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IGN's Top 100 First-Person-Shooters

I don't know what is the thing that this list ranks anyway...

It lists the best FPS games justified by their shooting mechanics or first person games in general?

Games like Metroid and System Shock 2 are much more than just FPS games. You can't compare the two with a Halo or a CoD game that are, basically, shooting galleries. I wouldn't even call Metroid or SS2 FPS games. They are more like adventures mixing shooting, exploration and RPG elements in first person perspective.

Since Bioshock and Metroid are so high up then I don't think that shooting mechanics are the main or only criteria. Probably the fanboys at IGN came up with some way of voting for their favourite games for fun instead of doing more boring work that generates less clicks.
 
This is the worst list I've ever seen. It's IGN, so not very suprised.

Fucking LOL at Battefield 3's 90th place...
 
Some good points, and i would say yeah it probably is the best movie tie in that i can remember?

My major issue with the game back then was that you had much more control in a PC shooter than you had in Goldeneye, the kind of aiming and movement you could do in Quake (granted Quake is a much faster game) was very different to how limited you were in Goldeneye.

Goldeneye did have a better single player than say a game like Quake or Doom, which were just Key collecting mazes with very little of any kind of narrative. But they had fast paced, twitch like gameplay, they also had online and LAN capability.

While obviously subjective, i had little fun playing Goldeneye multiplayer, because it seemed so second rate compared to playing Quake online or LAN, the action was faster, i felt more in control etc.

Other than the visuals, how different is Quake or Quake 2 really from current FPS games in 2013? I think they hold up incredibly well. While Goldeneye in my opinion does not hold up at all, and a large reason for that is the N64 controller, rather than the game itself.

Half Life 1 still holds up, as does Halo, Modern Warfare and most games on that list still are fun to play, the genre just looks better today and is more linear when it comes to single player, while Goldeneye seems so far detached from most shooters today, predominately because of that controller.
I think maybe it was just the kid in me, but I honestly didn't think much about how a game controlled. When I would go from using the arrows + Ctrl on Doom 2, to using m/kb with Quake and then a few hours later using the N64 controller, it just never bothered me in the slightest.
When I look back on it I constantly wonder how I used the 64 controller for anything because it's so goddamn awful. But yes I believe it's 90% the controller and 10% the shit framerate. I remember trying to go back and play Perfect Dark and just couldn't do it, but once they released it on xbla, I had an absolute blast. I'm certain if they gave Goldeneye the PD treatment, it would be fantastic.
 
Some good points, and i would say yeah it probably is the best movie tie in that i can remember?

My major issue with the game back then was that you had much more control in a PC shooter than you had in Goldeneye, the kind of aiming and movement you could do in Quake (granted Quake is a much faster game) was very different to how limited you were in Goldeneye.

Goldeneye did have a better single player than say a game like Quake or Doom, which were just Key collecting mazes with very little of any kind of narrative. But they had fast paced, twitch like gameplay, they also had online and LAN capability.

While obviously subjective, i had little fun playing Goldeneye multiplayer, because it seemed so second rate compared to playing Quake online or LAN, the action was faster, i felt more in control etc.

Other than the visuals, how different is Quake or Quake 2 really from current FPS games in 2013? I think they hold up incredibly well. While Goldeneye in my opinion does not hold up at all, and a large reason for that is the N64 controller, rather than the game itself.

Half Life 1 still holds up, as does Halo, Modern Warfare and most games on that list still are fun to play, the genre just looks better today and is more linear when it comes to single player, while Goldeneye seems so far detached from most shooters today, predominately because of that controller.
My only gripe with your post is how you "bash" Goldeneye because it doesn't control like Quake on PC. Goldeneye is a console game. All console FPS games "suffer" from the same issue. Its not an exclusive Goldeneye feature. And yes, Quake is faster paced and you have more accurate control. Its a pure shooter. Goldeneye is a a different game though. Has a different style. There are more things about it than shooting.

Also back then, consoles didn't have internet (or at least in the majority of the world). Goldeneye has a great local MP, Quake has a great online MP. Both feel different, i wouldn't say one is better than the other. Some people prefer having their friends together and have fun with them in the same room than playing with a bunch of strangers online while being alone in their rooms.
 
There are errors in a subjective ranking of video games written by someone else?

One would think it's a little more group based,and more objective, then any singular person's top 100. Regardless, you're right though.

Half-life > half-life 2 is surprising though.
 
Seeing original DOOM, Half-Life, Quake (although it should be 1 and not 2) there at the top takes me back to my childhood when I was playing those game as they came out and being awed into oblivion. Fun times.
 
There are errors in a subjective ranking of video games written by someone else?

No man, nkarafo knows what's right. He's the one. The list-master. He got the privilege by... well, way back when. The point is, you gotta follow his order, or you're just erroneous.
 
Seeing original DOOM, Half-Life, Quake (although it should be 1 and not 2) there at the top takes me back to my childhood when I was playing those game as they came out and being awed into oblivion. Fun times.

I'd say nostalgia is playing its part in the list too.
 
I'd say nostalgia is playing its part in the list too.
And that's a good thing. If these games weren't so good in the first place people wouldn't have nostalgic memories about them. Its not that there are so many newer games that are so much better to make us forget about the older classics.
 
Goldeneye does not belong there at all

"Well for its time it was great!"

Well actually for its time it was not great, people were playing far better shooters on the PC back then.

Though i suppose i understand the nostalgia here, if you did not own a PC and Goldeneye was all you had, i bet then that Goldeneye seemed mighty impressive.

