy netcode IS.

Pepe LeFrits

Mmm, i still enjoy a bit of the ol' DM, i don't think it is going to disappear in favour of team games.

Although a proper sequel to TFC (as in the same game more or less on a brand new engine, not TF2 gheyness) would be so sweet.

bonkey

Reading through this thread, I couldnt help but think that most people have missed the point of the original post.

Sure - games are getting "sexier" with their graphics, but so what? Do you really think that better prettiness makes better game? I dont. I couldnt care if Doom 3 will require a GF3, or that Halo will be so sweet when the gfx can be turned up (BTW - a GF4 still has less power than the XBox gfx engine, so dont expect to be that much better).

The question is whether or not the genre itself is stagnating, or even dying, due to a lack of fresh ideas. When Max Payne came out, several people dissed it because although it introduced the concept of bullet-time and was perhaps the most refreshing change in the fps/3ps genre in some time, it was going to be blown away by radically better and more derivative/inventive games within 6 months.

In those 6 months, all Ive seen are prettified, tweaked sequels, with nothing new. We have a slight expansion of genres with WW2 FPS becoming much more popular, but thats about it. A gren is still a gren, whether its an Axis "stick", a modern HE grenny, or a Thermal Detonator in a sci fi genre.

There is little (if anything) new, and to be honest, I am definitely getting bored of the genre. Sure - I can go out and buy the latest prettiest game of the genre, but I will be very surprised if it actually has anything new in it.

I dont think the genre will die - I mean, racing games havent changed in forever, and are still popular, but I would love to see something new done with it.

Picture Everquest meets CS (or DOD, or Star Wars, or whatever fps genre you love). You go through training camp, learn skills with weapons, join mercenary teams, accept missions, etc. etc. on a MMPORG scale. Instead of just having classes (a la TFC), have levels and skills, which determines how good you are, and with what. Stamina, accuracy, speed, specific weapons skills, etc - you choose what to be good at, and how varied yoru skills are.

Now *that* would be fun. I give it 10 years though, before the tech exists to do it right.

jc

KdjaCL

I disagree that the FPS genre is dying as i only recently started playing PC games (last year )
i have yet to play DOD CS TFC in a team game sense only on a public servers and about 6 times for the lot of them .
But i have Max payne RTCW MOH and Op Flash and they are truly great games in single and multi.
As i dont have the experience of the DOD CS team games MOH and RTCW would be my experience of team games and they are really good .
And back to the main point as i have never really played HL (not finished it anyway )
My experience with mohaa are what i enjoy about games "not being able to stop playing" (last level on hard OMFG) .
And Max payne too that was a great game (bit too easy but )
So maybe for people who been playing these games a long time it might be getting stale as you would have "seen it all before"
But there some truly great ones out .
kdja

Victor

I think if someone can work out how to present curves in adequate detail you might eventually be able to get realistic scenery for non-urban combat. Too much of the FPS is urbana or sci-fi based.

Balfa

FPSs are the most popular type of game in a lucrative business. they're great. so are most other genres. stop bitching and get playing. if you don't wanna play, read a book.

And btw, nv25 (gf4) is faster than nv2a (xbox)

Dustaz

Thank you bonkey

Nail...Hammer....Bonk


Thats exactly why i mentioned planetside, it seems to be the only fresh idea (i know shinji will flame me cos he thinks its crap - but not having seen it, im only going on the idea).

For example, when quake came out and the community started modding like mad, loads of ideas came out and there were lots of different gamtypes - DM, TDM, Arena, CTF, and the Fortress idea.

Since then has ANYTHING new occured?
lets look at the most popular games out there.
Quake X - all the above
CS - arena (with the buying weapons twist)
TFC - fortress
Tribes - Fortress
RTCW - Fortress
DoD - TDM/Fortress

Havent played MOH so i dont know, but i would be hugely suprised if there was any sort of huge innovation in it.

So if the FPS is NOT dying as a multiplayer game - Whats keeping it fresh? New graphics? Different weapons/inventory? cause it sure as hell isnt fresh gametypes

spooky donkey

yeah UT had a few things in it when it came out .
Assualt an domination were fresh enough ideas but that game came out in 1999 so i Hope UT2 can offer up even more new ideas when it comes out. Is Halo gona get a pc release eventually?

I like all fps games ( but i've still to see the attratction of CS ) and even if nothing new comes out i will still play them. I enjoyed serious sam 2 and i am going to get serious sam 1 now even though i know its bascially the same, it is a whole bunch of new levels in the serious samiverse for me to enjoy and pass a few hours, i dont really care if i dont se anything new in games, but it agree it would be nice.

DeadBankClerk

Originally posted by kaids
Although a proper sequel to TFC (as in the same game more or less on a brand new engine, not TF2 gheyness) would be so sweet.

Quake 3 Fortress 2 was released last saturday (6th?).

Originally posted by Dustaz
Since then has ANYTHING new occured?
lets look at the most popular games out there.
Quake X - all the above
CS - arena (with the buying weapons twist)
TFC - fortress
Tribes - Fortress
RTCW - Fortress
DoD - TDM/Fortress

CS is more capture and hold (de_ maps).

What about other genres? anyone played Virtua Tennis (1 or 2)? Brilliant game, but it it little more than Pong with bells and whistles.

Bangai-o on the the dreamcast is Robotron to all intents and purposes.

All the above first person shooters have there roots firmly in Quake and it's mods.

Most notably:
Quake World Clan Arena
Quake World Team Fortress (invented fortress, advanced ctf, capture and hold, assination etc.)
Action Quake (Made by Cliff and Gooseman(?) os counter-strike fame)

adnans

Originally posted by bonkey
Picture Everquest meets CS (or DOD, or Star Wars, or whatever fps genre you love). You go through training camp, learn skills with weapons, join mercenary teams, accept missions, etc. etc. on a MMPORG scale. Instead of just having classes (a la TFC), have levels and skills, which determines how good you are, and with what. Stamina, accuracy, speed, specific weapons skills, etc - you choose what to be good at, and how varied yoru skills are.

Now *that* would be fun. I give it 10 years though, before the tech exists to do it right.

didnt someone mention Neocron yeah, alright, i cant stop talking about the game but its exactly what bonkey listed above (almost). its got the evercrack addictiveness and all the joys of FP shooter. there's even a third person option available. build up your character and travel the world of neocron completing quests, killing warbots, mutants and other characters while your at it.

the only downside now is, that its full of germans atm.

adnans

BlitzKrieg

Yep...I agree new ideas are rare.....Lets try something out of all these uhmm NEw fresh games over the last 6 months....from max payne to NOW write down all the great new things they have donated...


Things like atmosphere story etc etc do not count...I'm talking things you can take out of that game and easily put into other games (e.g from old half life with scripted..which is being used to death at mo...)


Heres an example:

AvP2: The evolution of your character (very minimal) But who didnt love being a face hugger and then eating your way out of the stomach to become SUPER BUG!!! YEAH!!!


MOHAA: 1 man in large scale combat...again underused but I WANT A GAME where u are 1 soldier in all the battles of the normanday campiegn where there is no special treatment for you...kinda like an rpg help where u can and survive...to becoem better..



So write down all the great new innovate ideas these games have donated and if its less then 10...(i think the previous with half life UT Q3 CS DOD have set something around there) Then FPS are getting weaker but if it is higher well whoopy we can go for longer..


my numbers coudl be wrong though...

Dustaz

Can i re-iterate yet again that i am talking about this from a Multiplayer perspective.

Pepe LeFrits

was thinking more along the lines of an official sequel, besides Q3F is teh lose.