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NeoGAF's Essential FPSs - 2013 edition, Voting Phase

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ViewtifulJC

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For the past four years, kswiston has ran an annual thread where NeoGAF users vote for what they believe are the Essentials RPGs. Whether that be most influential, most played, favorite, or "best", is really up to the individual user. The purpose of this isn't just to see where your favorite games rank, but to help people find great games they might not have played, or obscure titles they may never even heard of!

I thought a thread about First Person Shooters could work similarly. The FPS genre exploded in popularity in the early 90s, with titles such as Doom leading the charge. Now, 20 years later, first person shooters have grown into one of the most popular forms of gaming around. With so many beloved titles and proclaimed classics, things can get lost in the shuffle. What are the Essential First Person Shooters? Well, that's where you come in, GAF!​

voting-1.png


Voting will be open for the next three weeks, ending on March 5th, 2013 at 11:59am EST. Feel free to edit you votes until then, but use your original post instead of duplicating the list on a new post. After the voting phase, I will tally everyone's picks and create an OP with summaries of the top games (along with full rankings for at least the top 50).





READ THE RULES BELOW BEFORE YOU VOTE.



1. Each member can vote for up to 10 games + 5 honorable mentions. I will explain the difference between the two in rule #3. If you include 10 games or less on your list, I will count them all as regular votes. If you have more than 10 games on your list but do not specify which ones are honorable mentions, I will assume the first 10 are regular votes and the ones after that are honorable mentions. If you want to list more than 15 games (some users did in the RPG thread), put them under a second heading called "Unranked Honorable Mentions".

2. You need to vote for at least 5 games to qualify. The purpose of this thread is to highlight FPSs that you think are essential or worth playing, not to boost the ranking of 1 or 2 of your favorites.

3. Votes are semi-weighted. This is done to avoid ties in the final list. While individual game rankings aren't extremely important in my mind, many of you enjoy seeing where your favorites end up on the final list. All regular votes are worth 2 points and all honorable mentions are worth 1 point. Following rule #1, this means you can have up to 10 games that each receive 2 points and 5 honorable mentions that each receive 1 point. Hopefully this will help to break up the number of ties.

4. You can highlight 1 game on your list to receive 3 points. If you have an absolute favourite FPS or an underrated game that you feel deserves wider recognition, you can highlight it to receive an extra point. You can only highlight 1 of your choices and you cannot highlight honorable mentions.

5. All sub-genres of FPSs are eligible for voting. Votes can be for any FPS releasedon any system(or PC) at any point in time prior to the time you post your list. I am not going to make the call on what is or isn't an FPS unless you are making outrageous choices like Super Mario 64 or Final Fantasy VII. Some people consider games like Fallout 3 and Theif to fit under the FPS umbrella, while others don't. You make the call. If your opinion is unique, the game simply won't appear on the final list. Personally, I'd prefer you go by this list of First Person Shooters when making your list, which has Thief, but not say, a first person puzzle game like Portal.

6. Back up your choices! No one is interested in reading a post that simply lists 10 games with no explanations. We are trying to turn people onto new titles, so take a sentence or two to tell readers why you think the games you are picking are special or worth playing. Why do you enjoy this game? Let us know! The best voting threads are the ones that get a bunch of insightful posts that convince me to try something new, and it would be nice to see that happen here. Look at last year's Essential RPG thread for examples. I won't disqualify list only posts outright, but they are heavily discouraged.

7. Use full titles for the games you are voting for. Tallying thousands of votes is a tedious process that is made more difficult when people vote for Q3A instead of Quake 3 Arena or DN3D instead of Duke Nukem 3D. Even assuming that I understand what your acronym is referring to, I am more likely to miss it during the tallying phase than I am a properly spelled game title. I prefer regular numbers to roman numerals, but that is less important.

8. Votes for remakes, ports, and expansions of a game will be counted together with the original. Do not vote for the same game twice, even if you believe that the remake substantially changed the feel of the game (e.g. the Wii/360/PS3 remake of Goldeneye 007) or the expansion campaign was much stronger than the vanilla campaign (e.g. Half-Life 2: Episode Two). That said, feel free to vote for a specific version of a game (and explain why that is the best version). When I create the final list I will list all of the platforms that each game is available on and make note of substantial remakes/expansions in the game's summary.

HERE IS A BALLOT TEMPLATE YOU CAN USE:

-----------------------------------------------------------

1) Shoot-Bang 1 - (insert explanation here)

2) Shoot-Bang 2 - (insert explanation here)

3) Super Shoot Bang 3: Da Underrated Sequel (3 points) - (insert explanation here)

4) Shoot-Bang 4 - (insert explanation here)

5) Shoot-Bang 5 - (insert explanation here)

6) Shoot-Bang 6 - (insert explanation here)

7) Shoot-Bang 7 - (insert explanation here)

8) Shoot-Bang 8 - (insert explanation here)

9) Shoot-Bang 9 - (insert explanation here)

10) Shoot-Bang 10 - (insert explanation here)


Honorable Mentions


11) Shoot-Bang 11 - (insert explanation here)

12) Shoot-Bang 12 - (insert explanation here)

13) Shoot-Bang 13 - (insert explanation here)

14) Shoot-Bang 14 - (insert explanation here)

15) Shoot-Bang 15 - (insert explanation here)


Unranked Honorable Mentions
- Shoot-Bang Origins
- Shoot-Bang Vita
- Shoot Bang iOS Edition

-------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to modify the format if you want to include pictures or something else. Just make sure that your post is easy to follow and I know which games are regular votes, which are honorable mentions, and which are unranked additional titles you wanted to throw a shout out to. As I mentioned in the rules, you don't need to include honorable mentions, as long as your list is at least 5 games long.


