Weekend Debate – First person shooters: love ‘em or hate ‘em?

I have nothing against the FPS genre, I actually like FPS games like Team Fortress 2, and likewise fastpaced FPS games. However, I think games like Call of Duty and Battlefield (And all those military-simulation type games) are;

unorignal, slow-paced, uncolourful, repetitve, boring, unimpressive, generic, mediocre & generally overrated.

Great job making a debate where you can win a code you just explained you didn’t want btw… If it wasn’t obvious, I don’t really want it.

i might add this has happened on a few ocations

I loathe FPS games

1, They bring out the worst in gamers.
2, Campaigns are often very short.
3, FPS characters swear every 5 seconds & are impossible to care about, infact you are tempted to shoot them !
4, 99% of them will be forgotten about in 12 months.
5, Total lack of decent storyline, highly predictable.
6, Full of stereotypes.
7, Have so many patches that they are almost as big as the game itself.

I could go on but I think I should stop now !

I love them but sometimes i don’t like them. Playing shooters is like watching an action movie. Surely every now and then you might want to take a break from it and have a change so would watch a horror, comedy, etc. Same with games I like the action in it but sometimes get bored with them when there is too much of the same thing.

There is way too many of them. Need new things to try out. Having a break from the same kind of game can make you come back again later and enjoy it all over again.

And yes at the moment i’m playing CoD:BO2 a lot. Not so much of the multiplayer but mainly the zombies. Story is amazing too so going to replay it again.

I still remember when i was young playing Wolfenstein and Doom. When the first KILLZONE came out i was addicted to it also MOH and COD i love WW2 games ever since i got addicted to FPS games i got all KILLZONES and COD, Battlefields etc. Well why do i love FPS games?
All started in 1997 with Wolfenstein i played it for so many hours that i got addicted to it ever since i had to play all FPS games out there, i loved FPS games so much that i started to practice AIRSOFT and the games also gave me knowlage to do it. What i love in a FPS is the first person perspective that it gives of the gaming world and environment through the eyes of the protagonist, nowadays the protagonists are fully realized and conceptualized beings which will definitely hit a chord with players.
Also i have fun on multiplayer with my friends or alone, when i play with them its for fun we can pass hours laughing because what happens on the game, when i play alone things get more serious sometimes i think iam Rambo just kidding. Iam glad they bringing FPS games to the vita because FPSes are one genre that has evolved and gotten better with the passing of time and is a mainstay in the gaming industry for at least decades to come.

Personally speaking, I don’t “hate” First Person Shooters. I just don’t like open warfare kamikaze-style shooters.

What I meant is, First Person Shooters are becoming very stale this generation. Gone are the days when FPS games were original, thoughtful and unique.

MAG is an amazing example to toss here. MAG puts you with a team of 127(!!) other players in a massive tactical and teamwork based battlefield where the objective isn’t just about killing sprees and destroying the enemy. It’s about teamwork, using mics and planning to ambush the enemy’s resources. THIS is why I love FPS games. The joy of playing a whole 30-minute match with your heart pounding every second of it trying your best to win the very close match; it’s those moments that define gaming.

Another great example of a great teamwork-based game is BATTLEFIELD: Bad Company. This game is my first attempt at online multiplayer(s) on PS3 and it definitely is one of my favorite games. I had so many great memories playing that game. Whether it’s destroying the enemies’ (gold) crates or defending your own, riding the tanks or flying helicopters, this game was an absolute blast to play.

(CONTINUED) As I demonstrated above, I absolutely love teamwork-based FPS game-play. The lack of this genre (or rather sub-genre) this generation is why i don’t play FPS much often. It’s just rare to find such games nowadays and developers do not want to risk it; they’d much rather create CoD-based game-play where anyone can pick up and play, even my 12-year-old brother who have never played an FPS before. I respect that, and I’m not blaming them.. after all those games (MAG and such) haven’t got the recognition they really deserve.

