JonesPC

Halo 3 will be in a lot of your hands very soon. I’m excited about Halo 3 like not many other games in my lifetime. But there are a few. I was thinking about what games, FPS’s in particular, have brought me joy and excitement like the Halo franchise. Come to find out, there has been quite a few. 9 to be exact. Not only has those 9 shooters brought me excitement like Halo 3 or the whole halo series has, but these games I’d say has brought me more excitement

Want to know what those 9 games are? Well I’m gonna list them. Keep in mind, this is all personal, I’m not saying that these games are better or that this is “THEE” order of gaming goodness. My list is of games that I have played that I have enjoyed just as much and sometimes more than I’ve enjoyed Halo and Halo 2.

I know what you all are thinking, Unreal was pretty boring. It was one of those games that got criticized for not exactly living up to the hype. Unreal was the first game that I have ever  preordered. It is also the first game that forced me to upgrade my PC “just to play a game”. Unreal was really important to the FPS genre, the game doesn’t get enough credit.

The first obvious thing that Unreal did was put really good graphics (for its time) in a first person shooter. I still remember the absolute awe I felt when I first left the prison ship. There was wildlife, realistic looking pools of water with fish swimming.  The game had atmosphere. The first time I felt real emersion in an FPS.

Talk about AI, that first Skaarj battle felt almost like I was playing deathmatch with another person, right after I was spooked out by the hall lights going out one by one. There were so many things about Unreal that was so memorable for me. I don’t consider it to be the best game I’ve played, but it is one of the most memorable games and holds a special spot in my heart.

8. Quake 2

Quake 2 released around the time I was really into FPS multiplayer (deathmatch). I had just got high-speed internet and really felt like I can play an online game without it being just a series of lag deaths. It was also the first game I bought that I installed and went online to play before I even touched the single player campaign.

I have played some fine multiplayer games since then, some that were better, but not many that I can remember having such a fun experience as I have had with Quake 2.

Another underrated game (Half-life owned everyone’s heart in these days). When Shogo: MAD was released, I was to the point where I was tired of the dungeons and brown of all the ID games. I wanted something different. For those that don’t know, Shogo was almost a Microsoft game, as this game was first developed under the name “Red Riot” by Monolith for Microsoft. Microsoft then dropped the project and Monolith bought the game back from MS and released it as Shogo.

Shogo: MAD was pretty much based on Anime characters. It mixed things up between regular FPS, and Mech FPS action. There was just so much to like about this game, and the different modes of play made for some very fun and interesting multiplayer (remember Squishies?).

Unreal Tournament was the first time Epic got multiplayer right with its unreal engine (maybe that last Unreal patch was the when they actually got it right). At the time of this release, Quake 3 Arena was the favorite, but slowly people started to move over to Unreal tournament. The series in general has probably had some of the best fast action deathmatch multiplayer in the history of online gaming. I considered it to be the standard (which is why Halo’s multiplayer never really stuck with me).

What can I say, Gears of war was the hottest game on the Xbox 360 last year, and for good reason. It was fun, it looked good, and it had coop. the story was pretty unimpressive, but I had a blast playing it. Gears of war is probably the first game that I played a couple of hours every day until I finished it since…Shogo. I don’t know if I was starving and the game came along at the right time, or it was just really that fun but thinking about it right now makes me want to fire it up to play again.

This is where it all started for me. Yea before I played Duke Nukem 3d, I had played a bit of Doom, Quake, Rise of the Triad and some other early FPS. But I just didn’t like them, didn’t have the appreciation of a first person shooter until I played Duke Nukem 3D.

This game had a personality, and I am sorry that the series has pretty much become the running joke of release dates…”when it’s done” blah. The weapons were very cool, the shrink ray, freeze ray, jet pack. Hey it even had Pole dancers, what’s not to like. I believe one day they will release Duke Nukem Forever, and it will suck. But Duke Nukem 3d opened my eyes to FPS’s.

Ok I know you were wondering when this game was going to show up. And that time is now at number 3. Bioshock is one of those “greats”, and the biggest reason why it is on the list is the game was just so engrossing, similar to a good movie. Many of you are still playing this game and need no explanation of why it’s on this list…so go back to playing and enjoying this game.

This is a series that has had its share of hype in its day, but people have seem too forgotten about it. Monolith has done a real good job with this series, making it fun and funny at the same time. Talk about games with personality. This was one of those games where you would actually stay hidden for a few minutes longer to hear what the goons are saying before you come out blasting.

Gadgets and weapons made this game pretty fun, and the story telling kept things going nicely. I wonder if a No One Lives Forever 3 will ever see the light of day.

When this game first released in 1998, it created a whole fanbase that have stayed with the game through an excellent sequel and a host of expansion packs and downloads. Halflife and Halflife 2 have set the bar pretty high for any FPS that releases. I really love the series and right now this is "Thee" standard for single player FPS’s