And I think that's it! Thanks goes out to kswiston for this thread's rules and lovely banners, and ThoseDeafMutes for his permission. Everybody else, get to voting!
​
 
For what it's worth, Goldeneye N64 and Goldeneye Eurocom are pretty much two different games. Not that I can see anyone voting for both, but still!
 
1. Unreal Tournament 99
2. Counter Strike 1.6
3. Quake 3
4. Battlefield 2142
5. Half Life
6. Rogue Spear
7. Return to Castle Wolfenstien/Enemy Territory
8. Half Life 2
9. Tribes 2
10. Fear

Honorable mentions:
Dystopia
Goldeneye 64
Natural selection
Soldier of Fortune 2

I'll add the reasons later in an edit.
 
1) Doom - True father of FPS. Wolfenstein came first, but Doom is what made the genre popular and before the term, "FPS", even existed, they were classified as "Doom clones" in magazines and stores. It was a great time.

2) Halo: CE - First FPS where I felt like the world I was in was alien and mysterious. The open-world missions and battle design are still the best out there.

3) Quake III: Arena - One of the first successful online titles and set the bar for fast gameplay revolving around jumping physics.

4) Goldeneye 007 - Still the best shooter based on a film. The mechanics, movements, and gadgets make this game a masterpiece.

5) Counter-Strike - One of the few series that has kept to its roots to this day and has remained extremely popular because of that.

6) Battlefield 1942 - The first great shooter to depict real wars and was based on vehicular combat and large maps.

7) Unreal Tournament - One of the first shooters to be very competitive and have organized tournaments on many fan sites.

8) Halo 2 - This game single handily made Xbox Live to where it is today. It's combination of rich multiplayer maps with solid gameplay set a high bar for all console shooters in the future.

9) Half-Life 2 - Fantastic storytelling and interesting characters.

10) Bioshock - The most immersive shooter to date.
 
This is even harder than picking a favorite games of all time list. Ughhhh! Such an absurdly deep genre with so many great games to recommend.
 
I've only played mostly 360 FPSes.

1)Portal 2-Portal 2 was a game that I throughly enjoyed, it felt crisp, creative and the level of polish and progression was smooth.
2)Fallout 3-Has an engrossing world that had me constantly searching for more life across The Wasteland (although it did get a bit tedious towards the end)
3)Left 4 Dead-I don't think I've ever had this much fun with a multiplayer game.
4)Bioshock-Another great game with a unique setting.
5)Portal-A great break from everything that preceded it.
 
1. Team Fortress 2 - Still charming and I'm always learning something new to this day. The meta-game for this has somewhat defined a strong position in the F2P market.

2. Doom 3 - The game that got me into PC games. I saw pics of this and thought to myself, "I need to build something that can run that."

3. Crysis - The game that got me back into PC games. The open world design to exploration and combat was also very good.

4. Killzone 2 - Really amazed me what the PS3 could do. The squad and classes were great as well.

5. Half Life 2 - The physics were incredible. I'd spend time just messing around with the physics.

6. Doom 2 - I played this a long time ago. Maybe I'm blinded by nostalgia, but I think that this game was "game changer" for the FPS genre.

7. Quake 3 - Great arena combat. I always sucked at FPSs, but I was good at this one because of my skill with the railgun.

8. Doom - I played this one around the time Doom 3 came out. I was surprised at how good it was.

9. Team Fortress Classic - Played this a lot with my friends.

10. Timesplitters 2 - Made some levels. Got motion sickness. It was a lot of fun.

Honorable Mentions:
Portal
Goldeneye
Metroid Prime
Fallout 3
Duke Nukem 3D
 
1. Bioshock
2. Portal
3. Halo 3
4. The Darkness
5. Killzone 2 - Best multiplayer of this gen bar none. Amazing campaign. Oh, and it looks great.
6. Battlefield 1942
7. Halo: CE Superior PC version
8. Unreal Tournament 2004
9. Half-Life
10. Call of Duty 4
 
1. Doom - This game has the everything. Map design, music, sound-effects, atmosphere, baddies, and co-op. No crazy controls. I still do not think any FPS game to date has come close to delivering the whole package like Doom does. It pretty much defined the FPS genre. The game is timeless and still pulls me in today as it did 10 years ago. Every new iteration or device that it is released on I always buy.

2. Quake - Has a great single player and multi-player experience.

3. Quake 3 - Not so much a great single player experience, but definitely better multiplayer than Quake I. Especially with mods.

