ANOTHER topic? I need your collective gaming consciousness.

[Flippy_D]

Y'ello. Some of you might know I'm building a brand spankin' new PC*, and to bide time until HL2 comes out, I've decided to add to my somewhat limited online FPS collection (ie: Counterstrike). I've never had many games, but now I'm getting some real money I can buy them. I have narrowed it down to the following:

Call of Duty. Hailed as a very awesome game by most magazine, won alot of awards, including editor's choice and game of the year. Movies of in-game footage look amazing, I must say.

Soldier of Fortune 2. Meant to be good, don't know much about it.

Battlefield 1942. I've actually played this one, maps are HUGE, planes are hard to fly . Weapons are decently balanced, but I can't help feeling it'll be over-run by scouts with sniper rifles, and blokes with rocket launchers.

Remember, I want, ultimately, the best multiplayer. I'm aware that they're all good single player games. I have confidence that someone must have decent knowledge of these games, first-hand.

Thanks in advance.

[earlwood]

CoD: It has great Singleplayer, way better than Medal of Honor were one man takes out the whole Nazi army and then makes fruit smoothies, but the Mulitplayer is much the same as medal of honor and leaves much to be desired (i.e. Vehicles).

SoF2: Is fine, I don't care much for the maps it comes with but the Randomly Generated Map servers are really cool (but hard as hell to find). But it is an older game and I think the players are getting tired as the severs are dissappering and players are shrinking in numbers.

BF1942:Probably the best of this selection. It is not really over-run with snipers as they aren't really that powerful unless you are hit directly in the neck or face. The Anti-Tank are really only effective on vehicles, the splash damage is minimal and you have to hit infantry dead on to kill them.  Another great thing is awesome mods made for this game (my favortite being BattleField '1918') such as Battle Field: Desert Combat.

[ScottDoom]

Whoops. I just now somehow read that you wanted the best multiplayer... Oh well, I still recommend all of these games. For MP, just get Battlefield: 1942, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and UT2004. You'll never get bored.

Call of Duty is really fun. I played through the SP, and it was a great experience. However, I think Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is just as fun. I liked the MOH:AA multiplayer experience, because almost every server had a different set-up that required no downloading of mods. Some servers ran with 999 bullet clips and no reload, others ran with realistic damage to the body (1 or 2 shots) and one life per player (I loved these).

Return to Castle Wolfenstein has the most amazing multiplayer ever. If you don't own it, get it. Then play as a Medic. There's nothing more thrilling (in a PC game) than rushing through a blazing gunfight to help revive one of your teammates. Along with that, RTCW has a free counterpart sort of thing called Enemy Territory which you can get at most big download sites. Enemy Territory is tons of fun, as it has a new system where you can level up and gain new things (the Medic gets an Adrenaline Needle, for example).

Battlefield: 1942 is a lot of fun. I used to play this a lot. It's what took me away from RTCW (as well as my favorite RTCW server going down). Yes, the maps are huge. It's fun to snipe someone halfway across the map when all you can see of them is a light blue haze on the horizon. The vehicles are a blast too, but on MP servers SmackTards like to spawn camp the vehicle spawn positions, which doesn't help out the team at all. And this game needs loads of teamwork. In other words, MP can make you want to scream: "#)(%&#()& #%)(&#() %&#()%&#() SmackTards!!!!!!!!!!"

Raven Shield is really awesome. It depends on whether or not you like a lot of coop, teamplay, and strategic play in your games. If you like to just run around, jump, strafe, and fly through the air then this isn't your game.

UT2004 is completely opposite of Raven Shield, but I still have lots of fun with it as well. I only have the demo, but the game modes are awesome. Onslaught is similar to Battlefield: 1942 gameplay, but with a sort of violent game of connect-the-dots going on (it's hard to explain, but easy to understand when you see it). Bombing Run is fun, and if you haven't played it then that's basically backwards CTF. You fight for a ball in the center, and then take it to the enemy side rather than your side, and chuck it in a net.

Mafia isn't a FPS, but it's the best 3rd person shooter ever. It's like GTA, except more linear (except for the Freeride mode), and it's set in the 1930s. The cars are awesome, and very realistic. The whole game (except for damage done to yourself and usually others) is very realistic. You even get pulled over by cops for speeding, running redlights, and hitting things (but only when they catch you!). And if only one cop sees you speeding/beating someone up/whatever, and you kill that one cop then no other cops will know about it. It's my favorite game of all time, and I'm now playing it again. However, let me warn that it is sometimes a very difficult game. Two of my friends were never able to complete it (even after a year of trying).

Prince of Persia: The Sands of time and Beyond Good & Evil are two of my new favorite additions. Neither are FPS, but both are amazing games. They're made on the same engine, but are opposite games. BG&E is an adventure/action/stealth/racing/photographing game set in the future where aliens are invading a planet and the government is under a new control... You go around and solve puzles using the unique skills of your buddies as well as your brain, photographing new species for money and pearls, driving around a couple of vehicles, sneaking past guards, and other things. In PoP, you run around a lot and kill things and run around on the wallls and jump and swing and wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. It's so much fun I don't know what to say.

Soldier of Fortune 2 is... not that good in my opinion. I played the first few levels, and that was about it. The gore was interesting... I remember once toward the beginning I was running through tall grass with a shotgun, and I ran right into an opponent. My gun was already pointed down, and I just quickly fired. I looked up, and the guy was still standing there not doing anything. Then I looked down and noticed he was missing a leg, and then he fell over.

