The "fun-shooters" return. But why would anyone want that?

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teh_Canape

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Odbarc said:
Will fun-shooters exceed the color palettes of brown, grey, black, not-as-black and orangish-brown?
maybe

but Bulletstorm does have the Gears of War color palette

maybe Serious Sam HD will do for you, uh, the Second Encounter remake that is =P
 

Klumpfot

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On second thought, I may have sounded a little condescending. Here's my take on it.

A few years ago, hardware limitations meant that you couldn't simulate real life combat, so it was made cartoony and light on realism by necessity. These days, when the necessary technology is available, the people who grew up with the 'lighter' games may feel a bit alienated.

Another thought: could it be that about five years ago, someone figured out that Counter-Strike was still abominably popular, and wanted to emulate it, and the mindset just stuck in the games industry?
 

Ganthrinor

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I will thank you to NOT lump Half-Life and Halo in together with CoD, Battlefield and MoH.

Power Armor and Shields, Gravity Guns and Giant Death Lasers are the realm of the "Fun Shooters" thank you very much. They never went away. As for some of these games having juvenile humor and bad one-liners, that really is okay. Not every game needs to be super-serious all the time.


Oh and by the by, never once has a Call of Duty or Medal of Honor had an original, engaging plotline. NEVER.
 

Tenky

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To me, shooters became crap when everything became a clone of Rainbow Six... Realism is what brings some people to gaming... to me... it's the fun of it and challenge.

When it comes to it, I don't want duke nukem for it's one-liners (tho... I love 'em!), but mostly because I LOOOOVE to kill alien pigs with rocket launchers, shrinkers and pipebombs... I like my arsenal to be more than "realistic guns" that give no satisfaction whatsoever!

I do miss the days where levels were made in a clever way that you had to backtrack all around to get the yellow key card to unlock the next path, and in itself that was just because of the technology limits! I want my game to be made in a series of levels where at the end I see my score, what I missed and I can do it again to try and get my 100% completion!

Today's shooters feel like an alternative to Hollywood movies... which I don't watch. I don't need more than a paragraph of text to explain what's going on then get started nor do I need to have a kick ass CG ending, because when I'm done with that game, I'll probably start over right away on a harder setting!
 

Quala

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While CoD, Battlefield, and the new MoH are all great games, we have seen enough of them, and it's getting old.

We have had enough "Shoot at those terrorists!" and it's time for a little "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THOSE CRAZY ALIEN THINGS KILL IT WITH FIRE!".
 

JourneyThroughHell

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Well, honestly, I think that DNF looks about as fun as repeatedly punching yourself in the fact and that everyone who really wants those shooters back doesn't really remember them that well, and that Bulletstorm was only fun to me because of its smooth, very CoD-like controls.

But I'm a CoD guy. If the stylistics of Bulletstorm or the gameplay of DNF appeal to you, that's fine and dandy. I'll stick to my super-realistic, super-serious shooters myself.

Hell, Serious Sam is actually fun as shit.
 

Nexus4

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Nighthief said:
Because I'm tired of games that take themselves so fucking seriously.
Or at least ones that try to and fail miserably, Ima looking at you Homefront (>.>)
 

valleyshrew

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[q
Woodsey said:
"Funny" games rarely work in my experience, so it's much better to have something serious that has a sense of humour about itself (which plenty of shooter do, if I'm honest), then something that's trying to throw sex-gags at you all the time.
The type of humour that works is best in games is when there's cultural depth to the world. GTA is by far the most humourous series in my opinion. Everything from the fake products, to ethnic dialogue, character jokes, comedy chat radio, the cultural parodies of just about everything under the sun (notably on the in game internet...absolutely genius). There's so much to appreciate from laugh out loud goofball stuff to insanely clever social commentary. It can also be completely serious and meaningful without feeling inappropriate. One minute you can be laughing at Brucie and Yussuf, the other minute discussing the nature of life and death or trying to talk a girl down from commiting suicide. It's realistically toned unlike every other game I've ever played. In real life people aren't serious all the time or funny all the time, they're a mixture.

Outrageous gameplay doesn't mean funny. When people ask what the most funny games are, it makes me so sad to see people reply with such childish games like ratchet and clank or monkey island. They can have the odd funny one liner, but people don't speak in one liners.
 

MattyDienhoff

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JourneyThroughHell said:
But I'm a CoD guy. If the stylistics of Bulletstorm or the gameplay of DNF appeal to you, that's fine and dandy. I'll stick to my super-realistic, super-serious shooters myself.
Did you seriously just mention "CoD" and "super-realistic shooters" in the same sentence? I hope you're not implying that Call of Duty fits that description.

If so, I strongly disagree. You're half right, because there's no denying Call of Duty is super-serious, but it's far from realistic. Call of Duty (especially World at War onwards) is like... War: Michael Bay Edition.

I think the interest in these games mainly stems from the desire to see more first person shooters that don't take themselves so seriously. The difference between funny and serious is what's important here. Where exactly each given game falls on the realism scale is irrelevant.

And with all the gritty "realistic" [footnote][sub]Massive emphasis on the quotes there, because the vast majority aren't. Games like ArmA II, Red Orchestra and SWAT 4 can reasonably claim to be "realistic", Call of Duty, Battlefield and Medal of Honor... not so much.[/sub][/footnote] shooters that have dominated the market for the past half decade or so, I'd say some more 'fun' shooters would be a refreshing change, if they're done right. For instance, No One Lives Forever of 2001 is one of my favourite first person shooters ever, its silliness and sense of humour are two of the best things about it.
 