4. Doom 2 - Does what the first game does, but with a double barrel shotgun.

5. Half-Life - Best single player FPS experience ever and can tell a story without relying on cutscenes/dialogue/etc.

6. UT '99 - Unbelievable map design. Facing Worlds is still one of the best multi-player maps ever.

7. Goldeneye 64 - Best movie adaptation to a game ever. Great single player experience and one of the best party games to play with four friends still to this day. I still think this game was ahead of this time and I can not think of another console FPS that offers such a great experience.

8. Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Awesome single player and great class based multi-player.

9. Counter-Strike: Source - I love 1.6, but I believe the mechanics and playing experience is better with the Source engine.

10. Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast - LIGHTSABER FIGHTS AND CHOPPING OFF LIMBS.
 
Not sure if it's a good idea to include old multiplayer games which have very small multiplayer populations at this point. The experience wouldn't be good if you are a newcomer.
 
1) Half Life 2 - The game is flawless. It's a disservice to just put it in the FPS genre, because it's so much more. One of my favorite games of all time.
2) Counter Strike 1.6 - An amazing multiplayer shooter that probably ranks this high due to memories.
3) Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - Extremely fun campaigns, with variety in gameplay, smart enemy AI and a great story.
4) Bioshock 1 - The story and amazing world is what makes this game. One of this generation's best IPs.
5) Half Life - Similarly to its sequel, it's a very smart game that transcends its genre, but is not perfect due to some issues towards the end.
6) Borderlands 2 - The improvement over the predecessor is apparent. Wittier, bigger, deeper and much more engaging. They focused on depth than breadth and it paid off as it's one of my favorite worlds this generation.
7) Halo 4 - Believe it or not, Halo 4 is my favorite Halo game. I'm not a hardcore multiplayer player so I can't really dissect the issues, but it had one of the most fun and visually impressive campaigns I've played. Can't wait for Halo 5.
8) Modern Warfare - I was going to put MW2, but I feel MW is a bigger accomplishment this gen. It truly set a benchmark for the rest of the generation's FPS games, and still cannot be surpassed in terms of its simple, concise perk system and MP and probably one of the most insane FPS campaigns I've ever played at the time.
9) Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve really nailed the zombie co-op FPS with L4D, but improved on any issues with the sequel. Although I prefer the original cast of characters, the sequel had better zombie additions, maps and campaigns.
10) Battlefield 3 - The best modern shooter after MW1/2. The campaign holds it back from being higher though, but the multiplayer is awesome.
 
sp3000 said:
Not sure if it's a good idea to include old multiplayer games which have very small multiplayer populations at this point. The experience wouldn't be good if you are a newcomer.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Don't include anything you can't / would not choose to play today.
 
Reasons will be edited in later:

1. Doom
2. Deus Ex
3. Halo: CE
4. Unreal Tournament 2004
5. Team Fortress 2
6. Portal 2
7. Half-Life 2
8. Bioshock
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
10. Halo 3
 
1. Counter-Strike the king. I'd end the list at #1 if I could
2. Quake 3
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Halo: CE
5. Return to Castle Wolfenstein
 
sp3000 said:
Not sure if it's a good idea to include old multiplayer games which have very small multiplayer populations at this point. The experience wouldn't be good if you are a newcomer.
Click to expand...
Most of the games listed have phenomenal single player experiences that can still be played today.
 
1. Doom 2 - Double Barreled Shotgun.. 'nuff said.
2. Halo CE - Open areas, a vast array of tools, and enemy AI that wasn't a joke
3. Thief 2 - Best stealth game ever made, dripping with atmosphere
4. Republic Commando (3 points) - Great squad based gameplay, shame Imperial Commando never happened
5. Portal 2 - Mindbending sequel to the original
6. System Shock 2 - I dreaded going down those corridors
7. Counter-Strike 1.6 - de_dust is legendary
8. Battlefield 2 - Spent too many late nights on this game to leave it off the list
9. Team Fortress - Before HATS there was 2fort4
10. Half Life 2 - Plenty of Valve magic but held back by its shitty engine and driving sections
 
1) Halo: Combat Evolved (PC Version) - One of my favorite shooters ever (mostly because of the online multiplayer), terrible 55 FOV and all. It was one of the games that introduced me to PC gaming and the concept of online shooters. I'd played through the Xbox version with a friend on Legendary, and that was just icing on the cake.

2) Day of Defeat: Source - I think I just have a thing for World War 2 shooters, but DoD:S is still fun, despite the fact that I'm nowhere near the skill-level that I used to be.

3) Cold Winter - Without a doubt the most underrated shooter from the PS2 era. Still has one of my absolute favorite single-player campaigns of any shooter to date.

4) Timesplitters 2 - Who didn't have fun split-screening this?

5) Goldeneye 64 - I ask again, who didn't have fun split-screening this?

6) Call of Duty 4 - Say what you want about what CoD has become, but 4 is just one hell of an exciting experience online. The perks were uncomplicated, the maps were memorable, and the mere mention of 3x Frag + Juggernaut still has the power to enrage people six years later.

7) Killzone 2 - The first multiplayer game I'd tried on the PS3, and it was awesome.

8) BioShock - It was the first shooter since the original Halo that I'd played where I was completely engrossed in the atmosphere. The last 5th of the game nearly ruined that whole experience for me, but not quite.

9) Time Crisis 2 - I can't even begin to count how many hours me and my friends put into this thing at our local arcade (RIP).