[Moox]

I play CoD and UT2004 currently, their both great

[Lazy Z]

Call of Duty: I'm with earlwood on this one. Multiplayer is too similar to MoH, so I didn't really enjoy it that much since I've played it to death. Though it might not be quite as big a problem to you, if you haven't played MoH that much.

Soldier of Fortune 2: Haven't played this one, sadly. I hated the first one so I never even bothered with #2.

Battlefield 1942: Now this is my favorite one. The maps are indeed huge, but if you're playing against many opponents, you'll barely notice it! The planes' control takes some time getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you'll kick all sorts of ass! And don't worry about snipers/people with rocket launchers, if you use vehicles and/or have your teammates cover you, you get more than adequate protection from those. Not to mention that you need perfect aim with the sniper to kill someone with just one shot.

You could also try Battlefield: Vietnam. I only started playing this like a week ago, but I like it a lot, so far. The jets rock, and the helicopters rock even more! Example: I got into an APC, four more people joined me, and then another guy who was flying a chopper lifted us up and transported us straight into the heat of the battle, where the troops were unloaded from my APC, and proceed with killing everybody! There are some issues though, since some of the maps are a bit blah, and the splash damage of rockets is much bigger, I think.

UT2004 is also great, it's my second favorite at the moment. You get all the usual UT modes, with Assault making a comeback, but Onslaught is what it's all about. Like ScottDoom said, it's pretty much like Battlefield, but much more frenzy and violent, and the vehicles you can use are fantastic, especially the Leviathan.

[LGM]

I seriously don't understand the craze surrounding Battlefield.. I find it boring... Then again, I'm not a big Multiplayer FPS fan..


UT2004 is great shoot-em-up fun! I reccomend that.. Cause it comes with a customized Maya PLE that enables you to make models and shtuff and create Mods with the engine..

If you just want a plain ol' FPS, I reccomend Painkiller and Farcry...

Have fun.

[Privateer Puddin']

Beyond Good & Evil

You sir deserve a cookieeee .

[LGM]

Beyond Good & Evil was a r0x0r gayme.. Do I get a cookie too?

[ScottDoom]

NO! It's my cookie. Gimme.

But seriously, back to the topic...

[lgm] says he doesn't know what all the craze about Battlefield is... Just the huge maps, I guess. And the vehicles. The thing about Battlefield and almost any non-DeathMatch MP game is the fact that 75% of the people who play are complete idiots that should die. Right now. They don't even attempt to help the team. On DeathMatch games (which are boring), everyone is pretty much helping the team as long as they're shooting the right guys. The reason I stopped playing Battlefield is because of SmackTards. Oh, and my video card exploded and when I got a new one I didn't feel like starting up again.

I think RTCW is much better than Battlefield, as the teamplay is a lot better. There's still idiots, as always, but the maps are so small the idiots are usually at least in the right locations. With Battlefield, you'll have dumb-asses clear on the other side of the world, nowhere near helping you. Also, RTCW has better classes than Battlefield (especially the Medic!).

[Flippy_D]

Well, CS -btw, Hi!- is stock full of idiots (slight exaggeration, I mostly play on good servers). If the BF maps are that huge I don't suppose it really matters if there are a few smacktards. I found the sniper rifle worrying easy to kill with in offline mode (48 kills w/o death? In 12 minutes?) when I played it, but if it's harder in-game, that's good. I suppose there are counter-snipers too.

Looks like it'll be BF'42 then. Thanks for the info, y'all.

[ScottDoom]

CS has to be the worst game ever, as an online playing community. I don't think I ever found a good server. Either people are talking crap to strangers to show their 1337ness, or they're using hacks.

And you say you got 48 kills without dying playing with bots in BF: '42? Wow. Well, unless you were clear on the other side of the map sniping them or you kept ducking behind cover, that is simply impossible. I only say this because the bots in BF: '42 literally use aim-bots, and they make the stupidest shots ever. Once I was flying in a plane, and they used one of those huge defense guns (the ones on the shore, used to sink boats) to shoot me down in one shot. I've been walking around in the middle of an island, and a destroyer has shot me down in a single shot from way off the coast. You'd have to at least die once or twice in 12 minutes.

[Flippy_D]

It was the secret weapons of WW2 mod. It was a map that had the Axis on a large hill bunker thingy, and the allies fought their way up the hill. I circled around to a relatively abandoned area, killed two guards inside a bunker/sniper thingy area with a grenade, took up position and started killing from ~200m at random. nobody seemed to notice me... I got rather lucky with people coming close to me when I needed ammo though, I'll say that much.

[Privateer Puddin']

CS has to be the worst game ever, as an online playing community. I don't think I ever found a good server. Either people are talking crap to strangers to show their 1337ness, or they're using hacks.

I'm in a clan (no longer actively playing however) where the average age must be 30+, and play on a oldies server where every one is mature, must look harder!

[ScottDoom]

Ah, then yes Flippy, that's possible then. Usually I play on smaller maps with the bots (like Stalingrad and Berlin) where the bots are right in front of you. It's a real pain, but a lot of fun.

By the way, if you like coop on LAN, get Ghost Recon. It's an old game, but a ton of fun with friends in the same house on a small LAN. I moved my PC downstairs next to my dad's, and then my friend would bring his laptop and we'd have a mini 3-person LAN party. Coop as well as FFA are tons of fun.