FPS nirvana approacheth
These next few months are going to be great for FPS (first person shooter) fans. First up on our plates we have the recently released BioShock, a suspense/horror FPS for Windows and XBOX360. I’ve been slowly playing my way through the Windows version, and I am impressed. The theme, mood, and ambiance are all stellar, and miles above the typical FPS.
The only qualm I have with BioShock, and this is a big one, is the combat. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it isn’t precise, it’s sloppy. It’s hard to accurately aim weapons and get good hits on enemies. The targeting reticles for plasmid attacks are way too large and do not allow for satisfying aiming. Battles devolve into manic rounds of mouse-clicking with enemies that are jumping all over the place and much too hard to hit with the inaccurate weapons. BioShock’s console lineage is plain as day. If you’re looking for ultra-precise FPS combat like you might find in a Quake, Doom, or Unreal game, you’re going to be disappointed, because BioShock doesn’t have it.
That’s why I don’t really understand how BioShock scored a 96% score at Game Rankings (a review aggregation site for games like Rotten Tomatoes is for films). I would score it an 85%, tops, mainly because of its lack of good combat. And BioShock doesn’t even have a multiplayer mode, which is what I usually end up spending the majority of my time playing. I find it more fun to play against fellow humans anyway.
Thankfully, true multiplayer FPS nirvana is on the horizon. Team Fortress 2, the long-awaited sequel to Team Fortress Classic (a Half-Life mod) will come out in a month. TFC is a ridiculously fun game and every indication is that TF2 will deliver. TF2 is also being released simultaneously with Half-Life 2: Episode Two, a single player expansion for Half-Life 2, as well as Portal. Both Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One were excellent, and Episode Two should be too. Portal is a single player FPS based on the Half-Life 2 engine that I haven’t heard much about. It’s more of a puzzle game than a shoot-em-up, but that’s fine; I like puzzle games, and hopefully this one will be good. We can always use some puzzling to break up the monotony of killing hundreds of enemies, right?
And if all of that wasn’t enough, be on the look-out for Unreal Tournament 3, the next installment in the excellent long-running Unreal Tournament series. Not only is UT a great game, but it tends to engender extremely good mods as well; I remember playing the mods Alien Swarm and Red Orchestra for UT2003 more than I played the base game!
So if you are an FPS fan, these next few months are going to be pure gold. Great single player as well as multiplayer games are being released, leaving something for everyone. And unlike BioShock, the combat in Half-Life 2 and Unreal Tournament has always been PC-precise, not console-sloppy. I’m really looking forward to them.
September 5th, 2007 at 07:48
Not a particularly big fan of FPS games, but I’m quite surprised you didn’t mention a couple of the best FPSs coming out soon: Crysis, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. You should look into them. ;)
September 5th, 2007 at 15:31
Oooh, good call about Crysis. I am aware of it, but I hadn’t been tracking it closely enough to know that it’s coming out in November. I definitely enjoyed playing through Far Cry, so Crysis should be a good game as well. As for Call of Duty, I played the first one a long time ago, and I suppose it’s time for me to take another look at the series. It’s been awhile since I last played a WWII shooter; long enough to go play another one, I suppose.
September 6th, 2007 at 06:32
I never found Call of duty series to be that impressive actually, It felt like doom but instead of waves of zombies you had waves of nazis. Halo 3 is another FPS that you havent mentioned tho as a PC gamer i never thought the series was as revolutionary as console fanboys say it is. Generic corridor shooting for the most part with a paper thin plot. Fun for a lan with some mates and a few pizzas but if thats the case give me goldeneye/perfect dark anyday =P
I am however a huge system shock 1/2 fan and am sure bioshock will be great. Have held back purchasing it because im on the fence about getting a 360 in the xmas period and might pick bioshock up then. Your the first person ive heard complain about “inaccuracy” tho. Is your mouse configured properly? If the controls are actually as you say i may as well get it on a 360 after all. And as for multiplayer i agree with the developers decsion to not have MP. You wouldnt mark down a final fantasy game for no MP would you? The shock games have always been about the story and the creepy atmoshphere of the game, not fragging noobs online. The exception being the system shock 2 co op mod. That was great!
September 6th, 2007 at 11:47
I didn’t really bother mentioning Halo 3 because I’m simply not interested in console FPSs. My most recent console is a PS2. Halo is theoretically also a PC game, but I say it doesn’t count. Halo 2 came out awhile ago for XBOX and we’re still waiting on it to come out for PC. It’s old hat by now, and won’t even make a splash on PC, because it will be far eclipsed by the likes of BioShock, Team Fortress 2, etc. The same thing is likely to happen with Halo 3 (when it comes out for PC in three years), so I’m just discounting it.
As for the controls in BioShock, yeah, I am configured correctly. I do very well in other FPSs (like a huge variety of Half-Life 2 mods) that do accurate, precise combat well. BioShock simply doesn’t have it. Tweaking the mouse settings in-game doesn’t fix anything, either. The weapons are just inaccurate, have huge targeting reticles, and don’t reward shooting skill nearly as well as they should. It’s a console FPS through and through. And I wouldn’t knock fantasy games for lacking multiplayer, but then again, fantasy games typically don’t have multiplayer. FPSs on the other hand typically do, and we gamers have long come to expect it.
September 6th, 2007 at 23:08
UT3 should own. Period. No point in even playing other games. ^__^
As far as BioShock, I refuse to get it for all the DRM bullshit. That and this review brings its issues to a very brilliant light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IBkT0Oi97E
September 6th, 2007 at 23:30
Yeah, I refuse to go for all of the DRM bullshit too. And I saw that Zeropunctuation review: brilliant. More than just hitting the nail on the head with BioShock, it’s a very entertaining style.