10) Painkiller - As a wise man once said, it has a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning.
 
No one's even mentioning TimeSplitters so far.

I vote for
1. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.

It's the one FPS series I could really get into despite not really liking much of what the genre has to offer.
 
Here we go.

1) Goldeneye 007 - Basically epitomized the FPS on consoles. It was actually the first time I played an FPS game in my life and I'll never forget it. Rare did an incredible job meshing complicated FPS controls from the PC to the N64 controller.

2) Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - Cerebral Bore. Fired projectiles that bored into the skulls of enemies and blew them up like exploding watermelons. It was also the 2nd best FPS on the N64. Acclaim, you glorious bastards.

3) Halo: Combat Evolved - Basically confirmed the Xbox as a purchase for me, and it justified that purchase in every way. The controls pretty much laid down the blueprint for modern day FPS games. 4 player MP, Blood Gulch. Damn good times.

4) Half-Life 2 - Expertly paced, novel physics mechanics, gorgeous graphics, amazing voice acting, memorable characters...need I continue?

5) Unreal Tournament - Absolutely amazing gunplay. If you didn't have an itchy trigger finger ready for this game, kiss your ass goodbye. Combined with some of the best bots at the time, hell yes. BOOM, HEADSHOT.

6) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Addictive multiplayer, addictive campaign, addictive everything. Upgrading weapons and perks gave me continual incentive to return. Loved it.

7) Bioshock - The world and atmosphere was among the most immersive I've ever experienced. The destroyed beauty of Rapture sucks you in from beginning to end. Now would you kindly go play it?

8) Duke Nukem 3D - The King belongs on this list. Strippers, kicking the ass of fugly aliens while the cursing the shit out of them? Yes please.

9) The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay - Felt like including this because honestly it blew me away, and it was a total surprise. Beautiful visuals, great voice acting, and the prison world felt so real. First person combat was brutal.

10) Wolfenstein 3D - Well, I felt obligated to include this since it started it all. Gattling gun Hitler. Why don't we ever get badass bosses like that anymore?

Honorable mentions:

11) Portal

12) Halo 3

13) Perfect Dark

14) Deus Ex

15) Far Cry
 
Here's my list:

1) Doom (3 points): Might not be the first, but it's ultimately the one that catapulted the genre into the stratosphere. There's a reason FPSes for quite a few years were either called "Doom Clones" or proclaimed themselves to be the next "Doom Killer". Doom had it all: great music, varied monsters, lots of weapons, and wildly intelligent map design. It also brought a number of things to the table, like varied lighting and height changes (for more ambient lighting, stairs, etc.). A lot of people can say Marathon did it first, but I'm gonna be the fanboy and say Doom did it best. I could go on for an entire post about how great Doom is and not even get into multiplayer, which is the real reason why it was so widely played and for so long (even today).

2) Fear: Most games up to this point had pretty basic AI. See the player? Shoot at him. That's about it. Half Life was a little better in this regard, but Fear was on a totally different level. Also, scary as fuck when it wanted to be.

3) Deus Ex: Completely redefined what it meant to have player choice in an FPS. 'Nuff said.

4) Left 4 Dead 2: I'm putting the sequel here because even though L4D1 was the groundbreaker, L4D2 was the one that really perfected the formula. One of the best team based co-op fps games.

5) Team Fortress 2: I'd be remiss if I didn't include one of the best team based vs. fps games.

6) Halo: CE: The game that brought FPS games back to consoles to stay. Until now, FPS games on consoles had the wackiest control schemes to try and make it work.

7) Goldeneye: The controls may have been wack, but if you made it work this was the best damn console FPS before Halo.

8) Half-Life: Before HL, "story" in an FPS was something that you read on the inside of the jewel case.

9 & 10) Unreal Tournament & Quake 3 Arena: The kings of the competitive FPS. I don't know how things went in your high school, but if you loved Q3A you hated UT99 and vice versa. Personally, I loved me some UT, and I loved me some Q2, but Q3A was never my thing. That said, it's definitely an essential game to play.
 
1) Team Fortress 2
2) Half-Life 2
3) BioShock
4) Left 4 Dead 2
5) Thief II: The Metal Age
6) Quake III Arena
7) Dishonored
8) Doom II: Hell on Earth
9) Deus Ex
10) Tribes: Ascend

12) Portal
is not a first- person shooter.
12) Portal 2
is still not a first-person shooter.
 
1)GoldenEye 64 - I spent a lot of late nights with friends on this one. Still disappointed that there aren't many games with the same "Objective system."
2)Halo: CE - It got a lot right and change the genre forever.
3)Left 4 Dead - 4 player co-op zombie shooter, whats not to like.
4)Portal - Short and Sweet
5)Half-life 1: I like all the HL games but 1 is probably my fav.
6)Bioshock: Great world, and a great twist that kinda makes fun of the player.
 
1. Deus Ex (3 points) - incredibly immersive, and brought a level of narrative that was nearly unmatched at the time. A game that encourages you to explore and think before going in guns blazing. One of my favorite games of all time.

2. Half-Life 2 - the classic. Worth playing by anyone who likes FPS games.

3. Halo - this was the first game for me that showed that FPS games could thrive on consoles. Fun multiplayer, and an interesting single player story too.

