RF Generation: Features

Let's face it folks, there's no genre in gaming more loved and hated at the same time than First Person Shooters. Just about everyone has played an "FPS" at one time or other and owns at least one in their collection.

Debates have raged across BBSs, forums, discussion panels and living rooms since the early 90's. Sure they've been around much longer but how many of you can honestly say you've played Maze War anyway? Keyboard/Mouse versus controller, LAN versus TCP/IP, PC versus console, single analog versus dual, CTF versus Deathmatch, the debates rage on and on year after year.

Throwing my hat into the ring, I'll list 5 of my favorites and perhaps a few others as runner's up. Feel free as always to comment and/or list your own favorites here.

In no particular order:

Dead Man's Hand (Xbox/PC) - Did you know that a "Dead Man's Hand" is a poker term for a 5 card hand used when one has aces and eights of spades and clubs? "Wild Bill" Hickok was murdered in a saloon with these cards in his hand the one and only time he ever sat with his back to the door, hence the name. It also happens to be the name of one of my favorite FPS's which falls under the rarely used "Wild West" theme.

At the time of it's release, game reviewers really shat on this game and concentrated solely on it's shortcomings. The truth is, DMH is a lower budget game with a unique charm and a unique way of approaching the FPS market. Trick shooting, playing poker between levels for ammo and health as well as the simple ferocity of it's authentic era weapons make this game stand out. The music and sound effects are great and it's quite literally a blast to play. In a subgenre of cowboy shooters, it's stands more or less alone but that's also an advantage because it's different.

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (PS2/PC) - Wait, I know what some of you are thinking, "ugh, a Star Trek game?" But this is no ordinary Trek game, far from it. It is in fact possibly the best Trek game ever made and one of the best uses of the Quake III engine ever developed.

Excellent level design, eye/ear candy for it's time and plenty of replay value. Even without the franchise license this game would stand out. If you happen to be a Trek fan, even better. One of my favorite areas of the game is when you get to play an area that resembles the mirror universe from the old 60's series, in all it's deco and nostalgic form. It's also a great game on the PS2 because it supports keyboard/mouse for those of you inclined to that option instead of the dual shock. The polar opposite of Dead Man's Hand, it takes place nearly 400 years in the future and also offers something different from the norm.

Doom II:Hell on Earth (Every system known) - Now why did I choose Doom II instead of Doom? Simple, it has the double-barreled shotgun, 'nuff said. No one needs to hear the praise of this game for the 1000th time. It rocks, we all know it, simple as that. We can hum the tunes and play it in our sleep it's so familiar. So moving on...

Prey (X360/PC) - This game has a long backstory spanning a decade. Too far ahead of it's time for the technology available, it took 10 years for PC's and consoles to do it justice. Average Joe fights alien invaders. Sound pretty cliche doesn't it?

What you probably don't know, is that the game has many different spatial & gravity puzzles as well as portals and other mind boggling science fiction. All of it wrapped in a rescue/revenge story with a Native American twist. I've actually seen people get motion sickness when watching or playing the game because of the use of gravity manipulation. One minute your on the ground, the next walking upside down or up a wall in the same level with the push of a button. The spirit mode is fun too, its basically an out of body experience where you become a non- corporeal entity with a bow who can do things and go places a physical body cannot.

Contrary to popular belief, the Xbox 360 library has a humble percentage of 17% First Person Shooters. Not only does that fly in the face of haters of that system, it also means believe it or not, that there isn't quite the variety of FPS's to choose from that so many erroneously believe. To me Prey IS the best FPS on the Xbox 360 hands down, though I suspect the bazillion Halo 3 or CoD4 fans would disagree!

Medal of Honor (PS1) - Nearly 9 years ago before the big craze that followed, Steven Spielberg had an idea to mix a WWII FPS with a documentary of sorts. Medal of Honor is a standard FPS that mixes cinematic flair with ambience. The sound effects are truly fantastic as well as background ambient noise like planes, artillery etc etc. Each mission is accompanied by actual footage of the Second World War that relates to the mission in question. It serves as both a narrated mission briefing and as a cool reward for game progress. To top that off, it took advantage of the Dual Shock controller and heralded the era of dual stick FPS gameplay, a staple that exists "en masse" to this very day.

Simply put, no one to date has made a war shooter that has as much character, polish and presentation as this one does. It's multiplayer kind of sucks, but it's single player really has to be seen to be appreciated. A fun game that's still fun even now, worthy of any gamer's attention be it war buff or FPS fan.

So that's my list, like it or lump it. I had thought of putting Goldeneye on that list, but to be honest, it hasn't aged well for me. It still brings back many fond memories, but it no longer has the same appeal that others do. Unfortunately that's mostly due to the N64 controller. While I was used to it at the time and didn't mind it at all, the single analog is a hard thing to go back to these days. Same can be said for Turok 2 which almost made the list as well but didn't much for the same reason. Don't read that as a jab at the N64 or it's hardware, I find the same thing when playing Quake III on the Dreamcast as well. At least the DC had a keyboard/mouse to offer an alternative, good thing too!

Although I don't play a lot of FPS's on a consistent basis, I still had a hard time whittling down this list to 5 singular stand out choices. There are a lot of classics so in the spirit of giving due credit to those games that almost made it, I'll name a few runners up:

Blake Stone, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Rise of the Triad, Alien versus Predator (Jag), Quake I/II/III Arena/IV, Counter-strike, Star Wars Dark Forces, Star Trek Elite Force II, Area 51, Serious Sam, Painkiller, Unreal Tournament.

Alright folks, now it's your turn. Wink