FPS Singleplayer Gaming

[xenon2000]

Hey, just interested in finding out what you lot consider makes a good Single Player FPS game or mod. Seeing as multiplayer generally dominates the online world, it's not often a commonly covered topic.

So, which of these factors do you consider most important?

- Fast-paced action
- Tension, eerieness and 'spook' factor
- Innovative level design
- Proper ongoing plot/story
- Realism
- Impressive visuals
- Exploration possibilities/nonlinear flow
- Monster AI
- Easy custom level editability

(Think of more if you can)

And which FPS games do you think offer the best SP gaming experience?

Over to you;

 

[Will]

Hmnn, a thread threatening to provoke inteligent debate...

I'm a real sucker for the tension and creeping-around games. I enjoyed Thief and Thief 2 for just that reason.

I good bi of observing the target, planning your route, and "getting one over" on the enemy does me fine. However, I hate games that just fail you or make it impossible if you are caught, and I do enjoy an arcade-style blast too.

I guess variety is the key, a good mix of stealth and action.

 

[Nighty-]

Lots and lots of blood. And more blood.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Non-linear gameplay, good atmosphere, proper polt/story.

Say hello to Deus Ex, the finest single player game of all time.

 

[Nighty-]

Loud guns, gibs, explosions, guttings, decapitations.
Arcade rather than simulation.

 

[Summo]

I don't mind linear gameplay as long as its a good line, if you know what I mean. A good story and atmosphere, I think. Coupled with the 'wow' factor.

Half-Life made me 'wow' on the opening sequence in the train. Even Tomb Raider II made me 'wow' when I first walked in to the huge flooded Opera House. Crimson Skies made me 'wow' all the way through out of sheer fun and constant comic-book style.

Yes. The 'wow' factor does it for me.

 

[Hashmonster]

yeah i agree with someguy - when i first played goldeneye on the N64 in HMV, i was playing the 2 player mode against some other person in there - we were in facility in the bogs and he was killing me.

i burst out laughing - it was excellent, just had to have it.

This was back when it had just come out and i wasn't into pc gaming - i was a console guy back then. The singleplayer - first level called Dam was excellent - using the sniper to snipe the guys down the end of the tunnel and then on basically following the film that i liked!

 

[old.D0LLySh33p]

Thief 1 and 2.

Perfect as they come...

DOH, not fps' though

 

[bodhi]

Doom 2. Anyone who argues with me on this point is a retard. And smells. of wee and poo.

 

[Nighty-]

Big impact games - Virtua fighter on the saturn. Was my first ever (proper) 3d game! I was blown away
GT3 - so realistic :/

 

[Hashmonster]

GTA3 is turning out to be the most addictive game i've played for absolute ages. I ain't played GT3 for almost a week now

 

[xenon2000]

Interesting discussion? My my

Personally I tend not to judge a game by it's stock set of levels, story and such; but of the generic things like Monster AI, weapons, variety in envoironments, player movement and all that jazz; fairly explainable coming from a level designer

For instance, Quake and Quake2 are my favourite SP games. Not because of the original levels and (rather weak) plots, but because of the huge variety of custom maps available, the versitality of design, the many gameplay scenarios mappers can create and so-on. This is partly because of the weak plot in a way, as plot-driven games like Half-life, for example, have little oppurtunity for new settings; the player will always be Gordon Freeman roaming the Black Mesa Facility, unless partial conversions are used.

Still, nice to hear your opinions

 

[bodhi]

Pro Evolution Soccer is doing that to me. must...have....one...more....go.....

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Xenon: Quake II was the single most awful single player game ever made, and you know it.

 

[bodhi]

I'm pretty sure that was Daikatana.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Well, after Daikatana then.
Oh, and Halo.

 

[Skyler]

A game that has realism, but not necessarily realism as in present day or past. But a game that makes you feel that the futuristic or whatever world youre in is real, and makes it almost believable. I dont like far fetched games, prefer realism definately.
Something hugely immersive, that you just cant put down, with so much to do and no linear route to take. Ahh yes that would be a good game.

Also I think nowadays games are to easy, RTCW is pish, yet something like Goldeneye was a challenge all the way through, it didnt get boring, there was no way at all to get to levels other than doing them yourself, this made you want to complete it. Then you had the cheat that went with each level, you had to do the level in a ridiculous time to get the given cheat. The cheats could only be used on levels youd completed as well. Excellent idea, the cheats still gave entertainment and fun, without detracting from the overall enjoyment of the game. It was rewarding to finish that game and then finish all the cheats too.

If only pc games did that, its all to easy to cheat in a single player game, bring down console, type in a few commands and thats the end of it. I dont want that temptation there, when a game is boring such as RTCW, I just end up using god mode with all guns to prance around for 20minutes then get bored.

Cant they bring back the Goldeneye format regarding cheats, no level selects, and make it impossible to cheat on a level until youve completed it, that would be much much better. Youd keep that sense of completion, and youd feel better for completing the game. Instead of slyly cheating and telling ya mates you completed it, or doing it genuinely yourself and wondering if youre mates cheated.

Game publishers take note!!!

 

[mankatron2001]

I'm desperate for a single player WW2 FPS game to come out, and yes, medal of honour is probably the closest i'll get for now, unfortunately my PC won't run anything post Quake3, which it struggles with considerably anyway :]

anything similar to DoD would be great, the game based around the actual campaigns. possibly incorporating things from band of brothers? hmm, i'm not a fan of single player games anyway, but a WW2 simulation would be great... if i could ever get it to run, of course

 

[Nighty-]

Download the demo mank, it's good fun online!
Play me!