4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - the game that propelled the Call of Duty franchise to the top of sales charts every year.

5. Borderlands 2

6. Left 4 Dead 2 - one of the funnest multiplayer games I've played, and it improved upon the original in almost every aspect.

7. Portal 2

8. Counter-Strike

9. Half-life - still plays surprisingly well, despite its age. Especially with the updated Black Mesa version coming out soon, it's well worth a look for people who have never tried it before.

10. Bioshock - very atmospheric and has excellent narrative. One of the most unique FPS games of the current generation.


Honorable Mentions
11. Unreal Tournament 99
12. Quake 3 Arena
13. System Shock 2
14. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast
15. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas
 
1) Unreal Tournament 99 - The most defining multiplayer shooter I played as a PC gamer. Amazing level design and weapon variety made it one of the best games of all time.

2) Half Life 2 - The pacing and atmosphere and some great set pieces make this the best campaign shooter in any shooter I've played

3) Battlefield 2 - An amazing Multiplayer game with great scope and great variety in maps and vehicles. Endless hours of enjoyment.

4) Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory - Another Multiplayer game with fantastic level design. Class based, objective based team game that made a big Splash.

5) Doom - One of the first ever and one of the best ever

6) Planetside - (3 points) The scale of the battles and just how well it worked was mindblowing at the time.

7) STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - Fantastic atmosphere really amazing game

8) Team Fortress 2 - Probably the most fun you can have in a multiplayer shooter, also hats

9) Goldeneye (N64) - One of the best local multi experiences, not just for shooters I've ever had. Set the bar for console shooters.

10) Red Faction - You can throw explosive packs that stick to things, like peoples heads, and then detonate them whenever you want


Honorable Mentions


11) Quake

12) Halo 2

13) Counter Strike

14) Bioshock

15) Duke Nukem 3d
 
1. CounterStrike: Global Offensive
2. Team Fortress 2
3. Half-Life 2
4. Duke Nukem 3D
5. Metro 2033
6. Crysis
7. Quake III
8. Unreal Tournament 2004
9. Left 4 Dead 2
10. Red Orchestra 2
 
OK, here's my actual list. Only counting true FPSes, not Portal/Fallout (although Fallout is similar to Borderlands), etc.

1) Halo 3
2) Bioshock
3) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4) Borderlands 2
5) Killzone 2
6) Left 4 Dead
7) Battlefield: Bad Company 2
8) Far Cry 3
9) Perfect Dark
10) Bioshock 2

Honorable mentions:

11) Battlefield 3
12) Bulletstorm
13) Halo: Reach
14) Halo 2
15) Halo: Combat Evolved
16) Killzone 3
17) Goldeneye
18) Left 4 Dead 2
19) Crysis 2
20) Call of Duty 2
 
1) Counter Strike Source - Lost a few years of my life to it rushing A or B in dust. Also made me never want to play another online shooter ever again.
2) System Shock 2 - The best single player FPS game ever.
3) System Shock - The best single player FPS game ever until the sequel came out.
4) Star Wars Jedi Outcast - The worst part of the game was the shooting bits, but it was still better than most every other FPS.
5) Deus Ex - One of those rare games that manages to be way more advanced then any of its sequels.
6) Half Life 2 - The multiplayer only heavily scripted third game may have ruined the series, but this was still great.
7) Enemy Territory - Pure multiplayer goodness that still holds up.
8) Tribes 2 - Big open environments and plenty of depth with your combat options.
9) Crysis - Fuck it, it still looks great and the different ways you could approach each situation really shows why the sequels sucked hard.
10) Timesplitters 2 - Pure fun.
 
1) Counter-Strike (3 points) - What can I say? it's the only game that I still keep playing from time to time after more than 10 years of it's release date.

2) Unreal Tournament 2004 - Had a lot of fun with this one.

3) Crysis - Probably the most fun that I had with a single player FPS, the open world sandbox design and the nice visuals of course add a lot to the game too.

4) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear - Most fun that I had with a Tactical shooter

5) Battlefield 2 - Poured a ton of hours into this MP back in 2006-2008 with friends at an internet cafe.

6) Killzone 2 - Best console FPS.

7) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - I really liked the SP and MP of this one.

8) Resistance: Fall of Man - Very nice game that is often keeps getting forgotten because it was a launch game.
 
1) Team Fortress 2
2) Killzone 2
3) Resistance: Fall of Man
4) Unreal Tournament 99'
5) Borderlands
6) GoldenEye
7) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (its a fun shooter at friends houses)

I don't really have another 3 I want to put on this list.

I bolded Killzone 2 because I don't get tired of the formula. I mean, I've definitely played Team Fortress 2 for longer, but I somehow manage to do the same route every time, and die a different way, but I still manage to have fun in both. Killzone 2 just had a lot of different ways to get there, whereas Team Fortress 2 was more confined, but thats not a bad thing.
 