i think shooters should be a bit more like bfbc1 (story) that has a nice bit of humour to it also u could relate to the characters most shooters now is mostly about some sort of revenge plot or some dude wanting to blow up the earth we could do with somthing a bit more entertaining i think game developers like dice and activion r just pulling strings now and laughing all the wat to the bank they need to do somthing new not cod mw4 or bf4 somthing copletly difrent but then ppl would still buy because of the logo i think ppl r scared to try somthing new the game developers no this to

I have been a big fan of fps over the years and yes of course COD. I think now after the amount of fps games out there which copy COD’s format it’s very hard to find a genuinely cool game that hasn’t been done to death. I played COD so much I just can’t look at it anymore and when I stopped playing it I actually found myself thinking I was done with fps foolishly, it can get to a stage with COD where it seems as if it’s the only shooter ever made. So after many a boring playthrough of other titles in the fps genre I became even more jaded. Then PlayStation plus graciously handed to me Borderlands which really invigorated my blood lust. Bravo I say, if I hadn’t got that for free my interest in fps would have wanned into obscurity and I would have stuck to my rpg games. I believe it’s a great genre the whole fps thing because it’s true competitive gaming and who doesn’t love to fire a gun at the avatars of some candy ass gamer somewhere who bows to your impressive skills. It has to be said without fps the gaming industry on the whole would be a much different maybe even less relevant part of our entertainment lives. Also when it comes down to the brass tax FPS SELLS CONSOLES !.

I started of as a fan of the multiplayer side of shooters (COD) and then after three of them, got a bit burnt out mainly because as they got more famous, they started becoming a bit more accessible and little kids (squeakers) started becoming more common. But this has really been a blessing in disguise. I have played some awesome games recently, Splinter Cell, Uncharted 3 to name just a couple. However with Black Ops 2, I’m really tempted to go back to multiplayer and more ZOMBIES. Basically, always been a fun of FPS just my taste in which part of FPS has evolved and is about to complete a cycle, the Circle of Life. Getting a free code for for Black Ops Declassified will really help too

“Love them or hate them.” Or, like them in moderation like every other genre? I don’t mind a bit of FPS like Borderlands along with my other varied games. The genre (and TPS) has been overdone this gen, but it seems each generation has its strongest genre – 3D platforming with PS1. Racing with PS2. Shooters with PS3. I’d like to see a return to the diversity of the 16 bit computers, with their invention of god games, amazing puzzlers, RTS, quirky and inventive takes on older ideas, etc.

I’ll add that I hate the implementation of competitive multiplayer in online shooters. There’s an entrenched philosophy that pits noobs and less capable players against veterans to be cannon fodder. There’s no balance, unlike every other sport or game where people are pitted against like abilities in fair contests. This has been the biggest turn-off for me regards any shooter, and after dabbling with MAG, Uncharted, Killzone 2, and a few others, being on both ends of base camping, spawn killing, and overpowered play (where I always give my opponents a fighting chance when on the overpowered winning side), I’ve learnt online utterly sucks except for cooperative gaming.

I’m currently playing Okami right now, with a comment on my friendslist which kindly states “Okami>PaintDry>BLOPS2.
Not because I hate CODs mind, just because most people tend to complain for lack of innovation yet gravitate towards the “popular” while disregard classics such as titles with an insane amount of innovation like Okami.
Which might I add to this day hasn’t been topped in how EPIC a story can actually get If you put the time in.

Oh and theres no guns or killing whats so ever…. funny that right?

KAP

To be quite honest, I love shooters! However, theres been an increasing decline in quality FPS games and somehow I think developers need to think outside the box for a change!

Think about it, we have the COD series, Battlefield series, Doom, Killzone, Resistance etc. Although some of these series have brought inovation to the table, none of them actually brings a real story that makes me as a gamer, really interessted. I think that the games multiplayer/multiplayer is to blame for this, as this is the only thing that keeps games alive these days. How about COOP? (Yeah i know that resistance: fall of man, and killzone 3 has coop) or a leaderboard function that ranks playthrough time etc? Or even a story that make gamers such as myself cry?

I would really like to see a fps that 1. Has a gripping story and memorable characters 2. Brings new features to the table 3. Is reasonably priced.

Innovation seems to have stagnated, although the crysis series has the nanosuit which is kind of cool, and Far cry 3 seems promising, cant really say yet!

