What's a good FPS these days?

check out Battlefield 3.

It is very strategic, has tons of unlockables (scores of guns, motion sensors, remote C4, mortors, spawn satellites you can place almost anywhere, flashlights for your guns, smoke grenades, anti-infantry mines, anti-tank mines, infrared scopes, etc.), has four classes (Assault Medic, Support, Recon, and Engineer), plays very smoothly, lots of vehicles (various tanks, jeeps, armored vans, helicopters, and jets), and is really fun.

It is available on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

A small warning: everyone is terrible at this game when they first start playing. You won't start to get good until you learn some of the maps, and unlock some of the decent equipment. If you buy the premium edition, you will get all of the new maps for free, and you will begin with some very handy gadgets, such as the med pack, ammo packs for the your team, etc.

You can see my review here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12111536

I like to sneak around corners, maybe use a gun with a scope, and also crash into a room and take out a lot of baddies, though.

If it gets too strategic or RPG-ish I tend to lose patience. My loss, I know

but currently have some time on my hands and so have been watching gameplay and reviews on YouTube. I'm seeing some amazing technology these days, but my God, they're so easy! Is this just the result of marketing to children that have never had to work at anything in their whole, short lives? MOH Warfighter (-10 for unimaginative title) looks amazing, but you have to literally stand in the clear and let 5 guys shoot at you for several seconds to die, and if you decide suicide is not the answer, just grab some cover and 5 seconds later you're up and at 'em again. The weapons are all straight-up lasers with barely any recoil and no ballistic realism. You can load up with 300lbs. of armor, weapons, and ammo and sprint like Jesse Owens forever.

I'm sorry, but when they make the game so easy that it is virtually impossible to lose, what's the point of playing?

An example, I ran across a sponsored player/reviewer named TetraNinja who sucks so bad, it's just painful to watch. Are all these just rich kids destined to live a pre-packaged life with no purpose or challenge? What happens if they run up against somebody that has the knowledge and will to just run over them after taking everything from them?

Please post any FPS you find that is both beautiful and challenging, cause I'm not having any luck at all.

But you might want to check out the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games (Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Skies and Call of Prypiat).

I've played the first and the third and absolutely loved them. Graphics-wise they may not be the latest and greatest, but as far as immersion goes I haven't played much better. The world seems alive, with weather, fauna and a day/night cycle. And the night is actually *dark* (you might have to set the gamma right), so you need to use your torch to see anything (which means others can see you too). Also Shadow of Chernobyl has a model of the Chernobyl Power Plant that is downright eerie.

I don't know the first thing about guns, but from what I've read the ballistic model in the game is pretty good. Also the game doesn't have the trappings of many modern shooters like regenerating health, checkpoint save system etc. They are known to be buggy, but I hardly had any problems playing them.

it doesn't hurt to look at the Complete Mod. There's one for each of the three games, but I've only played the SOC version. It does wonders for including the graphics updates for the later versions in the first game, and can really help extend some of the gameplay. Regardless, it's a great series and I was sad to see the developer shut down.

but I'll make a point of using them the next time I play the games (or, for Clear Skies, it'll be the first time).

I was also sad to hear that the developer folded. I heard a rumor that Bethesda might take over the IP, but I'm not sure that would work. Well, I'll have to make sure to pay the Zone another visit soon.

ago, Deus Ex. The story was immense (almost to the point of ridiculous and the literary references were pretty obscure for anyone not a total science fiction, poetry, and conspiracy theory nut) and the player can decide how to play it, from totally non-lethal to full-on Rambo. It was a great blend of FPS and RPG. The maps were very open and the thought and detail included were amazing for the day.

After that was the straight on FPS Call of Duty. it did suffer (IMO) from being a strict tunnel walk-through-the-story-and-shoot-everything, with some serious faults in the American's weapons (200 yd one-shot kills with a Thompson are common), but overall they went to great lengths to create as much realism as possible in the context of a video game. The on line game against other real people was amazingly hard. If you want to shoot somebody on the run from 300 yards have to lead them and account for drop, wind, etc.

In both cases, once they were successful they were sold to giant corporations that proceeded to axe everything that made them great and push out horrible sequels. The follow up to Deus Ex was a total disaster while COD was slowly killed with each imitation being just a little worse than the last.

Wow, how did this turn into a rant? Sorry. I will check into S.T.A.L.K.E.R., hopefully it is another game created by people that love games more than the money they might bring.