1.) Halo
2.) Half-Life 2
3.) Team Fortress 2
4.) Perfect Dark
5.) Bioshock
6.) Half-Life
7.) Rainbow Six: Black Arrow
8.) Unreal Tournament 2004
9.) Borderlands 2
10.) Duke Nukem 3D

Honorable Mentions:

-Goldeneye: One of the best of all time, but Perfect Dark is better in every single way except maybe atmosphere and music
-Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: one of the most fun modern online multiplayer games of all time, and plenty of fun times were had

tom-clancys-rainbow-six-3-black-arrow-cover319811.jpg
Click to expand...

Rainbow Six: Black Arrow is kind of a half-step instead of a full on sequel, it took advantage of a lot of LIVE's features of the times, but I don't know anything about that. I loved playing this game single-player, by myself instead of with others since I didn't have LIVE at the time. It was so much fun for a lot of reasons, but the thing I remember the most about it was that it just felt so different than anything else. I didn't have much experience with FPS's besides more action-y types of games like Halo or UT 2004, so Black Arrow was really something to behold. It felt realistic and while I don't remember that much about the story, the single player alone was enough to make it so memorable to me.
 
monsterfracas said:
OK, here's my actual list. Only counting true FPSes, not Portal/Fallout (although Fallout is similar to Borderlands), etc.

1) Halo 3
2) Bioshock
3) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
4) Borderlands 2
5) Killzone 2
6) Left 4 Dead
7) Battlefield: Bad Company 2
8) Far Cry 3
9) Perfect Dark
10) Bioshock 2
Click to expand...

How old are you if you don't mind me asking? All current gen is really strange.
 
I will update my post later to add more entries and fix everything up, but for now

1. Halo 3 - This is my most played game ever. I have put in countless amounts of hours. Ive played 30+ days of multiplayer (and thats actual in game time) on my main account alone, and ive probably made about 25+ one months.The friends I've made playing this, the fun Ive had, and how I still play it to this day is why this game is in my number 1 spot.
 
1. Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (3 points) - amazing class-based, team-oriented game
2. Halo: CE
3. Bioshock
4. Quake III
5. Goldeneye 007
 
Not in any particular order since order doesn't matter.

1) Halo: Combat Evolved ; The shooter that reestablished the genre on consoles, saved an entire brand and thus effectively changed the course of gaming forever. There would be no Xbox without Halo, and there would be no Call of Duty 4 through 400 without it either. It also had an engage single player, featuring co-op, as well as an idiotic amount of multiplayer options for its time.

2) Unreal Tournament 2004 ; The pinnacle of the twitch shooter and the culminating tour de force of arena shooters.

3) BioShock ; A game that borrows the concepts from the two System Shock games and spins them in an new universe steeped in references to economic and social policies of various political agents of change. A story that is on an entirely different level to most of the mindless attempts at a plot we usually see in games. Compounded with an engrossing atmosphere, BioShock is an intelligent and complete package.

4) Borderlands 2 ; Diablo meets first person shooter. Borderlands 2 drastically improved upon the original and I have little doubt that the third installment in the series will replace this one sometime in the future.

5) Half-Life 2 ; Wake up and smell the ashes. One part tech demo, one part Orwellian novel, one part shooter, 100% engrossing and infinitely replayable.

6) Portal 2 ; Intelligent comedy, intelligent puzzles, creative design, unique gameplay approach mixed with top notch voice acting and a final boss that's out of this world.

7) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ; This is the Call of Duty title that took the mantle of the console FPS king from Halo, and has carried it forth ever since. It had a fantastic single player campaign, with some unforgettable missions and a multiplayer mode that pumped raw adrenaline into your veins every time you picked up the controller or kb/m.

8) Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy ; The best Star Wars ever made that a criminally low amount of people have played. A compelling story set after the original trilogy, and a multiplayer that is as close as you can get to feeling like a Jedi or Sith badass. Not to mention the Siege game mode which is the most underrated and underapreaciated multiplayer mode in gaming history.

9) Team Fortress 2 ; So many innovations across so many different aspects of multiplayer games, coupled with hilarious characters and absolutely overflowing with charisma and unique art styles.

10) Deus Ex: Human Revolution ; The original Deus Ex is great, but this Deus Ex is a stepping stone to modern games that captures the best parts of the original title while also pushing the series forward, establishing a brand new atmosphere steeped in style, and providing with what can best be described as a western Metal Gear Solid game with FPS elements.
 
1. Natural selection 2. (3 points)
This game was released less than 6 months ago, it's cheap on steam and the best teambased fps ever made.
The responsiveness of the controls is also the best in any shooter, even better than goldsource games like half life.
This game has an extremely entertaining almost endless learning curve, there is SO much variety in how you can play.
This game respects the gamer like no other game has in years.
-NO DLC
-continued patches to add aditional features the community requests, fixes, and free new content (maps) coming up.
-no exp carrot or unlocks or any insulting skinnerbox elements
-released at 20 euros!
-full mod support!
Best value you'll ever find for your money in gaming.

I've talked about 15 people into getting this game, some were hard to convince, but every single one pmed me some variation of 'this is the best thing ever' while they were playing it.

2. Counter Strike 1.6
I would prefer cs 1.5 but you need WON2 to play it so I guess cs 1.6 it is for the average user.
This game has excellent netcode, gunplay is second to none, lots of feedback through animation.
All gameplay no fluff,no dlc, no grind.
Full mod support, thousands of community maps and skins and loads of mods.
Some of the best map design in multiplayer gaming
My reason for loving it is that is is the most consistent shooter out there, you 'll know if you hit something at the moment you press the mouse button, every time.
At the same time the game will punish a lack of self control mercilessly, this balance act has never been recreated by any other dev or game, MANY tried over the years, all failed.

