FPS games = unoriginality, but why?

[YuheJi]

WW1, up over the trench with 30 buddies, all trying to get to the machine gun nest without getting perforated by enemy bullets.

Being in a SWAT team, having to raid random buildings in a city to rescue hostages and stuff. Even driving your SWAT van there and ordering your squad about. (kinda like GTA but with an FPS SWAT motif).

The Trenches was a Half-Life 1 mod, but there are too many problems with a WW1 game. Trench warfare is not exactly fun for the average gamer these days, especially with the guns they had at the time. There is little point in making a so-called WW1 game that doesn't involve trenches because that was what defined the whole war.
As for the SWAT team idea, try out SWAT 4. No real storyline, just a bunch of missions that are aimed at a realistic SWAT experience. I think it encourages nonlethal force.

 

[Fruitloops89]

It's like he's never played the TimeSplitters series. Just wait for the fourth game, that will show you there is still originality in FPS's.

this is the best news I have heard in a long fucking time. I seriously thought they were not going to make a fourth until I read this and... I am just so damn happy right now.

 

[black lincon]

It's like he's never played the TimeSplitters series. Just wait for the fourth game, that will show you there is still originality in FPS's.

this is the best news I have heard in a long fucking time. I seriously thought they were not going to make a fourth until I read this and... I am just so damn happy right now.

Hm, then you might not want to read the others who quoted me, seems there's some confusion as to whether or not it's actually coming out. Some say the developer went out of business, some say they got eaten up by another company, bottom line is if anyone is making that game it wont be here for a long time.

 

[theSovietConnection]

For no reason what so ever, I put my amazingly long post on page 4 into google translate. I translated it from english to arabic, arabic to russian, and russian to english and this is what I got.
( Excuse the arabic parts and read the post i was referring to on page 4. It's funny.)
Edit: that is not arabic but some sort of substitute language in place of it because this forum does not support arabic.

*SNIP*

Thank you sir, that is possibly the best thing on this thread!

As for the topic itself, there is originality in the FPS genre. It's just a case of looking for the diamond in the rough. And really, as many others have said, you can only get so original in a genre that is basically "Take Gun A and shoot Bad Guy B so that you steal his better Gun C. Dry, rinse and repeat as necessary"

 

[cheesecake123]

WW1, up over the trench with 30 buddies, all trying to get to the machine gun nest without getting perforated by enemy bullets.

F5...F10...F10...F10...F10...F10...fucking Germans!...F10...F10...success you are now in the enemy's trench. You now have 3 days to prepare for the inevitable counter attack that will kill you because the fortifications are set the wrong direction.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: WWI can be made to work. You just have to look outside of the Western Front. There's the Eastern Front [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(World_War_I)], the Middle East [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Eastern_theatre_of_World_War_I], the Balkans [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans_Campaign_(World_War_I)], and even though the Italian Front [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Campaign_(World_War_I)] did descend into trench warfare, the mountainous terrian could provide enough hard cover to make for some interesting battles. Outside of Italy, all these scenarios provide plenty fluidity for an action based FPS.

or maybe you could be a German stormtrooper during the ludendorff offensive

 

[Sewblon]

I want an FPS about a genetically altered philosopher who fights the Canadian government to rescue his obsessive compulsive girlfriend. Why has no one ever made this.

 

[YuheJi]

I think the only thing that can set apart a WWI game would be realism, and seeing how Red Orchestra's WWII realism isn't quite as popular as other WWII games, I don't think a lot of gamers would be interested in WWI. I would probably buy it if a game out, but I just don't think it would be something that a lot of people would play, which is needed to make it interesting.

 

[Credge]

Dark Messiah was a good and imaginative game, But it wasnt an FPS

On the contrary, it was.

You had projectiles.

However, you don't need to >shoot< at things for it to be an FPS. Sword and Board is just as much FPS as anything else.

I want an FPS about a genetically altered philosopher who fights the Canadian government to rescue his obsessive compulsive girlfriend. Why has no one ever made this.

Because plot has nothing to do with originality.

Mechanics are what make games unique. Thus far, this gen has crapped out on something that it COULD be doing.

I do, however, see the RTS changing dramatically this gen. And I am happy.

 

[Credge]

well there isn't technically a second person perspective, but id hazard a guess that since first person is yourself, third person is a fly on the wall, second person must be the dunce sitting in the corner sucking his thumb watch you do all the work, like the marines from the Halo series...

Second person would take place through the eyes of the enemy.

 

[Simriel]

Dark Messiah was a good and imaginative game, But it wasnt an FPS

On the contrary, it was.

You had projectiles.

However, you don't need to >shoot< at things for it to be an FPS. Sword and Board is just as much FPS as anything else.

I want an FPS about a genetically altered philosopher who fights the Canadian government to rescue his obsessive compulsive girlfriend. Why has no one ever made this.

Because plot has nothing to do with originality.

Mechanics are what make games unique. Thus far, this gen has crapped out on something that it COULD be doing.

I do, however, see the RTS changing dramatically this gen. And I am happy.

FPS. First Person Shooter.

 

[ChaoticLegion]

GIVE ME A GOD DAMN REAL PIRATE FPS!!!

Pirates, Vikings and Knights II is looking awesome (www.pvkii.com) but still isn't a fully fledged FPS game.

