What single player FPS campaign are you playing?

[Xeogred]

I liked Blood Dragon but the combat didn't feel as good as it is in vanilla FC3 and FC4. Something about the lasers and armor the enemies wore... just felt a little off.

[ExedExes]

Installed the Ghost Recon Gold Edition last night. I played this previously on the GameCube, but so far the PC version is far more superior. It's much easier to do stuff with the keyboard and mouse, and I like having the option to have up to *3* teams.

This also has a second disc with the Desert Siege and Island Thunder expansion packs.

[Sload Soap]

I played and beat the 2010 Alien Vs Predator last night. Kind of surprised how short it was. Never seemed to get going really. Still, it wasn't as bad as I'd heard it was but it's a long way off AvP: Gold or my personal favourite Aliens Vs Predator 2.

[Xeogred]

Ugh, don't remind me about that one.

[MrPopo]

Just completed the first mission pack for each of the Quake games: Scourge of Armagon for Q1 and The Reckoning for Q2. It's interesting to see how the design philosophy differs so between the two, and I think it's due to the major difference in the overall feel of each game.

Quake 1 definitely feels like Doom in true 3D. Movement is very fast, weapons fire fast, and guns switch instantly. But it definitely suffers from weapon variety. Shotgun and Super Shotgun, Nailgun and Super Nailgun. That's half the weapon inventory right there, and the super shotty isn't the upgrade over the regular shotty that the double shotty is over the pump in Doom. Grenade Launcher and Rocket Launcher don't help too much, although at least the Grenade Launcher gives you the option to do some nice stuff around corners and from angles. The last two are your Axe (but you start every level with at least 25 shells and a shotgun) and the Lightning Gun. The big thing the Lightning Gun has over the Super Nailgun is how much it induces monster stun (the hitscan is a minor benefit), which is important against the worst monsters who's attacks really mess you up.

Quake 2 is a demonstration of what is coming down the line in terms of FPS design; more deliberate play, even if it's still fast-paced. You have to be very mindful of your weapon fire rates in Q2 because compared to Q1 they have an eternity of downtime, not to mention the fact that you have to wait for a holster and draw animation. Additionally, you have to for these animations every time you do next weapon; you can't quickly scroll 5 weapons down the line without hitting the weapon hotkeys themselves. The regular shotgun fires even slower than Q2's super shotgun, and the super in Q2 is even slower. The machinegun has a real kick to it so you can't use it easily for distance attacks. The minigun has a minor spinup delay and a massive spindown delay, not to mention it sprays ammo like a fire hose. It relegates it to major encounters only (but in those it shines). The grenade launcher fires much more slowly than Q1's (sensing a theme?) and the rocket launcher is only slightly slower than Q1's. Between the two explosive weapons the rocket launcher fires faster and in a straight trajectory which leaves the grenade launcher for exploiting corners only (as well as that period where you don't have the rocket launcher yet). The hyperblaster is like the nailgun but with a very noticeable spin down delay, which is not bad enough to not use it on regular enemies, but again forces a bit more of a deliberate style. The railgun is extremely powerful and pinpoint accurate but again the fire rate comes in. And the BFG10k is slower to fire than the BFG9k but comes with a "obliterate the room of minor enemies" feature.

With this in mind we see two very different designs on the mission packs. Scourge of Armagon is a very standard "like the original, but harder" mission pack of the Doom days. The game is divided into three episodes (which means an inventory reset after each episode) and it makes heavy use of spawning enemies on top of you/enemy closet traps. The player is expected to react quickly and be on their toes at all times. The new additions are a couple of weapons and a couple of enemies. On the weapon side you have the hammer, which does a lightning attack at the cost of some cells that is short ranged and not really worth using, the proxy grenade launcher, which involves sticky grenades that explode when someone comes near after a short arming time, and the laser repeater, which is like the nailgun but uses cells. The proxy launcher is occasionally useful when you see one of the melee monsters coming for you but the arming time means you have to be a bit anticipatory, and it will be set off by you once armed. The laser repeater is basically a way to use cells against regular enemies in an ammo efficient manner compared to the lightning gun. It's useful if you're capping on cells and you see more pickups. Enemy-wise there is the scorpion who can quickly drain your health with his own nailgun and is low to the ground, the gremlins who are mostly just there to soak up ammo (though if you don't take them seriously they will literally steal your guns), and the spike ball things that explode for insane damage when they run into something (terrain, you, etc). They tend to blend in with the scenery and cause many a bullshit death, made more annoying by the fact that they only move towards you when they can see you (with some momentum when you move out of view). Aside from the additions it's pretty standard Quake action; blow up everything quickly and make it to the end.