3. Quake 3
Most satisfying movement in a shooter, extremely rewarding, good netcode, responsive controls, LOADS of fun, endless learning curve. You have to have played this.

4. Battlefield 2142
One of the first well realised large scale multiplayer shooters.
Full mod support and desert combat is a free mod that still puts battlefield 3 to utter and absolute shame.
Best vehicle and especially helicopter controls in any multiplayer shooter in the DC mod.
Excellent maps, more content in the vanilla game than in bf3 and all dlc combined.
If you add the content added by trauma studios in the free desert combat mod it has more meaningful awesome vehicles and maps than all battlefield games since combined.
Conquest mode was a stroke of genius and the maps , vehicles and weapons were perfectly designed around it, something later battlefield games didn't do.

5. Half Life
Ageless game, fun gunplay, great atmosphere, amazing music, this game did more for pc modding than all games since 2005 combined. TF2, cs, day of defeat etc would have never existed without half life.
The ultimate classic.

6. Unreal Tournament 99
Awesome maps, lots of variation in the weapons, great and satisfying gameplay, endless learning curve, mod support (starting to see a pattern here?) mutators etc etc.
A must play for any gamer.
edit: and the UT series bots are awesome, all other arena like shooters fail at having decent AI.

7. Return to Castle Wolfenstien/Enemy Territory
Casual accessible fast paced multiplayer with awesome graphics for the time, the cod of its time but actually well executed with a ten times longer and better learning curve.
Best of all it was free!

8. Half Life 2
Valve blew everyone's mind with half life 2 and the source engine in 2003, if it hadn't been delayed so much it would have been 2 years ahead of anything else technically and graphically.
AWESOME varied gameplay and weapons, great atmosphere and music, again full mod support.
Source engine is the gold standard for netcode and responsiveness and smoothness AND image quality to this day, makes UE3/cryengine 3 look bad when it comes to how sound it is technically and how much it is designed around accomodating gameplay.

9. Tribes 2
Skiing is unique, you have to have played it to understand, and once you have you'll miss skiing in every other shooter.
HUGE learning curve, extremely high skill cap, satisfying kills. Pretty hardcore game.

10. Painkiller
Great responsive engine, some of the most fun weapons in gaming (stake gun!!!!) , awesome alternate fire modes, fast pace, over the top maps. An awesome singleplayer shooter (with a very solid quake 3 like multiplayer mode).


Honorable mentions:
*Stalker (shadow of chernobyl).
The ultimate open world shooter, the most immersive (genuinly immersive, not marketing douchebag coined 'immersive') game you'll have ever played.
The atmosphere is incredible, you'll have never felt so vulnerable and so alone when you are out in a pitch black night in a lightning storm far away from any remaining scrap of society left in the game world.
It's easy to bounce off this game in the first hour or two since it feels a bit overwhelming or intimidating and it's a little bit janky, but you'll soon get completely swallowed up and lose yourself in this awesome game. AAA games WISH they could stand in the shadow of this game when it comes to immersion/atmosphere

*left4dead.
Versus mode is an unmatched stroke of genius, when it clicks it CLICKS like few other games and you'll have some of the most satisfying moments in gaming when you pull off some well coordinated attacks as zombie team!
The only flaw is perhaps that it's so satisfying that people don't want to play as humans often:p

*No one lives forever 2:
Gadgets everywhere, awesome graphics (and art design) and supreme image quality.
Most importantly it's the only game to have ever nailed the atmosphere of a bond movie, and it didn't have to take itself seriously to do it either.
You can be stealthy, use gadgets, set traps, play like rambo or anything in between.
I almost forgot about this one, still worth playing today!

*portal 2 (if it counts)
BEST COOP EVER.
Stop reading, find a friend and play this in coop with skype active.
 
1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (3 point mention) - I really shouldn't have to explain why to people that have put in 24 full days of their lives into the game like I have. It's just fun, despite the helicopters being broken on consoles.

2. Quake 3 Arena - Still the best arena shooter ever. So good they made it a web-based free to play game. Shoutout to Q3DM4, Q3DM17, Q3DM11 for some of the most fun maps for me.

3. Battlefield 2

4. The Ultimate Doom (Doom) - The granddaddy of the genre and while the graphics have aged like Mario's, like Super Mario 2 it's still fun to play and solid if you want to speed around punching demons in the face because they have huge guts. Rip and tear.

5. Quake 2

6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Nailed modern combat with arena-shooter gameplay (thank #2's engine for this) while it's sequels have gotten worse and worse it's still THE FPS in the series to play even with grenade spam and martyrdom. Shoutouts to non-user controlled killstreaks and the killstreaks being 4/6/8 and non-choose-able.

7. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - Probably one of the most interesting takes on a movie property by having the lead actor (a video/table-top gamer!) come into your studio to consult on it. Stealth is hokey by todays standards but it worked in 2003.