Runar
Norway

I’m not a fan of fps’s. Most of them lack story. When I was young only adventures had stories and I loved them (Magnetic Scrolls games anyone?). The rest was mostly platforming. When the fps game it tried a bit of story but it almost never took off. The third person shooter is something different (uncharted).
I love everything with a story, I played Killzone and Resistance and some of them had great stories but the gameplay is a bit boring.
Thats how I feel about fps, boring.

Best genre around and some of the best gaming experiences. Going into battle kitted out with guns il never shoot in real life, exploring mars with a shotgun blowing away demons, fighting zombies with an Uzi. The first time I played through half life is a memory that will be with me forever, I actually felt I was there and lets not forget rapture in bioshock, or fallout 3 wondering the waste lands. There are a lot of generic shooters appearing over the last few years which are getting tiring but then there are the golden few which easily make up for it

I play fps games quite often and I find that the ones that focus more on atmosphere and environment (especially destructable ones) and story are the best as they in gross you the most. I have to admit I’m not a big fan of the cod franchise though as I find that they are a bit short and non-destructable. As you can probably guess from that, that means I prefer shooters that allow more destruction like battlefield. I’m not particularly fond of RPG fps games either as I find that they endings to them are not very good (hello RAGE) and if an ending isn’t very good then it destroys the game for me. I also find that shooting games bring out some of the worst aspects of games though, as they sometimes have rubbish stories, fairly bad graphics and no replay value but others go past this and bring some of the best games made.

I’m more of an ex-boyfriend to FPS’. My love for them has dwindled but occasionally I’ll see one and have a play with it until I get bored again.

I 1st fell in love playing the original MoH on the PC, that game was wicked and I got addicted pretty badly. I played a lot of FPS on the PC, Wolfenstein, CoD, MoH, Doom, the list could go on and on. For me that was when FPS excited me, now with each new skinned CoD that comes along I’m losing more and more interested. I’m kinda sick of the modern day setting of the standard shooters now, bring back WWII I say.

Simple answer – yes.

I’ve been an early fan of the genre, with games such as Quake, Rainbow Six & Goldeneye putting me in the eyes of the protagonist I control. As the genre evolved and standard norms developed (i.e. cinematics) my opinion on it hasn’t changed. There is something so brutal and somewhat deep in watching the pain you inflict first hand, not being able to put a face on the character you control (even when there is one), that you can’t feel in a game such as say Uncharted. Compare the experience of hanging on a ledge with a fast thinking hero to stabbing the eyes of a Helghast soldier. Tell me you didn’t feel the pain and anger in the prison segment of Resistance 3, or feel the true effects of the ‘would you kindly’ sequence in Bioshock.

The FPS genre may be the most hated, but I appreciate it for what it is.

lol it’s so obvious bits have been cut out of my answer – blast you word limit !

I love what they were, i’m not overly keen on what they’ve become.

It’s no longer about the single player, all i see FPS’ as now is multiplayer cash cows trying to copy COD instead of doing something different. Sit me down in front of Skulltag or ZDoom with a bunch of WADS and i’ll play for hours and hours but COD, Battlefield? Not a chance, they all do the same thing and one is trying to be the other. The single player on the first MW was cracking and it went downhill from there. I hope they can get out of this COD copying rut and get back to making great games like Painkiller, E.Y.E, Quake, UT and DOOM.

Also FPS’ are best played with mouse and keyboard, no compromise.

You’ve got to love ‘em, the gaming calendar is full of them! My love for FPS games started way back in the N64 days (as I’m sure it did for many others) playing the classic GoldenEye or Perfect Dark with 3 other mates on a tiny TV .

I grew up playing those kind of games and have very fond memories so I’m bound to always love them, they’re games you can pick up and play as all you need to know is how to walk and shoot and you’re away, no long tutorials or baby steps, just straight to the point with lots of action!

love them, mainly multiplayer military games. unfortunately most companies are greedy and rush games and they milk the game like cod or ruin it like battlefield. cod keeps the formula intact but doesn´t innovate. battlefield tries to innovate(but fail), but destroy´s there formula and ignore the old franshice fans. i like killzone but it´s not at halo level. sony should improve killzone or make a new fps military franshice. battlefield have so much potencial but dice ruins it. sony should use this potencial and make a better, improved and innovative battlefield 2.