I couldn't play it when it came out, because my computer didn't have the horse power, but when I found it on sale a few years later I was thrilled. It was the perfect setting for me, a bleak future, sci-fi, cyberpunk... But when I think back on playing Deus Ex I only remember frustration. I just couldn't get used to the gameplay; I was never able to effectively sneak, and the fighting was even worse. It took seconds to line up a shot, while the enemies were running around (with no regard for inertia) firing at me. The weapons felt like they didn't have any weight, and were ineffective, and everything i blew up seemed like it was made of hollow aluminum. This of course could be down to the fact that my character build was off. It's been nearly ten years, and so far I've not been able to get myself to play the game again.

I've played some of Invisible War but didn't really get into it, the only thing that stuck with me was NG Resonance's music (it's by a band called kidneythieves). Human Revolution on the other hand had a slight case of consolitis, but was an all around solid game.

As far as classic FPSs go the gold standard for me is Half-Life. Yes, it's a linear corridor shooter, but as far as gameplay goes it is unsurpassed for me. Honorable mentions go to "The Operative: No One Lives Forever" and "Tron 2.0", both by Monolith.

So much for rants. I have a really hard time putting into words why I found the fighting in Deus Ex so painfully frustrating, and I often feel like the only one who had that experience...

The first one was great, the second not quite so much, but I'd still like to see a third update to the series. I had a ton of fun in those games, especially with the wacky dialogue.

I agree, I much prefer the first N.O.L.F. game too. I enjoy the long cut scenes, lots of dialogue, the training sequences in Santa's Lab, and all the other stuff that I've seen criticized. N.O.L.F. 2 just didn't have the same flavor. It was still a good game, but not as good as the first.

Monolith made some killer games back then. Besides NOLF, there was Tron 2.0 which is probably the best movie tie-in game I've played (not that I've played many). I grew up with Tron, so entering that world was awesome. Actually there was another movie game "Aliens vs. Predator 2" which was good. It would have been better if they would have cut out the Predator and expanded the marine missions though, which I thought were terrifying (Aliens was another movie I watched a million times as a teen).

So, yeah, more N.O.L.F. is a good thing!

I think it was too slow for the majority of players today. It had elements of all the game genres and until about 7/8 of the way through you could still be killed pretty easily. I thought the hardest way to play it was using the walking-tank/killing machine method.

Your character started off sucking at everything and it took a lot of time to build up the skills on any single weapon, there was no BFG you could find and just run-n-gun through the maps, ammo was always a problem, and if you didn't explore each map pretty thoroughly you missed too many upgrades/sub-stories/characters/plot lines. It was just obviously a work of love for the genre.

There is no corporate model today that would allow for the development time it took. One of the big faults/strengths about is was that you pretty much had to decide how you were going to play it in the first scene at the docks because weapons and upgrade choices you made from there were not cross-functional. If you tried to change your mind too many times or too far in, you could end up building a character that just wasn't good enough at anything to finish the game. A feature not particularly conducive to 12 year-old boys that just want to shoot everything, moving or not.

very occasionally

I don't think it's getting dethroned in that department for a long time, which is probably a good chunk of why it's still so popular. (Well, that and the sheer absurdity of everything in it!)

Of the Halo games it is not imo the best one but like all Halo games you get plenty of first person shooting.

You should find it discounted now.

I'm playing Borderlands 2 and loving it. I was worried the rpg elements would turn me off, but it doesn't at all. Plenty of action. It's super easy to get into. Highly recommended.

If you haven't played any FPS for a few years,
CoD Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare2 can be had at sale prices ($10 - $20).

Both are good, as far as I'm concerned,
and your knowledge of weapons and tactics will parallel the real world without a learning curve for Plasma Blasters or other Science Fiction weaponry.
I've heard they are good for MultiPlayer too,
but, living out in The Woods with a wife who doesn't like Shooters,
I haven't had the opportunity to try CoD in Multi-Player yet.

Modern Warfare 3 is still pricey at about $40 on Amazon.

The latest release, Black Ops 2 is $59,
and I haven't bought that one yet.

The Cod series offers a decent storyline and graphics,
but also Special Op challenges that can keep you engaged for hours & hours after finishing the storyline.
It is difficult to complete them all on the "expert" level playing solo.

I am an old gamer, play Solo, and began on a 386 playing Doom, DukeNuken, and Castle Wolfenstein in the very early 90s.

My Wife bought me an XBOX 360 last year, and I tried out Call of Duty,
and, after getting used to the controller, I like them just fine.

If you have been "out" for a while,
and have never played 1/2 Life or FEAR, you might have to give those try
just for the hell of it.
They are outdated by today's tech standards, but both are classics,
and much fun.... especially 1/2 Life.

I'm no expert, and my experience is limited,
but it sounds like you might be in the same place.

YMMV

Well, it's first-person, anyways. It's a little short of the "shooter" part, which becomes all the more poignant when you're stumbling around in the dark being chased by some sanity-draining hellbeast.