With a genre so heavy with choice it can be tough to know which ones are the creators, the real game changers and the all time classics. So I thought I might have to weigh in…
First person shooters are pretty much the main reason for me having such quick fingers on a keyboard. The early days of gaming were by in large in the hands of the PC gamer before the consoles swept in and became the number one choice for gaming nowadays. With all of that choice out I would like to pay homage to a couple of games which I believe are the best FPS’s of all time as well as a couple of new modern classics on the console format.
Goldeneye was developed by Rare and based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.
If there was a truly memorable game out there, this is the one for me. I actually feel a little pity for you if you have never played it! This was the game that made first person shooter gaming for me. For the most part it was smooth pixelated joy at its best, but when you had a group of friends over, playing against four people on temple with the golden gun in play or twin RCP90 machine guns and one hit kill, it was multiplayer heaven. It followed along the exact story of the very successful Goldeneye movie with Pierce Brosnan and you get to play all the bits that the movie skipped over. You pretty much work your way through the entire movie, including all the cool bits where you take down Alec Trevelyan, the infiltration mission at the beginning and charging through the city in a tank! It was absolutely glorious and considering that back then you got the whole game and it was finished with no buy-to-play extras, so you never really put it down.
Timesplitters was developed by Free Radical Design and released in 2000.
TimeSplitters – PlayStation 2 & Xbox 360
Thankfully with the Y2K bug in the year 2000 we did not suffer a computer meltdown and I am thankful that the gaming studios took no notice and produced the first FPS to come out on the next generation machine that was the Playstation 2, TimeSplitters. I remember getting a phone call after school one day and my mate was going on about this “sick” new console he got for his birthday so we rolled over to his party and ended up spending the entire night playing it in story and in multiplayer. It was slick and fast paced, the weapons were more detailed than those that had come before it and the story line in 2 and 3 were pretty cool and had some great characters including a John Wayne style robot and a teenage goth girl helping you take on Zombies. A wicked series that really pulled me into a genre I loved on other consoles and persuaded me to keep upgrading my own.
Call of Duty Black Ops II was developed by Treyarch & released in 2012.
Call of Duty Black Ops 2 – PC, Xbox 360 & PS3
I have all the Call of Duty games since Call of Duty Modern Warfare, and the best of the bunch by a long shot was Black Ops 2. Modern Warfare 2 came in a close second for those of you about to throw your keyboard across the room in frustration but here’s why. The Zombies mode in this game were by far the best and most addictive mode I have ever played on a game. The reason why I think these game companies make a killing is due to the fact they know that they can sell add-ons to games and the final addition to this game gave you the Zombies Origins story. If you go far enough, and had Youtube videos at your disposal, there were so many different things to collect; building a staff and obtaining the power of the elements set in a World War period with giant mechs walking across the battlefield, it was a masterpiece. The multiplayer was quick, tactical and engaging, even though if you got put in a game with someone who could easily get a nuke and destroy your whole team in one go it was still enjoyable, especially if you get it yourself. This game had brilliant graphics and a good story mode to go along side.
Far Cry 3 was developed by Ubisoft Montreal & released in 2012.
FARCRY 3 – Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3
Again I believe that this was the critical moment that established Farcry as one of the most ambitious first person shooters out there as it was actually teamed with an incredibly involving story line. It’s all about you and your friends (a bunch of wealthy adventure seekers) getting captured by a crazy group of people led by a man named Vaas on a lonely island somewhere around the south of Africa (the accents are a bit of a giveaway). After he murders your brother right in front of you, the main hero begins a path of enlightenment and learns the ways of the Rakyat or “Path of the Warrior” to enhance his skills and pick up a series of cool tattoos in the process. The game play is based on the open world concept, where rather than having a series of places that you visit and endless loading screens, you seamlessly move from one side of the map to the other through the use of vehicles, boats, hang-gliders or, if you want to collect all the animal skins required to craft better equipment, walk – but this is a bit time consuming. The graphics were spectacular for their day and even now this game is still picking up very high level reviews from bloggers and independent magazines alike. The only downside to this game was that the multiplayer was a little bit complex and certainly hasn’t got the fan base of games like Call of Duty in terms of the numbers of players but the story mode will keep you extremely captivated for a fair few weeks and you will feel very accomplished by its conclusion. There is also a new release for the next generation consoles in Farcry 4 but this one tops it for me.
Halo was created by Bungie and is now managed and developed by 343 Industries. The original release was 2001.
For many it is the lifeblood of their console (speaking as an Xbox Man myself) and this franchise has grown into an almost unstoppable cash cow for Microsoft Studios after the initial release of one of the most engaging games of all time. Halo is, in a nutshell, the life story of the hero of Humanity, Master Chief; a Spartan warrior given a super suit to protect him from the horrors of an alien invasion that promises to destroy our planet and engulf the entire human race. Not on his watch. You take control of a game that doesn’t allow you to aim (which is a bit odd for a shooter) apart from sniper rifles and maybe the odd pistol but for large part it was the most heavily played multiplayer game of its generation. Hordes of people at my school used to go on about how they would get together after school and link up to play a huge multiplayer map together and it certainly delivered a smooth and cleverly designed game that still has its roots in the most recent release this year. In fact this series has been so successful that there have been movie spins offs, TV series’ and even a fan made favourite of mine in Red Vs Blue by the guys at Rooster Teeth. If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, hurry up!
Fallout 3 was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and released in 2008.
Fallout 3 – Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3
I choose this game because I’m doing a separate review of the latest release and also because it was another “open world” game that had so much customisation that many people struggled to actually complete it and just found themselves wondering about the wilderness known as “The Wasteland”. The story is set after a nuclear holocaust in a time where mankind did not fear nuclear technology but instead embraced it and created a utopian society with advanced technology and robots. Until of course America gets invaded and all the nukes across the globe start flying, thus reducing the world to rubble, hollowed out shells and of course the occasional mutated crazy insect. This game had everything, from customizable armour and guns to companions willing to follow you around the world giving you special abilities. There were many different factions that could affect the way others felt about you, decisions you made started to also play a part in the grander story you become a part of. You are born in Vault 101, an underground rescue station for people who were able to avoid the nuclear devastation. After a series of events with your father (voiced by the unbelievable Liam Neeson!) you end up out in the vast wasteland full of violence, manic robots, small settlements and even a civilization built up of ghouls, humans who have succumbed to the horrors of radiation but survived. There’s a bit of bad language in the dialogue as well, which is not difficult to imagine considering there are not many things people can do for money apart from kill or…. well… naughty things. This is probably one of my favourite story modes to play through but be warned, if you begin one of these games, wave goodbye to at least two weeks of your life, it will totally grip you.
Author: Andrew, Weybridge store
