Looking for FPS Games

[Moose Jr.]

I have a rather odd question. I've just recently started playing FPS games online and so far I've only found one that I like and that I'm not too terrible at: NOLF 2. The only problem is that the online community for it is tiny (maybe 50 people divvied up between game modes at night). So before it dries up completely, I want to go shopping around for another fun online fps with lasting appeal and a large fanbase.

Any recommendations? My only stipulations are that it can't have monsters, aliens, or ridiculous amounts of gore in it, or be so intimidatingly competitive that the subpar gamer (me) can't just pick it up and be reasonably decent at it. I know that narrows it down considerably, but I'm sure collectively ya'll can lead me in the right direction.

P.S. I already have BF1942 and RtR. I don't know why, but it's just not fun for me. Anyone interested in them for 30-40 bucks? :naughty:

 

[Steveman610]

This games pretty old, but HUGE fanbase: Half-Life - Counter Strike

 

[pj64er]

well, if you pick up half-life, get the mod www.natural-selection.org . Fantastic stuff, its fps, but got large rts elements to spice things up.

 

[Hexidecimal]

Unreal Tournament series is rather good

 

[pandamoan]

Unreal Tournament series is rather good

hands down, my favorite is quake 2 gameplay wise. and if you want the added eye candy, you can try these derivatives:

liteglquake2 (lost the link etc. for this)

http://www.planetquake.com/blur/news.htm

http://www.planetquake.com/quake2max/

all of these put quake 2 in the realm of quake 3 and beyond eye candy wise, and leave the original quake 2 gameplay (which i favor to any version of quake, unreal tournament, goldeneye, perfect dark, nolf2, or any FPS i've tried) intact.

also of note is return to castle wolfenstein. http://www.idsoftware.com/

the level where you have to snipe and not set off alarms is fantastic, as is many other parts of the game.

there is also a leak of halflife 2 out on the internet, which is supposedly the most advanced fps in history (we'll see about doom 3 when it gets leaked again ) but i haven't gotten ahold of it yet, and cannot therefore verify it's gameplay quality. However i've heard it's "pretty good"

some of the mods for unreal tournament 2003 are quite good also, however nothing beats a free for all death match in quake 2, in any of it's incarnations. (in my experience). For best results set up a small lan party with friends, and play the edge for a while. it is truly inspired gameplay.

*oh yeah*
quake 3 is the next best thing to quake 2, and the mod urban terror for that is truly interesting gameplay. However, a friend has told me (though i don't know *yet*) that the http://www.unrealwarfarex.com/redorchestra/ mod for ut2k3 is similar and much better, which i can imagine given ut2k3's karma physics.

good luck!

 

[AlphaWolf]

well, if you pick up half-life, get the mod www.natural-selection.org . Fantastic stuff, its fps, but got large rts elements to spice things up.

Agreed 100%, NS is the first successful FPS/RTS hybrid IMO. Probably the one FPS game that is entirely dependent on teamwork, e.g. one person can't just go take out the entire enemy team by himself, like you can do in games like counterstrike.

 

[Moose Jr.]

Sorry about the wrong forum. :crazy: It was late and I forgot about this one.

Concerning Counter-Strike... I've never actually played it, but I've heard it's really punishing for newbies (like AAO. I always tk accidently) and that they generally aren't welcome. Is this true? You have to understand... My 9-year old brother sometimes beats me on the Laser Arena and Nerf Arena demos. :blush:

I liked what I saw of the Urban Terror mod for Q3, except for the mangled bodies... I guess what I'm really looking for is a game or mod that's:

Fast-paced
Fun for even a n00b like me (I picked up NOLF 2 and within a few days was scoring in the middle of the pack.)
Based in reality (like I said, aliens and monsters just don't appeal to me, but scifi stuff like exoskeletons for humans is fine)
Without the needless decapitations or blood-splatter (My brother sometimes watches me play and my Mom doesn't like him to see that sort of thing...then again, she doesn't like me to either. Gotta keep her happy if I'm to play at all. :naughty: )

I liked the looks of UT2k3 and with it's physics engine... are there any popular mods for it like I've described?

Thanks for the replies so far!

 

[DuDe]

Enemy Territory might be a good suggestion, although I don't know how friendly the community is towards newbies...

 

[pandamoan]

Enemy Territory might be a good suggestion, although I don't know how friendly the community is towards newbies...

sorry to break it to you dude, but all the best fps games are super gory... however u can turn down the blood in the better ones. i think you can turn it off altogether in both q2max and q2evolved, and maybe in ut2k3 also (and yes, the physics are very cool). Try the red orchestra mod for ut2k3. It's very cool.

