I got TS2 working on my PC complete with KB/M controls. It’s very rough to play these days. I think maybe the memories are best left in the past (time travel reference)
2 Likes
tbf Ravenholm isn’t as bad the second time round, once you’ve experienced it once it becomes much less intimidating
2 Likes
I’m currently playing through Black Mesa, the HD fan remake of the first Half Life game, which once I’m done with I will almost inevitably end up playing through HL 2 (and subsequent episodes) and Portal 1 & 2 again
2 Likes
The whole Half Life franchise for me, I think it’s just perfect in what it does and has subsequently ruined other FPS games for me because I’ll play them but keep thinking “yeah, could be solving a weird balancing puzzle with bricks to get to a ledge, or hitting headcrabs with a crowbar.”
1 Like
Err… it’s in my post
I did check. Must have missed it. It’s a lot of YT links I’ll never watch.
1 Like
Gateway FPS was the original Doom (had a shareware version on loads of floppy disks and a boot disk that said “do not lose” written on it.) Obviously Wolfenstein 3D as well, what a game.
Want to give a shout out to Halo Reach which I found absolutely gripping, the story and the characters that made up the team, felt a lot of connection and sadness as it went on. Maybe my favourite Halo game that, and the multiplayer was ridiculous fun.
2 Likes
I used to love those Half Life mods that you’d get on the coverdisks of PC Gamer. They Hunger was one of the best. USS Darkstar was also really good.
I was involved for a bit in a Deus Ex mod that never got completely finished, called The Cassandra Project: The cassandra project mod for Deus Ex - Mod DB
2 Likes
Oh shit, I remember that name!
edit: double oh shit! So I really wanted to do a (very overambtiious) episodic thing for my aforementioned failed DX mod because I’d read about that one. What were you doing on it?
There was a proper solid Deus Ex mod I remember playing; some proper good Thief ones too (and the level designer behind the Clockwork Mansion and that in Dishonoured 2 got her start on Thief mods iirc).
Mods were sick back in the day
Ahh another shout out for the They Hunger mod, remember playing that loads from a PC Zone cover mount I think? God, those were the days.
Actually found a disc with 500 levels for half life, quake, unreal on it the other day. Wonder if I could get any of them to work.
On They Hunger, was the crowbar skin an umbrella? Seem to remember the pistol being quite satisfying with a silencer?
Level building, basically. I only joined after the first part came out (as I was swamped with final year uni work up until that point), and then we just didn’t have the hours or people to get everything ironed out and finished.
The Deus Ex editor is one of the least intuitive that I’ve worked with, and it created numerous issues with things even if you thought you were reusing ‘sets’ that you’d already debugged.
1 Like
For pure FPS action, DOOM 2016 is probably the high point of the genre for me. Combined the unparalleled pace and atmosphere from the original game with modern tech and it’s basically perfect. Massively re-playable too.
Also, Destiny 2 is the best Halo, don’t @ me.
2 Likes
I remember when I first played Goldeneye on the N64, it was the first FPS I ever played. I had seen bits of Doom but not had a go on it. I remember the movement and still feeling that movement in Goldeneye even after I put the controller down. It was a game changing game, the levels, the unlocks, etc, etc. I got a craving to play it again about 2008 and bought an N64 and cart (again) at a car boot sale and it was dreadful, unplayable almost.
Half Life 2 I had on the OG XBOX, ran okay on that machine and I remember getting one serious machine gun in it, feeling the way it shot and briefly put the controller down thinking fuck me they’ve nailed that gun. I think HL2 is probably the best FPS but I’ve not played it for years now, so maybe it isn’t and is more Goldeneye syndrome?
System Shock 2 is a great game but its mechanics are dated, plus it’s been surpassed with Bioshock by some distance. I would say it is creepier though.
I think the COD games get overlooked because they are so successful. In COD 4 there are some mind blowing moments. Vanguard gets ripped apart practically everywhere on the Internet but it feels to me like (the modern) Wolfenstein.
1 Like
Quake III Arena - I spent so much time playing this, absolutely loved it. I think in some ways it’s the purest FPS; no story, no philosophical quotes, no characters that matter in any way, just pure skill and refinement of map knowledge. I used to play this while listening to mostly the works of Shania Twain, and the Barenaked Ladies’ criminally overlooked album Maroon. Surprisingly, it’s a really good combo.
My other favourite FPS of all time is Jedi Knight II, which is incredibly well balanced and allows for some fantastically satisfying gameplay moments in terms of puzzle solving, level exploration, and kill variety.
1 Like
they still are
1 Like
Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the N64 are the best I’ve ever played, which shows how out of touch I am
Took me 11 years to finally beat PD on the hardest setting. That and completing all 30 challenges in 1-player mode are probably my greatest gaming achievements
2 Likes
Nah it still is
1 Like
Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Halo 1 are the only FPS I’ve completed - wonder what it is that’s different about them from all the others. Wolfenstein was one of the first games I ever played as a kid on my brother’s PC, but don’t think it was even the full version, and I was rubbish at it. I started playing Bioshock on the Switch a couple of years ago but didn’t get too far, was a bit stressful.
For me it has to be the original Doom on my first PC in 1994. Previous to this all I’d played were side scrolling platformers or beat 'em ups on the Megadrive or SNES so after installing this shareware off a few floppys it blew my mind.
I lost my arm that year so console gaming was out (I didn’t investigate one handed controllers until I found “The Glove” for the PS1 about ten years later) but I could control Doom with a joystick so spent many hours prowling dungeons getting fragged by Pinkies and Cyberdemons et al!
Shout outs to the original Unreal (and later Unreal Tournament) and Half Lives 1 and 2 that I managed to play using a mouse (with run mapped to button 2) and my newly acquired left hook to smack the spacebar to jump. This didn’t really lead to skillful FPS playing so I often had to try and find cheat codes if I wanted to finish them (ID GOD often came in handy iirc!)
4 Likes