The Reckoning also adds a few weapons to what's existing, but what it really adds is a ton of new monsters. The new weapons are the trap (think Ghostbusters and the dead enemy leaves behind a +50 overheal item, but it can suck you in if you're not careful), the ion ripper which uses cells and slowly fires richocheting projectiles, and the phalanx particle cannon which is basically a rocket launcher that fires twice with one pull (quarter second between each projectile launch) and uses its own ammo. There's also a powerup that makes the railgun hilariously OP; the dual fire damage item. This doubles your fire rate which, while not the same DPS increase as the Quad Damage, makes the railgun an absolute terror since it tends to stagger the enemies.

The big thing Reckoning does is add a bunch of new enemies. You start off with the Gekk, which are melee monsters who can leap high, swim, and toss projectiles at you if you don't engage them in melee. Next is the repair bot, which flies around and revives enemies. There are three new guards that you will continue to see up through the last level even though weaker enemies have been phased out. The first is one that has a hyper blaster, the second has an ion ripper, and the third has a continuous laser beam. The latter will be the bane of your existence as it saps your health and mucks up your vision. The game also amps up four existing Q2 enemies. The first upgrade is the brains; now they can use a ranged pull to drag you close for melee attacks and have the same laser as the aforementioned guards. The iron maidens now have lock on missiles similar to the vores from Q1. The gladiators get a huge health upgrade (more than the tank commander) and a phalanx cannon of their own. Finally, there are four upgraded tank bosses that have 50% more health and in once instance are fought as a pair (due to arena design).

In terms of levels the Q2 mission pack involves a fair amount of moving back and forth between levels in a unit to complete objectives or just get around a barrier. It makes the whole thing feel a lot bigger and less like a series of video game levels.

It looks like Q1's second mission pack has much more monster variety and goes with alternate ammo for expanding your weapon selection, whereas Q2's second mission pack scales back on the number of new enemies but has a bunch of new weapons.

[dsheinem]

now I want an oscilloscope

[noiseredux]

I'm enjoying COD:AW a hell of a lot.

[MrPopo]

now I want an oscilloscope

I think this is the first time where it would actually be HARDER to run Doom on it. Cool project, though it's like playing Red Alarm.

[Jagosaurus]

Playing Warhammer 40K Fire warrior on PS2.

The weapons & environments look very nice. It's a dark game so the contrast is great on a CRT. The enemy character models are uninspired & look generic IMO. I'm about 1/3 of the way in thus far.

I've never gotten into the W-40K universe but there's quite a bit of back story here for a FPS.

Ive noticed I like FPS games from the PS2 & original Xbox. You get dual analog sticks, decent graphics, & relatively modern play mechanics. Most importantly, single player campaign was still king. I'll end up probably sinking 15 hours into this campaign & truly enjoy it.

This was one of the first PS2 titles to support large multi player games over broadband, but the single player was the primary focus & the experience is still nice today. I don't see that carrying on for most recent FPS titles.

I might go on a PS2 & oXbox FPS kick this year.

[ExedExes]

Finished up the first Call of Duty expansion pack known as United Offensive. Once again, it gave you the American, British, and Russian perspectives. All the drama and action of the regular game returned, oh and of course the rather annoying parts. I died so much I know all the famous quotes about war you get each time you do, but I also like to find other creative ways to die ("You are a traitor to the motherland!")

After a bit of a fight getting my latest local pickup installed under Win 8.1 (Call of Duty 2), I'm ready to go there.