This is probably a weird answer, but I find FPS games a little disconcerting to play because of the perspective. Given that there are generally people striving to shuffle you off the mortal coil, I feel that I want to flick my eyes to the side, and perhaps catch a glimpse of an oncoming foe in my far peripheral vision.

But, short of having a curved screen or a three screen set-up, there isn’t really a way to replicate this action naturally and subtly in the game. You can of course rotate the camera, but this isn’t quite the same thing. In real life you don’t have to do anything to make use of peripheral vision. Somehow, this makes the games much more unnerving for me.

Third person shooters arguably give you too great a field of vision, but I can live with that!

I have always loved First Person Shooters.
Mostly because they are fast fun that you can have with friends.
And these kind of games are really improving my reflexes and focusing cabability. The reason FPS is domination is probably because how the 3d graphics and animations have developed since the 90s.
There’s almost nothing better than BEING the eyes of your characters.
Doom and and Counter Strike are some really good memories.
I wouldn’t mind a First Person Uncharted.
Parkouring as Nathan Drake in First Person perspective would be AWESOME!

That may sound bizarre but good shooter is the one that
has a good story. Scenario is the key element that can keep me interested, not by the mechanics, but the motivation behind pulling the trigger.

Even Shakespeare said something about the shooters:
“Shoot or not to shoot that is the question” or was it something else? :]

Cannot abide the mass produced, annually farmed out shooters, but totally accept that the genre can produce fantastic experiences. If this were to strike a chord and win, please donate the value of the prize to charity.

FPS are great! I played my 1st one when I was 10 and that was Quake!
ROCKET JUMP FTW!
From here I was hooked! I moved onto Duke Nukem 3D and then onto COD! Memories of playing 18 games when 10 make me laugh thinking of how hard it is for 18 games to even be released!
I must admit about a year ago (MW3), I had enough of FPS! Played to many in that year and I think I boycotted them for a whole year and I think the 1st one I played was Resistance Burning Skys on Vita (Thanks to SONY for the freebie!) After playing this my love for them came back, then Blops 2 trailer came out with Borderlands 2 and BOY, the love for FPS came flooding back!
So do I love or hate them?
LOVE THEM! Even if a lot are the same structure – it is the story that counts!!

Make.Believe!

I……LOVE FPS!!! =D (edited version – please see full version here: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/k1gkg0 )
Why? O.O Playing a FPS game(like say Bad Company 2)& using Real life weapons, & sounds, & camouflage, & stealth tactics is LOTS of FUN, & the thing about FP games(like GT5 as well)is, you are put IN the action – you are not ‘looking on’ like with other types of games, & therefore you get a more immersed feeling – ESPECIALLY when using 6.1 surround(not virtual)…
I have been startled by enemies, Felt the need to run & jump away from grenades, Felt the rush when falling(in Dust 514 & Battlefield 3)& like in GT5, Felt the speed when racing & the anxiety, when sliding off the track, crashing, etc(with Emphasis on FELT & not witnessed)…
First Person Shooters Put You In The Game, & Allow You To Better\Truly Experience, The Experience(LOL), as opposed to, looking on, as another experiences, which simple put, it the difference between Looking, at a Football game, & Playing said Football game…
FPS ROCK!!! =D

There are both shooters I like a lot and shooters I don’t really care for.

For me to enjoy a shooter, it need to have a good story and preferably some unique setting. Games like Bioshock. Some mystery you help to uncover is a good thing too, quite fond of the first FEAR, but unfortunately think that FEAR2 and FEAR3 fell very flat.

While games like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Battlefield and so on, are all rather bland and boring to me.