 

[vampireuk]

sorry to break it to you dude, but all the best fps games are super gory

If that is your basis for chosing a game, you are a bloody moron

 

[pj64er]

Without the needless decapitations or blood-splatter (My brother sometimes watches me play and my Mom doesn't like him to see that sort of thing...then again, she doesn't like me to either. Gotta keep her happy if I'm to play at all. :naughty: )

For most fps's that I know, having no blood simply means turning it off in the options. So...dont worry about them gory ones, you can turn it off when theres people around

 

[Hexidecimal]

Oh, Can't forget Medal of Honor Allied Assault, that's a GREAT online FPS and Single Player, definatly take a look at that one. (don't bother with the expansions, meh.)

 

[flow``]

i plan on finally getting around to playing through half life which i've wanted to do but never had the time to do ... but now i have a week off school (fall break) and some time to kill. it's not too shabby so far (@ silo part as of now)

sof2 is a great game to play, lots of fun online modes, ctf, demolition (cs like), elimination, and is pretty easy to pick up on

i also play a little quake 3 rocket arena (ra3) from time to time with friends

 

[pandamoan]

If that is your basis for chosing a game, you are a bloody moron

that certainly is not my basis for selection, it's just a simple relation: many games that are excellent fps games seem to be gory, indicating if anything a preference for gore among well beta tested games (and those beta testers), or a preference for gore among good coders, either way it is idle speculation, and not related in any way to MY opinion of the game. Nice troll though....

 

[AlphaWolf]

A bit late to be mentioning this, but NS is a VERY complex game, as it has almost all of the same elements of an actual RTS (e.g. resource gathering, building, tech tree, commanding, etc) it will take at least a week to learn the ins and outs, and another month just to get good at it.

Most people don't seem to mind newbies though, as newbies don't realy screw up your team like they can in most games. Just do as the commander says and your all set, and the voice chat makes it all that much less frustrating to explain things. Only problem is it doesn't realy fit mooses description since A) its complex and B) a whole team is aliens So far as gore though, the game isn't realy that gory...when marines die, they bleed a bit, but no gibs or anything...aliens just kinda fall over.

 

[joel_029]

I'd say go with Half-Life. Just because there are so many great mods out there for it. Counter-Strike, Natural Selection, Firearms, etc. And if you are looking for something fun going, you've got Snow War, Bumper Cars. Just about anything you can think of. My reason for suggesting it is just the replay value because of all of the mods out there for it.
The Unreal Series of games is a great engine, not sure about mods for it though.

 

[vampireuk]

Hardly a troll when you are wrong Battlefield 1942, Desert Combat, MOHAA Enemy territory are all kickass games and are not gorey.

 

[DuDe]

America's Army : Operations (although can't be called a kickass game anymore since it was overflown by lamers and aimbots, but I had my moments with it) has ZERO gore.

 

[My95ZR2]

On the blood and gore thing...it used to be a big deal...but now I could care less. If it's got blood and guts going everywhere, and that's all you see (read: excessive gore), I wouldn't really wanna see it. Half-Life wasn't that bloody, but I thought Blue-Shift was more. I don't know...when there's the right amount of it, it can really get you in a game--I mean really.

In Blue-Shift, about half-way through, you go into a dark room I think in the old complex. The lights are off, and you can see a switch. You flip the switch on, and you see the room (duh). The room was completely trashed, and there were three people (I think scientist) against the other wall...dead, and blood was everywhere.

It's one of those things that can really get your emotions going in a game...something that hasn't happened to me in a while. Chrono Cross came close, but Metal Gear Solid was pretty good about controling your mood if you got into it.

Adam

 

[Moose Jr.]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far... I downloaded a truck-full of multiplayer demos over the last week; here's what I think so far:

Halo - I tried multi and single on this one and all I can think is: how lame... I thought some people were just being critical of it, but really, it's pretty lame. Multiplayer is pretty laggy,even on 100 ping average, and it runs like crap even on my system.

RTCW - I can't say why I didn't like this one specifically (maybe the annoying spawn times), but it just didn't throw me a right hook, if you understand.

MOHAA - I didn't like this one at first, mainly because I was really taking a beating online, but after getting used to the map (no spawn times makes this easy) it turned out to be pretty fun... maybe I'll pick this one up...


On a side note: I figured out why I don't like BF1942... It takes too darn long to get anywhere. Moreover, while en route, some plane will invariably swoop from out of nowhere and blow you to bits. Not to mention the spawn times.