However that is like saying Street Fighter 1 on the Amiga is one of the best fighting games of all time, because you weren't exposed to much else, so it seemed super impressive


But hey! Opinions etc. Otherwise its a decent list, that game just stuck out as purely been put there because of nostalgia and lack of a PC. Quake 1 and Quake 2, Unreal all hold up today, gameplay wise at least.
Hokum. The only people who say this did not in fact own an N64 (or did not have 4 controllers or no friends to play it with--not a dig, see further). I had both and had inifinitely more fun with Goldeneye than anything on the PC at that time. The singleplayer was brilliant (with an inventive and for that time novel different gameplay style campaign), there were a tonne of very well thought out customizations, or simply wacky ones, I could haul it around to friends that had never played a game before and had the same riotous fun as when I played with people that were experts at the game.
In the end I probably sunk more time in Unreal Tournament, but that was released later, at a time that I was no longer in high school and didn't have the friends you could sit down and play games with. So you resorted to online multiplayer, and that's easier to do, but also simply less fun.
 
Battlefield 3 has the best gunplay of any game out there. Ever. It deserves to be higher. Other than that, guess I cant complain. I put Counter strike above Cod 4 tho.
 
Seems like a lot of the games high on the list are there more for historical significance rather than how their gameplay actually holds up.
 
#47 - Call of Duty 2
#44 - Call of Duty: Black Ops
#5 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Yet the best (Call of Duty 1) isn't on the list? I guess if a COD game isn't on consoles it is as if it never existed.

#68 - Halo 3
#57 - Halo 3: ODST
#46 - Halo 4
WTF? Halo 4 ahead of 3? Halo 4 does not belong anywhere near the top 100.
 
What are CoD2 and Black Ops doing in there but not CoD 1 or CoD United Offensive?

Well at least I'm not going to complain about the top 3.
 
Crysis 2 and 3 should not be in there. I never beat Crysis 2, but I beat Crysis 3 and it was such a waste of time, the game gets crappier and crappier level after level until the last level when it turns into complete shit
 
Hokum. The only people who say this did not in fact own an N64 (or did not have 4 controllers or no friends to play it with--not a dig, see further). I had both and had inifinitely more fun with Goldeneye than anything on the PC at that time. The singleplayer was brilliant (with an inventive and for that time novel different gameplay style campaign), there were a tonne of very well thought out customizations, or simply wacky ones, I could haul it around to friends that had never played a game before and had the same riotous fun as when I played with people that were experts at the game.
In the end I probably sunk more time in Unreal Tournament, but that was released later, at a time that I was no longer in high school and didn't have the friends you could sit down and play games with. So you resorted to online multiplayer, and that's easier to do, but also simply less fun.

Dont start with this, i owned the system since the late 90s. I am not questioning your crediblity just because we disagree on the quality of the game, i am not throwing accusations that you never owned or played Unreal Tournament back in the day.

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And yes i had friends to play multiplayer with, i should go round them up and take a picture of us holding a Goldeneye cart

The point is that we also owned a PC, and those FPS on the PC were far and ahead better than Goldeneye.


I am not here to piss on your or anyone elses late 90s, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Limp Bizkit and Goldeneye local multiplayer days, you can have your reverence and love for the game, i fully endorse it. *I* simply think the game does not belong anywhere near this list, for the reasons i already stated. I found the game back then to be second rate, a poor mans FPS.
 
I don't even think there are 100 amazing FPS games in the first place, top 50 would be more appropriate, and multiplayer/singleplayer should be separated. Can't compare Quake 3 to Half-Life.
 
Not a terrible list. Could do for some reorganization. COD4 is still the best. Sad to see COD3 isn't in the list, as its still the best Treyarch made COD mutiplayer wise (next to BLOPS1). But I'm in the minority on that one, probably.
 
Metroid Prime isn't an FPS...

Also Metroid Prime is on the list and Portal isn't... something's wack with their criteria
 
#52 - No One Lives Forever
#50 - Quake
#49 - Doom 2
---
#47 - Call of Duty 2
#46 - Halo 4
#44 - Call of Duty: Black Ops

Wow. Oh, wow. Completely ass backwards here. And I question Halo 4 being on the list at all, let alone number 46.
 
Killzone 2 should at least be in the top 20. What the fuck is 3 doing in there. it was a massive step down. I'm not the biggest Half-life fan in the world but i don't really have a problem with the 1st game being number one. Half-life 2 is way too high though. Most over rated game in existance.
 
Dont start with this, i owned the system since the late 90s. I am not questioning your crediblity just because we disagree on the quality of the game, i am not throwing accusations that you never owned or played Unreal Tournament back in the day.

Alright, but then it is a case of opinions and different experience, and not of people (in this case me) missing out on PC gaming. Experience is probably a strong factor in this anyway; you were able to play Unreal via e.g. Heat.net, which was nice though fiddly, but back then multiplayer was either 4 way splitscreen, or LAN parties. They're quite different in experience and some preferred the prior, others the latter.
 
So according to IGN both Bioshock and Infinite are way better than System Shock 2? Interesting. Kinda like putting FFX and FFXIII above FFVI/VII.

Every list has the elements to infuriate the masses, but the ones IGN do are specially trashy.
 
Metroid Prime isn't an FPS...

Also Metroid Prime is on the list and Portal isn't... something's wack with their criteria

Metroid Prime definitely changed the game. But I certainly remember shooting a bunch of enemies from a first person perspective. FPS is a genre that has many subgenres, of which the Prime series is certainly a part of. The absence of Portal is really strange, but other than that all the right games are on the list, from the classics to the modern era. I was happy to see some Red Steel 2 love.
 
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