For me the best shooter of 2012 is Binary Domain, visiting the futuristic cyberpunk Tokyo and shooting those robots to tiny bits is simply very fun, and that the story is interesting doesn’t hurt either. I enjoyed Dishonored even more, but it’s not really a shooter unless you play it as one and I enjoyed playing that game as a sneaking pacifist more. These games that do offer gameplay choices though, are truly brilliant games and above the rest, and unfortunately there are only Dishonored and Deus Ex: Human Revolution that fit into these this console generation, and Deus Ex failed a bit with it too because of the poor boss battles in the game.

FARCRY3 is gonna be amazing because

1 big tropical island
2 do missions how you want
3 explode the islands
4 and loads more

Love ‘em. Always have, Was playing Wolfenstein 3D when i was still in first school, soon graduated to Duke Nukem and Blood, went from there

I can’t say I love shooters, I can’t say I love any game. What I love is characters and story in a good mix with gameplay. I remember back in the days, in a galaxy far far away (My bedroom) where I started getting into the FPS-genre with Far Cry. I didn’t play it much because it was an FPS, but rather for, what I thought, the amazing environments and the sence of freedom. I do love the first person perspective in games such as Skyrim because it feels much more immersive than many other perspectives. I purchased a Vita on launch and and I haven’t got a first person shooter for it yet, so here’s my addition to the competition. My Vita needs to feed at long last. Please feed it Black Ops: Declassified

While I dont hate shooters, there are only a few that I would enjoy playing. Story is key for me, without it them im just playing level apon level just shooting bad guys. A shooter needs a well developed story plot with a good beginning, a good middle and an explosive end.

I hate story’s that play on stereotypes, give me an interesting well developed main character and even an enemy who has a strong part to play in the story and a personality unique to that one character. I want to be driven to play on to the next level, not abandon single player to jump on multiplayer.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that I love shooters. They certainly become a tired formula, due in no small part to Activision’s yearly iteration of their money cow of a franchise. Due to other developers seeing this, it seems to push them to make their games more like Call of Duty, leading to a lack of originality in the genre.

Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not that I don’t like them, nor is it that I don’t like Call of Duty. Despite their lack of originality i’m still a fan (if it ain’t broke and all that) at times. I’ve loved games such as Crysis 2 online and others which use the perspective such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Bioshock.

However, despite all of this I think it can only get worse as it goes on. Companies use the same old formula, consumers eat it up and it sells more than the other innovative titles, making the former seem more successful. If only the fps giants would change up their games even a little, the entire gaming industry would be better off I feel.

I love first person shooters especially these days because unlike the old days the graphics are much better and the guns and other stuff are cool and more advanced

Myself personally i prefer 3rd person shooters due to my love for the Socom franchise on PS2 where my online gaming started, i feel that 3rd person shooters bring a more tactical sense of online gaming to the table as players don’t tend to run and gun as much and work together as a team using headsets to communicate.

However you can’t beat a bit of a fps. From call of duty fast paced action shooter to the mass demolition of MAG it helps to relieve stress and have a laugh with your mates.

Shooters have become a main selling point of games consoles which is no surprise considering myself and many others online gamers love a bit of competitive shooting to see who is the best slayer

In my opinion it’s getting harder and harder to not like a whole genre.

Take for example the fps genre. If you don’t like battle field or Cod you can still play games like bioshock and dishonored and if you don’t like shooting People at all you can still play games in first person, like unfinished swan or portal.

I am happy to live in a time where there is a game for everyone and it breaks my heart to see how some gamers have started to act like religious fundamentalists or hooligans.

What is wrong with allowing people to have their own opinion on a game?

I don’t like every game i play, but i can’t imagine the day when I’m all out of games in my “pile of shame”

I like a good fp

I love a good fps, but i hate the idea of making entertainment a sport.