8. Mirror's Edge - Take platforming, put it in first person, add in some "feeling" in the motions Faith/you take while parkouring and shake well. You get Mirror's Edge essentially. While some people get motion sick from it, I never did and frankly it's a ride worth trying. Here's hoping a Mirror's Edge 2 happens from DICE sooner than later.

9. Quake

10. Doom 2: Hell on Earth (I guess toss in the Master Levels with this?)

Honor-able mentions:

11. Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2/II: Jedi Outcast
12. Portal
13. Halo 2
14. Far Cry/Far Cry: Instincts (if counting them together otherwise Instincts, IIRC they're the same just Instincts adds in "predator" powers for consoles?)
 
1) Half Life 2 - 3 points
2) Counter-Strike
3) Team Fortress 2
4) Battlefield 2
5) Unreal Tournament 2004
6) Halo 3
7) Portal
8) Bioshock
9) Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
10) Goldeneye
 
ViewtifulJC, it would please me greatly if you ignored nominations from people who didn't bother to explain them.

1. System Shock 2 - This is the only game I seriously refer to as "the greatest game of all time." It has some of, if not the best emotional engagement I have ever experienced in a video game. Who can forget walking down the halls, wondering if their three remaining bullets were enough to take on an opponent, and then hearing "I... see you. Run! RUUUUUN!"

2. No One Lives Forever 2 - A part of me wants to give STALKER my recommendation, but I think more people have forgotten No One Lives Forever 2, one of the funniest and most interesting shooters I've ever played. With a neat stealth system, memorable enemies, awesome gadgets, and, gasp, a playable female protagonist who was actually awesome, No One Lives Forever 2 is a near-perfect video game.

3. Halo: Combat Evolved - I have yet to play another video game with environments so imaginative, visuals so distinct they're burned into my brain, such a complete weapon set to choose from, a huge variety of enemies, and, of course, one of the best plot twists in a game--because it removes the complacency players have with the Covenant and requires them to rethink the way they play. Gamers who hate the Library are gamers who couldn't adapt to The Flood.

4. STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - There is no shooter I've played that allows me to tell stories with the same frequency that STALKER enables. It was a game all about existing within a living, breathing world, and what an incredibly unique world it was. On top of that, the game's first level is the best training level I've ever played in a video game.

5. Aliens vs Predator 2 - I only played the Marine campaign. I've never felt so consistently tense in my life. Plus, the opening sequence of the game has no aliens at all for quite some time, yet they're always there, ready to strike... and when they do... well, they feel lethal.

6. Marathon: Infinity - Because Durandal made me feel things. He was just text, but he felt more alive and expressive than any character in a video game before or since. "
I know who you are. You are destiny.
" It's free, so you should play it, if you haven't. Just remember to bind the keys properly.

7. Half-Life - Like Halo, Half-Life has seared moments into my head. It's made me feel clever when I pull things off. The weapons are fun, the enemies are distinct, and the game's artful use of scripting enhances the immersion within the world.

8. FEAR - No video game has AI this believable, though Halo and STALKER both put forward admirable efforts.

9. Half-Life: Opposing Force - Imagine Half-Life, except somehow better. It's been years since I played Opposing Force, but it's the one I had the most fun with, and it's still the best game in the series.

10. Crysis - People call this a game for graphics whores. They're right. But... it's also for people who love distinctive, almost flawless gameplay. As NanoSuitNinja has shown in his videos, Crysis has some of the broadest, most versatile gameplay in existence.

--

Honorable mentions:

1. Unreal Tournament 2004 - I grew up with this game. It taught me everything I know about shooting. Never before or since have I encountered bots this good.

2. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - Before Amnesia did the insanity thing, DCOE did it. Before Far Cry 2 did its visceral healing, DCOE did it. Running from a Shoggoth is one of the most memorable things I have done. The atmosphere in that game... wow.

3. Far Cry 2 - Once I realized the boats were more efficient than cars, my understanding of Far Cry 2 changed. Also, the no-death runs? Magical stuff. It's an amazing game held back by design decisions that are less immersive and more gamey, more consoley.

4. Far Cry 3 - The story sucks and the game has pointless busy work, but you know what? Far Cry 3 has the best--and I do mean the absolute best utilization of the first person perspective I have ever seen. Jumping from a good height? Your camera will rotate down towards the ground, just like you're looking down to make sure you land right. Jump into water? You dive. Fall into water? You sink and flounder. Jump out of a moving car? Roll. The feeling of being in the game is unmatched. Too bad most of the game's narrative was so awful.

5. Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den - Bioshock got insulting near the end. Sure, it was memorable, but the gameplay never felt all that good. Bioshock 2 fixed that. Minerva's Den took it a step further. The story was fantastic, the weapons were great, and learning how to control terrain in the game was an incredible feeling. I half-suspect Infinite won't manage to be as good.

Half-Life 2 is a sack of shit with a piss-poor story, boring enemy AI, boring weapons, horrible pacing, and it's going to take me about ten thousand words to explain why this is the case.

I wish FPSes were more common. One of the more underproduced genres out there.
 
1) Halo 2 (3 points) - Nothing hooked me longer and was more personally rewarding

2) Halo 3

3) Halo CE

4) Counter-strike

5) Unreal Tournament 2004

6) Team Fortress Quake Mod
 
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