 

[mankatron2001]

i've seen some rolling demos of it, but i doubt the actual demo would run on my PC... but i'll have a look!

/me trundles off to the bw ftp

 

[throdgrain]

operation flashpoint is an excellent single player game,to the point where its simulation more than a game!
on the most part tho i never have played single player games.ive finished doom years ago,quake 2 and its mission packs (i thought they was good) and quake 3.
never finished half life,never STARTED opposing forces,doubt if i ll finish rtcw or op flash.
it all gets a bit boring to me

 

[mankatron2001]

right, i downloaded Medal of Honour and installed it, and took a brief look at the readme file...

MINIMUM CONFIGURATION

Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 98, or Windows 95 (Windows 2000
and Windows NT are not supported)
450 MHz Intel Pentium II or 500 MHz AMD Athlon processor
128 MB RAM
8x CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive
135 MB free hard disk space

So, I'm running a Celeron 366 with 64mb ram on Win2k... I even struggled getting the HD Space free on this 6 gig beast. Looks like you'll have to carry on playing with yourself Nighty :[

/me deletes

 

[xenon2000]

Originally posted by Wazzerphuk
Xenon: Quake II was the single most awful single player game ever made, and you know it.

Any reason?

 

[Daffeh]

a *proper* team based WWII game. None of this one-man army tripe that trickles out from America (no you didnt win the war on your goddamn own, much as you would like to think) from what ive seen both RtCW and MoH are this.
an innovative level structure and plot... different levels depending on how good you actually are, a kind of difficulty setting, except as you get better, you see different levels.
different roles within the game. Not just chosing what model you want to use, but if you choose the soldier, you do frontline missions, the spy, you do stealthy missions.

oh and not to be graphics intensive... does MoH really need to use the Q3 engine? i think that it would work perfectly well using an older eninge such as Q/Q2, look how innovative Half-life was/still is, and that is playable on lower-end PC's and i think the gfx 0wn, even on my lowly PII 400

*edit* oh and a _GOOD_ damage model. depending on hit location, and what you were hit by, several things happen:

• Death - worst case (hit in head etc.)
• Serious injury - either go unconscious and live to fight another day, or if not attended to by a medic in a certain time you die
• Non serious injury - get to carry on fighting, except suffer some consequence from injury eg decreased accuracy or walk slower

if you are unconscious then you go to hospital etc., but time still advances so you miss a level or mission, i think Knights Of The Sky (old old old WW1 flight sim, best ever ) had this kind of thing:

• if you crashed in allied territory you got back to squadron in a few days
• if you crashed in occupied territory you either
  A) got captured and game over
  B) managed to get back to allied territory but takes a longer time

that is of course if you didnt die on impact In the wasted time, the war continues without you.

and i like games where the developers put more time into game/plot/innovative ideas development, rather than gfx development

 

[Nibbler]

I love AVP2, tis excellently scary.

Serious Sam 2 should be quite good.

RTCW is good too....

And Medal of Honour....*uNF*

 

[old.FusY]

For a good FPS game, it has to have a title with the word "Unreal" somewhere in it.
+graphics/story etc

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Originally posted by xenon2000
Any reason?

Because it was the most boring, tedious bag of shite ever.

 

[.cage]

Originally posted by Wazzerphuk


Because it was the most boring, tedious bag of shite ever.

I thought that was reading your posts waz, nevermind.

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by xenon2000
Hey, just interested in finding out what you lot consider makes a good Single Player FPS game or mod. Seeing as multiplayer generally dominates the online world, it's not often a commonly covered topic.

So, which of these factors do you consider most important?

- Fast-paced action
- Tension, eerieness and 'spook' factor
- Innovative level design
- Proper ongoing plot/story
- Realism
- Impressive visuals
- Exploration possibilities/nonlinear flow
- Monster AI
- Easy custom level editability

(Think of more if you can)

And which FPS games do you think offer the best SP gaming experience?

Over to you;

I'd like to see more of that so called 'spook' factor. For me, the general atmosphere of a game is much more important than the fact that [in the average FPS] you get to blow up monsters with fantastic weapons. As an example I'd like to mention the game 'Alien' that I once had on an MSX I owned a long time ago. The feeling I got from that game was so intense. Great! Imo the feeling that you're going to run into a nasty beastie at any second dwarfs the encounter with the evil thing. Not wanting to explore a room for fear of what you might find.... Another example would be the corridor scene in Unreal: for a long time nothing happens while you walk down a corridor towards a switch that you have to pull. Omnious music swells [in my head] as you turn back only to have the lights go out....bringing a solitary skaarj guard to attack you in the dark. Pure magic stuff hehe.

 

[Summo]

Daf, Mankatron and Throdgrain (and anyone else looking for a realistic WWII FPS) you might want to keep an eye on Invasion 1944, a mod for Operation Flashpoint. It's been in development since long before the game was released and seems to be shaping up quite well. There's a 6.4MB demo vid here.

I agree with you, TdC. That 'corridor scene' in Unreal was certainly memorable (though tbh I found the rest of the game very boring as soon as you left the prison ship)

For the others, it is a sad fact that in order to play new PC games you need a new PC. Kind of. I guess a new graphics card and more memory every two/three years, and perhaps a new mobo and processor every five/six is the norm.