FPS are the worst game genre. the first one you play is moderately fun sure but anyone with even a minor sense of intellect can see that its just the same recycled garbage over and over with different graphics. not to mention the fact that every single one of them can be finished in under 5 hours (im looking at you cod) when in my opinion for a game to have any worth it needs to be around 30+ hours at least. the main reason they get so much praise is because of multiplayer but that isnt even remotely fun because everyone on it is an absolute nerd, ive seen kill cams in cod where 2 seconds after spawning someone will throw a knife over the entire map, over two buildings, and hit me in the head and i mean even if you are THAT good, wheres the fun in repeatedly shooting the same people over and over?

its an automatic assumption for me that anyone playing call of duty or battlefield is under the age of 14 so i delete them because anyone that is over that age and still loves them was either dropped on their head as a child and obtained an IQ in the lowest percent or doesnt own any other game and so has no other choice, either way i wouldnt want them on my friends list.

also please stop with all the fps games with playstation plus. ratchet and clank this month has been the most fun ive had from a plus game in a while, and i dont even like ratchet and clank.

I’m only new to the FPS genre, for years I would avoid them and wasn’t really interested at all. Then came battlefield 3. Out of boredom and wanting to play something new I picked this up and very glad I did.
It introduced me to a new way to play with others online, trying to work together and be part of a team.
Really glad I got it because it opened my eyes to alot of great games I would have missed out on like Borderlands 2 and yep, Call of duty.

I love FPS! Some maybe less but I play them since Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake so I’m pretty picky when it comes to FPS.
I love them because of the speed of the game and the adrenaline which is produced when playing multiplayer. No other type of game give such a kick. These are the games where immersion is most felt because of the first-person view.

i love but to many fps = not good

sony mistake = rong memorie usage in 2 pieces ( give 1 unite block where devlopers use howh them need , tem wil have lesser problems like freezes …. .( ps4 = 4gb ram min )

ps3 games compatibel + 450 – 499€ price

next gen 64 players full 180 i/p 60 fps standart

i hate quike scope lozers

edit 180 = 1080

I was never really into shooting games until I played call of duty world at war at a friends. after playing that and being introduced to the online Warzone of fun and zombies I decided to buy it and start my craze for the call of duty franchise. I bought it for the Wii as we had just bought one and although it was good the online mode was pretty poor. because of this I shelled out for my ps3 and a copy of world at war. I loved it. I bought all the add ons and bought all the games upto now and before this game I was against shooting games. I think in the right hands shooting games can be good fun (and as they are meant to be played for fun!!)

I love first person shooters but i think they should do 3rd person modes like mw2 did… On the subject of COD, I don’t see the reason why people play it rather the Battlefield it is better in everywa, I even like zillzone better but i dont think many will agree at that lol

For me, shooters are like a guilty pleasure. I made a rule for myself that I would not do anything in games unless the game gives me a good enough story to justify the actions I will be performing. But most shooters have a paper-thin story, still the guns and shooting never gets old. I hope I can someday find a rational response to my love of shooters.
But for now, all I can say is they are fun, and I play video games for fun

first person shooters are awesome. I have call of duty black ops callof duty world at war and call of duty mw3 and they are al really good games. Definatelly going to get black ops 2

The first FPS I played was Shadow Warrior on PC, and I’m still playing them, so I guess I could be considered an FPS or a shooter fan. But I always thought that I’m more of a video game fan. I think choosing your next game by genre is not the best way, but shooters, especially the first person ones tend to have an appeal, no other game genres are able to replicate. You have the perspective of your character, so the visual immersion is at its best. And I always liked playing games with the feeling of being there, playing the heroic soldier or killing people on an airport, it didn’t really matter until the story was good.

And hell I’ve been some places! I kicked some alien butt on a football field, I’ve been a silent theoretical physicist riding a train to work (that was an insane day!), and although I was fighting Nazis a bit too much, I never forget one particular beach, where I was slaughtered countless times. Yeah, those were the days, you know, being on Mars when all hell broke loose, or going down with a chopper because a nuclear bomb went off. Once I was in an underwater city, populated by crazy people, and although that was really twisted, I still long to go back to those people, even if they are up in the air now.

I think shooters are the best at one thing. Until the credits roll, you are in a different world. When I saw the Total Recall movie as a kid, I thought they would never be able to give anyone memories that easily, and here I am, 20 years later, and I have these cool memories of adventures I’ve played. I always thought I’m going to grow out of the FPS genre. But who am I kidding? I will be among the first ones, who go to that tropical island to find the definition of insanity, so see you there!

P.S.: My comment was too long, I had to split is, sorry about that.