I wanna be a pirate plundering ports and other ships with a blunderbus, a parrot and a damn sabre =P

 

[PayneLOTRO]

Is there a valid reason game developers haven't tried something new?

Simple economics... if it sells. Bleed it dry.
The more these massive companies merge the worse off us gamers are. No company has the balls to spend 20million + on a new IP only to see it tank and likely take most their company with it. I dont blame the developers persay (ie the guys with the creativity, art, direction, and innovative game play) but the moguls running the cash flow are driving the game market to crap. Just like Hollywood has with movies.

Every year some tiny little no-name company has a great idea and it's either bought out by a larger company (for the sake of killing competition) or spun into some preverse version of the same FPS crap we've had for half a decade now.
Just sad really. -and it's not compatrmentalized to the FPS market either..no. it's everywhere.

Anyhew.. haha Hope that's some semblence of an answer to the OP

 

[Iron Mal]

Napoleonic wars (a la Sharpe), with muskets and flintlocks.

WW1, up over the trench with 30 buddies, all trying to get to the machine gun nest without getting perforated by enemy bullets.

Pirates, specifically the boarding parts. Running around Friggates and stuff with those awful little pistol things, complete with explodable environments from all the cannon fire.

Being in a SWAT team, having to raid random buildings in a city to rescue hostages and stuff. Even driving your SWAT van there and ordering your squad about. (kinda like GTA but with an FPS SWAT motif).

If they had a go at any of these I guarantee they would generate more interest (and sales) than Medal of Honor:1032 or Call of Duty 17. Is there a valid reason game developers haven't tried something new?

Right, allow me to pop your bubbles with ruthless efficiency.

An FPS set during the Napoleonic wars would be boring in terms of gameplay, it would simply be a repeated case of: fire musket, rush foward and pray you don't die as you beat someone to death using your gun like a club (the musket could only fire one round before it was useless), this perioid would translate well into an RTS (and I think it has before) but would be very limited in terms of FPS material.

WW1 has also been mined for games, just like WWII, just not as often, you would still just be looking at Call of Duty and Medal of Honour (and the idea of 30 of you running in a straight line towards German machine guns would be historically accurate, granted, but frustrating and repetitive in terms of gameplay).

Pirates (again due to a lack of variety in weapons at the time and a limited number of scenarios you could have to string a campaign together) would probably best be suited to Hack n' Slash or RPG games, not FPS's.

About the SWAT team suggestion, have you never played either SWAT or Rainbow Six? That is pretty much exactly what you described (minus the driving segment).

Just coming up with a novel situation or settng doesn't nessercarily mean that your 'new and improved' game is nessercarily going to be better than CoD 21: Modern Warfare 7, it may appeal to the Indie crowd for being a 'fresh breath of air' but people like this will often stand behind any piece of shit provieded it's not seen as mainstream(it makes them cool and unique you see).

I would rather see another unoriginal FPS that's actually fun to play than an interesting and creative FPS that has seemingly sacrificed all notions of fun for artistic merit.

 

[Calax]

WW1 could be modified to make an interesting game (there was a game where they had WW1 last like 60 odd years... Iron legion or something like that). But just taking WW1 tech and tactics and shoving us into it would make for a boring game of dodge the tracer.

FPS's are kinda stuck in terms of originality because they usually require a war, or something of similar scale, an unequivocally bad and good standard, and in general they have to use weapons developed within the past 60 years at LEAST... or they run off the standard FPS template of SMG, MG, Rifle (scoped and unscoped), Shotgun, and pistol. Probably thow in one exotic to "differentiate" themselves from the "pack".

It's hard to get out of these ruts because they're so well entrenched in the genre. I mean the only game I can think of within the past few years that's had anything like original weapons was freaking Resistance, and even then most of the weapons were just slight modifications on the above standard weapon templates.

Plot has to be pretty basic otherwise you're not going to find time to have the player learn the information (except in half life 2's horribly boring "stand around and wait for expository dialogue for 10 minutes" scenes). I mean, how complicated can you make an FPS when you don't even have that many buttons to use anymore? It's not like you can make much of other tools (a la Deus Ex) because anymore controls are limited to the buttons on an Xbox/PS3 controller. You'd probably see more creativity in how they work if they get away from the simplification required for Consoles and got back to PC's to utilize the keyboard better again. But that's just me.

 

[DragunovHUN]

Being in a SWAT team, having to raid random buildings in a city to rescue hostages and stuff.

Ever played the SWAT series?

Those games were terrible Goldeneye wannabees, there was little to nothing to actually do with SWAT.

Just WHAT the hell are you talking about? How can you say that a game that gives you an authentic SWAT experience is actually trying to be some shitty James Bond game?

 

[Fruitloops89]

It's like he's never played the TimeSplitters series. Just wait for the fourth game, that will show you there is still originality in FPS's.

this is the best news I have heard in a long fucking time. I seriously thought they were not going to make a fourth until I read this and... I am just so damn happy right now.

Hm, then you might not want to read the others who quoted me, seems there's some confusion as to whether or not it's actually coming out. Some say the developer went out of business, some say they got eaten up by another company, bottom line is if anyone is making that game it wont be here for a long time.

*tear*

as soon as I read this all I did was key in "Timeslitters 4" into google and saw it had some major talk about it then forced myself to get some sleep, damn 8 am tests. At least there is small hope.