USSR

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Because it's nice to see a change every once in a while.
[sub]I thought I was going to kill myself if another WWII game came out.[/sub]
 

ramboondiea

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because mindless games can be the most fun? story is all well and good but thats not what everyone wants all the time sometimes people just want mindless fun or carnage and not have to put up with conspiracies, terrorist and other done to death fps stories.
also if a game takes itself less seriously it can do alot more, and there normally hilarious aswel
 

Woodsey

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valleyshrew said:
[q
Woodsey said:
"Funny" games rarely work in my experience, so it's much better to have something serious that has a sense of humour about itself (which plenty of shooter do, if I'm honest), then something that's trying to throw sex-gags at you all the time.
The type of humour that works is best in games is when there's cultural depth to the world. GTA is by far the most humourous series in my opinion. Everything from the fake products, to ethnic dialogue, character jokes, comedy chat radio, the cultural parodies of just about everything under the sun (notably on the in game internet...absolutely genius). there's so much to appreciate from laugh out loud goofball stuff to insanely clever social commentary. It can also be completely serious and meaningful without feeling inappropriate. One minute you can be laughing at Brucie and Yussuf, the other minute discussing the nature of life and death or trying to talk a girl down from commiting suicide. It's realistically toned unlike every other game I've ever played. In real life people aren't serious all the time or funny all the time, they're a mixture.
I'd actually argue that GTA is about as subtle as being smacked over the head with a sign that reads: "LOOK! SOCIAL PARODY!", and that applies to whenever it tries to be serious too. They don't discuss the nature of life and death, they role out a cliché that they then completely ignore when Niko decides he needs to kill yet more people, despite having earned 100s of 1000s of dollars.

There's nothing particularly clever about it (there's no subtlety whatsoever), and it has engaged it so much that it's on the verge of parodying itself. As for being "realistically" toned, it holds two extremes that people in real life rarely hit, even in the context of Niko's life.

The Sands of Time holds a far truer tone than GTA could hope to possess: its funny, sweet, and scarily subtle in it's writing, and yet it's a game about a nameless Prince with a magic dagger.
 

veloper

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JourneyThroughHell said:
Well, honestly, I think that DNF looks about as fun as repeatedly punching yourself in the fact and that everyone who really wants those shooters back doesn't really remember them that well, and that Bulletstorm was only fun to me because of its smooth, very CoD-like controls.

But I'm a CoD guy. If the stylistics of Bulletstorm or the gameplay of DNF appeal to you, that's fine and dandy. I'll stick to my super-realistic, super-serious shooters myself.

Hell, Serious Sam is actually fun as shit.
Serious Sam basicly is a Duke Nukem clone, so that makes no sense.
 

Umwerfer

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I patiently await the near mythological half-life episode 3. Will probably try bioshock 3 too. Though the existence of lesser titles does not mean I have to acknowledge their existence.
 

JourneyThroughHell

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veloper said:
JourneyThroughHell said:
Well, honestly, I think that DNF looks about as fun as repeatedly punching yourself in the fact and that everyone who really wants those shooters back doesn't really remember them that well, and that Bulletstorm was only fun to me because of its smooth, very CoD-like controls.

But I'm a CoD guy. If the stylistics of Bulletstorm or the gameplay of DNF appeal to you, that's fine and dandy. I'll stick to my super-realistic, super-serious shooters myself.

Hell, Serious Sam is actually fun as shit.
Serious Sam basicly is a Duke Nukem clone, so that makes no sense.
I'm only judging by the gameplay videos I've seen of DNF and the twenty or so minutes I've played of Serious Sam.

I can't judge DNF effectively, that's why I said it "looks about as fun as...".

They don't look that similar to me, but what do I know?
 

lord.jeff

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Serious Sam and Duke Nukem are to games what Scary Movie and Epic Movie is to movies, fifty jokes a minute and over two hours only three of them were funny. I'll admit that style of story works better in games because while you sit Through hundreds of bad jokes your still having fun shooting aliens or whatnot. But relying on that is a crotch and I don't think anything that uses a crotch to make 70% of itself bearable is good. Being funny and having good story is possible look at Hot Fuzz, Life is Beautiful or Scott Pilgrim, or for a game example Psychonauts.
 

stoffregen89

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Hm good question. I for one cannot wait to get my hands on a game that does not try to be serious, realistic or anything like that. To be honest, the Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is probably the game I have had the most fun with in 2010.

I think a lot of the people who grew up with games like Doom, The Duke etc. is just looking forward to the nostalgia, the sitting with friends, remembering old experiences and just to play something were you laugh more than anything..

I still end up playing a lot of NES Supermaria 3 whenever im home and spending time with a childhood friend.. Best times ever!
 

bak00777

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Because games are a means of entertainment and to escape the boring parts of everyday life. While serious shooters can be fun, they can also be very frustrating. The "fun shooter" allows the player to have fun killing things, but with a comedic approach.
 

WanderingFool

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lord.jeff said:
Serious Sam and Duke Nukem are to games what Scary Movie and Epic Movie is to movies, fifty jokes a minute and over two hours only three of them were funny. I'll admit that style of story works better in games because while you sit Through hundreds of bad jokes your still having fun shooting aliens or whatnot. But relying on that is a crotch and I don't think anything that uses a crotch to make 70% of itself bearable is good. Being funny and having good story is possible look at Hot Fuzz, Life is Beautiful or Scott Pilgrim, or for a game example Psychonauts.
Ummm, Crotch? I think you might mean Crutch. But anyways, this is still a decent point.
 

Togs

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Nighthief said:
Because I'm tired of games that take themselves so fucking seriously.
/thread, the duty calls trailer pretty much summed up my opinion on the matter.
Plus the fanbases of Halo, COD and the rest make me feel sorry for humanity.